by Jonathan D. Wright

Entrancing listeners with their 2004 self-titled EP (more than 115K copies sold), HELLOGOODBYE infiltrated the airwaves on MTV’s The Real World, Discover & Download, TRL, T-Minus Rock, and were the winners of MTV2’s 2005 Dew Circuit Breakout. While on the first leg of introducing the listeners to Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! we caught up with the band at Bamboozled Left backstage for a chat.

For those who will be looking at the band perform for the first time, on such a long and large tour, what is the lineup on stage like so we know who is who and what they are doing.
HG: I (Forrest) writes and records and sings and plays guitar and occasionally a banjo or something. Jesse stands a little to my right and plays some keyboards and maybe a glockenspeil or something. Marcus hangs out to my left playing mostly bass guitar or bass keyboards and wearing headphones, furthermore Chris is stationed near the back playing drums... you know just the day-to-day stuff, snares, toms, cymbals... the usual. And perhaps an electrofied trigger or two as well.

What cool things happened during your X Box 360 Tour?
HG: We took Roy the dog on our tour with us. And he didn’t piss in the RV. We got pulled over for speeding and we didn’t get a ticket. The officer did give us his card though and a warning. A pin that connected the RV to our trailer broke and we had to manipulate to fix it and did so with chains. We entered Canada without the right paper work and not having the right paper work for Roy the dog. But, we got into Canada though anyways. While in Boston we did our very own headlining show and it sold out. At that show we performed for the very first time Touchdown Turnaround.

On your new alum you used one of Pink's producers. Did you get what you wanted with them or would you have gone with someone else?
HG: (Forrest) The producer did programming drums for Pink. He happened to be in a band that I was a huge fan of called Self. Self had broken up and he produced their stuff and some other stuff. So I was a huge fan of his and wanted him as our producer. That’s really why we picked him. There was tones of stuff that he brought to get us the sound we actually wanted. This made sounds and things that he gave us that I loved.

In making your debut full release since your sound is so different than anyone else out there right now, did you have to make any sacrifices to obtain the sound you wanted to get?
HG: (Forrest) There were songs that were a lot harder to do than others. Some songs came easily along. With other songs it took eight or more times to do. So this album took a lot of work. We were actually recording this album for over a month and a half or so. And that was before demos and re-recordings ever took place. I wrote most of this actually up at Drive-Thru in one of the small rooms layering the tracks. That made it actually onto this album. We never have rehearsed or jammed or anything like that to make our songs. The songs are mostly computer oriented.

So if your computer crashed right now what would happen?
HG: (Forrest) Oh, it has happened lots of times. It actually happened at Bamboozle last year on the east coast.

Then with that kind of a thing happening to your computer, what do you think of bands that use backup tapes when they perform?
HG: (Forrest) Well, there are certain things that you can do with sequencing, triggering and keyboards that’s cool. But there are certain things that are crossing the line. But you definitely don’t want to put too much into that kind of a thing. You also don’t want to play to a tape backing track kind of a thing. Some things though that are triggered are more an acceptable kind of thing now.

What is your new song I Saw It On Your Keyboard about and who’s keyboard was it and what was it that you saw?
HG: (Forrest) On the tour we are on right now there is a band called Ozma. They are also from Los Angles and will be playing along with us for a few weeks on the tour. I have moved on from then, but it’s about her keyboard. I was such a big fan of there’s. I used to go a lot to their shows and that is what the song is about.

What was the main idea about for your childish artwork for the new album?
HG: (Forrest) I wanted it to not be color so that you could color in it yourself. For example, like how Beck’s album Make Your Own Stickers was like that. So Jesse Ladue who also did the Shins artwork, he took our idea mixed in his own to come up with our artwork for the album. And our music is kind of childish too, so it all fits in together. I guess I live a G-rated life. I guess some people thought that was the album too very G-rated but I didn’t think of it being so that way.

Your song Figures A & B (mean you and me) is that meaning Geometry or Algebra in any way?
HG: (Forrest) It’s just general scholastics. There’s some math stuff in thee and some English too. Hey, we all used to go to school. All we know is that we owe a whole bunch of people money and so we are staying a little low from that because like Figures A & B it starts adding up.

Your last song on your album was Two Weeks In Hawaii. Where else would you rather spend two weeks if you could take that long off.
HG: Home, because we rarely get that chance to have that long there at all.

The Top 20 single, “Here (In Your Arms)” reached gold February 10th. This is the first gold single in Drive-Thru history including artists who have recorded on the Drive-Thru/Geffen records roster. HELLOGOODBYE’S debut full-length album Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! has already sold more than 259K albums. HELLOGOODBYE will embark on a headlining tour this spring. Kicking off April 2007 (April 6th they will be at The Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles) with a two-month tour that will encompass the US and Canada, and even jump the pond for the Give It A Name Festival in the UK. Providing HELLOGOODBYE tour support is Boys Like Girls, Plain White T’s and The Hush Sound.

Hellogoodbyelinks

Hellogoodbye: Their Official Home Page!
Drive Thru Records: The Record Label for Hellogoodbye!
Hellogoodbye on Myspace: Their Official Myspace Page!
The Highwire Daze Home Page: Return to the Main Page!

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