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In the studio: HELIOPAUSE

AU Magazine. Issue 59. October 2009.

Following an acclaimed EP in Dark Matter and the recent single ‘Moment of Recognition’. Belfast trio Heliopause have become the latest Northern Irish band to record along-awaited debut album at Start Together Studios. AU went down to have a nosey at what they were up to.

Why did you decide to record the album in Start Together with Ben McAuley?

Richard Davis (vocals, acoustic guitar): We’ve recorded with him twice [before] now and I personally have noticed, the third time round, that why we choose him is because we know him, he knows us, he knows our music and he’s into it, which really helps. He’s like an honorary member for the time we’re with him. He’s really good for making decisions and suggestions, or just telling us that it’s pure bullshit. It’s really good guidance. And not only that, [it’s] the level of comfort that I feel when I come in here.

How many new songs will be on the album?

Richard: Most of them will be new songs, I think. ‘Moment of Recognition’ the single, will be on it – it and [extra single track] ‘Mon Peu Rimbaud’ – and we recorded a third song in that session, ‘The Moon And Sixpence’, and held it back, so it’s going to be on the album. And then we were thinking of re-recording songs from the Dark Matter EP because we’ve got a new guitarist [Chris McCorry] since then. One of the songs we are bringing across is ‘Dead Ends’, but we are re-recording it with [acoustic duo] Albrecht’s Pencil, so it’s going to be a very lush acoustic version.

The last single was softer and more acoustic than the EP, which had its share of noisy moments. Have you continued in that vein on the album?

Richard: We’ve really branched out so that we’ve got a good handful of low-key songs and also upbeat songs. I think this is going to be a really good balance of both.
Chris McCorry (lead guitar): I think we’ve been a little more eager to explore the noisier side of things, without letting it be full-on rock or anything.

You’ve been around for about three years but seem to have built up quite a bit of momentum in the last year or so. Would you credit that to Chris joining last year?

Richard: Yeah, definitely. It was a big change because there was a point when Michael [Kinloch, original guitarist] left where we were a bit lost and we didn’t have a clue what we were doing. So whenever Chris came on board, we just collected ourselves back together and re-found that enthusiasm. We were really excited about what we were doing and really enjoying it, and Chris’s guitar parts are really great in the sense that there’s a lot of noise and loudness and experimentation in there, but it melds so much better with the acoustic stuff and ideas that I come up with. It’s created a new dynamic.

Do you have any plans to tour the album?

Richard: Yeah, I’d really like to. We have a gig booked in London for the end of October, so we really need to get ahead with booking dates around that. But then we provisionally have January booked for releasing the album and we’ll coincide that with a proper tour, hopefully.

Words by Chris Jones

Wigging out in the moment

Irish News. 22nd May 2009

Onwards to Heliopause, whose new single Moment of Recognition was mentioned on this very page not more than two weeks ago. Since then, I have managed to purchase my very own copy of said release (number 45 of a limited run of 50 it seems) and very good it is too.

Moment of Recognition is actually the second of two tracks here, the other being Mon Peu Rimbaud. If you weren’t already of the opinion that popular music could do with more songs named after renegade French poets, a quick listen to the hushed Red House Painters-esque delights of the latter should help change your mind.

Heliopause singer and mainman Richard Davis also keeps the volume turned down to a civilised level on the title track, which features twinkling finger picked guitars, stuttering, brushed drums and some choice backing vocals from Cutaways’ Grace McMacken.

A beautiful, delicately poised song that perfectly captures the unmistakable tingle of falling in love, Moment of Recognition should be an essential addition to any romantically inclined mix CD you might be planning this summer.
Listen online at www.myspace.com/wecomefrombelfast.

By David Roy

Kitchen Confidential

Hotpress

For most bands, a gritty rehearsal room or their parents’ garage must suffice. But Belfast indie popsters Heliopause have opted for a rather more individualistic practice space – their drummer’s kitchen.

Photographer, animator, film maker, musician: Richard Davis is a man at ease in galleries and exhibition spaces. But when it comes to Heliopause, the band that’s slowly started to occupy more and more of his creative energies, he’s found himself spending his time in a much more prosaic location.

“Niall (Harden), our drummer has us over to his house and we practice in his kitchen,” he reveals. “It’s pretty much ideal. We sit around, work out the song arrangements, have a mug of tea. Some biscuits.”

“It’s great,” adds guitarist Chris McCorry. “Although Niall’s flatmate, Johnny, might disagree. He has a hard time making his dinner some nights.”

This marriage of the mundane with the high-minded is perfectly in keeping with the Heliopause aesthetic. To date, the band have been notable for the artful way in which they slip smartly off-centre ideas into apparently straight-forward songs.

Last year’s Dark Matters EP was a case in point – what seemed, on initial listen, to be nothing more than a collection of fairly standard slow-core indie, slowly revealed itself to be a work of great emotional and musical subtlety.

Six months on and their latest release,The Moment Of Recognition, sees a continuation – and refinement – of the bands M.O.

In places, the songs are so sparse, they’re almost diaphanous, but bend in closer and you’ll be startled by the quality of the detail. While the two tracks on offer, the title-cut and ‘Mon Peu Rimbaud’, differ in tempo and volume – they’re instantly recognisable as blood relatives.

In fact, if you were to guess they were written and recorded in a huddle, you wouldn’t be too far off the mark.

“We took off to a small house in the country around Glenarm,” Richard reveals. “It did a lot of good. It was great to get that kind of freedom. It’s so rare when you live in the city and everyone has day jobs that you get an opportunity to concentrate fully on the music, or even just to hang out together. It was a really great place. There was no real phone network and no wireless access. No one to bother us.”

“Except for the landlord,” adds Chris. “He’d rap the door and we’d find him standing there with a Battenberg cake. Lovely man.”

If the haunting, quietly choral, ‘Mon Peu Rimbaud’ is anything to go by, splendid isolation inspires startling results for Heliopause.

“It was written in Curfew Tower in Cushendall,” Richard resumes. “It’s a really beautiful place. But weird as well. It was a unique place to work. It’s another place where you have trouble getting a signal for your phone. But it’s bang in the middle of the town and the locals just rev their cars and drink outside it. I’m not sure they know what to make of it. It’s a very busy town, but once you’re inside you feel pretty isolated. When you’re there you’re supposed to create an artwork relating to the local area. I did that – I made a stop-go animation using objects I’d found around the place. But I also wrote ‘Mon Peu Rimbaud’. ”

The Tower, now used exclusively as an artists’ retreat, is owned by Bill Drummond. Unfortunately Richard had no dealings with the great man… (part 2 not included here)

Question time with Richard Davis (heliopause interview)

Secret Fireworks.tk

Hot off the heels of featuring as our free EP of the week, Secret Fireworks had the pleasure of interviewing Richard Davis from Heliopause. He’s probably best known for playing music but he’s a notable filmmaker and animator producing short videos for bands like Fighting With Wire and Cat Malojian. If you haven’t already, check these guys out!

SF:First of all, you’re clearly a man of many talents- you’re an established filmmaker and animator as well as a musician. Has your main priority always been to write music or was it just a hobby that took on a life of its own?

RD: I guess it really took a life of its own, patiently waiting for the right moment. I’ve always been creative and was always musically minded, playing violin at school and piano, then self teaching myself guitar. It was very much a hobby because filmmaking and animation was my main passion. My work was always centred around music though and it was very natural to progress to directing music videos. It was my close involvement with the Belfast music scene that really spurred on my development as a musician. I finally learnt how to write a song, as bizarre as that sounds, developing my own style of finger-picking to suit my voice. I could never understand how to write lyrics but one day it all fell into place and music naturally started to become more important to me. . The songs/lyrics are very personal to me and I’ve always been shy of attention but strangely I feel very calm being open with people in this way.

SF:It seems increasingly common for songwriters to go into isolation or at least to a new location to stimulate the creative process: Justin Vernon of Bon Iver may be the most notable recent example but you personally have gone to Iceland, Cushendall and a cottage in Antrim to work on new material with the band. Does it pay off, in your opinion, instead of staying in the city?

RD: I think it really does: as an artist it’s so natural and easy to be inspired by new places and experiences, to get new ideas and blend them into how you work. Just the sheer surroundings of staying in a small town in the fjords of east Iceland blows your mind and was so apt for the kind of music i write. Its very barren there in terms of landscape, but its intense and so inspiring you instantly understand why bands like Sigur Ros and Mum create the sounds they do. I’m really inspired by the country and its music and this ethic of writing as its how I write…from the inside out. It’s headspace and time to concentrate and create. A week away focusing on only one thing can do so much when you have no distractions from other jobs, people or social events. In saying that, my lyrics are mostly inspired by personal interactions and feelings with people and specific situations so if i locked myself away for too long who knows what would happen to my writing.

SF: As a performer, what has been your favourite gig and why?

RD:It would have to be the Botanic gig with Albrecht’s Pencil: it was really special as we performed completely acoustic in amongst all the trees and plants. It was a beautiful setting and people were dotted around where they could: some kids just sat in front and played with the stones. It was a great atmosphere and the intimacy of the venue lent itself so well to our style. We both played separate sets then we collaborated on 6 songs, three of ours and three of Albrecht’s. It was the first time I had performed on someone else’s material so it was quite an unusual yet positive experience for me which I hope to do more of.

Are there any plans for another EP release later in the year and will there be any more gigs in the next few months?

RD:We just recorded our next release at Start Together with Ben McAuley, who recorded our Dark Matter EP. It will be out on Furious Tradesmen in May and will feature three new songs: we’re really excited as they convey the varied sound of our band from the summer pop song to the intimate acoustic track. We have a gig at a friend’s house on 5th April: he puts on these great gigs in his house and makes great pizza and sushi so we’re looking forward to that. The next big one planned is performing in the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival at the Black Market at Custom House Square, Sunday 10th May. It’ll be a quality afternoon with interesting stalls and great music!

Huge thanks to Richard and the rest of the guys in Heliopause for consenting to the interview as well as allowing me to post the Acoustic in Berlin EP.

(photo credit: Amy*Retrosight Photography)

Heliopause – Dark Matter

AU Magazine

Understated but oddly overwhelming, Heliopause create songs that tiptoe their way into your affections. Everything is beautifully measured, guitars chiming like a spoon striking the rim of a fine china cup, the pitter-patter rhythms evoking the image of rain beating against the windowpane of a lonely cottage.

This is daydream stuff, woozy, blissful, satisfying. Others might like their thrills more bullish, but Heliopause reward patience and those who take the time to properly befriend this record will be amply rewarded. The central pivot is ‘Lullaby’, a song of devastating purity, spectral and startling. Throughout the male / female vocals are delicate, the delivery either hushed or tickling like a lover’s breath against the ear. And yet, for all the shimmering gorgeousness, Heliopause are more than capable of wrestling the air from your lungs. Note ‘Dark Ink, a song which blots the moment like a depth charge, pulling us under with a swathe of fierce guitar and cascading drums. Mesmerising.

Helio, I Love You

Hotpress

Heliopause mainman steps out of the shadows.

Handing over a CD full of songs he’s just written, you simply have to wonder where Richard Davis finds the time.

The busy Heliopause singer is not one to let the grass grow under his feet. A visual artist of some renown (he works as animator, graphic designer, short-film and promo maker, photographer), the Belfast lad has for a long time been a familiar, if off-stage, presence on the local music scene. However, since the turn of the year, his natural artistic twitchiness has taken him out of the shadows and under the spotlight – he’s been busy delighting gig-goers with his special brew of melancholic, guitar-led but electronic-flavoured lo-fi.

While mere mortals may wonder how Davis has managed to squeeze another line on his CV, Richard insists that his new direction has long been sign-posted.

“Music has always been a huge part of my life,” he says, “and most of my friends would be involved in it in one way or another – playing in bands, promoting gigs and clubs. I’ve had lots of people encourage me to give it a go.”

Richard has called on Niall Harden of Iden Green and Tracer AMC’s Michael Kinloch for help with Heliopause, and the fact that none of the band view it as their main creative breadwinner has, according to Richard, had a liberating effect on the trio.

“It’s a side project both for me and the rest of the band,” he says. “It’s a hobby really. We’re all really relaxed about it. Maybe that’s the reason why it works so well; there aren’t any great expectations or any sense that we’re desperate to get signed. We’re just having fun.”

For someone whose work normally takes place behind the scenes (or indeed behind a computer screen or camera lens), the move to stage-front could prove traumatic. Richard, it seems, has taken it all in his stride.

“I usually hide behind my work,” he smiles, “but, even if I wanted to, I couldn’t do that with the music. I actually feel surprisingly comfortable. Maybe it’s because of the way the group is set up, but I don’t feel like I’m the focus. I’m just another cog in the wheel and I’m really enjoying that. If I was relying on myself then this would have been a very long time coming. It’s just great to be part of things.”

Renaissance man that he is, Richard is enthusiastic when it comes to explaining how his various interests strike sparks off one another – revealing how he uses some of the techniques he picked up in art school (“I prepare sketches, layer things”) to write songs.

“It’s really great being able to work in these different fields,” he says, “and it’s been a real thrill discovering how they all bleed into one-another. The music inspires the visuals and vice-versa. Just being creative, working with other people, forcing yourself to think in different ways and pick up new skills – they all tend to refresh each-other.”

But while you may assume that, given his background in music video (as co-founder of Chewie Films he’s directed shorts for Tom McShane and Fighting With Wire amongst others), Richard has no sooner written a song, than he’s storyboarding the ensuing promo, it’s just not so. Heliopause, it seems, has uncovered a bit of a creative blind-spot.

“I find it really difficult to stand back and visualise my own songs,” he says. “I’m not sure why that is. Most videos are made by people who are independent of the band, so they benefit from having some distance to the song which allows them to build up their own interpretation. I think it’s all maybe just a little bit too close to home for me. But we’ll see. I’m not going to give up that easily.”

We wouldn’t expect you to.

Colin Carberry.
03 Aug 2006