Tell us more about Echo Bloom? How did this come together and when did you (Kyle) get your start in music?
I moved to Brooklyn in 2011 after living in Berlin for a while and writing like 3 albums worth of music. So when I got to New York I started looking for a band to record that. I literally put signs on lampposts saying that I wanted the band to be a mix between Joni Mitchell and Kraftwerk. I met a lot of people, and one of them was Aviva Jaye, who is the alto and keyboard player when we’re live. Through Aviva I met Cody, our drummer, and through Cody I met Alex, our bass player.
We recorded the first album of stuff of the Berlin material (Blue), and then ended up getting signed by a label in Germany and touring over there a whole bunch. We played everything from concert halls to ice cream parlors – one tour we even played a prison. Two more albums (Red, Green) rounded off the Berlin material, then we’re made our record “Wake” up in Woodstock with Kevin Salem, who produced Yo La Tengo and Rachel Yamagata. We were just about to release that when the pandemic happened, which delayed the release of the record by a year and a half, but also started this Hoursongs project I’ve been working on.
“Hoursongs” is this song-a-week project where I take an hour to write a song, then take the rest of the week to record it at home. I did that for a year, then thought it would be fun to start releasing them. So I started this podcast “Scratch” where I release them every other week and talk about how they were made. I’ve put out 37 episodes so far.
How would you describe your music and sound? Who are your musical influences?
I bounce around a lot. I used to say “Psychedelic Americana” but I think that was more because “Americana” is so vague. It can mean anything from Bruce Springsteen to Dwight Yoakam. Lyrically I’m really influenced by Margaret Atwood and Leonard Cohen. Musical influences abound! Talking Heads, Neutral Milk Hotel, R.E.M., Beck, Scott Walker, Everly Brothers, Tom Waits, Debussy.
We love “Hold On Tight To Me.” What inspired the song?
Steve Sasso was a member of Echo Bloom in its formative stages. His is the deep tenor voice on our 2013 record Blue, and our 2015 record Red. He’d met his partner Marie, before a European leg of one of our tours. They were riding out the pandemic near her hometown in Germany, likely dealing with a similar set of complexities that everyone else was dealing with. But for me, the distance allowed me to visualize them in this isolated, naturalistic snowglobe. I imagined them on a sled, perched over the lip of some hill, just about to plunge over the edge. The song is that moment.
Who is one artist or band that you’d love to tour with?
Os Mutantes. Somebody gave me their self-titled album when I was in college and I’ve worn it out.
What’s a hobby you enjoy when you’re not playing music?
I’m attempting to learn French, but I’m *truly* awful. I’m also an enthusiastic but amateur gardener.
What’s next for Echo Bloom?
We’re taking the home demos released on the first season of Scratch and recording the best of them with the full band. I built a studio into my house, which gives us the option of really focusing on tone and arrangement – it’s been a lot of fun. My hope is to put that into an anthology record sometime soon. Balancing that against new songs for the podcast and more writing.
How can our readers keep up with you moving forward?
Subscribe to our podcast Scratch on Apple Music or Spotify – episodes are less than 15 minutes (because who really has the time).