Hellogoodbye

About Hellogoodbye

Hellogoodbye started in 2001 when Forrest Kline was a teenager messing around with a synthesizer in his bedroom in Huntington Beach, California. What began as a solo recording project eventually pulled in friends and became an actual band, though Kline remained the constant center. They landed in that mid-2000s scene where emo, pop-punk, and electronic music were colliding in ways that somehow made sense at the time.

The self-titled EP dropped in 2004 on Drive-Thru Records, the label that was practically printing money with this sound. "Shimmy Shimmy Quarter Turn" became the song that got passed around on MySpace and Purevolume, back when those platforms actually mattered for breaking bands. The track had that hyper, synth-heavy energy that made it feel like pop music filtered through ADHD, complete with programmed drums and vocals that bounced around like they were on a sugar high.

Their 2006 full-length debut, "Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!", arrived during the peak of the MySpace era and went gold. "Here (In Your Arms)" was the big one, a legitimately catchy single that got radio play and cemented them as more than just a scene band. The album title basically tells you everything about the aesthetic they were working with: exclamation points, random enthusiasm, and a refusal to take themselves too seriously.

But Kline got tired of the electronic thing pretty quickly. By 2010's "Would It Kill You?", the band had pivoted hard into a more organic, almost yacht rock-influenced sound with actual instruments doing most of the work. It confused people who showed up for synthesizers and got soft rock instead. The shift was genuine but jarring, and it didn't connect the way the earlier material had.

The lineup changed constantly over the years. Members came and went while Kline kept the name going, which is pretty standard for project-bands that started as one person's thing. He kept releasing music on his own terms, including 2013's "Everything Is Debatable" which arrived via a pledge campaign and showed him leaning further into indie pop territory.

Hellogoodbye never disappeared, exactly. Kline has continued putting out records and playing shows, though the cultural moment that made them relevant has long passed. 2017 brought "S'Only Natural", another album that showed growth and musical curiosity even if nobody was really paying attention anymore. They've become one of those bands that exists in a comfortable middle space, making music for whoever still cares, touring when it makes sense, and not worrying too much about recapturing whatever lightning they caught in 2006.

The band represents a very specific moment in alternative music history, when laptop pop could cross over and sincerity and silliness could coexist without irony poisoning everything.

Their shows tend toward the enthusiastic and self-aware, with crowds that actually know the words to deeper cuts. Kline performs with dry, understated stage presence, letting the music do the work. Expect singalongs and genuine affection from attendees, though the energy is more earnest than raucous.

Known for Here In Your Arms, Chemicals, Everlong, Shattered, Baby It's Fact

See Hellogoodbye Live