Finding Your Inner Muse: On Echo 63's New Single "I Know Better" and Going Back to Your Roots

Based out of Ogden, Utah, Dallas and Zane, who makeup and coming Echo 63, started playing music together in late-summer of 2012. The band started as a heavy metal project that slowly morphed into a rock act that was influenced by a myriad of music genres, most importantly, from pop-punk. Their first EP 'Journey' would come out in March 2017 and would quickly be followed by their second EP 'Right This Second' in September 2017. Since then, Echo 63 have focused on releasing singles, developing as songwriters and producers, and establishing their live show performances. Now Echo 63 have released a new single, "I Know Better." 

With nostalgic pop-punk beatitude interwoven into its guitar strings and lyricism, Echo 63 is taking pop-punk back to its roots. 

While music is something that remains constant in their lives, Dallas and Zane have also had other interests while pursuing this dream. Dallas graduated with a degree in Marketing from Weber State University and is currently enrolled in graduate school to get his MBA. He began playing guitar when he was twelve, which led to a life of writing songs, playing music, singing, and producing music. While his favorite band is Blink-182, his love of music stems from across all genres ranging from rock and metal (Metallica, Ozzy), hip hop (Tupac), modern pop (Taylor Swift, Halsey, One Republic), jazz, classical, and country.

Zane graduated with a degree in Marketing from Weber State University and will be starting grad school in the fall for his MBA. He began playing drums at sixteen years. His favorite bands are The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Metallica, Led Zepplin, Shinedown, and Seether.

Though it seems like the guys are mastering their craft in many forms, Echo 63 is only showing just an exciting glimpse of what's to come in their future.

Echo 63 is on all major music streaming and online marketplaces. 

How did Echo 63 come to be? What was the scene like when you decided to make this band official? 

Dallas: Zane and I met from a classified ad that I had posted. We jammed for a little bit and I had some pretty rough luck when it came to finding bandmates so it was nice to meet someone who wasn’t completely weird and off-putting hahaha! Musically, we meshed pretty quickly… some of our older stuff that we never released was much heavier and I’m still actually a fan of it. We originally had the name Midnight but we couldn’t ever get anything off the ground. Eventually we changed our name and direction. Still a lot of false starts that we’ve had to overcome and I think those have probably been our biggest hurdle but one of our biggest strengths is our perseverance. We’re pretty obnoxious and don’t know when to quit hahaha... We’ve been playing music together since 2012, we haven’t flamed out (knock on wood), and our best days are still ahead of us. 

The scene around the time was dominated by hardcore music. The only other music that did well in our area was folk and some country, but as far as any style of rock, there was almost nothing but hardcore…. a few bands here and there, but by and large, it was a hardcore scene. The sort of stranglehold it had on the scene was something else. There used to be two all-aged venues in Ogden called ‘The Basement’ and ‘Mojos’. ‘The Basement’ ended up fading away but they booked a ton of hardcore acts back then. ‘Mojos’ is a bit of a different story, they had open mic nights (that I played a ton at, probably once a week for two years straight) and would book other styles of music. ‘Mojos’ lasted longer than ‘The Basement’ did and was an awesome little place, I used to love it there. 

What are your musical influences? How did they dovetail their way into your new single," I Know Better?" 

Dallas: My biggest musical influence is blink-182, they’re the reason I started playing music and they are, still to this day, my favorite band. I legitimately love all types of music and have influences from just about every genre, but the blink-182 vibes are super strong with this one. This song leans hard into my pop-punk side (it’s not a phase, mom! it’s a lifestyle), especially with the verses… it’s fast and aggressive but it still tells a story. 

The chorus is all about melody and when I was writing this song I wanted to have a drop chorus so the melody HAD to be on point. I’m a product of the golden age of pop-punk with Blink182, Green Day, Sum 41, Good Charlotte, Simple Plan, New Found Glory, and this is the first time I’ve gotten to show that unashamedly. Lyrically, the song has a story it tells and I’ve always leaned into writing lyrics like that. I love songs with meaning that I can attach to and go along for the ride… I do have some country influences and maybe that is where the storytelling comes from but you hear that in many genres. 

Zane: Some of my biggest drumming influences are Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Tre Cool (Green Day), Lars Ulrich (Metallica), John Bonham (Led Zeppelin), Barry Kerch (Shinedown), and John Humphrey (Seether), just to name a few. I’ve always been into classic rock, 90’s grunge/alternative, and early/mid-2000’s rock, and those genres have shaped my drumming. For the new single, I followed Dallas’ lead and went with pop-punk influences like Travis Barker and Tre Cool. 

Did you always know this was the genre you were going to go into? or did you have other ideas before sort of have other ideas before feeling comfortable where you are at now? 

Dallas: Definitely not. While Blink-182 is why I started playing guitar, the reason I became good at playing guitar was from playing metal. I loved metal. Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera, Ozzy, Queensryche… I played that stuff religiously for at least 4 hours a day for several years (my poor mom had to listen to it at obnoxious volumes too. Sorry, mom!). At one point my dream job was playing guitar for Ozzy. I thought I was going to be making a living in metal. As I got older, I started to realize that wasn’t going to happen. I couldn’t sing it and I had a hard time writing the lyrics for it so I started experimenting with other stuff. It was pretty hard for me to let it go but once I did, that was it. I still play it sometimes but I don’t have any desire for us to go back and revisit it. We ended up opting for a more straightforward rock sound like our song ‘Dead Inside’ and eventually ended with where we are at today. 

Zane: When Dallas and I first started jamming together our music was much closer to hard rock or metal than what we play now. My biggest influence when I first started playing drums was Metallica so I always thought that if I joined a band I’d play heavier music. But as Echo 63 progressed we found that we enjoyed playing and writing music with more alternative and pop influences. We wrote a lot of songs together throughout the years before we established the sound we have now. 

What was the writing and producing process like for this single? 

Dallas: This song came together pretty fast. I’ve had the main intro riff around for a few years and I loved it but never found anything to do with it. This year I was playing with it and decided to change the key into something I was comfortable singing and we were off to the races. I started tracking guitars and bass almost immediately after moving the key. Once I got the layout of the song done and knew what I was shooting for it came together pretty quickly. 

The story and the lyrics just flowed out pretty easy… easier than I have had in a long time. The one hang-up I did have on it was actually the lyrics of the last chorus… I wanted to deviate from just having another drop chorus because that sounded lazy and boring. I think I rewrote that last chorus 3 times or so before I ended with where it’s at now. 

The bassline is probably my favorite out of all of our songs. It’s got such a cool flow and locks in with the drums really well. This song took me a little longer to mix and produce than I thought it was going to, I ran into some issues with the guitar tones but I’m really happy with how the mix ended up turning out. There are some really fun synth layers in the song that I have just loud enough to be able to feel but not hear. 

Zane: The writing, recording, and producing followed a pretty similar process to most of our songs. Dallas sent me a demo of the guitar and bass and I came up with my drum part. When it was time to record, I showed Dallas what I came up with and we made a few adjustments to the drum track. After the drums were recorded, Dallas worked his magic with the vocals, instruments, production, and mixing. 

Knowing that some of you are still pursuing degrees in college, does that somewhat alter the dream of pursuing your dream of music at times? How do you guys cope with the challenges of dealing with other life goals while still trying to go after your dreams? I feel this hits very close to home for me as well, where we have had to attain other goals such as school or other jobs to attain where we wanted to be in life. 

Dallas: It doesn’t for me. I’m full speed ahead pretty much at all times. It’s called the ‘music business’ for a reason, right? So getting some business degrees can’t hurt because luck favors the prepared. Actually, when I started my MBA I told myself that if school got in the way of music that I would slow down with school. Ironically, I’ve been more productive this year with my musical goals than I ever have been. 

Maybe I should have started grad school earlier… hahaha. When it comes to life goals, my most important one right now is music. It’s my focus and has been pretty much since I first heard “All The Small Things” back in 2000-01 (somewhere around there). There was a brief period when I was 13-14 years old where I wanted to also be a professional wrestler BUT I still wanted to do music too at the same time. 

At this point in my life, I have established my priorities and I keep them straight. I don’t really allow people into my life that don’t support me or what I wanna do. I just don’t… either get on the train or get out of the way because it has left the station either way. I’m pretty lucky to have some people around me that are pretty supportive and understanding, namely my girlfriend who has to put up with my shit but I also have an awesome group of friends that is the best friend group I’ve ever had. 

Zane: Playing music is a huge part of my life and I always want it to be. I’m starting my MBA program in the fall and I view it as an opportunity to gain more knowledge that will benefit the band. A band is a business and having a couple of business degrees can only help the band (my undergraduate degree was in marketing). Being in grad school while working a full-time job and being part of Echo 63 will definitely be a lot of work, but it will be rewarding. I just need to stay organized and make sure to set aside the time I need to work on music and my school work. 

What do you want listeners to take from this new release? 

Dallas: I want people to have something that they feel like they can have on repeat for a little bit. You know when you find a new song and you just can’t stop playing it for like 3 weeks? Like you find a summer anthem and you just can’t help yourself? I hope they get that from it. I would love for somebody to find a piece of themself in our music, I think that’s the ultimate goal with any song we release… being able to connect with people. Of course, I wouldn’t complain if this ended up being someone’s favorite song but I try to not be greedy. 

Zane: With all of our music, I really want to create something that people can connect with. Whether it’s the lyrics, melody, drums, bass, or any aspect of the music. Maybe someone will feel nostalgic from our pop-punk influences, or maybe someone else is going through a tough time and can relate to the lyrics of the song. Every song can be interpreted and enjoyed in so many ways and I would love to hear what people think of this song when it comes out.

Now that "I Know Better" is out now, what is the next step for you guys? What can we look forward to from you guys this year? 

Dallas: Well, we released a song back in April called “After All This Time” and we’d like to take that song, this song, two other songs, and make a small movie. Nothing crazy but something like 12-15 minutes long. At the very least we’ll do two of the songs together and make it into one story. We’ve got some shows that we are working on lining up and hopefully, once this comes out I’ll have more definitive details on that. The latter half of 2021 is looking to be a pretty busy one for us from production and live show standpoint. 

Zane: Now that more places are starting to open up again, we really want to start playing live again and we have some leads on potential shows later this year. As always, we’ll keep writing and recording more songs - in fact, we’re currently working on a couple of new ones. 

Listen to "I Know Better" down below!