Just a few days ago PropertyOfZack had the chance to interview Forrest from Hellogoodbye. Forrest and I discussed their brand new album, their current tour with 3OH!3, as well as plans to release another EP in the next few months. Don’t forget to pick up Would It Kill You? on Tuesday and enjoy the read!

For the record, could you state your name and role in Hellogoodbye?
My name is Forrest from Hellogoodbye.

Would It Kill You? officially come out on Tuesday, but it leaked a week or two ago and has now been put up to stream on your Myspace and website. I’m hearing and reading some pretty great things, but how’s the reception been in your eyes?
It’s been crazy. It’s been really good. On Twitter and stuff I’ll search and see reviews online and it’s really, really, really good. It kind of blows me away. I’m just waiting for them to decide that they were stoked. Maybe they got a little overboard.

It’s been a while, to say the least, since Hellogoodbye put out its first album; it’s been four years. Were there any nerves about this sophomore release?
Yeah, for sure. It wasn’t too much of a concern, because I don’t really care to do the kind of things we did on the last record so much, it’s not my goal to have a single on the radio or something like that. I was just nervous that no one would care at all after four years. Or if they did they probably wouldn’t like it because it is a little bit different. It didn’t make much difference because I just knew it was something that I had to do. I had the songs and I had to complete it by myself anyways.

There were some critics that said the writing on Zombies! wasn’t as thorough as some of your EPs that came before it, but Would It Kill You?’s writing is able to maintain that same fun of the old Hellogoodbye with a new sense of maturity. What changed?
I mean, I’m super flattered by the reviews that are really into the new record, but I don’t think our last record was as bad as some of them say it is. Obviously I’ve grown up and changed and gotten into different music and have just grown in general as a writer, but that record certainly isn’t as bad as some of them say, I think. A lot of the songs from that record were written the same time as some of the songs on the EP and the irony of it is that we were like, “Okay, let’s do a quick EP” six or eight years ago, whatever that was and “Let’s pick some of the whatever songs from our batch of songs and put them on an EP and save all the real good ones for the record.” That was the idea, so when people say they think the songs on the EP are way better, I mean, they’re cool, I’m proud and not embarrassed by any of the stuff, but it’s just funny because the idea was to pick the good ones for the full-length.

You guys announced in early 2010 that you had left Drive-Thru, which was really not much a surprise considering the label’s lack of care in recent years, but was that the reason for the four-year delay in a LP release?
That was the number one reason. For about a year we were just in the limbo with them trying to figure out what was going on with the label, what was going on with us going into the studio and stuff, and then for about a year after that we were in an active lawsuit with them. Then for about a year after that, we recorded the record. That’s been sort of the timeline.
POZ: So you guys really wanted to put out this record to years ago?
Forrest: Oh yeah, for sure. We would have loved to.

Would It Kill You? is being out on Wasted Summer, which is the band’s own label. Were there any talks to sign to another label for the release?
Yeah, we considered all the options. Basically our first gut instinct was to put this out ourselves. Like if we could get off of Drive-Thru to just do it ourselves because it just makes total sense, and why not? But then we entertained the idea of going with a label, but then in the end I still thought that doing it ourselves would be the best thing to do.

The band is currently out on the road with 3OH!3, Down With Webster, and The Secret Handshake. How are those dates going so far?
It’s really good. The crowds are pretty cool, not too cultish or closed-mindish. They’re pretty open-minded. It’s alright. Everyone on the tour is really cool. 3OH!3 are really awesome dudes to hangout with.

All of the bands that you’re touring with certainly fit Hellogoodbye’s sound, but more of the older sound than that of the new record. Would it be a little odd to play more new songs?
We do play a lot of newer songs and it is a little bit odd, but we don’t care, we’re just excited. We’re excited about the new songs and want to play them. We do kind of stick out like a sore thumb musically.

That being said, on future tours would you guys definitely like to do some headlining?
Yeah, we’re happy to do whatever. Headlining would be rad. Possibly early next year we’ll do some of that. We’d love to go out with some bands that have a similar kind of mindset too.

The band has played a few house shows and is looking to book a few more in December as well. Where did that idea come from?
We have a lot of days off on this tour. It’s something we’ve been talking about doing for a while. So the days off were a good opportunity just to throw some in while we were already out on the road in the van and stuff. I grew up playing house parties for people and stuff and that’s how the band started and it was always kind of the most fun environment to play a show. Playing at a hockey rink at a college is awesome, but it’s definitely not the same kind of vibe.

You guys posted a cover of The Misfits’s “Halloween” for the holiday. Was it fun recording that?
Yeah, it was fun and it was really quick. We literally did it in about an hour.
POZ: Oh wow, it turned out nicely too.
Forrest: [Laughs] Thanks. I’ve got everything pretty much set up and ready to go, so I was like, “Hey, let’s record this today and we’ll have it done for Halloween.” We played it live a couple times and last Halloween live so we were like, “Let’s just record it.”

After the 3OH!3 tour ends and the house shows in December are over there’s nothing on the books. How’s early 2011 looking in terms of touring so far?
Yeah, for sure. Like I said, probably some headlining in January, maybe something else. We’re gonna try to do a lot of international stuff too. We’re gonna probably go to England and Japan and Australia and stuff next year. But for sure we’ll tour the US in the beginning.
POZ: Are any of those out of country dates possible before the summer?
Forrest: Yeah, I think that’s our plan.

Have you guys given any thoughts to Warped at all?
We have. We were talking about it. We were just saying the other day that we would be down to do it. We haven’t approached them and they haven’t approached us. We’ll see if we get an offer, but I’d love to do it. We had a lot of fun the year that we did it.

Considering there was so much time between releases, it’s probably a safe assumption that a lot of writing took place, and a lot of it probably didn’t make the record. That being said, might we be seeing any b-sides or other kind of releases in the not too distant future?
They’re a few things floating around, but not too much. I think for right now, from this point forward, we’re gonna start putting out a lot more little EPs and stuff. We’re talking about doing an EP in the very near future now that we have our own label and have the freedom to do so, where before we were like, “We can make music, but we wouldn’t be allowed to put it out.” Now we’re talking about doing a lot more. We did a 7” that has a b-side that doesn’t go on the record and only is on the 7” a couple months ago.
POZ: Would that EP be newer material or stuff from the record that didn’t make the cut?
Forrest: Probably mostly newer material.
POZ: And that might be released in the next few months or so?
Forrest: Yeah, that’s what we’re talking about.

Thanks so much for your time, is there anything else you’d like to add?
We’re really excited to finally have the record out because it’s been so long.