A Quick Q&A With Helena Deland

Oct 20

Oct 20 A Quick Q&A With Helena Deland

From touring with the likes of Weyes Blood and Conan Mockasin, to opening for the legendary Iggy Pop in Paris; Helena Deland has had a whirlwind adventure over the last few years. Her much-loved series of EPs, ‘Altogether Unaccompanied’, has earned the Montreal songwriter critical acclaim across the globe. We spoke to Helena, ahead of the release of her new record, ‘Someone New’…

Before we dive into the new record, it has been a busy two-years since the release of your series of EPs, ‘Altogether Unaccompanied’, what has happened during these last two years?

Before brilliant opportunities like opening for Weyes Blood and Conan Mockasin, there was a lull during which I got very existentially challenged by my desires to work in music, amongst other things, and paradoxically (and luckily!) became inspired by those hesitations, which are the material I started writing the record with. As for opening for great artists on tour, which I've been lucky to do since I started touring in 2017, that's really where one learns the craft! I'm very grateful for those opportunities.

Fast forward to 2020, and you’re back with ‘Someone New’. Can you expand more upon the writing process for this record? Did you have material already written prior to forming the album, or was this a conscious decision to write a body of material for a record?

Definitely a conscious decision, ‘Dog’ being the only song I wrote before setting my heart on the themes of the record, which happened right after I wrote the song 'Someone New'. The 'Ah ha!' moment occurred when I realized I thought, though maybe subconsciously, that I had to become someone new in order to write this debut album. Questioning that desire and that impossible expectation is what populates most of the songs thematically.

In your own words, can you talk us through the themes the album presents?

The album is about overcoming insecurities by trying to identify what may be causing them, and questioning the fantasy of becoming someone new, someone who would be adequate, successful, well-liked, complete, confident, competent, etc. There's a lot of pressure on people to be happy in a capitalist system that completely distracts one from being content and full on hinders fulfilling personal and interpersonal experiences. It's so difficult, with the presence of social media, for example, to not try to turn into something else and ultimately be self-conscious in an unhealthy way.

I obviously experience this reality from my point of view as a woman and was going through a total femininity crisis, wondering who I was trying to please and why I felt like I needed to be some guy's sidekick in order to fully exist in the world.

Ultimately, it's an invitation to be critical and accepting of the difficulties one is faced with and I'm trying to give people courage to live with these, or maybe overcome them.

So far, there has been three singles released from the album so far, including, ‘Truth Nugget’, ‘Someone New’ and ‘Lylz’, with the latter being inspired by early 20th century composers (and sisters) Lili & Nadia Boulanger – can you expand more upon the influence behind 'Lylz'?

Lili and Nadia Boulanger are sisters and composers born in the early 20th century. Lili passed away at a young age and Nadia devoted her life to teaching music and peripherally making the work of her younger sister known.

I found out about these women when my friend Lysandre, who is a classical pianist, put together a concert of both their works in le Bic, which is a beautiful area of Québec approximately 8 hours away from Montreal. I had driven up to see her play and was touched by this story and fascinated by the fact that Nadia Boulanger is something Gabriel Fauré and Quincy Jones have in common.

The song is about not giving into female competitivity, but rather trying to elevate and celebrate the other. It's also an ode to a friend who really burns for desire for everything and has a lot of joy to share.

‘Lylz’ was recorded and co-produced with Jake Portrait of Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Texturally, your compositions are rich; with lots of layers and dreamy tones – we like that! How was working with Jake, have you worked together before?

We'd never worked together before, but we clicked instantly. He's very personable and sweet. I think the fact that he made me feel so comfortable and creative so quickly says a lot about his ability to listen and understand what others are trying to get across (and this is true about him as a producer as well as in conversation). I didn't think much of 'Lylz' until he heard the demo and encouraged me to finish writing it, he played around with the chords to make it all more interesting.

With this being your debut album, did you find yourself being protective over it in a production sense; or did you allow outside influence to shape the record?

I felt extremely protective of it at first: I had only worked with one producer before and he had a lot of power over what the final result sounded like (because his working pace was much quicker than mine) so I had a hard time getting over imposter syndrome, especially when the EPs would get good coverage. So, this made me really protective of these songs at first, and this wore down when I had set my heart on who I was going to collaborate with. I think it's very important to let your collaborators express themselves freely and take their ideas as far as they can.