Echosmith, who rose to popularity in 2013 after the release of their hit “Cool Kids,” is still exploring their love of music as a family, this time on tour with their new album, “Lonely Generation.” The tour debuted at the 9:30 Club in Washington on Feb. 12.
Echosmith is a family affair. Siblings Sydney, Graham and Noah Sierota began their musical career in their elementary years after their dad signed them up to play a benefit concert for free. After touring for the better half of the 2010s, Echosmith reappeared for the first time on tour after finishing the Pentatonix Summer Tour 2018.
According to Sydney, “Lonely Generation” signifies the growth of the band since the release of their last album in 2013. Now 22 years old and married, Sydney was just 16 when the band first rose to stardom.
“It just shows a different layer of what we love to do musically and we’re just discovering that too,” she said in an interview with the Eagle. “That the music is coming from a personal place, and it’s growing alongside you.”
Bursting onto the stage in an olive green jumpsuit, Echosmith frontwoman Sydney Sierota dove into the indie-pop band’s set for the night with high energy. When the first song was done, she turned to the band’s drummer and guitarist, her brothers, grinning with familiar ease.
After performing a few of the album’s more upbeat tunes, the lights dimmed and the band’s manager, producer and father, Jeffery David, joined Noah and Sydney onstage. The three harmonized and slowed down the pace with ballad “Everyone Cries,” which Sierota said is one of her favorites from the album.
According to Sierota, the song was a joint family effort — written long before the rest of the songs on “Lonely Generation.”
“I had no idea when we were sitting there writing it, I don’t know, maybe three years ago, how much it would mean to me now,” she said.
The emotional song touches upon the themes of hardship, loss and feeling alone. This one was especially relevant when putting the album together, as it gives a touch of relatability that Sierota said she hopes to bring to the stage.
It’s not just songs from the new album that continue to ring true, however. Sydney said that she connects with the message of their most popular song “Cool Kids” now more than ever.
Lyrics like “I wish that I could be like the cool kids/ Cause all the cool kids, they seem to fit in,” channel a desire to belong and a feeling of loneliness that everyone can relate to, according to Sierota.
“I think everybody goes through that at one point, no matter how old you are,” Sierota said.
The title of their sophomore album connects similarly, conveying the confusion and isolation of growing up as a teenager in the digital age.
“It so perfectly describes how so many of us are feeling right now,” she said. “The song itself just came out of a conversation that we were having with each other about how frustrated we were by social media and how hard it can be to know what to post and know what to say.”
Sierota said that the band is trying to open up a conversation about the balance between social media and reality. With “Lonely Generation,” they hope to express it all and stress the importance of real-life connections.
“We want to create a very dynamic show that has some really fun and exciting moments, drum solos and things like that,” she said. “But we also want to have moments where it feels like you and I hanging out in a living room and it’s just us in the entire world.”
Echosmith will continue the “Lonely Generation” tour through March.
