And it's here, in discussing their famously out-of-control, often hilariously costumed concerts, that Kline begins to perk up and reveal a bit of that hidden genius or whatever was hiding. This sense of fun carries over to the live show too. These songs beg to be listened to and demand that you bob your head and tap your toes to them. Lyrically, they're not even in the ballpark of challenging, yet despite that, they manage to deliver some of the most emo-tastic fun you can have without admitting to yourself that you're actually an emo fan. The truth of the matter is, whoever gave Kline a reason to write these songs should feel, well, maybe flattered but not necessarily impressed. "I honestly don't think I've ever written a song, in my whole life, not about them." The story goes that every one of the songs are, in fact, about his girlfriend or someone who used to be his girlfriend.
"All I've ever known how to do is write songs about girls," Kline admits of his handiwork. Maybe he wants to talk about the art behind his lyrics and the songs like "Here (in Your Arms)" and "Touchdown Turnaround (Don't Give Up on Me)" that populate his band's new album, Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! which, quite shockingly, features none of the aforementioned terrors. Maybe they're just not challenging enough. He's too busy not really answering any questions. None of this matters to Kline, though at least one supposes. It's also the name of one of the Beatles' most obnoxiously contagious songs, "Hello, Goodbye," not to mention South Florida's premiere Beatles tribute act, the Hello Goodbye. It can also apply to the band, but, if it does, so be it." Mostly, it's about opportunities and stuff like that. "It's not really referential to the band, so to say. They named themselves Hellogoodbye for various reasons, one of which recalls the critically praised "Hawaiian episode" of television classic Saved by the Bell, where Screech explains with his trademark warble that aloha translates as hello-goodbye.Īnother reason: "It's mostly the idea of coming and going quickly," Kline says. Over the next few years, they cycled through different bassists and drummers before settling on Marcus Cole and Chris Profeta.
Late at night, he started recording some "really horrible midi music on my PC in my bedroom." To not wake his parents, he had to sing in a whisper.Īround this time, Kline was joined by Jesse Kurvink on keyboards. In truth, it was 2001, and Kline was an employee of indie-label Drive-Thru Records where, between the wee ages of 16 and 17, he busied himself with work that may or may not have been related to graphics and the web. That's the secret origin of Hellogoodbye, children. So we played some shows, and then we started playing more and more." "I had a couple of different friends in bands, so they offered us some shows. "I got a computer and started recording crap on it," he finally says. He's dying, or something like that, after all. Maybe he's playing a game with you only he knows the rules to.Īsk Kline something simple to start things out, maybe a question about how he became the frontman for a band that churns out keyboard-driven dance-pop that straddles the line between emo and the most recent new wave craze much the same way Panic! At the Disco does, and his answer might be or, in this case, actually is "Uh." But, that said, even when Kline's none of these things which is most of the time one gets the impression that, despite his verbal incontinence, maybe Kline's just that much smarter than you. And maybe it's a lot to expect that his answers be profound, mildly insightful, or at least, you know, semicoherent. Sure, Kline might be sick, or recovering, or dying hell, maybe all of the above. Then again, Kline and Hellogoodbye a fourpiece unit out of Huntington Beach, California is anything but serious themselves. I'm not sure."įood poisoning? That sounds pretty serious. "I don't know, something like food poisoning. "Oh, little bit ," he says, still unable to pinpoint what's kicking his ass. He couldn't come to the phone the other day something about being sick and he doesn't sound much improved today. Forrest Kline, vocalist and guitarist for power-punk stooges Hellogoodbye, might be dying.