The Yards vocalist Chris Helme manage to take time out of his busy schedule to talk to R13's Alison Aird about the upcoming debut album, the singer's past in The Seahorses and what to expect in the future.
R13: What can we expect from the album?
CH: I love that question, um, it depends what you like really. Some people say it's a lot like The Seahorses but that's probably because I sang for both things but I think that's as far as that comparison goes really. It's a bit of a mismatch of different styles of things because we're all into different stuff. I hate that question because it's not really for us to say it's for other people to decide what they like.
R13: Was it difficult from being in The Seahorses to going back and starting a band again from scratch?
CH: I suppose it was really. I wasn't very happy when I was in The Seahorses and it was bound to end, it was a release and a relief not to be doing it anymore and to be honest we'd been gigging for 3 years solidly with The Seahorses so I was totally exhausted so it was quite nice to have a little bit of a break. I just started enjoying music again really. I took my time getting my things together, started a family, look after my son because he's gone to school now. It was difficult at first because a lot of people expect me to play Seahorses stuff at my solo shows and I really didn't want to do that because I wouldn't have felt like I'd moved on or anything and I didn't see the point in just doing everything that I was trying to get away from. I probably pissed a few people off by not doing that and my audiences aren't as big as they used to be but I'm glad I'm not doing it and I'm doing my own thing. Now we're a proper band and we do everything together which is great and now it's fun again, and that makes all the difference.
R13: Did you have to change your way of song writing at all so that The Yards songs didn't sound the same as The Seahorses songs?
CH: No, not at all. It was funny with song writing really because I've got a habit of sounding different every time I write a song, I don't like to copy some kind of routine or what I've done in another song so the styles can vary quite often. The difference with The Seahorses was John [Squire] had a very firm idea of what he wanted that band to be and although he said he didn't want it to sound like anything he did want it to sound, you know, commercial and he was very heavily into sort of, me sounding like Liam Gallagher at one point which was quite irritating. Because of that I've gone against the usual thing, my song writing is me writing for the song, not for any kind of scene or anything.
R13: Do you prefer playing larger or smaller venues? You've gone back to these smaller venues now where the audience is practically sitting on your lap, do you prefer that?
CH: [laughs] They can be quite nice, I like them. It's nice to play in front of huge crowds, doing festivals and stuff like that, that's great, but there is something to be said of doing little intimate gigs as well because you can be yourself, you know what I mean? It's not all visual, you can sit and talk and have a laugh. It's like being in your sitting room and it's more relaxed.
R13: So would you say the nerves are bigger when you're doing a big festival?
CH: Yeah I would say the nerves increase with the number of bodies in there. I do get quite, well, I tend to close my eyes a lot when I do huge gigs because it is a bit scary seem all them people, but it's great when you open your eyes and they're all loving it, that's great, that's why you do it.
R13: How did you first get into music?
CH: I've always sang really, but not really, not in a brat-ish kind of stage school way, you know "look at me, I can sing" sort of way. It was more singing in the bath and along to my mum's records and stuff. I remember singing along to a Nat King Cole record of my grand-dad's which was quite fun. I got into playing guitar and stuff because I was going out with a girl when I was 19 and she finished with me to go out with someone who was in a band so I thought, "I'm going to have a crack at that and I'm going to show her, I'll write the best songs ever and I'll show her". Shortly after, about two weeks later, I'd completely forgotten about her and just kind of played guitar and stuff and ended up busking and things like that because that's what we do in York to make a bit of cash.
R13: Where do you get your inspiration from?
CH: I don't know really, I read a lot of books. I'm reading Philip Pullman right now, which is really good and there's so much in there that you could write a whole concept album on it and it's brilliant but I don't think I'm going to do that for the moment, it'd be a bit cheesy. I don't know, everything really, probably relationships and stupid people as well, yeah, I get a lot of inspiration from stupid people.
R13: Which do you prefer, touring or writing?
CH: I'd like to do both at the same time but when you're touring the last thing you want to do is start writing new songs. I'd like to be able to do it comfortably, with like a huge bus with a little studio in it that'd be excellent, maybe one day. I like going away to write I think, we're going to the Lake District soon for a few weeks to start finishing the second album off so I'm looking forward to that which should be good. Touring's good too but after doing it for three years solidly you know, I've been everywhere but I haven't seen any of it, I've just seen hotel rooms and venues and planes.
R13: Was there any place you preferred playing? I mean, you didn't see the country but was the crowd better in any certain place?
CH: Japan's just very odd. It's brilliant because it's just so different from anywhere else. It's so completely different it's like another planet, that's cool. Prague was really good, I just remember them being really up for it, I really like Prague, I think I'd like to move there actually.
R13: You're touring on this new album right?
CH: Yeah, we're touring end of May, early June and hopefully we're doing a load of festivals that'll be really cool as well. We've got a gig coming up really soon actually, in London on the 20th of April which is going to be our album launch which is going to be really good fun.
R13: I'll probably head up for that, I got the album today and I'm already compulsively listening to it.
CH: You like it?
R13: Yeah, I really do!
CH: Great! I don't know why I'm surprised when people like it. We recorded it a while back and I've heard it to death and I know it's hard to talk about it and do interviews about it because it's like, I know I'm supposed to be selling this thing but bloody hell, I want to get on and do the next one. I listen to it and I kind of like it but I have to get myself so stoned and drunk and pretend to be somebody else to listen to it. I don't if that's a good or bad thing to do but I do like it.
R13: So would you say the next album is going to be really different?
CH: It'll probably be totally different because we've been getting into, okay the thing is I really don't like country music at all, but I've been writing and getting into things like Pavement and things like that because I quite like harmonies you see so a lot of it's to do with that. The harmonies I've been choosing are all very 60s, 70s The Band, west coast kind of things. So I don't know, it might be kind of countrified and a bit more modern and not as cheesy. It's going to be odd doing country songs with a Yorkshire accent.
R13: What advice would you give to someone that's trying to become and singer songwriter?
CH: Don't think about it just do it I suppose. It doesn't matter if you write a hundred crap songs, there's probably a good one in there somewhere. I'm not sure what advice to give to anyone really, if they really want to do it, they'll just do it.