Echosmith’s Sydney Sierota Talks Dreams and… Babies?
By Kailee Baylor
On Dec. 10, the Musikfest Café welcomes the “Cool Kids” – Echosmith (@echosmith) – as the band travels from Canada to Mexico as part of a short winter tour. ArtsQuest recently caught up with Sydney Sierota (@sydneysierota), lead singer of the multi-platinum selling indie-pop group. Read on to discover more about the upcoming show, her thoughts on the soon-to-be addition to the Sierota family and what she really wants for Christmas:
Echosmith started nine years ago and you were all pretty young. How do you feel your music has changed since then?
Sydney Sierota: It’s really evolved. We were really young nine years ago and the life we’ve lived especially in the last three years has helped shape the stories we want to write about. It’s been a fun process too.
What’s it like always being around your siblings? Do you argue, and if so, what do you usually argue about?
Sydney Sierota: Being in a band is like family for all other bands, the difference is that we are actually family. The same kinds of things that would bother anyone in a band can bug us, but early on we made the decision to not go there with each other. If we’re annoyed it’s usually because we’re tired or jet lagged or hungry or all three. Life is short and the last thing we want to do is get hung up on dumb things that will only divide us.
What’s one thing you’d want first time listeners to know about your music, and who you are as a band?
Sydney Sierota: We want to spread hope and love through music to the world. That’s our actual mission statement and if people even just for an hour at our show, or an hour listening to our music wherever they are, forget about the craziness of the world and find some kind of hope, then we’ve done what we’ve set out to do. We’ve heard from fans all over the world who in some way have felt better from the music we make. That’s really as great as it gets. I love our job – I really do!
The last few years have been crazy for you guys with the success of your album ‘Talking Dreams,’ you doing a duet with Taylor Swift on her 1989 tour, TWICE… you guys were even recently featured on The Muppets! So what’s been your most amazing moment from the past few years?
Sydney Sierota: Yeah it’s been crazy! Now that we are finished with our first album cycle we’ve been really hit with the fact that all this stuff has happened to us. It’s really changed our lives and we’re really happy and grateful. Those moments with Taylor who is such a great friend and artist to us were surreal. Touring in Asia was amazing too. We sold something like 2,500 tickets at our Singapore show and we’d never ever been there before and to see kids singing every word of every song was just so incredible. I cried because it was just overwhelming that this is really working and affecting people.
Your oldest brother Jamie is going to be a father soon, so he took some time off from touring. How has it been touring without him?
Sydney Sierota: It’s been a real adjustment but we’ve gotten used to it. He’s about to have his life changed in a way none of us can even imagine. We’re all gonna be uncles and myself an aunt. We can’t wait. Jamie has really enjoyed these past four months completely off working and he’s getting ready for it all.
You’re about to begin the process of writing and recording your new album. Is there anything you’re hoping to come out of this album? Any theme or message you really want to try to incorporate?
Sydney Sierota: We’ve already started writing and it feels really exciting to start to tell some new stories. Because we’ve toured so much we can’t help but imagine all these songs being sung in a big concert. The live aspect of what we do has for sure affected how we are writing. We hope people can really see the progression of our writing and art, and most importantly we hope they really feel something as they listen. As far as themes we aren’t sure yet other than these songs will match our mission statement.
What’s the number-one thing on each of your Christmas lists this year?
Sydney Sierota: To rest and relax with friends and family and some great music.
What can fans expect to see from you at your show in Bethlehem.
Sydney Sierota: To smile and have lots of fun. We try and leave our hearts on the stage every night so let’s have a fun night!
