Hellogoodbye certainly knows how to make a first impression. Forrest Kline (lead singer), Joe Marro (keyboard), Aaron Flora (drums), Travis Head (bass) and Ryan Daly (guitar) presently make up Hellogoodbye, which formed in the early 2000s. With the exception of Marro, who currently resides in New Jersey, the rest of the band lives in Southern California.
The group made their presence known when entering the cold and dingy locker room at the TD Banknorth Sports Center. Their giddiness and infectious laughter lit a spark in the room; the energy they possessed carried them through their performance later that evening before rap superstar Ludacris took the stage (which cost Quinnipiac an estimated $95,000 to hire both acts, according to Amy Tedesco, mainstage chair of the Student Programming Board).
Despite the prevalent misconception, Hellogoodbye did not necessarily get their name from The Beatles tune, “Hello Goodbye.”
“Actually, when we started the band, I was not that into The Beatles,” Kline said. “It wasn’t really a specific reference to The Beatles. I listened to more of The Beach Boys when I was young, but I got into The Beatles later.”
In terms of contemporary influences, Kline said he liked Phoenix for a long time and specifically recognizes their new album, “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix,” as a great record.
The music industry has been in transition over the last decade with evolving social networking Web sites such as MySpace and Twitter. The band actually put its efforts in Friendster, but that went away too quickly to make an impact for them.
“We started out putting out an EP for free,” Kline said. “That helped a lot at the time a couple years ago.”
The band’s congenial relationship among one another is evident from their playfulness and joking references like Daly mentioning that members of the group “kiss” on their free time. Hellogoodbye even mentioned playing CatchPhrase on the airplane, which “the flight attendant [backed],” according to the band.
Flora even joked about attaining Marro, who joined the band after meeting them during last year’s Warped Tour.
“It involved dental floss, a gecko and a burrito,” Flora said.
Presently, the band is preparing for its next album release, which Kline estimates will be out by the end of the year.
“We have been writing and recording for a long time. We are approaching the time where we are going to wrap it all up,” Kline said. “We are excited about it.”
