What does it actually take to keep a band going when the music is only one part of the job? We caught up with Good Fortune’s guitarist Luke Wirth and drummer Johnny Biermann to talk social media, burnout, their latest single ‘Breaking My Pride’ and the messy reality of trying to build something of your own.
Ask most independent bands what they hoped for when they started, and you'll get some version of the same answer: they wanted to write songs. Nobody picks up a guitar dreaming of algorithm strategy, posting schedules, or filming lip-sync videos between rehearsals. But that's the deal now.
German-band Good Fortune, made of four friends — guitarist Luke Wirth, drummer Johnny Biermann, singer Maddy N and bassist Keith Louis (who joined later on) — who came together in 2020, mid-pandemic, and have been building a DIY project ever since, will say it out loud. "It's quite annoying," one of the band's members admits when asked about the pressure to constantly create content.
Luke and Johnny handle most of the social media work, but the sentiment runs through the whole band. "The feeling about that in the band is rather negative. We also belong to those bands who would rather just do music."
It's not that they're precious about it. They know the game. "There are some types of videos that I think are fun to do," the band clarifies, pointing to a recent run of meme-based ad videos they made to promote an upcoming gig. But fun, occasional bits are one thing. The relentless volume of content a band is expected to produce today is another. "This quantity of content that you need to do nowadays, that's rather obnoxious", they say.
© Malte Mersch / ig: @malte.mersch
The tension gets to the heart of something a lot of small bands feel but rarely say plainly: that being a musician now quietly requires also being a content creator, a marketer, and a brand manager, whether you want the job or not. “I think the hardest thing to do in general, but since you mostly do it over social media nowadays, is building a brand that's authentic to yourself. I think that's the most challenging part.”
How to build a fully independent band?
Good Fortune are a DIY band in the full sense — no label, no team, just four people and a shared group chat's worth of responsibilities. When asked about the struggles that come with that setup, the answer comes fast: "A lot. A lot of stuff. Where to start?" The list is long : social media. Getting booked. Simply keeping track of everything that needs to happen behind the scenes. "It's a lot of work. And we do it all ourselves right now. And I think at some point it becomes so much that you kind of sometimes lose the overview. And you forget things. You forget to do things you have to do."
So how does a band avoid burning out under all of that? Good Fortune's answer is simple: they stop. On purpose. "Sometimes you need to intentionally take time, lean back. We do that a lot. We take weekends. We call them band weekends. During them, we just hang out. We don't do anything for the band. That's just time for ourselves." It's a small ritual, but it points to something bigger, a sense of awareness that the work of being a band can eat the reason for being a band if you let it. "Sometimes it can just get so overwhelming, and it can make you forget what this actually is, what this actually was made for."
“The core should stay the same”
The band describe themselves as “four best friends” who love to spend time together and “making music, working towards their shared dream”. Asked where they hope to be if the conversation happens again in five years, they’re not reaching for a milestone about streams or festival slots. They want to protect their friendship. "That's the thing I put above all else — that we remain friends. That we keep this bond alive, because I couldn't imagine making music in a different constellation, so that we all get to experience those successes that are also hopefully coming our way — together, as a group of friends. The core should stay the same, and we do not want our music to change us as people,” explains Luke.
© Malte Mersch / ig: @malte.mersch
It's a sentiment that could sound rehearsed coming from a bigger act with a publicist in the room. Coming from a band still doing its own booking and forgetting to post on time, it lands as something closer to the truth: the friendship is the actual infrastructure the whole project runs on.
Good Fortune on their latest release ‘Breaking My Pride’
Together, that’s also how Good Fortune write their songs. The band’s latest single marks a turning point for them, both sonically and emotionally. Written months before its release, the track digs into the difficulty of walking away from a toxic relationship, and the clarity that only comes once you're finally out of it.
It’s also the first track to have screamed vocals, a technique Luke taught himself in stolen moments, practicing in his car. “I didn't know what I was doing but I kind of just tried to learn how to fry scream,” he explains. “I would not recommend doing that because it can really damage your voice,” he warns, laughing. That risk-taking track paid off — the band knew almost immediately that ‘Breaking My Pride’ was something special, and pushed to get it recorded and released as quickly as possible so they could share it with fans. “We just loved it and this song was something special to us, so we 100% wanted to share it with everyone.”