The fickle and fad-conscious music industry is hardly renowned for its' benevolence in giving its' children a second bite at the artistic cherry, but if ever there was a performer deserving of a second chance, it's surely CHRIS HELME.
Often ridiculously derided as some kind of singing stooge when he played with John Squire in the ill-fated Seahorses, Chris may have tasted commercial success with their one album "Do It Yourself" while the Britpop wars raged, but it soon left a bitter aftertaste, and when John Squire moved on to pastures new, it was assumed that would be the last we'd hear of his former bandmate.
But people forgot that Chris Helme was already a regarded singer/ sognwriter in his native York before John Squire crossed his path, and instead he licked his wounds, went home and quietly assembled a much more suitable band of troops with THE YARDS. After several false starts and much hanging around, the promise has finally been fulfilled too, as THE YARDS' eponmous debut is already sounding like one of the best albums of the year. Good reason, we thought, to find out more about the past, present and future from the man himself.
Good to speak to you again Chris. It's been a while coming, but "The Yards" (just out on Snapper Music/ Industrial Erotica) is an excellent, consistent debut made by an assured rock band. Are you happy with it yourself, now it's finally in our midst?
"It's done, and I'm happy with that in itself!" says Chris bluntly, but with a little underlying hint of satisfaction creeping through.
"I mean, we've been playing the songs on it for a long time, so we know them all well and it does feel really good to finally put them out. It seems odd having to promote it now, though, but that's all part and parcel of it, I guess. I can listen to the album now, but it took me about six months, which gives you some idea of how involved I'd got in it all. But no: overall, I'm very happy with the end result."
Do you feel that it's more like your debut album than "Do It Yourself" was? In the sense that these are predominantly your songs. Does The Seahorses and the past all seem like a foreign country these days?
"Yeah, it's strange, because I was having a spring clean the other day, and I came across some old photos of The Seahorses playing T-in-The-Park I think from 1997, and even though I'm in those pictures, I hardly feel I was there and did any of it," muses Chris.
"So yeah, it does feel strange and certainly very distant. And yes, I do feel like "The Yards" is my debut album in many ways. With The Yards we all write together, so it's very democratic, unlike The Seahorses. I only write when I feel I have something to say, so the songs on this album are much more natural. "
Sam Saunders made a few excellent points in his review of the album on W&H, one of these being that the album sounds "American in spirit", which I tend to agree with, in terms of some of the touches: like the delta blues slide introducing "Get Off My Back", the intro to "Up 'Til Dawn" and the preoccupation with the country in general on songs like "California". What do you feel about this yourself?
"Dunno really," says an intrigued Chris. "I mean, I listen to both American and British music and I suppose all sorts of influences creep in. Stu (Fletcher - bassist and also former Seahorse) says I do his head in because he says I can never make up my mind(laughs), but we just knew what we wanted with the album. We produced it ourselves because we understood the songs and didn't need anyone else's input. A lot of the ideas were originally just from fucking around in rehearsals and we often get quite pissed.....maybe the Jack Daniels was kicking in a bit....perhaps that's what Sam's referring to (laughs)."
The band sounds tight, tough and melodic for the most part, very focussed. Has the dynamic changed within the and since Chris Farrell (lead guitar) took over from Paul Banks?
"Chris is a strange one," replies Chris.
"It's kind've...plug him in and watch him go really. When Chris came in we had a lot of gigs booked, so we had a lot of work and it was a bit of a baptism of fire for him, but we didn't force him to copy what Paul had done, which was liberating for both Chris and the rest of us."
"No disrespect to Paul, because he's a very gifted guitarist in the classic rock sense, " Chris continues, "but sometimes his style was a bit too indie, whereas with Chris (Farrell), he's more out there, which suits us better. It's all about feel and crazy noise with Chris. I mean, he's quite content to prop his guitar up and throw tennis balls at it if it sounds right to him (laughs). He's injected a lot of energy into the band and he's very polite (howls with laughter). But joking apart, he gave us a kick up the arse, perhaps just when we needed it, with hindsight!"
I notice all the songs are credited to 'The Yards.' You hinted earlier that it's much more of a democracy, but how much actual collaboration takes place with the songwriting?
"It's all very flexible really," says Chris openly.
"Things creep in all over the place. It's quite loose, plus I do solo stuff and have written songs with people outside of The Yards, so we can draw on all of that. Last week for instance, we were up in the Lake District rehearsing with the whole band in a house overlooking this truly beautiful valley. We spent 9 to10 hours there playing music every day, so we've got loads of new stuff worked out. I wish I could have done that sort of thing in the past, believe me," he finishes, slightly ruefully.
To get stuck into the album itself, "Get Off My Back" still - to me anyway - sounds like you rejecting elements of your own past. Lines like: "I'm home, hiding from the man I used to be" seem difficult to view in any other light. Is that a fair comment?
"Yeah, I suppose in that just maybe that lyric is about me glancing over my shoulder," Chris concedes.
"But really the song's more about life doing yer head in. I mean, however much we try to forget those things, we still all have to pay bills, and all that fucking shit, y'know? So, no I'm not into dwelling on the past either. I don't think it's healthy."
I'm also assuming the line: "Hal always told us that we didn't compute" is a reference to Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey"?
"Yeah, it is," Chris confirms, "though I really can't remember why I used it now really (laughs)."
"No, I think really I used that line because it IS so hard to make sense of many things around us these days. One thing that's altered my perception a lot is having a five year old child around (Chris's son -ed)....he makes me remember a lot of stuff I'd forgotten from years back and I've realised by being a Dad that the world doesn't revolve around me....it revolves around him. That soon changes the way you feel and it's true that having a child gives you a lot more purpose in life."
The album also features a ferocious take of the Bush-dissing "The Devil Is Alive And Well And In DC". We discussed the writing of that previously and the influence of Michael Moore's "Stupid White Men", but does the song begin to sound like deja vu now we're stuck with Bush for another term?
" (Long sigh).....It's just so frustrating. Something's definitely going wrong, isn't it? It's like the ball's rolling and everyone's too scared to stop it now," says Chris dolefully.
"It's like since Bush has been throwing the word 'freedom' around it's like a swear word these days. It's like everything our Grandparents fought for has been wiped out because of him and the multi-nationals. It's all secrecy and refusing to be accountable isn't it? I dunno, it pisses me off....it's all fucking bollocks, politics, innit?"
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Yeah, but we're still stuck with it regardless. Despite that, "The Devil..." sounds positively venomous on record, while "Only Myself To Blame" sounds majestic these days. The consensus round here is that it could be a big single and a sizeable radio hit. Do such things even enter your mind, Chris?
"No....not really," he replies slowly, maybe having been bitten previously?
"I mean, "Only Myself To Blame" is hardly the world's most positive song, is it?"
No, but it's got a brilliant hook, it's anthemic...
"Yeah, fair enough," Chris concedes, "but I still don't think that song's a hit single, although I take your point about it sounding anthemic. It does sound good, but to me it's a classic case of writing something when there's something on my mind and now I'm stuck with it....and have to sing it all the time! (laughs)."
At a tangent, "Crime" - in a way - sounds like a different take on "The Devil Is Alive..." lyrically. It sounds like a state of the world address, like when you sing that line: "If Superman were here, he'd have a lot on his hands". What's the main inspiration behind that one?
"It's a bit convoluted," chuckles Chris.
"Part of it's about that bit in the "Superman" film where Lois Lane's gonna cark it in the crevice and he (Superman) decides that if he travels back through time he can sort it out by the time he gets back with the solution....and you're thinking "yeah, right, there's a few holes in this plot" (laughs)....but what he does is still cool anyway, even though it's totally unlikely."
"So that's part of it," he continues, "and also part of it relates to that 'Butterfly Effect' theory....the idea that if a butterfly flaps its' wings in the Amazon it can cause a disaster the other side of the world. It's kinda linked with all that. Sometimes it's hard to tell whether these things are crackpot theories or whether there is a grain of truth in them."
"California", meanwhile, also paints a rather diseased, dissolute picture of America and its' culture. It's certainly an ugly picture of the sunshine state if we're to take this literally, or are you attacking something deeper?
"It's about losing it in the land of dreams" replies Chris.
"I know people who consider they've "had everything" and lost it. The song itself is a little more imprenetrable, it's like trying to explain a dream, but certainly drugs, travel, the whole Hollywood dream are all factors in the story. I don't have much time for the whole Hollywood scam...it's all built on bullshit, a big lie. If you actually go there, it's like Milton Keynes, there's fuck all going on and it's so plastic. What you see isn't based on truth anyway. Having said that, I'm not attacking the whole state of California...a lot of it's very different. San Francisco for example is amazing and there's a fascinating culture there."
"Fireflies" you've been playing for a long time, I know, and it's a been a feature of your solo shows for ages. It translates superbly with the band and it sounds really anthemic (that word again!) and hopeful. Are you glad it's finally out officially and did it hit the heights you hoped for?
"It's definitely one I needed to put to bed," Chris ponders.
"There are so many versions of that song kicking around! I'm very happy with it, even though it's the most recent version of the tune. We had the opportunity of bringing in backing vocals, which it needed. It's one of those songs that needed time to come to fruition, but it did, which is nice, obviously. One of the things with me, is that songs I have tend to grow over a period of time, partly because I enjoy writing and playing songs acoustically as well as doing this."
Would you consider putting out an acoustic album at some stage?
"Yeah, I would like to do that eventually," Chris muses.
"Maybe I'll do a solo record with piano, cello etc, something a bit Nick Drake-ish. We'll see, it's all out there for the future, but it's certainly not a priority at the moment."
You also include a sneaky snatch of Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love?" as "Fireflies" begins to wind down. It fits like a glove, but where did that idea stem from?
"It's another convoluted York thing," Chris laughs.
"There's this band Hazzard County, they're a kind've country-rock band. They were a myth for ages, they never rehearsed (laughs), but eventually they did start playing every Friday in the city, doing Dylan tunes, things from "The Last Waltz". They used to do "Who Do You Love?"....plus I loved The Doors version (from "Absolutely Live" -ed) and one night when were doing "Fireflies", one of the Hazzard County lads was in the audience and I knew he'd recognise it when we slipped a bit of the song in on the night. It was just a spontaneous thing, but it worked well and it stuck basically (laughs)."
Cool, but back to business: the album's out and obviously we're starting to talk gigs on a larger scale. You now have a young son and a home life as well as doing this: is lengthy touring a realistic proposition for you these days?
"Yeah, it has to be really, doesn't it?" says Chris pragmatically.
"It's fine because we've got a good network of people surrounding us now, and I don't mind touring if it's for the greater good. If it's done properly it can be very enjoyable, so a message to those involved: make sure it is, or I ain't doing it! (laughs)."
Right, well, thanks for a great chat Chris, but one more question before we let you go: the new album has the potential to be successful to these ears, but if it took off like The Seahorses did threaten to for a good while, could you cope with all the pressure again?
"Yeah, I could," says Chris with a quiet confidence.
"The Seahorses was a strange time and I ended up seemingly being guilty of association of a lot of things, not least because a lot of what John (Squire) did often ended up landing on me and none of it had anything to do with me. It didn't do me any favours in the long run, that's for sure."
"But, y'know," he finishes positively, "this time if it's successful, then it's entirely on its' own merit."
Which is, of course, how things really ought to be. Let's hope "The Yards" is merely the start of a very protracted happy ending for Chris Helme.
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