Video Premiere: Hello Echo, “Growing Old And Sleeping”

The Band: Hello Echo
Who’s That: A multifaceted rock band from Santa Monica who worship Modest Mouse, Pavement, and the Pixies. Singer Sean Aylward used to play in Apollo Sunshine.
The Song: “Growing Old And Sleeping”
Fun Fact: Hello Echo’s new album, Echo follows their first, which was called Hello. Look for their third album to be self-titled.
Songwriter Says: Two thirds of this new album has a ‘Where is the outrage!?!’ theme, expressing frustration about everything from war and economics to the way we treat strangers on the street,” Aylward tells us. “Then there’s a few songs that are just dreamy and floaty. ‘Growing Old And Sleeping’ is definitely in the latter category. It’s an exercise in letting a song come out on its own, not forcing it to be anything or doing too much shaping. There’s a focus on imagery and a dreamy no rules type of flow, where anyone can be anyone and you can choose to identify with any song character, the ‘I’ or the ‘you.’

“It’s quite a contrast to the lyric writing process of most of the other songs, which I belabored over and kept revisiting because I was trying to say these big important things and wanted it to be powerful and not overt or cheesy. I’m proud of those songs and how they came together, but the process of ‘Growing Old’ was a welcomed change of pace, from inspiration to finished song in what felt like no time. It has a nice feel and I’m really glad it made it onto the record.”

Drummer/vocalist Mike Silva, who directed the video, puts it another way. “Trapped in the rut of everyday life within the confines of a concrete jungle . . . with technological advancements buzzing all around in a noisy web of industrialization and globalization . . . true purity and peace is sought after and attained through the simplistic phenomenons of Mother Nature.”

Watch the video and stream Echo in its entirety below.