Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how your childhood impacted your musical direction?
A: We grew up in a small town in Denmark. Our parents got divorced when we were 5 and 10 years old respectively. We were both what you’d call hyper-sensitive kids, which was a challenge back then, and can be today as well. However, this sensitivity came to our advantage later on, when we started expressing our creativity. Music is an inner journey in many ways, and we experienced that from a very young age. By dealing with a lot of chaos and grief, we felt the whole range of emotions. All this combined has given us a gratitude for both music and life in general.
Q: How are you planning on growing your fan base and sharing your music with the world? What message do you have for anyone who is about to discover “HELAND”?
A: In terms of growing our fan base, we constantly remind ourselves the importance of staying true to what we feel like doing. This is essential to us, since we’re absolutely certain that there are people out there in the world with the same taste in music as us, who share a common way of feeling music. We’ve set a goal to release a single every 6 weeks. Our message to people who are about to discover HELAND, is that they’re being welcomed in a community where authenticity and vulnerability are core elements of our universe. When we create, we’re doing our best to be open-minded to new ideas. We’re hoping that this openness and intuition can help people connect with us, and at the same time, we want to learn from people’s interpretations of our works.
Q: Who is the most inspiring artist for you right now? And where do you find inspiration for making music?
A: We get our inspiration from many artists, but LANY has always been a go-to for us. Their music is so easy to listen to, and we’re truly impressed by their simplistic songwriting and catchy melodies that they’ve been able to push out for so many years now. When we’re in doubt during a songwriting session or when recording, we often ask ourselves: “What would LANY do?” We’re both convinced that LANY does what LANY wants to do, and not what they think others would want them to do. We want to keep this mentality as we move on with our career, and our first single has been approached with this mindset, which we’re quite proud of.
Q: Can you tell us about the story or message behind the song, “Trophy.”?
A: When Helena first started writing this song, she felt the need to shed light on how society approaches love and dating in this day and age. “We’re all playing the same old game.” The fact that breaking up and finding another partner any time you want to, is something that strikes a wrong note in her. Where is the true dedication? As she sings in the song: ‘Throw yourself out there, they say – but keep your heart to yourself.” The song then got a new meaning when we met in the studio to record it, since getting new eyes on it, and composing music for the lyrics made it feel empowering and quite the opposite of the originally critical view on society. The song wasn’t meant to be directly positive and uplifting at first, but rather a way to express her honest thoughts about a certain topic. In other words, the song first became whole, when the idea of the post-chorus came to us. “Throw yourself, throw yourself out there” repeated over and over. This is the exact line that provoked Helena deeply, when people told her to do it in real life. She took their “bad advice” and twisted it into something that she wholeheartedly believes in. The act of actually throwing yourself out there, and at the same time accepting to be vulnerable in the process without the fear of getting hurt. Helena believes that this is the only true way of experiencing a real connection and that relationships are a reflection of aspects within oneself.
Q: How would you describe your sound in one word for potential listeners?
A: Honest.
Q: Did you face any challenges while writing or recording “Trophy”?
A: The writing process was super fluid and easy, but the production was quite tricky to get right. Helena has a way of implementing uniquely combined rhythms that aren’t super logical at first, therefore Andreas spent many hours in the studio working on the vocal production. It felt amazing getting it right at the end, and the main goal was to keep the production as minimal as possible, while still managing to keep up with today’s trends and sounds to stay competitive.
Q: What is the message of your music? And what are your goals as an artist?
A: Life is a constant process of experiences, both highs and lows. Music can get you through some of these bumps on the way, and we just wish for people to lose themselves in our universe. ‘Cause in the end, we can’t really change what we’re not in control of, and we guess that our music’s message is the same for our potential fans as it is for ourselves – a safe zone, where life can be set on pause and internal growth can spark.
Q: Who is your dream artist to collaborate with? (dead or alive)
A: LANY, without a doubt.
Q: What is your advice for people interested in pursuing music as a career or for those trying to enter the industry?
A: We’ll let you know soon enough 😉
Q: If you could go back in time and give a younger you some words of wisdom, what would they be?
A: You are the most important person in your life, and you deserve everything!
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