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Courtesy Photo/ hellogoodbye.net
Hellogoodbye

Hellogoodbye finds its rhythm

By Haley Otman GVL A&E Editor
3/11/2009

When asked what advice he would give to aspiring college musicians, Forrest Kline, lead singer and songwriter of power-pop band Hellogoodbye, said, "Drop out."

Kline quickly added he was only joking, but admitted that was the path he took.

Kline formed Hellogoodbye in high school, and the band today includes Kline, Joe Marro, Travis Head, Aaron Flora and Ryan Daly.

He attributes their winning a record deal to playing locally a lot and making connections. Two years after they received a record deal with Drive-Thru Records, they were featured in a documentary on MTV, made by the cast of "The Real World: Austin."

"It was our first time on TV, which is always cool, (and) our parents (finally thought it was) legitimate," Kline said.

After many band member changes, Hellogoodbye has had the same five members for about a year.

Head, Hellogoodbye's bassist, has only been playing the bass for a year and three months.

"I actually picked up the bass when I joined the band," he said.

Head had played the guitar since high school, so he found it pretty easy to adapt to the bass when the band needed it.

All of the Hellogoodbye members have been great friends for years. Kline and Head live in a house together, and their girlfriends are sisters.

"If anybody ever broke up, it would be weird!" Kline said.

Marro said he decided to join the band because they had a void to fill, and he was good friends with Kline.

The transition went well overall, though Marro admitted he is "a little awkward in general," also noting the difficulty of learning the band's preexisting songs. He had a few small errors in his first show with Hellogoodbye, but since then has meshed well, he added.

Hellogoodbye has spent a lot of time recently recording for their first album in almost three years, and playing small shows at colleges.

"It's great when you can have enough time off that you really look forward to going back out," Kline said.

The band just returned from Australia, where they got to meet another popular pop-punk band, New Found Glory.

The band plans to continue working on their new album, which Head said is about 80 percent "demoed out," and should be released in the next three to four months. After that, a headlining tour is in the cards.

"You get tired of (a tour) when you're on it, and you can miss it when you're not," Kline said. "You're kind of limited all the time in what you can do, but if you just go with the flow it can be really fun."

Marro said his favorite part of playing live is "the bonding thing" between band members, as well as the "little jokes on stage."

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