Helga: Tales Through The Mist
When thinking about how to approach defining HELGA, it’s interesting how hard a band they are to define. With a distinct sound entirely their own, they weave post-rock, folk, metal, progressive; nothing is too far a reach to weave into the tapestry. We caught up with vocalist Helga Gabriel and guitarist Cai Sumption about their album, Wrapped In Mist.
“With this this record, we’ve been sort of working on this for about two years now,” Cai explains about the process. “We started work on what we thought back then was an EP in 2021 I think it was. Then we realised okay, we were working on something a little bigger than we set out initially to achieve. So yeah, about two years in the making. And it’s been quite a quite a ride.”
What was something quite extraordinary is the track Farväl; with a totally new spark of black metal within HELGA’s arsenal, it was quite a bombastic statement of a song. “I wanted to try and explore black metal a bit,” Helga explains. “I thought I’d try it, you know, because I never really properly screams before. I thought maybe I could elaborate a bit more on, [what I could do] a bit more. See how it goes. And to be honest, I was quite surprised by the result and how everything sounds. I thought it sounded really cool. I’m quite happy about it!”
Helga is ultimately a songwriter influenced by nature in her songwriting, and the relationship for her naturally connecting to an idea was what started that initial vocal journey. “I felt that the reason why I chose to scream instead of maybe growl was that a scream felt more natural. You know, like, as humans we scream, maybe you’re like when we’re like really annoyed of something or really angry about something. And I thought that was like the raw expression of that feeling.”
The record, while filled with songs that are their own themes, feels like a carefully curated experience; there’s an intention behind every song and its place together, regardless of their individual narratives. It’s an anthology that is as an album, even grater than the sum of its parts. “You’re right, I wanted to tell a story, at least sonically with this record,” Cai nods. “Every track is very intentionally placed on this album to try and encourage that kind of experience. I felt Farväl being about halfway through the record was a nice change of pace. And I wanted to cushion the blow with something like Alive Again.”
“To introduce the record, we went with Skogen mumlar, which felt like a mission statement to the project in a way, so I wanted to bookend it with Wrapped in Mist at the end, because I feel like that’s the sort of sister track. [Overall] it kind of takes you on a journey and I really consider that as when kind of sequencing the songs into the track list we ended up on it. So I’m glad that it had that effect.”
As a band, there’s a through-line that Helga herself is the songwriter, but there’s obviously so much musical influence from each member that they all trust each other to write the right thing for the songs. “I think creative, inner freedom is important thing,” Helga agrees. “You know, for musicians to be able to express themselves. So I thought, you know, this is something that I value in a band. But also, yeah, just some, some songs. And some sections have a clear vibe, like that metal vibe, so I think ‘let’s just do something like metal for this part’. But some of the some of the songs just like having nothing, I couldn’t hear anything. I was like, guys, can you do something with this?”
It’s fascinating to tap into the world HALGA have built sonically. With Helga herself, you can’t help wonder what inspires her. “I think as a songwriter, I draw inspiration from nature, quite a lot, so I think that’s my main, my biggest inspiration,” she replies. Her musical inspiration, however? Are a little more surprising, “But other than that, I haven’t really been listening to a lot of music the past couple of years, but I just recently started. I would normally, like go to and listen to OPUS, or black metal – then the rest is like classical music or Lo Fi, like YouTube playlist; with me kind of music.”
“Helga as the songwriter is usually inspired by nature, she’s a frequent hiker, she climbs a mountain, she’s always in forest and things. And I know that that’s a big inspiration for the rest of us guys. But also myself, Cameron, the guitar player, Ryan, the bass player, we’ve played in bands for years together,” Cai also adds. “There’s a kind of musical understanding between the three of us guys, that just feel very natural that we kind of drawn that we know how each other we know, we know what makes each other tick. And in that way, sort of thing. And then also just were all just huge music fans in this band. There are many disparate influences on this record, from Ennio Morricone to MASSIVE ATTACK to, you know, BATTERY. There is all sorts going on this record. And that’s what made writing it so much fun.”
The security of HELGA‘s members in each other’s company and talents has resulted in a record that isn’t afraid to be daring and take chances. It feels as natural as anything, but as timeless and youthful as nature itself. They’re only just getting started, and it’s going to be thrilling to see this resonate in a live performance. “We’re just really excited to get out there and play this record,” Cai smiles, as Helga agrees, “I think hearing these songs live will be the truest expression of this record.”
Wrapped In Mist is out not via Season Of Mist.
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