Echosmith have always been the ‘cool kids,’ because, in reality, being cool is about being yourself… and few groups are as original as them.
To know them is to love them. Echosmith is a band whose decade-long career has won the hearts of people all over the world time and time again. Maybe it’s their sibling bond, but there is a sense of relatability to who they are – especially as songwriters – and they ooze thoughtfulness even after the success that they’ve had. The current threesome is a gleaming light in the industry. As they tackle what it’s like to be an underdog, they transfix music lovers of all kinds – pop, folk, even indie rock – and melodically share with these fans that being something they’re not is not the way to live life. Life is too short for that, so it’s much more fun, much more dynamic, to be like the Sierota siblings who enjoy who they are and do what they love without judgment. Even a recreation of their career-defining “Cool Kids” music video for the updated rendition, aptly titled “Cool Kids (our version),” wasn’t off the table… and we love them for it.
Echosmith is a band that, at the end of the day, are simple but effective. Little fanfare and not too many frills, they are all about good music, being authentic, and owing everything to their fans who have accepted them and their talents year after year, song after song, and show after show. ““Smooth like gelato, bright like gold in Monte Carlo, blew my savings on the lotto – that’s the motto. Forget the bill, yeah! Fill your cup,” their new single goes. Life is meant to be lived, and if they can do it, so can we. The current era of Echosmith is the sweetest and most sensational yet, which means we just had to sit down (virtually) with frontwoman Sydney to chat about how we got to this place, where it’s going, and all the organic musical moments in between.
Oh my gosh, “Gelato” is so good. It has a really cool soundtracking kind of vibe to it.
Totally. Oh my gosh, I’m so happy. That’s kind of how I felt about it too, so I’m glad that that’s how you felt.
How excited you are to be able to take a new song right outta the gate and play it on tour? Especially in New York, which I’m not biased at all about.
[Laughs] I’m so excited. I mean it’s always fun to play new songs on the road, but getting to play something that’s literally this brand new? It’s out one week before tour, so it’s kind of wild! I think that makes me even more excited for shows because already when we planned this tour months ago, we had known we were going to put out lots of new music beforehand, but we didn’t know exactly the timeline. So the fact that it’s played out this way where we’ve already put out two new tracks and now we have “Gelato,” too… I mean it just makes me even more excited to experience them with everybody else and kind of give it new life in a live setting. [We are] also going to play some unreleased songs, as well, so I’m excited to just go for it and bring these songs with us to tell a new story with people in real life as opposed to just, “Ok, this is what it sounds like in my car. I’m feeling it, but how does it feel with some of our favorite fans in the world in the room? How will the song change over time for me?” That’s what happens with every one of our songs, so I’m really excited to start that journey with “Gelato,” “Hang Around,” and “Cool Kids (our version)” with this tour.
Oh, absolutely! I think that these three singles together were such a good progression of creativity in itself. They fit this idea wonderfully of having something that’s “yours” but then you’re taking it to the fans and opening up the narrative, which I think is super special. I think with “Gelato,” specifically, that it’ll be a really exuberant live moment. We’ve all heard “Cool Kids” and the variations, but now we can continue to peel back the layers of Echosmith’s music with “Gelato” fresh out of the gate. That is exciting.
Yeah! It’s cool because this is one of those songs that we really pictured live the moment that we made it because there are all those group vocals in the chorus. It just feels like a song that’s so much more than a song that I sing. It feels like a song that we can all sing together and relate to because it really does have that heart behind it, this idea of what we don’t know about tomorrow. Usually that freaks me out, but we actually can decide to be ok with that – just for this moment right now to actually enjoy the present instead of worrying so much about what is to come tomorrow… or what was better in the past. It’s so easy to just be everywhere except the present, but I think this song kind of forces us to be here – now. It’s gonna be a really special moment live I agree.
With these three new songs, how did you guys decide the order in which you were going to release them? Because I love that “Gelato” is coming last, but on you and your brothers’ end of things, how did you know it would be best as “Hang around,” “Cool Kids (our version),” and then “Gelato,” which is followed by 25 or so concerts?
That’s interesting because we sort of adjusted our timeline as we went! We knew that we wanted to start with “Hang Around.” That was sort of a no brainer for us because “Hang Around” was also the first song that really determined this chapter for us… and it was the first song that had us like, “Oh my gosh, ok, this is the sound, this is the vibe, this is what we’re going for.” It really opened up the floodgates of inspiration and that’s where basically all of the new music came from. It all happened after we wrote “Hang Around,” so it felt like the most obvious first song to put out since it really determined this new chapter for us. We wanted it to set the tone for this new chapter for everybody that is listening. Tthat felt really clear to us and our whole team was on board with that, so we were like, “Ok, that’s great. Now…?”
For the next song that came out, we actually didn’t even have “Cool Kids (our version)” planned at all. This wasn’t even supposed to come out – it didn’t even exist until like a few weeks before we literally dropped it. It was just cool to see it take off again on Instagram and TikTok and everywhere else, even though it came out nine years ago and we have our Talking Dreams anniversary – that was our first album. It’s all just kind of cool timing where it’s reflecting on the first album coming out, and that was such a beautiful start to our career and a very pivotal moment for us. To see “Cool Kids” come back – first off, I was really comforted to see people still relate to this song. That’s great because so do I and I still struggle with wanting to fit in or look or be like somebody else. That’s when we made “Cool Kids (our version),” which was totally, completely unplanned. Then we’re like, “Well, we should just drop it right away since it’s already made.” We did it in a few days, dropped it like, a week or two later, and then we realized Gelato had to come out before tour because it feels like such a great song to play live like we were just talking about. We all wanted something else new to come out before we got on the road. It [feels] like a really great progression, but honestly wasn’t completely planned. It just turned out to be a great order of things, which is great. I’m grateful for that. We had no idea that “Cool Kids (our version)” would ever exist, let alone be the second song that came out from this new chapter, but it all feels really fitting and it feels like it’s part of our story – part of who we are now.
I completely agree with that. As a fan it feels so full circle, and I think that plays right into what Echosmith is: a band that’s always has an eye on self reflection, and the reflection of the career, and the world around us. Even if it was kind of an unplanned and more natural occurrence, these songs fit you and fit hte moment.
Totally. Music is such a creative thing and I think a lot of us forget that because it’s technically our job. There are so many jobs within the music world, which is also a huge part of it, but at the same time, it all comes from being very creative, so as much as you can keep it organic and free, it’s really easy to overanalyze and to overthink and over plan. I think that takes some of the magic away, so the fact that we’ve been able to have this creative freedom this time has been so special because it’s brought our spark back. For us, [we] can hear that in the music and can feel that we’re just so excited to be making it and to be playing it and producing it. If people love it, great, if not, I still know that we are excited to play it every night, you know what I mean? This life and the art has to start with you believing in it and it feels really special to be in that place right now because I haven’t always been in that place. There’s been a lot of different seasons of Echosmith, and it feels really good to be truly ourselves in this season. I’ve just been grateful to do this and grateful to be able to do it in this way.
FOR TICKETS TO CATCH ECHOSMITH ON TOUR, CLICK HERE! THEY STOP AT NYC’S FAMED GRAMERCY THEATRE ON OCTOBER 17!
