From Craigslist to Catchy Hooks: The Story of Good Citrus
San Diego’s music scene has a knack for bringing the right people together in the strangest of ways, and Good Citrus is proof of that. Born from a Craigslist ad and fueled by chance, honesty, and a lot of groove, the band has quickly carved out a sound that’s both refreshing and unexpectedly bittersweet. With lyrics that balance raw vulnerability against vibrant, dance-leaning instrumentals, Good Citrus delivers songs that hit like a sunny afternoon drink; sweet, zesty, but with just enough bite to keep you on your toes. We got to ask the band about their origins, their playful creative process, and what makes their music feel like the perfect soundtrack for a San Diego beer-garden hang.
LET’S START FRESH. WHAT'S THE STORY BEHIND GOOD CITRUS? HOW DID THE PROJECT COME TOGETHER?
Mark (Vocals): "I’d just moved to San Diego from Melbourne, Australia, where I had been completely immersed in the music scene for more years than I care to admit, and finding projects or other musicians to collaborate with pretty much took care of itself - my whole social life revolved around being at shows or being in shows so I couldn’t even remember the last time I needed to find other musicians out of the blue.”
Mark (Vocals): “I had been in the country for less than a week, and I literally googled ‘musicians wanted San Diego’, which led me to the Craigslist post Rob, Nate, and Paul had put up. I responded to the ad, showed up to Nate’s place, and kept my fingers crossed that I wasn’t about to be kidnapped and wake up with one of my kidneys missing. Turns out they’re a tasty little crew, killer musicians, and they’ve let me keep both kidneys, so far."
Rob (Bass): "I’m glad to see that I wasn’t the only one worried about losing their organs during a Craigslist meet. After responding to an ad myself, I showed up to a quite literal cottage on the corner of a block that was one or two hills away from having an ocean view. Being a casual fan of German fairy tales, I was of course on the lookout for anything suspicious. But upon entering, I realized this was the good timeline, where I’d meet some of the most skilled musicians in San Diego.”
Rob (Bass): “The ad was for an indie/rock band, which is pretty ambiguous if you’re looking to sus out the vibe before you start playing. I remember asking to jam at the start of rehearsal to warm up a touch, and Paul, our drummer, launches into just a very textbook samba beat. After that, I knew I was in good hands and we would write some killer grooves moving forward."
WHAT EXPERIENCES SHAPED THE GOOD CITRUS SONIC PALETTE? ANY UNEXPECTED INFLUENCES THAT CREPT IN?
Mark (Vocals): "I’ve been thinking about how my experiences shape the kind of music I’ve been making quite a lot lately. Good Citrus is the first band in a while where I have assumed solo responsibility for lyric writing, and it might be the first time ever that I’ve been willing to write pretty directly about things that I’ve been through or that I’m currently going through in a really direct and frank way. I think for many years I felt a little frozen by the idea that what I was writing had to really mean something, and that it had to tackle huge, important themes. Maybe I listened to too much political punk rock while I was learning how to play music.”
Mark (Vocals): “Being a part of good citrus has helped me liberate myself a little from that. I’m finding that I’m way more compelled to write about these tiny little personal experiences that seem to hold big meaning to me. Maybe through the right lens you could argue that stories of our personal experiences are in fact themselves a reflection on the environment we find ourselves in, and that they are therefore essentially a commentary on the social and political context in which they were made, but let’s be real - if you overheard somebody say that while you were sitting on a bus you would think they were a huge a**hole. I’m not trying to be that guy."
THE PROJECT HAS A LIGHT, PLAYFUL FEEL TO IT. WAS THAT INTENTIONAL FROM THE BEGINNING, OR SOMETHING THAT DEVELOPED NATURALLY?
Mark (Vocals): "By the time I joined the band, the material was well and truly under construction, and the vibe that the guys were brewing up was so intact that all I had to do was not ruin it. Musically, the playful, poppy vibe seems to be the most natural thing that comes together while we’re writing together, bouncing ideas off of each other. It’s been a unique and new challenge to come into a project where there seems to be this very clear musical direction that is already happening, and to try and add a few of my own fingerprints without smudging the dang thing up too bad."
Rob (Bass): "I feel like that's 100%. Nate (Guitar) was really our true north in terms of finding an identity for the band...He has this gift for laying down these tasty little riffs on a voice memo, and by themselves, they get your head bobbing. A lot of our early stuff was just jamming on a riff that Nate pulled out in practice. Paul would put down a beat, and we would just take off, trying to find the most interesting way we could approach that idea. Sometimes we would be looping a part, and we could all tell we were unimpressed with what was coming out. Nate would always ask, “Is there a way we can make that sound ‘dancier’?"
HOW DOES YOUR NEW SINGLE, "STRANGE VACATION," ENCAPSULATE THE BAND’S VIBE OR MESSAGE, AND WHAT’S THE STORY BEHIND IT?
Mark (Vocals): "Something that I really love about the tunes that we’ve been cooking up is this weird little contrast where the music itself is quite upbeat and poppy… maybe even bordering on zany at times, but where the lyrics aren’t necessarily all that upbeat. Sorta like when you have a bite of chocolate and there’s a little chili in there. It’s tasty, but it stings a little. Strange Vacation is my favourite example of this. The song is an exploration of the weird contradiction that you sometimes experience as a young person who’s dating, where you might be seeing somebody semi-seriously who is by all accounts a good person that makes you really happy… but somehow occasionally your attention will be caught by an absolute scumbag who will literally ruin your life and mental health, and even though you know exactly where that path leads (i.e. towards utter insanity), that self-destructive inner voice is still like ‘yeah… but what if you just went for it, as a treat?’”.
Mark (Vocals): “The story is told from the perspective of the non-scumbag partner who is witnessing their person being clearly conflicted by their feelings for said scumbag, and is in this strange position of being quite aware of what’s happening but also not really having much recourse - what are you going to do, convince somebody to date you when they’re clearly infatuated with somebody else? Doesn’t seem like that’s going to end well for anybody. So what’s the message? Gee, I don’t know if it has a message per se. Maybe that’s okay. Maybe it’s just a story of complicated love and confusion, and you can listen to it in the same way you watch reality TV."
LISTEN TO “STRANGE VACATION” BY ON SPOTIFY BY CLICKING BELOW
HOW DOES SONGWRITING AND RECORDING WORK WITHIN THE GROUP? WHO BRINGS WHAT TO THE TABLE?
Mark (Vocals): "Songwriting between us all has been pretty fluid, and mostly it involves a little nugget of an idea coming from one of us that we hash out into several different nebulous sections that seem to fit together. Sometimes it’s pretty obvious how these parts should go together, and sometimes not. When it’s not, usually I’ll take the ideas into my little music cave on my own or with one of the other guys and we’ll tear the whole thing down and build it back up again… then decide it was better before the knock-down so then we revert to the original… then we decide actually the original wasn’t quite right so we need to knock it down again and build up some grotesque frankenstein thing. This is usually followed by several days of self-loathing, during which time I’ll consider quitting music, running away from home, getting a perm, and so on. Then, finally, Nate will usually send me a voice note of a guitar part that is like the magic pixie dust that the song was missing, and it all comes together pretty quickly after that.”
Mark (Vocals): “In terms of recording, this track and the next few that we’re putting out were recorded in Nate’s living room in PB. We just threw up some mics on a whim one Saturday, laid down the beds to these songs, and then gave them a little spit shine, threw in a few sneaky little synthesizers, and sent them off for a mix. Nothin’ to it mate!"
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE VISUALS OR THE AESTHETIC WORLD OF GOOD CITRUS? HOW DO YOU APPROACH THE “LOOK AND FEEL” OF THE PROJECT BEYOND JUST THE MUSIC?
Mark (Vocals): "I’ve spent a lot of time playing in bands that play harsh, angular music that is really most suited to a dank, dark room. I love making music like that, and I love dank, dark rooms, but there’s something about San Diego that makes me want to make music that sounds light and refreshing. This is the world that our name sprung from, and we really try to reflect this in the visuals and the overall vibe of the band. I want to make music that makes you want to hang out in the beer garden with your pals, so the sunny, colorful palettes we’ve been playing with are a slight nod to that.”
Mark (Vocals): “I’ve always been quite scrappy and DIY when it comes to creating music and visuals, and I think the less-than-perfect result you get when you do most things yourselves is kinda special. It’s so cheap and easy to farm out the creative work that goes along with being in a band to some third party who can shoot back an amazingly polished product, but the result of this loses something, in my opinion. We are a group of human beings who are making music, and I think that the visual world that we create to go alongside it should reflect that. It should feel like four random dudes coming up with interesting stuff and sharing it with you because they feel compelled to, not some AI-generated drivel that vomits up an inane, perfect, algorithm-pleasing image that seems uncannily similar to 90% of what is available out there. Maybe I’m a Luddite. I’ll hop down off my soapbox now."
LASTLY, WHAT’S ON THE HORIZON FOR GOOD CITRUS? ANY SHOWS, VIDEOS, OR RELEASES WE SHOULD BE KEEPING OUR EARS PEELED FOR?
Mark (Vocals): "We’re very excited to say that our next track, 'Talk It Out,’ is coming out August 22nd, and we have one more tune in the chamber ready to go once the time is right! In the meantime, we’re on the lookout for shows and will probably play the occasional last-minute surprise here and there to keep ourselves sharp!"
LISTEN TO “TALK IT OUT” ON SPOTIFY BY CLICKING BELOW
Good Citrus is a band that thrives in contrasts. Playful but pointed, polished yet DIY, sweet with just a hint of bitterness. Their newest single, “Talk It Out,” carries forward that same vibrant energy while keeping listeners guessing what twist of flavor comes next. Whether you catch them at a surprise show or dive into their recordings, one thing’s for sure: Good Citrus is here to add something refreshing to San Diego’s indie rock landscape, no garnish required.
