Echosmith introduced “Cool Kids” in 2013 ― a song about trying to navigate the “in” crowd. Now the Los Angeles-based sibling trio is exploring what it’s like to come of age in a digital world where the pressures of social media feel heavier than ever before.
The band’s new sophomore album, “Lonely Generation,” has the familiar dreamy alt-pop sounds of the debut, but with a more mature tone and lyrics that dive into feeling adrift and searching for a personal connection. It’s no surprise the band’s new album tackles those themes; nearly seven years have passed since Echosmith entered the scene, garnered 1 billion streams, toured the world and even shared a stage with Taylor Swift. And a lot has changed.
“It just felt like the perfect title for the album and in this time, and in this time in our lives as we try to figure out the right balance between social media and the internet and the access to anything and anyone that we want, but also real life and real connections and real face-to-face conversations … It’s about us,” frontwoman Sydney Sierota told HuffPost at Build Series. “It’s about these emotions that we experience, whether it’s good or bad or confusing ― in between those two emotions. It’s just us being so honest. And I think ‘Lonely Generation’ ― the words themselves ― are so honest, addressing what we’re all experiencing together.”
In the last several years Sierota, along with her bandmates Noah and Graham Sierota, did some soul-searching, particularly after having spent a lot of time on tour after “Cool Kids” was released.
Sieorta called that time “really intense.”
We didn’t stop for three and a half years, or longer. I was sick most of the time. I just have the worst immune system … It was nice to get some nice sleep afterward,” she said.
But Sierota said she wouldn’t change it for the world.
“It was really important for me to remind myself why I wanted to do music and why I wanted to do that in the first place. So discovering that again and falling in love with music again was so crucial to this album,” she said.
Sierota also got married, tying the knot last year with Cameron Quiseng, who appears in the video for Echosmith’s new song, “Shut Up and Kiss Me.”
“A lot can happen, especially in those formative years. I was 16 when the first album came out and now I’m 22 … And that’s usually when people graduate high school or go to prom for the first time, or to go off to college and find out sort of who they are … But we really experienced so many of those same things that we probably would have experienced if we did go to college, too. We’re figuring out who we are … Especially on this album I got to explore that with the songwriting and explore being vulnerable through that.”
Looking ahead, Echosmith will tour behind the new album throughout February and March.
“We want to create a really dynamic and really personal show, and we want the really fun parts that we really love to have whether it’s a drum solo or bringing a fan onstage, whatever it is, that gets everyone really excited … But we also want to create those moments that it feels like it’s just you and me hanging out in a living room … and really connect with our fans more than ever.”
Correction: A previous version of this story featured the incorrect spelling of Sierota. It has been fixed.
Check out the full Build Series interview with Echosmith below.
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