Helayn Flowers a new kind of band
Interview conducted o Feb. 15, 2020
by Dan Locke
Helalyn Flowers are helmed by eclectic Nøemi Aurora [Vocals/Synths/Songwriting/Programming/Production/Design] and polyhedric studio guru
MaXX [Guitars/Synths/Songwriting/Programming/Production/Mastering].
Helalyn Flowers has inspired a new generation of bands with their unmistakable addictive sound, disregarding any genre, emboldening artistic freedom.
Defined by the press ‘like an orgasm written as music’ Helalyn Flowers is one of the most revolutionary female-fronted acts in the Industrial Rock scene by performing a hugely unique combination of Goth, Metal, Punk and Electro sonorities marked by the outstanding vocal performance of N0emi Aurora, able to cover a wide stylistic range, from Pop/ Rock, Metal to even operatic soprano and madrigal and whom voice has been often compared to great singers like BJORK, SHIRLEY MANSON or AMY LEE.
Two years ago, your album had a global standing ovation. How was this for you?
(Noemi Aurora) The success of ‘Nyctophilia’ has been fantastic and certainly rewarding! Every time we make a new album it’s always a leap in the dark. ‘Nyctophilia’ was written completely at night, it’s an introspective and magnetic album. It’s nice to see how it has defibrillated many fans and media around the world.
How is your Go fund going for Midian?
(NA) Oh, thanx for asking! I am really surprised by how well it went! The first target was reached in a few days. Midian will be ready for surgery soon. In the meantime, she’s reacting well to therapies. It is really heartening to see that there is still someone who cares about animals as we do. I take the occasion to thank all the ones who donated the cures of little kitten Midian. The world needs empathetic people.
You go back to 2005 with the EP Disconnection. How did you start your musical path?
(Maxx Maryan) When we entered the studio in late Winter 2005, we did it with wonderful unconsciousness. We were still in the chaotic phase of the assimilation of our main influences, and it was our iron will to not replicate anything of what the record market had proposed until then. Our intention to be ‘Pop’ was also clear, not only in its sense of melody but also for the patination of the sound, as well as of the image, giving a brazen modernity to the five pieces that make up “Disconnection”.
For us, ‘Pop’ also meant fun and excitement in seeing us in a new key. As a singer, Noemi was obviously not only from The Claw embryo but also from an intense period of musicals, while I was loosely loosening myself from the orbit of extreme metal, a context that has occupied me from the dawn of my ‘teen years’ to my 23. Hence, Helalyn Flowers is also a rebirth under a new guise, although the substance has always remained the same. We have expanded our ability to see within our background and our influences.
At the time of “Disconnection”, I remember that we ideally referred to “Mechanical Animals” Marilyn Manson, Bjork’s first three albums, Miranda Sex Garden, Faith No More of “The Real Thing” and “Angel Dust”, to The Cure of “Disintegration”, soundtracks like that of “Spawn”, up to the English Darkwave of the early ’80s and American Hair Metal, as well as the first psychedelic phase of The Gathering and Anathema. Here, we wanted to fix this with plastic, almost Lachapellian aesthetic, inspired by Ziggy Stardust, the Mansonian Omega, and the most outrageous and artistic Madonna.
With pleasure, I can say that I have relived that period within us, while making our new album “Airesis”, realizing how our intentions are always the same, and how, effectively, every musical path is cyclical, and it is so that we can regenerate ourselves within ourselves.
Let’s talk about your first band The Claw?
(MM) Oh, I remember a long and intense period of self-segregation. Noemi and I literally closed ourselves home for days and days to try ideas on ideas, the first songs came out immediately, they sounded very instinctive, and even if moving in a gothic rock musical context, there was a lot of stuff inside, grunge, metal, psychedelia … The writing was exclusively for double guitar, voice, and drums, the use of electronics was not foreseen as it was later for Helalyn Flowers, only some synth pads here and there that we would have liked to add in the studio, because at the time we were very influenced by The Gathering and Anathema, just when they were in the middle of their post-death / doom metal stages which coincided precisely with our embryonic days. Quite a few people gravitated around The Claw, although Noemi and I remained the only composers of music and lyrics. We also had a stable line-up for a period, but soon we realized how much the people we played with wanted to beat already beaten roads and we already began to develop an immense interest in electronic music, or better for how it was used in some of our favorite albums by our favorite artists. So, we immediately showed the desire to go further with OUR style and it didn’t take long to understand that only two of us would have done it freely. We bought an expander and a computer and after a few months we already booked the recording studio for our first EP “Disconnection” …
Even today, sometimes, it happens that Noemi sings softly some of The Claw’s songs, indeed I must say that she remembers them all, which displeases me, because I will not even remember half of them!
Who knows that one day we won’t finally record those songs …?
What was the first gig like?
(MM) Oh my god, it was memorable in every aspect, especially the most negative! We were yet another victim of the disorganization and envy typical of a certain “underground” scene. We were very young, so we replied violently on stage, almost destroying everything after not even four pieces, since we were boycotted directly from the console (as initially we were pretty hated in our country, because we are not ugly or depressing), making it impossible for us to perform, especially after they had assured us in the soundcheck that certain technical problems were solved, obviously lying to us, making fun of us and anticipating two places on the festival bill. I think we were naive in not immediately declining the situation, given the developments, we thought it was still a good opportunity for us since we were about to go out in stores with our first album, “A Voluntary Coincidence” (it was around September 2007). You never stop learning, especially in the music business, but it is true that the mistake makes you know yourself better. I will not mention the name of the club or the festival: certain aberrations must die out, for the good of all, haha!
How was Helalyn Flowers formed?
(MM) Pretty weirdly! One day my phone rang and it was a call from Noemi, but as soon as I answered what I heard was only a distant voice, her voice, singing on an old Ozzy Osbourne record! The call went by mistake, she had no idea that I was there secretly listening to her on the opposite side of the cable. So, I let the song end then I hanged up the phone and called her back to tell her that she had been wrong to hide me until then how good she was as a singer! I mean, I knew of her talent as a dancer, as a painter, so as I realized that I couldn’t ignore a voice growing inside me told me “ask her to start a band together…”. The rest is pretty known. We started as The Claw before Helalyn Flowers changed our lives…
How did you get your name?
(MM) I was the one who came up with the name of the band. ‘Helalyn’ is an anagrammatic combination of occult terms, but what matters is its root, ‘helan’, whose old English form was a precursor to the modern ‘hell’. By associating ‘flowers’ I wanted to express a sort of infernal miracle, or rather the unexplored, the latent in man that is released through the liberation from the chains of society, history, and religion, although not definitively canceling them, but actually using them, as if they were fertile for the ‘rebirth’. Whatever plants and fruits they tell you, they could never be born from a certain soil, well those are the ‘Helalyn Flowers’, lotus flowers that are born from the slime of the intoxication of the defective human.
Just a few weeks ago I found the notebook on which I wrote this name for the first time, in early 2004, which contained the article ‘the’, then ‘The Helalyn Flowers’, with a decoration handmade by me with flowers and lotuses that revolve around the Pyramid with the All-Seing Eye.
Initially, the name was intended for another project that I had in the pipeline with two of my friends (The Claw already existed), but ‘fortunately’ then nothing was done! I remember very well the moment when I spoke of this name with Noemi, it was like a very strong load of electricity in the air, we looked at each other and we understood simultaneously and seductively that that was OUR destiny.
Tell me about your collaboration with 3 bands on your EP “Suicidal Birds”?
(NA) We wanted to give voice to fantastic artists who have been able to reinterpret ‘Suicidal Birds’ in a personal and engaging way. Starting from IMJUDAS, which is Maxx Maryan’s electro/pop side project. I absolutely wanted him to join this release with a featuring. I loved the way our vocals sounded in his previous featuring on ‘Beyond’ (from our album Nyctophilia).
Also, his remixes are always so sensual and dangerous at the same time. The perfect union for a red-light version of ‘Suicidal Birds’!
808 dot pop is another great artist I had the pleasure to collaborate with. He previously asked me to join his very first single ‘BlackBodies’ as a guest vocalist and I felt in love with his old school use of electronics in the style of Kraftwerk, Komputer… He did a great job with his remix.
Llumen remix is the cherry on the cake. As a label-mate, we needed to listen to his works and his style was just what we needed to complete this stunning trio. Atmospheric and from surreal tones, it is the perfect track to close our red-tainted ep in beauty
You are the art director of Toxic visions design. What are some of the bands you have work with?
(NA) I’ve started as a band designer back in 1999. In 20 years, I had the chance to work with bands from different genres, from pop to black metal to industrial/gothic metal which are the genres I work with most frequently. Some of the names I have had the pleasure of collaborating with are cult black metal icons Okkultum Magnificentia, Arimonium Rex, Old-School Industrial duo The Psychic Force, Electro-revolting pop IMJUDAS, Female fronted electro-metal Elyose, Italian rockers Delirium Age, Lorraine Casey, Miss Ballistic (Angelspit Side project), Death Metal from USA Asylence, The Cure tribute, and other works appeared on worldwide music magazines and distributors (Audioglobe/Sony/Season of Mist…). I’ve recently completed artwork for ‘Black Shine Fever’ which is one of my favorite works so far. Next work: Helalyn Flowers’s new album!
Since you are into visual art. I am going to ask you who is your favorite photographer and why?
(NA) Man Ray, Adolf de Meyer, Francesca Woodman, Irina Ionesco, Andy Warhol, David LaChapelle, Sebastião Salgado, Helmut Newton, Steve McCurry, Saudek are just some of my favorite photographers ever.
Although different from each other, I love the energy behind their shots, full of contrasts and life. It would be too long to comment on them one by one because it is my favorite. I will attribute only one adjective to them: unique
What type of photographer do you enjoy?
(NA) The one who, with his shots, manages to transform every moment worth living
Let talk about your new CD. How is it?
(MM) Our new album is titled “Airesis”, an ancient Greek term that means “choice”. It is also the basis of modern “heresy”, so the heretic is basically the one who makes a choice. Doing so has always been the soul of our concept and we still celebrate it with even more awareness.
Although everyone can get a taste of the new album thanks to the single “Suicidal Birds”, I can say that the remaining nine songs are very different. I don’t know exactly how to define this new album, I’m probably still in it too much, but what I know is that it differs from our previous works, just as at the same time you can clearly feel that it is Helalyn Flowers. There is a sort of strange atmosphere, a ‘space’ one, in my opinion very reminiscent of all the times we have listened to Bowie’s “Scary Monsters” and “Outside”, which permeates the entire album … It will be an album in which the ‘organic’ part of Helalyn Flowers, that is, Noemi and I, is outstanding, the vocal and guitar systems are extremely stratified. At the same time, there is an extremely dense and solemn use of synthesizers and keyboards, just like in “Rosso Atlantide”, a song on which we focus a lot and which also marks our first production in our Italian language. We have dedicated, with this record, even more than ever, a lot of care for the song-form and for the melodic and above all harmonic dimension of the compositions.
There are various moments within “Airesis”, even some more brazen and Dance – Rock, or others that will remind many of the Industrial-Pop of our first two albums, moments, these, which generally break the overall dominating eerie and romantic atmosphere. A continuous alternation of hardness and sweetness drowned in the toxic honey of acid keyboards.
What is your favorite track on the CD?
(NA) Each song is important to me and it is very difficult to choose my favorite one from Àiresis. Our albums are characteristic of containing stylistically heterogeneous songs, which is the reason why it is always complicated to extrapolate a new single. Each song is the symbol of a predominant genre. For this, my favorite one varies according to my mood. It must represent the perfect soundtrack suitable for that specific day. Right now, I am very fond of ‘Rosso Atlantide’ which is our first song completely in Italian, our mother tongue. For me, it represents courage and the breaking down of a barrier. It is certainly the first piece of a mosaic that we will have the pleasure of continuing. Another pearl of the record, in addition to Suicidal Birds which is our first single off the album, is for me “Halos”. I wrote this song while I was in bed with a high fever. I felt so alienated and unreachable. I knew I needed to unleash something powerful, and I started to record synths and baseline with my smartphone (which I always keep on hand to quickly note my ideas). The moment we officially recorded this song in the studio, I released that it has something magical. Also, the way I sang on it sounds wildly on the lines. And I love the way it shakes me on the inside. I wish it will be a common effect!
(MM) It depends on the days, but I think I have a group of five evergreens! Probably “Rosso Atlantide” is among the most beautiful songs I have ever listened to in recent times, I hope that the audience out there will enjoy it as I do.
Any plans to tour this year?
(MM) Although all of 2020 will be dedicated to the realization of various extra-Helalyn Flowers musical and artistic projects by both of us, however we also let chance do some of its work.
Who would you love to open for?
(NA) I wish I could travel with the time machine and have the opportunity to live an old-fashioned live experience. It doesn’t matter who to open for, the public matters to me. A warm, enthusiastic, and receptive crowd that is still capable of amazement!
(MM) In my imagination: David Bowie. Many of my favorite artists are dead or no longer active, so a place in a bill of a large outdoor festival would suit me perfectly, 80,000 people in the sun and a shady and spacious stage. Or, I would do a tour in the sports halls, two / three bands at most. I would gladly play with Marilyn Manson and Metallica.
What wisdom have you learned over the years that you would like to pass on to new bands?
(NA) Our artistic path is very personal; we have not followed specific schemes to achieve success so far. We have always chosen the longest and least traveled roads. Our music is always difficult to catalog because it sounds like no other bands. We never composed by choosing to become like some other famous band to access secure success. And we always fought against pay to play. So, we did quite the opposite of what a successful commercial tactic excepted. The music business is made of strategies and lots of smoke in the eyes. For this, I’m not sure that my recommendations are suitable for current bands, as everyone has different needs. Ours is to be able to express ourselves in a completely personal way, to leave a mark that remains for a long time. Our motto is ‘Per Aspera ad Astra’.
Anything in closing?
(NA) Thanx a lot for this pleasant talk. Our new album is going to be released very soon. In the meantime, you can taste a piece of it by listening to ‘Suicidal Birds’ on all digital download and streaming platforms. The official video is available on our YouTube channel, don’t miss it! And never stop believing in yourself
You must be logged in to post a comment.