Helix

It’s a long road from 1974 to 2009. Just ask the guys in Helix.

The Canadian rockers gained popularity in the early to mid-1980s, most notably with the hit singles "Rock You" (1984) and "Deep Cuts The Knife" (1985). But a hard-work ethic, continuous touring and new material have gained the band a steady resurgence and allowed them to remain relevant in the metal/rock circle.

The current lineup consists of energetic frontman Brian Vollmer (the only original member), guitarists Brent "The Doctor" Doerner and Jim Lawson, bassist Sean Kelly (who will be joining Nelly Furtado's band in October) and drummer Rob MacEachern. However, Vollmer recently announced that the original lineup including himself, Doerner, drummer Greg "Fritz" Hinz and bassist/keyboardist Daryl Gray, will be back together for a tour starting in October after a new CD is completed.

Helix has always exemplified great harmonies and catchy choruses, and it retains a distinctive guitar sound, undoubtably rooted in Doerner’s dexterity. Give a listen to "Heavy Metal Love," "The Kids Are All Shakin' " and "Wild in the Streets."

And most people wouldn't expect a metal musician to be accomplished in Bel Canto, an Italian operatic method of singing, but Vollmer is and teaches it when he's not gigging with Helix.

He’s also one of the nicest and hardest-working vocalists in the music business. He actually went out of his way to give this interview with Metal Mayhem UK after Helix's July 10th performance at this year's Rocklahoma.

Metal Mayhem: What keeps you making music? What do you attribute your longevity to?
Brian Vollmer: I love playing music and I love performing. I actually feel that I'm in my prime right now. When I started off way back in 1974, I damaged my voice very early in my career, and I was told I'd never sing again. So I started studying Bel Canto, and it literally saved my voice. I went from having nodes (a callous on the vocal cords) and being told I'd never sing again to my voice being in the best shape it's ever been. I enjoy being on stage as well as writing music. I feel like I'm coming into my best years as a writer. We don't necessarily sell as many albums as we did during the ’80s. But for me, music has always been about creating songs, and that has been my "kick" in life. As long as I can make a living doing it, I can't really see myself doing anything else. I'm very happy and content at doing that. A lot of people dropped out of the business when things got tough in the ’90s because I think they were there for the wrong reasons. They weren't in it for the songs and the music, they were in it for the money, and that period took a lot of people out. I'm still here because of my love for music. Everything I used to do when I was a kid ... I use to draw pictures and take pictures with my camera and sing songs. Now I get to do it as an adult ... and people pay me!

MM: You just touched briefly on Bel Canto. How did a metal singer get into a classical vocal technique?
BV: I was forced into it. Necessity is the mother of invention, as the saying goes. It really is true, I had no choice, I had to learn how to sing properly and to protect my throat or I had to go dig ditches, and I decided I didn't want to dig ditches. It's taken me years and years to learn the technique. I was taught by a man named Edward Johnson, who also taught Gil Moore of Triumph and Beverly D’Angelo, the movie actress. Ed was like a father to me; he died a couple of years ago at the age of 84. I was very close to him and I took lessons from him for over 30 years. I took my last vocal lesson from him about two weeks before he died. I was with him for the last five days in the hospital, slept in the same room with him. He was the youngest member of the New York Metropolitan Opera, and he sang with Beverly Sills, a great soprano. There was a recording that I never heard before that someone brought in of him singing with his beautiful voice, and it was all live, he was just perfect. He was as good as the Three Tenors (Plácido Domingo, José Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti). Even though he was in a coma, the nurse told us he could still hear even though he couldn't respond or answer us. So we just played that last recital of his. I held his hand and was with him until he died. For the longest time, I couldn't put on that recording without breaking down and crying.

MM: Helix's greatest popularity was in the early 1980s, thanks to good video rotation on MTV, decent radio play and good record sales. What's the biggest difference that you notice in the music industry now?
BV: There's a variety of differences in today's music scene. When we started off there was a very healthy touring circuit, you could actually go out and live on the road and develop your craft as a musician, as a singer and songwriter. New bands nowadays don't have that same fertile developing ground to go out. Clubs just don't run from Mondays to Wednesdays, so what do you do on those in-between days? So it restricts a lot of bands in getting out of town, so that's one big difference. It actually works to our advantage because we developed all these markets, so for us, we actually get enough money to do fly-ins, where we fly in, do the concert, fly back and we're home on Monday to do something else. My other job is teaching, so by Monday I'll be teaching ... Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and back to playing on the weekend again. Recording-wise? You can record a lot cheaper and get the same quality. Record companies are pretty well extinct, they serve a much different role and I really don't know if they're necessary for bands like us. I deal with my own distribution system, I sell my own CDs. It's hard to even get a $10,000 to $20,000 advance on a record, where back in the day, that would be very low. When we were with Capitol Records, I think "Wild in the Streets" took half a million dollars to do. Nowadays, you do the same album for $15,000, do it yourself and you go out there and even though you're not selling as many albums, you're making much more profit, you're able to sell enough CDs to keep the band going. The real money is really in playing the live concerts. Once again, I play music because I love creating music, and I think it puts you in a different light with your fans when you're continually putting out new material. It makes you a different artist. You're relevant. I'm not interested in what they call the "milk run," which is not putting out any new material, just running around and living off your past hits. We're always doing new material in the set and releasing new CDs and continuing our career.

MM: You take care of all of Helix's business affairs from your home, dubbed "Planet Helix." How difficult is it to not only be the vocalist but to be involved in the bookings, merchandise and daily affairs of the band?
BV: I have agents that do the bookings for me, and once they get the bookings, I will phone the radio stations, hook up with the advertising promoter, any newspaper coverage or the local free rag and try to get as much press as I can. I also save a lot of my PayPal orders we get through the Web site at www.planethelix.com . It has the addresses of people on it, and I contact those people. They've already bought the product, so you would assume they would want to see the band. I do the down-and-dirty-in-the-trenches type of stuff to try and get people to the gig.

MM: Does all of Helix's lineup changes throughout the years have any effect on the chemistry and creative output of the band?
BV: You have much more freedom, you can do whatever you want. On the other hand, you have to live with the consequences. If you make a right-hand turn in your sound or direction, the fans are going to make you pay a heavy price. I try to write songs that I like and hopefully other people are going to like. I think I'm pretty critical of my stuff. I don't like everything that I write.

MM: How great was it getting Brent Doerner back for his third term for the band?
BV: Fantastic. He's like a brother to me, we've been through hell and back. We started off making $40 a week playing the circuit. We ate a lot of french fries, I'll tell you that!

MM: How did you deal with losing guitarist and good friend Paul Hackman? God bless him.
BV: It was very tough, I had a hard time dealing with his death, I have a hard time dealing with death, period. I tend to block it out of my mind. People that are very close to me, I find it very hard to get emotional when they die, but yet I'll cry like a baby when some hockey player I watched dies. When Paul died, I was actually angry with him ... that he was in the van, didn't take the plane home. I went through those emotions, but looking back on it, I see it in a more realistic light and a lot more perspective.

MM: What does Helix want to accomplish in 2009 and beyond? And how's the new record coming along?
BV: We have a few surprises coming out in the fall, I'm not going to get into it right now, but you'll find out in the fall. I have a very small part in the new Trailer Park Boys movie coming out, I believe, in October. We're working on a new album. It's been a lot of fun. I'm working with Sean, my bass player. We put three songs down in one weekend. We record very fast, it's like a marathon, 'round the clock, when we record. The vibe's got to be right, especially in the studio when you're laying down tracks. All the way around, it's just a fun thing. We want to finish up this new disc by the fall, we have a song called "Hungover But Still Hangin' In." And I'm going to do a duet with Russ from Killer Dwarfs, who's a good friend of mine. We're just going to keep playing live gigs and continue on and just do what we do. Article by Kelley Simms