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ROCKNATION ISSUE 21
Interview by
Tom Mathers
Rocknation: Hello Brian Vollmer of Helix. and welcome to
Rocknation. Your band will be releasing a CD called
“Bastard Of The Blues” on Perris Records. Please tell us
how the recording is comming and what to expect from
this release.
Brian: We started recording this week (Mar. 4th & 5th)
although we’ve been going through the “demo” process
for over a month now. This CD has turned out to be a
reflection of the title track “Bastard of the Blues”. What
that means is this: That metal (at least when it comes to
Helix) is the product of rock n’ roll breeding with blues.
LOL. The songs are have an R&B feel with a metal tinge.
Rocknation: You wrote many of your hits with Paul
Hackman, how different is it working with your new writing
partner Sean Kelly?
Brian: Up to 1991 I wrote primarily with Paul Hackman.
When Paul died I went searching for other writers: Marc
Ribbler ( with whom I wrote Good to the Last Drop and
That Day is Gonna Come), Tony Paleschi & Bill Gadd (two
friends from my weekend cover band 7 Year Itch) Gord
Prior and Steve Georgakopoulos, (The Power of Rock and
Roll) and then finally Sean Kelly. In many ways, Sean is a
lot like Paul-very creative, a great guitar player. The
difference is in the speed at which we write. Whereas Paul
and I would go months without writing anything (not for
lack of trying) Sean and I wrote Vagabond Bones in
literally 10-15 hours! Ditto for this CD. Now, by writing
the songs I really mean that we came up with the skeleton
of the song; the whole process from start to end is an
evolving process. First we write the song on an acoustic
guitar in Sean’s living room and then we send ideas back
and forth through email. By the time we meet again we
fine tune the song some more until we think it’s ready for
Daryl and Fritz to learn the beds. Then we go to the studio with Aaron Murray our producer and hash it out even
more. We like to call it “Helix-sizing” the song. LOL. Then
Aaron plays around with the rough recording on pro-tools
and sends out the demos to all of us to listen to, just in
case we hear any last changes or fix-it’s we’d like to do.
Lastly, we go into the studio and record the bed tracks
(bass/drums/rhythm guitar) and that’s the “foundation” to
build the rest of the song on.
Rocknation: I had the pleasure to see you at Sweden Rock
festival a few years ago. Please tell us about your future
Europe tour.
Brian: Whereas I had all sorts or “rental players” when
we played Sweden Rock Festival back in the mid 90’s, this
time around I have Daryl and Fritz back in the band along
with Kaleb Duck (handpicked to join the band in 2008 by
Brent Doerner himself) and newcomer Chris Julke. Chris