Helicon, Sitar, And The Sound That Stings

Ever hear a sitar slice through a wall of guitars and think, this belongs in a film? We went deep with Helicon’s John Paul Hughes to map how a Glasgow psych band turns orchestral tension into thunderous finales, why beauty lives inside noise, and how structure makes chaos hit harder on stage. From the Beatles’ psychedelic turn to Brian Jones’s restless curiosity, we explore the instruments, scenes, and accidents that shape Helicon’s sound.

John shares an exclusive: the band was invited to help recreate and expand music from Brian Jones’s lost 1967 soundtrack, transforming fragmentary cues into fully realized pieces—one razor-bright sitar theme, one wild harmonica burner, and one dirge-like organ work—planned for release on Jones’s birthday. We also talk shop about curfews, timing, and rehearsing the “improvised” parts until they breathe, so finales land before the lights snap on. The conversation spirals through film culture—love for scores, skepticism toward biopics—and a candid take on authenticity, legacy, and why making music for yourself is still the only compass that lasts.

Looking ahead, Helicon is building a new chapter with LA producer Al Lover, blending breakbeats, dub textures, and electronica into their sitar-and-guitar surge—a lineage closer to Primal Scream’s XTRMNTR than purist psych. Along the way we shout out key influences and peers, from Spacemen 3, Mogwai, and the Jesus and Mary Chain to modern torchbearers keeping the drone, dream, and feedback alive.

If cinematic psych, lost soundtracks, and the craft behind explosive live sets light you up, press play. Then tap follow, share it with a friend who loves bold guitar music, and leave a review telling us which psych record you’d want scored for the screen.

Transcript

Meet Helicon And Their Sound

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Attention all you fishes in the sea. Come swim on in and check out my interview with John Paul Hughes from Glassglow's critically acclaimed shoe gate psychedelic rock band Helicon, where we talk about music, film, and his newly released collaboration with Al Lover called A Rise. Come swim on in and give it a listen. I'm uh let me know if I'm pronouncing this right. Is it is it Heliconia or Heliconia?

SPEAKER_04 5:17

Uh Heliconia, yep.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 5:19

It's uh it's actually a plant.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 5:24

Yeah, it's uh it's actually a uh a kind of exotic plant. But it's uh yeah, it to be honest, from the whole album it's probably your favourite one to play. And works in those because it's got those two different dimensions to it. It's got the big the sort of more sparse orchestral opening to it and the and the staccato strings and everything, it all builds out to it. And then you've got the big kind of psych rock finish, you know, that that that kind of kicks in halfway through. And uh we we we had uh a guest vocalist on that, Lavinia Blackwall. Lavinia is an incredible singer who who sings in bands like Trembling Bells and she's got solo work as well, so check her out. Our stuff's really, really cool. More kind of she's from the more kind of psych folk side of the psych rock. And uh but yeah, we we love that. We actually that that's the opening tune on our uh on our live sets as well, just because it's a nice big slow builder and you've got sitar, you've got violins, you've got everything all going on to it. It's super cool, man.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

First of all, I love and I'm instantly attracted to any band that uses the centaur. You know, I I'm probably gonna get a lot of shit for this, especially you being from Glasgow and the UK area, but it's it's my it might just be my my how old I am and everything, but you know, my my my parents and my parents' generation talk about the Beatles like being, you know, the the Beesneys, you know, the the like oh my god, the fucking Beatles, you know, and my my personal opinion on the Beatles is that from listening to like you know their discography, they only got good when they started doing drugs.

Recreating A Lost Brian Jones Score

SPEAKER_04 7:10

They definitely get more interesting, that's for sure. They definitely get much more interesting. And uh and then sitars come in there, and then you've you've got the Brian Jones influence as well, who was who was uh who played sitar. In fact, well actually about two years ago. Was it as much as maybe a year and a half, two years ago, yeah, yeah, maybe we were asked to take part in a a Brian Jones project where I think the only what was told at the time is the the the only solo project he finished before he died was the soundtrack, the 1967 German film Murder und Torschlag, I think it's which is a degree of murder. So the Anita Pallenberg movie, a German movie from 1967, and Brian Jones did the soundtrack for that, along with uh I think Jimmy Page plays on it.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:00

I think a couple of stones might have played on it and blah blah blah. But uh apparently the the master tapes were lost, so they were that they were gone, they were that they were they've never been recovered. And we were asked about maybe as I said, about 18 months to two years ago to take part in a project where they were gonna use different artists to recreate the soundtrack because the master tapes were lost, but also to take the soundtrack and then expand it into your own pieces of work. So we were we were invited by the person pulling that together because we had a sitar player, because there's a sitar track in the soundtrack where and it's it's it's a scene in a train station, uh so it's really sharp and zingy because the sitar that's meant to sound like it's in the train station, so it's hitting off you know the brick walls and the big high ceilings and all that echo and reverb that's all around it. So we we we we did that and then from that little bit that's in the soundtrack, we then turn it into this whole other thing so it becomes a full song and all opens out. And we've done three tracks from that that that soundtrack, and uh originally there was I think there were some people from The Damned involved, I think Twink was involved, I think there was someone from Public Image Limited involved. I'm not sure if that project is ever going to see the light of day now for several reasons, but what we are gonna do is we are gonna release the three tracks that we recorded for it. So one of them is a big sitar piece, which is super cool. Another one is a kind of wild Brian Jones type harmonica track, and then there's another one that is uh it's a kind of church organ feel to it, but it's I think it's a scene from uh I think it's the it's played at the the funeral scene. Uh no, is it a car crack? No, it's a funeral scene. But it's got the the kind of church organ, we turn that into a whole big piece as well, man. So I think this is an exclusive, we haven't told any of this yet. But I think for Brian Jones, I think Brian Jones' birthday was something like the 28th of February, there or thereabouts. So I think we're gonna release that on the 28th of February actually for uh to mark his birthday.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Awesome, awesome. I am very excited. I will try to have this out by then or before then.

SPEAKER_04 10:11

Yeah, although we we did make a joke that uh I think we'll call it Massacre and Brian Jones.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

Yes, please.

SPEAKER_04 10:21

See if we can say a bit upset Anton, but we'll we'll have a go anyway.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

Right, right, right, right. Oh yeah. Anton is someone I really want to get on the show. Um you know, the the massacre and the warholes have just been like, you know, you talk about creating consistent like music throughout the years, the two of them, especially Anton, you know. As much as I love the Warhols, Anton has been a little more consistent with like the continuing the the psychedelic like sound, like like how that they're so like famous for. The Warhols, I I love them equally. They you can just clearly tell they've been like experimenting a little bit in more recent years, and you know, some I like more than than others, but An Anton, I I don't know how the hell he does it, but he he's like I I wanna say like the two of them remind me of like Frank Zappa. And like Frank Zappa was like, I mean, the only commercial album he did was Apostrophe. And even that was like to call that commercial.

SPEAKER_04 11:45

You know, that's it's no pop record, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Right, right, right, you know, and then like just you know, the different phases he went through, especially as he got older and everything. I mean and that's what we talk about.

SPEAKER_04 12:01

That's what we talked about earlier, was was m making music for yourself, not not for people. And and then and if it's real and it's authentic and it's good enough, then then other people will catch it.

On Legacy, Nepotism, And Finding Your Voice

SPEAKER_00 12:09

Exactly, exactly. And you know, god God bless the weasel for uh continuing his father's legacy, uh you know, Torin playing his his dad's stuff. He's he's like the only like musician child that I give a pass for like for like paying playing, you know, his his dad's stuff. His dad stuff, you know, because like you know, even on the topic the Beatles, like, you know, Julian Lennon basically, you know plays stuff that like John Lennon would have played. Dan Danny Harrison is pretty much his his dad. And the only other band that I can think of, what is it? Is it is it the wildflowers that that like the the lead singer is the son of I forget which musician. I can't I can't remember, it might be the Wildflowers. I just need I forget what band it is, but it's it's a major like 90s, 90s band. That the it's like the the leader of the band is like the son of some someone from like the classic rock era. I I I I'd have to look it up. I forget who uh anyone who's listening to this is gonna be like, you fucking idiot, you know. You can't remember that famous one, but he he he's like the only one that like I can think of like who's you know a child of you know one of the major like classic rock musicians that formed a band and made like a totally new sound that's totally differentiates the son from the father's music. You know, it's awesome that you know you get to be, you know, the the son or daughter of you know a major musician, but it's hard I think it's harder for actually you know in the and talk about the reversal of what I said earlier where you know it's easier for music to to get out there versus film, I'd say it's harder for the child of a major musician to clear up yes, exactly, exactly, you know, to to how do you not you know imitate your father or mother or both parents depending on if they're in a band together, you know, wings uh uh you know how how do you you know write your own path in in the music industry with you know wanting to separate yourself from you know your your your parents to to write your own path in the industry and it's it's very hard. You know, I I'd say it's a lot harder to do something like that than than to than to just be a a a child of a an actor or someone in the film industry where you could, you know, go to multiple different routes very easily, whether it's continuing in acting, directing, and stuff like that. I think it's much, much harder.

SPEAKER_04 15:27

People can't help but compare and and and and and pull it and but in the music side of it, then you've you're gonna have to find an entirely your own path um that's uh as you said, otherwise it's just you know who who wants to be a pale limitation or somebody that went before you, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 15:42

Exactly. Exactly. You know, I mean I I listened to Danny Harrison, I I listened to Julian Lennon. I personally thought, you know, the the two geniuses of the Beatles were Harrison and Lennon. McCartney honestly didn't think Wings was so great. Um and uh Ringo is Ringo. But those two were like the the superstars, the the creative geniuses of of the band. And just like I think Brian Jones was pretty much the main creative genius part of the stones. I mean it's very clear to see the the decline of the stones after Brian Jones died, uh and the like how they transition into being a more and more commercial and and stuff like that. But I mean Z Zappa, you know, very interesting guy, very smart uh guy as well. I mean, I I learned that he you know, this is like before computers and before, you know, the internet and all this like technology stuff, and he apparently taught himself how to be a conductor and and like orchestrate an orchestra just by reading a book on it.

SPEAKER_03 17:04

Really?

SPEAKER_00 17:05

You know, first checked it out from the library, read it, taught himself, and that that's how he was able to do it.

SPEAKER_04 17:13

How did we learn anything before YouTube?

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Right, right, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 17:17

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

You know, for us us us spoiled, you know.

SPEAKER_04 17:22

Uh how did he build a pellemeds without YouTube as well?

SPEAKER_00 17:25

Right, right, right, right, you know. But yeah, and then just like his I mean, I I watched this whole this whole uh interview clip with him back before he was like really big as Frank Zappa, and he was on some some talk show, and he was demonstrating how you could and it was like a 1960s talk show. So it was like a 1960s bicycle that that he was explaining to whatever talk show hosts and audience how you can make a bicycle into an instrument uh and demonstrate it and uh the fact that he didn't do any drugs you know alcohol was his drug of choice, but and and nicotine. Yeah, yeah, but right. You know, but it just is it's very interesting to like see where that mind with everything that he created and also talk about being one of the best guitarists uh fr from that era. You know, shut up and play your guitar.

SPEAKER_04 18:29

It's uh it it it it's and one of the things about it is is is how hard it can be to to beef heart and stuff like that as well, you know what I mean? Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

Flow and Eddie, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:43

But when you find a way into it, then you tend not to find your way back out of it.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

Right, right. And you know, another thing that I found about Zappa from watching old interviews with him, that I actually wanted to ask you as a musician, especially playing live and now in in modern times where you actually have I mean, I don't know what it's like in in in the UK and in in Europe, but here at least in in Pennsylvania, we have like a like a cutoff of when bands have to stop playing. And and yeah, uh it sucks. Um like they have to stop at 11 p.m. Yeah, um because of union laws for them to break down everything and you know put it away and all that, like the band has to stop playing at 11 o'clock or they'll be fined. So having those restrictions and this interview that I watched with Zappa, they're asking him, like, you know, how can you like basically play the music that you play with the songs that you pick to play and essentially improvise like a totally different version of each song live performed, and you know, consciously like knowing that you have like this amount of time to play each song because there's like you know, a cutoff of when you have to stop playing, like when when Hilacon is playing live or any other bands that I've mentioned or that you've played with, how do you like determine versus like the studio version versus the playing live and knowing like the time to train?

Live Sets, Curfews, And Controlled Chaos

SPEAKER_04 20:38

It's it's it's just working out, man. You can sense it and you can feel it and you and and you practice the shit out of it. So there will be um we tend to we tend to do less improvisation than than the than probably some people might think, but even the parts that do feel improvised are usually pretty well locked in and rehearsed and and you've also got that thing where it but you're right, you know, you don't want to overrun because the last thing you've usually planned out a live set with a big finale that you want to leave people with.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Right, right.

SPEAKER_04 21:08

So the the last thing you want to do is fuck about on something a bit earlier, and then by the time you get your big finale, they've pulled the plug on you and the lights are on and the sounds being cut. Um so so you you it can be hard, but but it's the same here, you know, it's a 10:30, 11 pm curfew that that that the band has to be finished by. And uh and making sure that you run to time and and and make sure you get started on time, and making sure that it's it's like anything else, man, as long as you've worked, as long as you've done all your prep work beforehand and you've really practiced enough and you've you've got that set licked and everybody knows exactly what they're going to be doing, and nobody gets too drunk before the show, then uh usually in pretty good shape, it's fine.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Awesome, awesome. I I I had a question from being from the UK. What do you think of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost?

SPEAKER_04 22:01

Not really my thing, man. Um, I'm uh Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are obviously huge stars. Simon Pegg, I have heard, and I don't know this, uh, this is pure rumour bill, is apparently a very, very difficult human being to be a interesting. Apparently he's not a very nice man.

SPEAKER_01 22:17

Interesting.

SPEAKER_04 22:18

Um Nick Frost to say the exact opposite. Apparently he's he's really nice and he's he's he's a good guy. But that was never I don't know if obviously as they came. They they did what what was their TV, what was this TV show that Simon Pegg did?

SPEAKER_00 22:31

Yeah, I know, I know, I know what you're talking about, where they got their start.

SPEAKER_04 22:34

Space and all that, yeah, uh, was kind of more my thing, but by the time they had moved into the kind of movie world and stuff like that and started doing those kind of those kind of comedy horrors, what the uh Sean of the Sean of the Dead and all that kind of stuff as well. I I I I it just wasn't really my thing at all, man. I I just never really connected with that, but it was maybe it's probably a bit wrong if it because it's no, it's probably not true. It it just felt a little quintessentially English for me rather than being Scottish. I just didn't really connect with that kind of thing. It wasn't my my kind of my kind of vibe at all. Are you a big fan? I take it.

Comedy And Culture Clashes

Film Tastes, Biopics, And Spinal Tap Truths

SPEAKER_00 23:09

I I I like their movies, yeah. I obviously being from Pittsburgh, aka land of uh the zombies, Sean of the Dead, I I love. I think it's hysterical. When I went to college here in Pittsburgh at Point Park University, and a lot of my teachers and people who were my teachers but taught there were all like the George Romero alumni. So John Ampliss, who you know played Martin and was in Creep Show as in the segment of uh the the Where's My Cake, you know, he was he was the the the the zombie thing that came out of the grave or whatever for the the Father's Day thing. And he he worked with Ramiro a lot. Marty Schiff was another teacher there. He's the guy at the end of Creep Show, the two garbage men with Tom Savini. He's the other garbage man. And actually, here in Pittsburgh, I I've covered it a bunch of times because I kind of consider those people like my family that's not my family. And they have a convention here in Pittsburgh called literally called the Living Dead Weekend. And it's a whole convention where like my friends run it and they try to, they all these people who are local that were like a zombie, you know, just a zombie or an extra or some kind of zombie, and they try to track down as many people as they can and get them to come. And then they also book like a few other like bigger stars that were in like you know, some of like the the bigger movies, like uh like Creep Show, Creep Show 2, Return of the Living Dead, you know, even though it's technically not Ramiro, they it's like in the same universe, so they'll have people from like you know, those movies come to the convention and stuff. So they have like a few actual like celebrity celebrities like Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger. You know, Greg is in charge of like The Walking Dead and stuff like that in the creep show series, you know, they always come to those those conventions as like the big, big you know, guests. And Greg is actually from Pittsburgh and was like an apprentice to Tom Savini, which is how he got to be where he's at now. But yeah, uh Sean of the Dead, I always that's that's why that one, especially when they they say the line, we're coming to get you, Barbara. Uh I lost it. You know, because like I I'm I'm uh I get all all the jokes that that are in there because they're like specifically like living dead, you know, jokes. The the the later stuff they did, like Hot Fuzz is probably the other one I was thinking about yeah, that that one is probably like my least favorite that that they've done together. The what is it, the world's end. That one is probably my second favorite. I would put Hot Fuzz you know third and Sean the Dead first. But yeah, I I do like them, and obviously Nick Frost and Simon Pegg have branched off to like do their own stuff separate from working with was it Edgar Wright? Right, right, and you know, have made a name for themselves on their own, especially pegged with like working with Tom Cruise on the Mission Impossible movies and stuff like that. Another English director, writer who I had a question about from your opinion, is Guy Ritchie.

SPEAKER_04 27:03

Oh my god, I'd like anything Guy Ritchie has ever touched has annoyed me more than I could possibly find the vocabulary to describe. Um it had that one thing going on, but but uh but I think I watched maybe three or four minutes of that. I think was it the gentleman? Is that what they call it?

SPEAKER_00 27:21

The gentleman, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:22

Uh and and I was just like, oh no, man, I kind of do this. He's uh guy that she can uh honestly just disappear for the face of the earth as could as as quick as possible, as far as I'm concerned.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

Interesting. I mean, I I I've been following him since like his you know, his big hits with like logstock and two smoking barrels, yeah, and uh and snatch and all that, and basically making Jason Statham's uh career.

SPEAKER_04 27:50

He's got that to blame for as well. He's responsible for Jason fucking Statham, you know what I mean? So that's is uh he should be held in a court of law and locked in a tower for the rest of eternity.

SPEAKER_00 28:01

Oh that that's amazing. It's very interesting to see like the the the country differences because I'm like I love Statham. I I I I uh I really like Guy Ritchie. Um, you know, but like I I wanted to hear like you know, in terms of like authenticity.

SPEAKER_04 28:23

I think that's the word. I think it's so inauthentic. Everything that he does around all that Cockney geezer stuff and all that is so talking when when I think when Lockstop first came, that was a hit where he went, Oh, this is interesting, this is quite new. We haven't seen it done in this way, and then it became such a trope for him and for so many other people as well. That yeah, I think it is uh it's so it's such an upper class, kind of upper middle class, rich person, nouveau rich person's view of what working class life is like for those people that that it kind of it just like authenticity is the word that just it lacks authenticity and and and and and more early the early stuff not so much, but as you get through it as well, it becomes but but then that that's what it became, didn't it? You know, a lot of these things became just you know big fucking popcorn movies and and and and that stuff. And I I thought Snatch was quite interesting and quite funny, uh and certainly had moments in it that were there, but yeah, I think uh I I kind of wish they had left Guy that chain in the 90s, to be perfectly honest.

SPEAKER_01 29:32

Interesting. Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

I I will say after he did like the movies he did post snatch, you can clearly see are more there's more blockbuster, you know, money, influence in them versus Snatch and Lockstock. I I will definitely say that.

SPEAKER_04 29:58

And say you can I can definitely understand you know what you what you said about Simon Pegg kind of being it's it's just not my it's just not my yeah, it's just not my field, it's just not my thing at all.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

Yeah, yeah. On the subject of movies, what are like some of your your favorite films?

SPEAKER_04 30:18

Oh man, that's a deep question. Um some of my favorite films. I think probably the film I've watched most in my life, unsurprisingly, would be would be would be Pop Fiction. I've probably seen that more than the again because of my age and when it happened and and and and the amount of times that you had it on repeat and and the fact that you had these before streaming sellers existed, you had these things in DVD and you would absolutely annihilate them and go back and back and back. And I've always enjoyed what Tarantino's done and uh find that trajectory. But I I again probably most things, you know, the early work is far more interesting than the than the later work.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_04 30:56

But but by a distance. But I I've never really been a massive and I I enjoy movies, uh, but I I've never been a massive movie buff. I I I enjoy movies, I go there. I mean I went to see the the Nosferatu movie just recently, and I I thought it was uh I thought it was chronically dull. I thought it looked absolutely beautiful, but like you felt absolutely nothing about any of the characters, like you you you felt nothing towards any of them. Like there was no you had no connection, you had you had nothing that goes on, but it was it was it was uh an absolute feast for the eyes. It looked this it was gorgeous, you know. But movies, I'm trying to think what would go back there other than the the really really obvious classics that you take them back to, but I do I do have a much more indie movie palette than the big, big budget, big, you know, Hollywood blockbuster stuff. If there's one thing I I I can't start, I I don't think I've ever seen a good music biopic in my life. I I don't think I've ever seen one that I've gone that was fucking amazing and really captured that person. I recently started watching the Bob Marley one that came out and and again I latted about five minutes.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

That those yeah, I I I couldn't get into that one.

SPEAKER_04 32:12

The fake the the those some of those uh kind of fake Jamaican accents, I was just like, oh this is yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um but I from what I've heard, the the new Dylan movie, um which only comes out in the UK at the end of this month. I don't know if it's out in the States already. What's it called?

SPEAKER_00 32:30

Yeah, I I know, I I can't remember the name.

SPEAKER_04 32:32

Tim Timothy Chalamy, isn't it? That's that's Dylan. But yeah apparently Dylan has had script approval on that. So he's actually um uh worked on script notes and had final script approval. So I think that'd be quite interesting to see how they how they tell that story again. But I I have to say music and movies, it's been a long time since I saw uh a movie that I I absolutely raved about and really, really loved. And and as as for uh as for these kind of biopics and and and and and of of musicians and bands and stuff like that, I I I honestly like it always it never ceases to amaze me that they still tried to make them after they made Spinal Tap. You know what I mean? Like like see what like as soon as that that that was done, you think people just went right just don't do that, like let's just stop making movies about musicians because this is how fucking ridiculous it always turns out. But no, they still keep doing it because I think there's even a Michael Jacks. I think there's even a Michael Jackson.

SPEAKER_00 33:32

Yeah, they're they they are doing a Michael Jackson one that I believe the the family has to give approval for so you so you can imagine how sanitized it's gonna be exactly before it gets to man.

Scoring For Screen And Cinematic Psych

SPEAKER_04 33:45

So I you know interesting, but I I I must say um composing music for for movies is something I would love to do. Like I would absolutely love that. Obviously, we do a lot of instrumental stuff and it and it keeps it quite interesting and and it suits its lends itself quite well to use in documentaries and all that kind of stuff as well. And there's actually hopefully a helicon documentary coming out next year. Oh around the recording of our new album. But the getting into if we could uh you know, scoring a movie, I think is something I would absolutely or a TV show or anything at all, I think I would absolutely love that. But having that um being given that template to create around, I think is is is is a fascinating challenge for the musician because uh how do you you know I mean there's there's no to it, you know, people at John Wow's not have been huge influences on us, you know, like like um you you can hear little elements of that kind of work. Right, right. And uh and I think I you know what has been visually presented to you and finding a way to amplify the emotion in that through music, I think is a uh is an it's a beautiful talent, but a a fascinating challenge. I would love to do it.

SPEAKER_00 34:58

That that's interesting because I have several things to comment on in response to that, because one of the things that I actually was gonna ask you and suggest actually is that your band's music is very cinematic. So one thing I was gonna say as a suggestion or a question is have you ever thought about like submitting your music to like film licensing to put that in film? And then in terms of scoring, I have two things I wanted to say. One, I am currently uh trying to find, you know, hopefully through being friends on Facebook with people like you and all the bands that we talked about. I was wanted to start like a new thing. One for my podcast, like I need like a musical intro, how a lot of other you know, podcasts have. And I wanted to network with you as well as all the other bands that I just mentioned to hopefully start something where you know you you can like I can switch up the musical intro with having different bands, you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 36:20

Absolutely not a problem at all with that, no problem.

SPEAKER_00 36:23

Awesome, awesome. And then in terms of um scoring something, I have a script that to know for future reference, that could be something I could like put into the the pitch deck, but it's it's horror action script, and on the subject of like Tarantino, like we were talking about, it's basically like a combination of this like B-grade horror movie from like the 90s called Highway to Hell, mixed with like true romance and the idea of like how from Dust till Dawn to like a 180, you know, like like you if you didn't see the trailer for the movie, you wouldn't know that it's it's a vampire, yeah. Yeah, but basically still trying to do another rewrite with it, trying to get it together. But if you know, to know if you could do like a score, that would be cool. I did just see a message that we gotta wrap up. So uh I got two closer questions for you. I know I've been talking about music and movies and everything, but who are some of your favorite bands in general and you know, bands that like influence you? And I know through email we were chatting that uh you have some tour dates and tours and upcoming album to announce, and then I uh just a personal question. I was wondering if I mean we'll see between now and then when I get it posted, but if I could possibly sample a track from the new album to incorporate the listenership for the podcast. Yeah, absolutely.

Influences, Collaborations, And New Directions

SPEAKER_04 38:08

I mean one of the things I think that that helps Helicon have a I think certainly uh a kind of distinctive sound. You know, I I don't know if there's I think you can hear influences on bands in our music, but I don't think we sound like other bands.

SPEAKER_00 38:22

Yes, yes, I will agree with that.

SPEAKER_04 38:24

And and that's because there's a pretty broad, diverse range of influences that that come around that. You know, Gary and my my my brother and I who started the band come from the same kind of background where we we were, you know, kind of introduced to to the Beatles and the Stones and the Verbo Underground and the Doors. We came through that kind of you know, 60s rock up through there that was kind of big, you know, from the Stone Roses, then through Nirvana, through to then you start to understand about you know kind of the more psychedelic side of things and where that leads you to and takes you down all those rabbit holes. I mean, Gary jokes sometimes that um it's little wonder he ended up fucked up in the head because I think for his about his 10th birthday, I would be 13, 14, he'd be about 10, 11. I bought him Pike Floyd's pipe at the gates of dawn on cassette tape.

SPEAKER_00 39:09

He's like, well, nice.

SPEAKER_04 39:11

He's like when your big brother gives you that 10, he's like, no, I don't know you end up fucked in the head, you know what I mean? That's the your intro. So things like that today, still a you know, big fans of of everybody from you know, our place to bury strangers and and things that sit in there, Acid Mother's Temple, a band that I admire a lot, Primal Scream, and and the way that they've been able to shape shift into different genres and do these things. And actually, our next album that we're we're building towards is probably more in the kind of primal scream exterminator kind of kind of feel, where we're gonna be partnering with with LA-based um DJ and producer Al Lover, who did the recent permal remix, and I was working out with us. So we're gonna be taking his kind of electronica and trip hop and breakbeat and dubstep and all that and bringing it to our guitar, sitar-based psych rock, and see what we can what we can come from that. Whereas someone like Mike comes from very much the kind of the prog influence side of things, massive fan of Gong and all these kind of guys, you know, as well. And uh who he absolutely loves. Um Seb the drummer, again, another really, really broad array of influences, but has has a lot of kind of uh traditional music in his background, you know, like Scottish trad music and all that kind of stuff as well. And believe it or not, was originally trained in the French horn as his first instrument. Um wow so he brings that. And then Graham the sitar player, obviously, he comes into it with bringing a huge broad, he's very, very much into 60s counterculture and all that as well. But he brings all that Eastern influence that we that we have in there as well, which brings the guitar, and you know, we've got a little Turkish saz sitting there that we're starting to work on some new tunes with as well. So a real eclectic mix of of influences that come into that. And and and I think you can hear that, and and even you know, that there's so many kind of amazing bands that we get to play with and see today that still influences very heavily, you know, and that whether it's you know the 13th floor elevators and their legacy that's that that's ran all the way through to today with bands like the Black Angels, or you know, if you see my hand tattoos with Space Men, yeah, yeah, um, Spacemen 3 are a massive influence on us, and and and in my eyes, can do and never have done any wrong.

SPEAKER_00 41:23

Um other bands that I that I forgot to mention, but equally extremely awesome and powerful and main influential influences for exactly what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_04 41:36

Amazing. And I I know you you talked about Dream Pop and you talked about and obviously Mogwai are big influences, or you know, I'm good friends with Martin, the drummer in Mogwai, and we recorded our first album in their studio and stuff like that, and and and and their path has been uh has been a big influence for us in the way that they've managed to to carve that out themselves. And then as you meant, you know, the Jesus and Mary chain, Gary and I, my brother and I, we come from East Co Bride outside Glasgow, which is the little town that the Reed brothers come from, and uh their kind of whole aesthetic and and and and and that adoration of feedback and noise and and finding the beauty in the noise, which I think was something that just pulled out on headphones. That that beauty and the noise, I think, is something that you you learn to appreciate through things like Early Floyd and the Velvet Underground as well, and they carried that on. So you know, anything that anything that feels anything that that deviates and and and has a fr from the mainstream, anything that that that shuns predictability and mediocrity, anything that will push you into new territories, you know, whether it's the weirdness of Sid Barrett early on, right through to today, with some of you know some some beautiful abstract German artists and stuff like that as well. We're just I I think that you know the more you can you can pour in them, but what can you pull from all these different little elements and uh and and and start to create something new? And and I I mentioned the the shoe gays and dream pop thing. Uh a band you should check out who are who are very dear friends of ours. They're based in Paris in France, and they're called Healy's H-E-A-L-E.

SPEAKER_00 43:09

I I I know them.

SPEAKER_04 43:11

You know Healy's? I know Jason was working on the record and lovely people, really, really good friends of ours. And we've played with them a few times in Paris now. I went down to London to see them not so long ago, and they've just released their first album. And and I would recommend anybody who enjoys shoe geys and dream pop, uh they're super cool.

SPEAKER_00 43:28

Um yes, yeah, I'm I'm a I'm a big fan of theirs. Uh yeah now, since you mentioned them, I'll shoot them a message to uh get them on the show as well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:39

Um Brian and Heli, the the the the the kind of couple who Helivi's on base is Swedish. Brian's actually from New York, I think, originally and now lives in Paris, a a journalist in Paris. Uh uh and um and the other guys in the band are from France as well. So highly recommend them. But and then moving on to as you mentioned, we we are w with

Tour Plans, Friends, And Closing Thanks

SPEAKER_00 45:50

We are almost two-hour conversation. That just shows how time swims by.

SPEAKER_04 46:00

And the bowl, you can't see the bowl, you don't say that. Thanks for having us with me. I really appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00 46:07

Absolutely, absolutely. John, thank you so much for taking the time to swim in the bowl with me. Again, I hope the temperature was just right.

SPEAKER_04 46:16

I was trying to keep the fish killing.

Follow, Merch, And Support

SPEAKER_00 46:18

Excellent, thank you so much. Hey hey, all my fishes in the sea. Thanks for listening to my latest chat with John Fogus from Helicon. You can follow the Fishbowl on all major podcasting platforms. Give us a follow on Facebook at the Fishbowl, Instagram, theFishbowl88. I now have merch available for purchase. You can DM me personally on social media or friend request me on Facebook, SamFish. I'm also now accepting donations to my BuzzSprout website from all you generous scuppies in the sea. Thank you again for your listenership and support. And remember to hit that like button and subscribe.

SPEAKER_02 47:31

So much more what you have to say.