Interview with Sydney Sierota of Echosmith

I first heard of Echosmith because of their YouTube covers of many different popular songs. I was immediately drawn in by young Sydney's powerful vocals and the band's ability to put a great twist on songs, as opposed to trying to sound exactly like the original. Fast-forward a couple of years later, I bump into them earlier this March at Warped Tour Kickoff Party. Not only were they there, but they performed! Finding out that they were going to be playing on the tour was great news. Even better news was when they stepped on stage and even I was surprised at their sound. The band of siblings may look like they're too young to know who they are and what they're playing, but appearances can be deceiving. When I ran into Sydney and her brothers again at Warped Tour in Pomona, she promised we'd have some interview time soon, and she kept that promise. Hopefully you'll enjoy what she had to say.

***

You probably get this question a lot, but do you think that it's a benefit that you guys are starting out at such a young age?

Yeah! I mean, I think there are advantages and disadvantages to being so young, and in this industry. I feel like there are definitely more advantages. I think it's been working really well. One, we have the rest of our lives to try this. (laughs) And two, I think people appreciate that we're young. Especially if they hear the music first. People really think it's cool. Even on Warped Tour, I really realized how awesome it is that we're pretty much the age of the people attending, which is really cool because when we talk to them it's like we're friends already. We're on the same level. It's kind of cool to see that, being used to talking to older people obviously, and we have older fans, but it's cool having fans that are your age and so young that you can really connect with automatically. And I think that they can really appreciate that too. Some people have said, "Oh that's so cool that you're actually doing something with your life this young." and I'm happy that I'm doing that, too, because I don't know what else I would do. I think it definitely has been working really well and I wouldn't want to do it any other way. And I think this is the way to do it, at least for us. It's been working way better than we could have expected.

Does it make things better or worse for you that you're all in the band together as siblings?

Actually, believe it or not, I think it's better. we've grown up and been with each other for 14 years - all four of us. Growing up together and we've been learning how to deal with each other for 14 years. Not every band can say that. We've been together 24/7 so we definitely know how to be together, but also how to have fun. It definitely takes a while to get to this point, but we're finally there. And obviously we know what pushes each other's buttons and all that stuff that everybody would know, but we've definitely gotten to the point where it's like, "Yeah, that's not really cool to do when you're on tour." So it works good because we really know what to do and what not to do with each other. We know each other so well and we're all really on the same page. We grew up listening to all the same stuff, so with music we're on the same page. We're pretty in sync with each other. And we like each other. That doesn't always happen with siblings or with bandmates. It's really cool, I like it.

What influenced your band's name change?

We're going through a transition stage anyway, and our music was evolving and we as people were evolving, and we were going through a transition in every way. Since we had a new sound and felt different, we all were thinking the same thing, that we should change the name so it could be a new chapter for us. And the other name felt a little young and "blah." The new name was cool because we all finally liked the same thing. It's cool because it's one word, easy to find, and the domain name was open! So that's always helpful when you're looking for names. It worked really well and it has a nice ring to it. When you're making a band name, you're thinking about it so much. Once it's already your band name, nobody really cares. They like your music, they're going to like your name usually. So that's how we decided to change it.

I first heard about you from YouTube long before the Warped Tour this year. How do you feel that your YouTube covers affected your early career?

I think YouTube covers are really cool and interesting and a good way to find bands. I've found bands myself that way. I think that we've had a decent amount of response from that and a lot of cool fans, but it's also important to post original stuff too and not just post covers and get stuck in that world. Which I think we're doing, so it's okay. In general I think it works really well, we got a lot of new people and it was fun to do some of my favorite fans songs and make it our own. It's a cool way to be creative.

The album cover artwork got some amazing response this past week. How are you feeling about the completion of the album and the upcoming release?

I'm so excited. It's so cool that we got to post the cover and it feels extra real now that we did that. Like I said, we're all so proud of it. We were writing for two years. We wrote 80 songs probably, and now it's down to 14 for the deluxe. It's finally done, we've done our first record. We have always dreamed of this. There are three songs out from the Summer Sampler, but it's really exciting to be like, "Wait! There's more. There's more for you to hear. There's more depth." I really like this record, because I've listened to records myself and gotten confused, thinking that one sounds like that one, or which one was that? I wanted to make sure that didn't happen with our stuff. That was one of my things. That happened, every song is different. Not one song could be compared to another. They're all definitely related, in the same family, and you can tell they're all from the same band, which I thought was really important. But I'm excited for it to be out for real and for people to hear it and grasp it. It's so exciting! It's our first record it should be. I think people are usually this excited for it. I feel really good and confident about it. People have already have great responses to the three songs. I think it's going to do really well. And the record has even more depth to it and other sides to us. So I'm really excited. We've had listening parties before shows where we have pizza and listen to the record or a few songs off of it, and people are loving it. It's so encouraging to see fans really appreciate all of our music.

And you seemed to have really great response on Warped Tour as well!

Yeah, it went so well. It's crazy, I didn't know or expect it to go like that because we're different. But I'm really happy that it wasn't what I expected.

What's been the most difficult thing that you've had to overcome? And how has that helped you grow?

Wow, that's a good question! I think just being young and accepting that. We haven't had that many crazy things to go through as a band, especially since we didn't really put anything out before our Summer Sampler and this record. Because there are so many bands that have to deal with their first, FIRST record that they aren't proud of. And they hate it, the sound isn't what they like. We're really happy that in the six years we were a band, we didn't really post anything. Or release anything. So that makes it easier not to have a rough patch to get past that record, which I think is usually a band's problem. Just being young is an interesting thing. I think now we're at good age and it's really working well being this age, but definitely at first some people hear we're young and kind of say, "Eh, I dunno..." and I mean, I even do that sometimes and I'm in a young band. It's dumb but it's a natural response sometime from people, to be like, "Oh, they're only..." or "The drummer is 14. Ahh, they must suck." That's what a lot of people think. But we turned it around and made it a good thing. I'd rather pleasantly surprise someone and end up being great, than the other way around. and they expect us to be great because we're young and then we suck. That's the biggest thing we've had to overcome. And the way you take pictures and do photo shoots, that makes a difference. The kind of poses you do. You have to be careful when you're so young. But I think we're definitely working with it now and knowing what to do and what not to do. So it's better now.

As for the writing aspect of the album, what were some of your inspirations?

For the album, we were writing for two years. A lot of that was developing and I think this album shows our perspective on life in general. Life inspired us. That's what should inspire songs. What you go through, what you're doing, how you feel about life in general. I think that's really important. You can tell how someone feels about life by their songs. Like with how it sounds, and what they say... But, I think we're all really positive and excited about life. I think you can tell that in the songs we have and the lyrics. We're not super  excited, energetic, upbeat in every song. There are some songs that break it down and get real. It's so simple, but it's really true - life just really inspired this album and we were just being honest about life and there wasn't anything super crazy, so it's not like "this situation inspired this album." Just growing up and living life is what this album is about.

What has been the most amazing moment of your career so far?

Jeez. That's a great question! It's so hard. I'm going back and forth between two situations. I would probably pick Detroit Warped Tour, which was in the middle. And that was a show that almost got totally shut down. Or one of the few, because there were a couple. But there were thunderstorms, windstorms, they even thought there might be a tornado. All of this stuff... and then everybody had to go inside. Every band, every fan, everybody had to stay inside this building for like an hour for protection. We were supposed to go on when they called everyone in. And then an hour later, we got a call saying, "Hey! You guys are first up on your stage. Go set up right now and play in 5 minutes!" So we freaked out and ran over there. It was the best show we played on Warped Tour and maybe even ever. We were on the Ernie Ball stage with 600 people there. They were so into it. Not just there, bu so into it and singing along and passionate about it. It was so cool to see that. I mean I have videos of people singing "Cool Kids" Every single person was singing it. It was so insane to see that. A little bit of a shocker but in a good way getting to see... people really like this band. We really were appreciating that. It was sort of a "wow" moment that I had on stage. I was so inspired.

What would be your dream collaboration?

I definitely would pick Chris Martin from Coldplay. He's just so good. Everything he does is so good. He's always inspired me. The way he writes songs and doesn't really follow any rules. It's so great. I would die to collaborate with him. I wouldn't die, but I think it would be pretty great.

Norma Jean - "Wrongdoers" Album Review

Normally I'm known for adding somewhat of a prologue to my album reviews. This time I'm gonna jump right in and say that Norma Jean has brought it. I knew this right away without question. If you've ever listened to them before, you probably have a certain opinion, whether bad or good. Most of the people I've met or in my age bracket listened to them back in the O God, the Aftermath days and petered out, maybe listening to their next album, not really following along with their releases.

It's hard to keep up with so many different bands who are constantly putting out new work, so you don't always have the up-to-the-minute memories of recent work to compare to. Going back and listening to some of the older NJ tracks that used to get quite a lot of listening time, I realized even more than after the first listen to Wrongdoers how good it is. This is a band who has worked their ass off over the years, and this album proves it.

Although it's not the first track on the album, I started with the title track, "Wrongdoers." It immediately struck me as being exactly what I was hoping for. Soon came the realization that this album might be bringing back old NJ, which would make a lot of their long-time followers very happy. Edgy, and loud, but still with quite the melodic aspect to it that is missing in so many of the bands that overpopulate the metal scene these days. Stylistically, the album is incredibly pleasing on the ears.

It's true that many fans will stick by a band and enjoy their tunes even if they grow and change their style from what drew the listeners in originally. Something that many, including myself, have always noticed and enjoyed about Norma Jean is that they seem to do what they want - and hope that people will enjoy it. And that's the best kind of music you can find.

"If You Got it at Five, You Got it at Fifty" is a second favorite, made even better by the video they just released, which pokes fun at many of the party style music videos that seem to be popping up all over the web these days. There's something almost playfully malicious about it that really sucks you in.

"Sword in Mouth, Fire Eyes" was a close third, being that it's still got the energy and emotion that the rest of the album holds, but takes on a much more melodic, softer vibe to it than any of the other songs on the album. It served as a good breather (aka a palette cleanser) between the rest of the louder songs, filled with such hard-hitting vocals.

I didn't really have specific expectations built up for this album, but the most accurate thing to say is that I was surprised and pleased by the way that it turned out. In a genre full of artists and albums that seems to be getting overpopulated and dwindling, Norma Jean has put out an enjoyable and solid record.