By KATIE McHUGH
Assistant Features Editor
[email protected]

The Campus found Hellogoodbye backstage after their concert on Saturday, Nov. 5 for an exclusive interview. Band members Forrest Kline, Mike Garzon and Joseph Marro discussed their influences, the rigors of touring and their love of Taco Bell.

THE CAMPUS: Why do you like to play for colleges?
Forrest Kline: Well, I really enjoy it. I always have fun. I think we have some of the best times playing at colleges.
Mike Garzon: It’s slightly lower pressure. And it’s not because we don’t care—it’s because it’s a college. So it’s like everyone’s going there to have a good time.
Joseph Marro: You know if you fuck up of if you come off your keyboard track by half a beat, people are still going to have a really good time.

THE CAMPUS: Why did you guys play the songs that you did? Is it because you truly love them, or because you know they’re great hits?
Forrest: Well, most of the stuff we played is from the new record, so not because of the hits. Because we’re excited about them and wanted to play new songs.
Mike: Gotta expose them, gotta get them out there.

THE CAMPUS: Who inspires you? Who really speaks to your soul?
Forrest: A lot of things. So many things. Everything you go through is inspiring. The Beach Boys, the Beatles, obviously.

THE CAMPUS: Did you name your band specifically after the Beatles’ song, “Hello Goodbye?”
Forrest: Not specifically. Maybe partly. It’s the first thing you think of when you hear that, and it was the first thing I thought of too, but it wasn’t just supposed to be a reference to that.

THE CAMPUS: What was it like performing as a b and? How did you get to here?
Forrest: You know, I just kind of stumbled into it. I started the band in high school, like most kids start a band in high school. Same way. Just played in local shows.

THE CAMPUS: Which of your albums came together the most beautifully and why?
Forrest: The most recent one. I feel like I got to do exactly what I wanted to do. I mean, I always have the freedom to do whatever I wanted to do, but on this last record, I feel like I had the ability, the means, and the clarity of head to make exactly what I wanted to make, so I’m really happy with it.

THE CAMPUS: When did music strike you as what you loved, what you wanted to do?
Forrest: I’ve always loved music, but I never had a moment where I thought that’s what I wanted to do. I am just now coming to enjoy it—I mean, I’ve always enjoyed it, but there was actually a time when I kind of hated touring. You can really focus on the bad. I’m like, “Oh, cool, I’m away, but I’m in some shitty hotel. I can’t do what I want to do right now.”
Mike: Twenty percent of the time you’re on tour, you’re playing music. Ten percent. The rest of that is bullshit.

THE CAMPUS: What do you do?
Mike: You’re traveling—
Forrest: You’re eating Taco Bell.
Mike: Taco Bell, road tripping, going to hotels, checking in with front desk people. There’s just so much. Ten percent of that is actually playing the show. That’s obviously the best part, but to get from show to show, that can be…I love touring, but it can be…
Forrest: If you focus on the wrong part of it, you can not like it. I’ve seen a lot of people who hate it from the start or get burnt out off it. It’s easy to get burnt out on tour. But then everyone who gets burnt out on it a year later is freaking out, you know?
Joseph: [They’re saying] “I wish I had a tour to go on right now.”

THE CAMPUS: Do you guys have a normal life and then your musical life, or is it all intermixed?
Forrest: I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know how we define that.
Mike: I will say that for me personally, yes. I do feel like Jekyll and Hyde. I feel like two completely different people, not that one’s good or better than the other, but I do feel like I have two completely separate lives.
Forrest: I mean, there’s kind of a mode. You’re getting into the mode. You’ve gotta get into the mode. But I would say it’s sort of the same for me, overall, as far as “life.”
Mike: All right, I’m going to take that back. I’m the same person. I am the same person. I just definitely—
Forrest: What are you saying about yourself?
Mike: I don’t know, man, I’m just really insecure right now.
Forrest: When I’m home I don’t know what to wear. On tour, I’ve got a suitcase and you know, five things. Cool. I’m gonna wear that, wear that, wear that. Then I’ll get home and be in a closet, and be like, “I don’t know how to get dressed anymore.”

THE CAMPUS: What’s it like being on stage? Describe it in the best adjectives you can.
Mike: Fun.
Forrest: It’s like a teeter-totter. It can go good or bad.
Mike: Oh, it can go bad. It can go bad.
Forrest: When you’re out, you don’t know. Is it going good? Or is it going bad? I don’t know. And you’re just working on that thought the entire time.
Joseph: Sometimes you’re on stage, and you’re like, “I can’t wait to play this next song.” And then for some reason, you start professing your love for pizza. And stuff like that, you know? And you probably think I’m high as a kite. But I just love pizza.
Mike: It’s like dating, man. It’s like a first date. You know. Sometimes it can be fucking awesome. Every song is like, “Wow, this is great, this is only getting better.”
Forrest: Yeah, there’s so much chemistry here—
Mike: So good! And sometimes, after the first song, you’re like, “I just want this to fucking end. Please, just stop.”
Forrest: It’s not me, it’s them.

THE CAMPUS: So was Allegheny a good show or bad show?
Mike: Oh, it was good!
Forrest: It was fun.

THE CAMPUS: Are you just saying that?
Forrest: No, it was fun. It was good.
Joseph: Trust me, I would never say something if it wasn’t true.