Giving old songs a new twist

MANILA, Philippines - Their fair skin, light hair and Huntington Beach, California beginnings make them an all-American band. But that doesn’t mean Hellogoodbye is clueless about the music of the Philippines.

Drummer Michael Nielsen’s Filipina girlfriend told him how she’d listen to the well-loved Hotdog band. She even taught him Tagalog words like mahal kita to boot. Keyboardist/guitarist Joe Marro knows “you have to fly to reach Boracay.” And vocalist/guitarist Forrest Kline, bassist Travis Head and guitarist Andrew Richards are dying to spend their precious free day after their shows (today at the TriNoma Activity Center and tomorrow at Market! Market!) to visit tourist must-sees like Coconut Palace.

Be that as it may, the band admits it doesn’t know how the Filipino audience will react to its music when the members play it live in Manila for the first time.

Oh, Hellogoodbye has played far and wide — from humble watering holes in the US back in their struggling teenage years, to the UK, Australia, Europe and Japan, where they have promoted their songs.

These tours have taught them how to face audiences of all kinds — from the timid to the wild and loud.

“We found the most respectful audience we’ve faced so far in Japan,” says Kline. “The crowd is silent when you’re talking and silent again when you’re done.”

Not so in America, where the crowd is so unabashed “they’re actually yelling at you!”

Name it, Hellogoodbye has faced it. Back when they were still in high school and had yet to prove themselves, the band slept on floors in-between gigs and played where the pay was just enough to get them to the next modest venue they can find.

“We rolled with the punches,” says the bespectacled Marro.

Kline, his bespectacled seatmate, says they don’t mind it at all. No pain, no gain. Thanks to those lean years, the band learned how the key to a successful show.

“We make the audience feel they’re part of the show. There’s lots of interaction. We make them feel that we’re one big happy family,” reveals Nielsen.

A successful debut album (Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!), guest appearances on TV, including one in The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the luxury of junking day jobs for full-time performing after, the band is not resting on its laurels.

“We don’t take things for granted,” states Kline. “I think people give up before they’ve done all the work they can do.”

Head looks back at those lean years when he took two jobs just to survive and swears he doesn’t want to go there again. He’s happy where the music has taken him so far, and the sacrifices have been worth it.

Now that they’re doing what they love — and are getting recognized for it — Hellogoodbye can write all the songs it wants on their second album, Would It Kill You? with more aplomb.

“The new album will be out in November and it carries all-original songs,” they chorus.

It doesn’t matter if it took them four years to make a follow-up to their debut album. What matters most is that Hellogoodbye is still doing what it loves, eight years after Kline and his friend Jesse Kurvink recorded songs on the home computer to please friends and impress crushes.

“All of us will be playing music, even if we couldn’t make anything out of it,” says Nielsen.

The joy of “creating something you believe in” is just irresistible.

That’s the secret of Hellogoodbye’s success. And Manila will see just what that means this weekend, as the quartet mixes Beatles, the Beach Boys and the sounds of yesteryear, with the synthesizers of today.

It’s the old meeting the new all over again.