Crusy and Jem Cooke’s “Good To Go” is their first collaboration, yet both describe the process as unusually inevitable.
The early session took place at Toolroom HQ in London, a setting that says more about impulse than infrastructure. “The most important thing in the production of any recording is the artist itself, and the plan they go to the studio with,” Crusy notes. “Equipment can help but having a plan and an intention is crucial.” The plan, in this case, was immediacy. “I actually produced this record on the sofa at Toolroom HQ,” he says. “I’d been wanting to work with Jem for a long time, and the day I received the vocal I didn’t want to wait. Sometimes it flows, and this time it really did.”
Jem Cooke is a songwriter and vocalist whose voice has threaded through deep house, melodic electronic, techno, and more club-adjacent crossover moments. Her work on CamelPhat’s Breathe gave her a broad audience, but her craft has always leaned toward writing that feels conversational, close-range, and quietly cinematic.
The track’s speed of completion is mentioned repeatedly, not for bragging rights, but because it felt uncharacteristic. For “Good To Go”, the topline was completed long before the instrumental was considered. “I had the vocal written and recorded already and had always loved it,” she explains. “We whacked in a later date to finesse it but he literally bounced back the production a few hours later and it was just done. Officially no notes.”
Both artists keep returning to the term “timeless”, a word used here without mist, confetti, or sentimentality. They frame it as an argument against disposability. “Nowadays music feels fast-consumable,” Crusy says. “I want to make something else than a Spotify radio edit for 2 weeks. I’d love to see this record in people’s lives in a few years. I feel connected to it. I hope people are the same.”
Jem traces the idea further back. “For me the lyrics and general swing remind me a bit of the 90s where RnB was king, and those kind of toplines were being used very heavily in house music,” she says. “It was frank, unashamed sincerity. The honesty really cut through. It was an amazing time for music. Mikel’s production came underneath it and elevated it so beautifully. I was genuinely blown away when I heard it.”
Crusy, born in Spain and now scaling a global touring arc through cities like Madrid, Los Angeles, and Tokyo, describes live testing as the final edit in his process. “Road testing is really important because there is not a more decisive factor than people’s reaction,” he explains. “It always got a great response, to the point that I was getting asked constantly about the release date. That was the moment I knew the song was a good one.”
Jem’s writing for this record carries a simpler origin, rooted in personal orbit, not upheaval. “This one was about the sheer joy and freedom that you feel when you’ve found that person or people who you want to be permanently in their orbit,” she reflects. “I wrote it about my husband when we met, 18 years ago, and after everything we’ve been through I still feel exactly the same now. So yes, dragged into context for sure, just not in a heavy way.”
The next chapter is already underway. Both confirm new collaborative work for 2026, while Jem admits her own album project is effectively complete, awaiting resolve. “It’s basically all there,” she says. “I just need to get brave and actually release it one day.” The bravery, it seems, is the only part that hasn’t flowed instantly yet.
Good To Go is out now on Toolroom
