HELIX – New Album Details

Legendary Canuck rockers HELIX have issued the following update:

“This week we began recording our 15th studio CD at A Studios with Aaron Murray. Aaron was the protégé of Danny Broadbeck (who won a Juno last year for Engineer or the Year for his work with Delores O’Reardon of the CRANBERRIES) who was the protégé of Jack Richardson, famous for his work with THE GUESS WHO and ALICE COOPER. So it’s a good lineage…I also had my young nephew Michael Costa in the studio with us. Michael went through sound engineering school in Australia and is just starting into the business. We had him cleaning up some of the drum tracks. It’s a tough business with slow advancement, but I have faith he’ll make it through. Anyway, he got to work with Uncle Brian for the day…

As in past CDs, the songs are growing every step of the way. I wrote these four songs with Sean Kelly. One (‘Angelina’) was also a co-write with Moe Berg. Sean has been my partner on the last couple of Helix discs-Vagabond Bones and Smash Hits Unplugged, as well as being a large part of the acoustic show. These four songs (‘Champagne Communist’, ‘Angelina’, ‘Skin In The Game’, and ‘The Bitch Is A Bullet’) are really just a continuation of the Vagabond Bones CD. We wrote them very shortly after that CD was finished and they’ve been sitting in the can for a year. That’s why we’re thinking of putting out an extended version of Vagabond Bones overseas with these four songs as bonus tracks to coincide with our dates in Sweden and Finland in October. In North America we’re thinking of putting together a Best of Helix CD from the years 2000-2010 and calling it Running Wild In The 21st Century. Unlike the extended Vagabond Bones European release, this particular disc would also include an acoustic version of ‘Running Wild in the 21st Century’ and Brent’s version of ‘The William Tell Overture’ with Daryl’s ‘The Calm’ thrown in at the end plus songs from not only Vagabond Bones but other discs ie. When Pigs Fly, Rockin’ In My Outer Space, and The Power of Rock and Roll.

For a band that was supposed to be “over” a decade ago, we sure have a shitload of music and film sitting around. As everyone knows, we’re shopping a pilot for a reality show as well as a rockumentary on the band. We have over 40 hours worth of film at this point and have been getting good interest from distributors and also financial backers. It’s a slow process however; one I liken to “…watching paint dry…”

Since we put the first acoustic show onstage in May we’ve been putting together a commercial for that show. We’ll be using this to help advertise the show to fans (so they know what the show is about) and also to give to the booking agents and clubs in the hopes of getting more engagements. Realistically this is a show that we could continue on with forever… our biggest obstacle is to educate fans on what the show is all about-that it’s multi-media, 35 years of rock and roll adventures told personally by the guys who have “…been there, done it, and have the t-shirt…”, all the Helix hits done acoustically-like you’ve never heard them before. As well, we use a variety of different instruments in the acoustic show-mandolin, piano, mouth harp, and violin plus guest appearances by Wendy Williams and Cheryl Lescom. Lastly, we take questions directly from the audience at the end of the show and give away a free Yamaha guitar to some lucky ticket holder. I’m going to be setting up a new Facebook page dedicated to the acoustic show which will feature videos of the different shows, band members talking about the show, etc.

Not only does the filming of the acoustic show have its benefits as an advertising tool, it also can be included on future releases as an added incentive to buy whatever CD we’re pushing at the time. For instance, when we release the Running Wild in the 21st Century video we could include a 30 minute live acoustic DVD. That’s just one example. Expect both of these discs to be available in the fall.”

Source: BW&BK

http://www.planethelix.com/