Naked Magazine 19

HELLOGOODBYE
WORDS BY STACY MAGALLON »
PHOTOS BY CATHERINE POWELL »
M
ost eighth-graders are still zeroing
in on their definition of love. When
I was in eighth grade, I wasn’t sure
how to define love either, but whenever
I heard the word, I thought of
hellogoodbye.
They were my band of firsts —
the first I ever saw live. Their album Zombies! Aliens!
Vampires! Dinosaurs! (2006) was the first I ever
bought with my own money. Their merchandise was
the first I ever purchased at a concert. They were my
first unhealthy obsession. It wasn’t just me, either.
My friends were just as hooked as I was. At the time,
all I ever wanted was to spend five minutes with
the band members. But when I arrived at the sad
realization that my dream was far too complicated, I
started to care less about their music, and eventually
my friends and I fell out of our naïve idea of love.
It took six years, but today, my eighth grade
dream is coming true. Cozying up beside frontman
Forrest Kline in Webster Hall’s green room, I can hear
the thumping sound of bass drums sound checking
on the nearby stage, but my inner 13-year-old’s
silent shrieking is even louder.
“It’s easier to be sick in California,” Forrest first says
to me. After a six-hour flight from the sunny coast of
Huntington Beach, Calif., I thought he’d prefer a nap
instead of an interview. But even though he’s feeling
under the weather, he assures me he’s stoked.
He’s dressed in khaki pants, loafers and a mustard
yellow sweater, smiling and joking around, trying
to present himself as if he weren’t actually sick. “My
skull feels congested and there’s a bunch of different
colors coming out of my butt. Do you know what
melted Crayola crayons look like? Yeah, like that.” he
says, laughing.
When Forrest formed hellogoodbye in 2001, he
was a high school student, experimenting with all
the different bells and whistles on music-producing
computer programs behind a closed bedroom
door. Eleven years later, his production process is
much, much easier. It’s been a long four-year period
between Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!, the
band’s first full-length, and their most recent album,
Would It Kill You? (2010). My question is — other
than their split from Drive-Thru Records, what has
changed since then? “I guess things are run a little
bit differently now,” Forrest says. “But it’s still me
recording and writing alone. That’s what I’ve always
done. But more importantly, I grew up. It was actually
a substantial chunk of growing up during that
time period.”
Forrest’s personal and musical maturation is
evident in both his physical presence and sound.
hellogoodbye’s well-remembered 2006 hit, “Here
In Your Arms” is a pop-driven, feel-good love song,
while their current material is oriented around soft
acoustics.
But even prior to the release of their infectious
single, the band gained exposure through participating
in events like South by Southwest and by being
featured on MTV. When I bring up the memory
of seeing hellogoodbye’s 2005 appearance on MTV’s
The Real World: Austin, Forrest pauses me to say
something. “But do you know anything about the
past three years?” he asks me, curiously. At this point
in our conversation, I’ve already mentioned how
much I truly loved them when I was younger, but as I
hear the question, I realize I really did fall out of love
with this band. As I answer “no,” I watch his face fall
with disappointment.
There was a year when hellogoodbye reached
their peak of popularity. For me, that point of my life
was middle school. Now, as a college sophomore, I
have slowly come to terms with the fact that hellogoodbye
is not as popular as they once were with
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