goodtoknow’s intricate debut EP ‘I’LL STAY’: An emotive body of work, not for the faint hearted
- I'm Not From London
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
Some projects feel deliberate, carefully plotted. Others, like goodtoknow’s debut EP ‘I’LL STAY’, are born out of pure serendipity. What began as a casual studio session in Mexico City evolved into a five-track collection that radiates authenticity, intimacy, and unfiltered creativity.
The sound of goodtoknow hovers between soft indie-pop and alternative folk, with songs carried more by feeling than production gloss. The EP’s focus track, ‘Burn’, captures this perfectly. Written in a single evening, it strips everything back to voice, guitar, and atmosphere, creating space for raw vulnerability to take centre stage. The haunting sincerity of the performance makes it feel less like a studio take and more like a private diary entry set to music.
The group itself is as unconventional as its origin. Paula Prieto, Benjamín Walker, Sir Hope, and Mariano Gillio are all established musicians in their own right, yet goodtoknow isn’t about individual egos or industry expectations…
“We didn’t plan to start a band,” Paula admits. “But these songs didn’t feel like any of our solo work. They felt like something else entirely.” That “something else” is exactly what makes the EP so compelling. The music is collaborative to its core — the sound of four artists laying down walls and finding common ground.
Tracks across ‘I’LL STAY’ explore themes of vulnerability, change, and quiet strength. While ‘Burn’ anchors the EP in its emotional honesty, the surrounding songs expand the palette with gentle textures, subtle folk inflections, and a sense of wide-eyed openness. The production resists excess polish, instead preserving the spontaneous magic that sparked the project in the first place.
The name goodtoknow feels apt. This is music that feels necessary, music you didn’t know you were missing until it found you. It’s not about reinvention or spectacle, but about connection — to friends, to truth, and to sound itself. ‘I’LL STAY’ is a remarkable debut, not because it tries to be grand, but because it dares to stay small, intimate, and human.
