Noah Sierota of Echosmith Talks Touring and What It’s Like Being One of the Cool Kids

Stephanie Hernandez

Echosmith has had quite a year. Their smash hit “Cool Kids” can be heard coast to coast and they are currently on an international tour promoting their debut album “Talking Dreams.” This band of four Toluca Lake siblings show absolutely no signs of slowing down. Bass guitarist and eldest brother of the group, Noah took the time to talk to Entertainment Voice before their performance in Montreal to discuss the band’s beginnings and where they have in store for fans.

Entertainment Voice: You are all siblings, what are the best parts about working together?

Noah Sierota: We all grew up together, so I know how we all work. I know how Graham plays drums, I know how every single person in the band plays their instruments, but I also know how they interact, speak, and think. Which is great, because when you’re working with people you want to know how they will react to things. We’ve all learned to work together, share ideas, it helps the process move a lot faster.

When did you decide music was the path you wanted to go down together and how did it happen?

We first played together about seven or eight years ago, it gets hard to reference because it really was so long ago; we played a show together, and it was the first time all four of us had done that, we liked it, and we sort of just kept it going. I was eleven, Graham was about seven or eight, we were so young we weren’t thinking about making it into career, we just wanted to play music. From there we just kept on doing it until it turned into a real job, now we are signed to a label, recorded a full album, we’re touring. We didn’t see where this was going, but we went where the music has taken us.

Who came up with your name and what does it mean?

We started so young, at the start, we had four different names for the band. We decided to change it up and think about one for once, and take some time in deciding. The idea of a blacksmith came up, and how a blacksmith shape metals and we thought, well a band shapes sounds, so we created the word Echosmith to mean shaping sounds.

Making up a new word for the dictionary?

We’re working on it (laughs)

What is your writing process like? Do you all write together, or bring in songs separately?

Honestly, it can start from anywhere. There are no real rules, what matters is that the song reflects the band. If a member of the band doesn’t agree with the song’s message, then it isn’t the band’s song. If we can’t all believe in what it’s saying, then we don’t have our part in it. We all contribute, and have our parts, whether it starts from me or someone else, we all have a part in writing and creating , we bring songs to each other and we finish them up. The most important thing is that we can all stand behind the songs. It’s important for us that everyone is heard, from me to Graham to Jamie and Sydney. All of our songs reflect our four different perspectives, it’s never just one idea.

You’ve been on tour with some pretty amazing acts (Owl City, Neon Trees etc.), what has been your most memorable touring experience thus far?

Wow, that’s a hard one! You know, one of the most strange and exciting tours we’ve done was probably the Warped Tour, especially the second year. Mostly because there are so many different kinds of artists, we didn’t really know what to expect, until we played it and found out. It was hard, there was a lot of hard work we had to do, that aren’t asked of you on other tours, like waiting in lines, and standing in the sun all day. But playing those shows will all those other artists, it did really feel like this insane summer camp of people from around the world, Australia, the UK, the West coast. You know, that tour was amazing. It brought the whole world to one place, different types of music, different genres, different kinds of people, for an entire summer, it was exciting. It was a wild fun summer camp.

Anyone you haven’t worked with that you’d like to?

There’s all sorts of people! We played a show with Sting, in about mid-January I think, that I loved. I’d like to work with him again, whether that’s more shows, writing, or collaborating, whatever it ends up being I’d be happy.

There are a lot of international dates on your calendar this year, Do you notice a difference between American audiences and fans abroad?

Yeah, you know the funny thing is I noticed more similarities than differences. The big difference would be, unless you’re in the UK, the audience speaks different languages. But, that doesn’t really matter. Whether the fans are from the Philippines or from Spain, they’re going through the same sorts of things. Of course, different countries will have different struggles but, you realize playing these shows that people from everywhere go through a lot of similar struggles and have similar thoughts or fears. Playing internationally has really just shown me how connected we all are.

You were just on Late Night with Seth Meyers performing “Bright”! Which do you enjoy more, playing in front of a studio audience or playing concerts?

NS: I think, in the moment, I enjoy full-on shows, more because you get to interact with fans more. When you’re playing to a studio audience you’re a good 40 feet from the people watching, but it’s still fun playing TV shows, because you know there are people watching from the other side. But for sure, live shows, seeing your fans singing your songs back to you, it doesn’t get much better than that.

What can new fans who haven’t seen you live yet expect from this tour?

On this tour, we are playing a lot of songs, and really looking to make the most of it. They can expect to get involved because there are so many spots on the show we ask them to dance or sing along. We try to make it almost conversational and as interactive as possible.