On Hellogoodbye

I’ve always sought to learn more about the artists I like. I don’t know if this indicates a pronounced fanboyism on my part, or if it’s common, but it always seemed like a natural thing to do. Sometimes a band’s personal style, ethics, and aesthetic taste catch my interest as much as their music.

I particularly like when a band’s stuff has a personal touch. If they maintain their own webpage, write their own news updates and are involved in their artwork and merchandise, it reminds me that the musicians I like are real people. This makes music more inspiring for me. I’m more apt to follow a song’s advice or pick up my guitar and write my own song if I think of a musician as a peer, not a super-human entity.

Nothing beats ordering an album and receiving a hand-addressed package sent by the band, perhaps including a hand-written note, stickers, buttons, and other ephemera. I once contacted a member of a defunct band through an online forum. He was so excited that someone liked his ex-band that he mailed me both of their albums free. I was expecting home-burned CD-Rs but I received professionally pressed CD’s in digipacks with cool artwork. Jackpot!

Of course, if you like how an indie band operates, you’re setting yourself up for heartbreak if they crossover and get a big label to handle their videos, artwork, shipping, and hair-style selection. Managers, producers, and professional graphic designers can all influence a band’s look and sound, as can increased cash flow.

Discovery

In 2002, I began listening to a band called Hellogoodbye. At that time, they were just one kid around the same age as me, making pop songs in his bedroom. While many underground rock bands favored a no-frills guitar, bass, and drums sound, Forest Kline squeezed every effect he could out of his digital production programs. The result was melodic rock influenced by Weezer and the Beach Boys, backed by virtuosic arrangements of synths, digital drums and other off-the-wall-effects. Each Hellogoodbye song bursted with energy and perfect hooks, half 90’s mainstream dance-pop (Britney Spears) and half 80’s synth-pop (New Order). Hellogoodbye was the first band I heard take the auto-tune effect from Cher’s voice in the song ‘Believe’ and use it in cool music.

Of course, Hellogoodbye’s true magic wasn’t the result of technical wizardry. What made them good was the wistfulness, wit, and creativity in their songs. Allmusic.com files their music under the keywords “Hanging Out,” “Party Time,” and “Playful.” These descriptions are right on the money. Hellogoodbye’s music reminds me of how easy it can be to change a bad mood and get excited about things.

Their early demos were wonderfully concise, fun pop, including “Touchdown Turnaround,” which used football analogies to describe a relationship, “I Saw it On Your Keyboard,” about going to a show and falling in love with a band’s keyboard player, “If You Wanna… I Might,” about daydreaming of a crush in class, and “Welcome To My Record,” a rapped introduction to a non-existent album (“Welcome to my record. I hope you like it. / I made it in my bedroom, then I mic’ed it”). Many of their songs were humorous without sacrificing brilliance, such as “Jesse Buy Corsage,” a faux-Industrial song with vocals screamed in a phony German accent and lyrics about asking a girl to homecoming.

At first, all their songs were demos. They’d post them online as they finished them, often re-doing old songs with improved performances and even more pumped up mixes. There was an air of one-upmanship in their material, each song carefully crafted to trump the previous song and blow the minds of fans. The Internet offered a window through which I could watch an emerging band evolve without being from their local scene. In this way, the Internet totally revolutionized music.

Self-Titled EP

Adding to Hellogoodbye’s appeal was their regularly-redesigned website, handmade by bandleader Kline. At one point it resembled the classic Microsoft Windows game, Minesweeper. It loaded different sections of the website when the user clicked on different mines. Several re-designs later, the site featured a stylishly illustrated animation of a kid diving into a pool, an awesome aqua-and-orange color scheme, and the caption “Dive into summer!” Whatever Hellogoodbye did, I knew it would be unique and innovative. I had strong motivation to keep checking their website because their next move was potentially earth-shattering.

Crossing Over

Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!

Around 2004, Hellogoodbye signed to Drive-Thru Records, home of commercially successful pop-punk bands like A Newfound Glory and Something Corporate. They released an EP, then a full-length debut. They were on MTV and inevitably became the focus of ‘Tween girls. I thought they were being erroneously turned into a fad when they actually made quite sophisticated music. Luckily, they never achieved Backstreet Boys-level fame.

To their credit, their debut full-length on Drive-Thru Records, “Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!” was as good as, if not better than, anything else they’d done on their own, maintaining their fey exuberance and self-produced feel. It also featured one of my favorite Hellogoobye songs, “All of Your Love.” But the homegrown, bloggy feel of their website and the excitement of receiving new singles online unfettered from proper albums was lost. They were famous.

After winning some contests on MTV shows and a few successful tours with big names, they dropped off the map, not releasing new albums or EPs on Drive-Thru. They did release an exhaustive collection of their unreleased material in 2008, including most of the demos mentioned above.

Aside from playing the occasional track off, “Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!,” I all but forgot about them. I recently looked them up, expecting to see the ubiquitous “We broke up” message, or worse, one of those general-interest landing pages that means a domain name expired. But I didn’t see an auto-generated Godaddy page, instead I was slammed in the retinas with bright colors and a cool illustration. “They’re back!” I exclaimed.

Rebirth

When We First Met 7”

Apparently Hellogoodbye fought a legal battle with their label and are now independent again, sporting a self-done website (just like old times), a really nice-looking 7” single (I’ve never seen Coke-bottle Teal vinyl before), and a forthcoming self-released album. They’re also back to releasing random songs online whenever they want. Forest Kline had this to say on their news page:

“hey dudes. big news! as some of you may know, we recently had sloppy break up with our former label and merch company. with this newfound contractual freedom, we decided to start and run our very own merch store. we found ourselves missing the hand-packed, homemade, band-to-fan vibe that our favorite bands stores used to have. we also had a hankering for the control of being able to set our own prices, create limited handmade items, and just give things away if we want to (like below)…

were really happy to have something so truly DIY (i even coded the PHP myself… so don’t get mad if its busted), this is the way it shoulda’ been all along!”

I’m glad they’re back, and glad I’m not on my own in believing “band-to-fan” is where it’s at. The more I do On Lives and other art projects, the more I realize connecting with people outside your typical social circle is what creative projects are all about.

Links:
- Hellogoobye.net
- Hellogoodbye Daytrotter Session