Scott Helman

Hi I’m scott and this is my bio I guess? My garage is filled with rock climbing shoes, gardening tools, paint brushes, baking pans, hiking boots and tattoo guns - a graveyard of unfinished projects. My ADHD has led me down many strange roads of hyper-fixation, and the little into the most obscure projects. When I figured out how to write a song one night in 2009, hours turned into days and weeks and years. I’ve picked up a lot of things, but it was the only thing I couldn’t put down. I know, cheesy!!!!!

At the heart of every hyper-fixation is just that; a release of dopamine. - a sudden jolt of satisfaction in a conditionally unsatisfied brain. Music gave me that, sure, but it also worked into the part further back, the part that wants to be understood. Like everyone else, that’s really what I'm after. To be understood sounds like a self-serving mission, but I’ve learned through my experiences touring all over the world, meeting fans of my music and through sharing the joy of my favorite music with friends and strangers, that understanding is a reciprocal loop. When we expose who we are for the selfish sake of being seen, we simultaneously illuminate others who feel like we do.

I live in LA now and these yoga smoothie gurus are always talking about “the now.” ugh. spare me – I get it. If we’re going to be honest with ourselves we all look back, and we all look forward. Some of us just naturally lean toward different points on the past-present-future spectrum. I tend to lean toward the past. I find meaning in the past (and that's ok Starshine!).

And that’s what my favorite music does, which is why it’s hard for me to pinpoint an exact genre or style that I appreciate most. Ever since I discovered how my favorite music could make me feel, I’ve spent hours deep in Limewire searches, Youtube holes and Spotify digs to discover the next song that will speak to me.

Ultimately, when I found songwriting, I was just a kid with an acoustic guitar, but I found artists like Simon and Garfunkel, Neil Young, Bon Iver, Vance Joy, and Ray Lamontagne. the most inspiring because I was able to emulate that style of music the easiest and I was in a rush to get it out of me. I still love The Flaming Lips, and NWA, Sonic Youth, and The 1975, EDM, and the fun of incorporating a wider landscape into my music is essential. But at the end of the day, if there is no answer to “what is the point of this song,” and if the goal is not to make that point clear and direct as possible, then I’m out.

Ok let me wrap this up: this body of music I have is really about the story of my life in one way or another. Most of it is about my relationship with my fiancée Katya, which spans 12 years of my life. We met when I was 15 and dated until the end of high school. We had a horrible, messy breakup and went our separate ways. Fast forward 3-4 years later, I was with my band in a sprinter van racing toward Montreal, where she lived, to play a show. I had heard she broke up with her boyfriend and knew right then that I still loved her. I invited her. She showed. We got back together and now we’re engaged. Sounds like a rom-com, I know. Within the scope of my latest tunes, not everyone is going to care about the whole trajectory of a 12-year love story.

Maybe some will relate to more songs then others, and that’s ok.

see you soon,

scott. x

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