Page 5 - ROCKNATION ISSUE 27

ROCKNATION ISSUE 27 PAGE 5

On the subject of new tracks, please tell us about “The Story of Helix” and the title track “Eat Sleep Rock” what they
are about.
Brian: I wrote the story of Helix while I was at our house in North Fort Myers, Florida. We’ve stayed down there every winter
now for 5 years and love it down there. Anyway, about 3 years ago we started to put together an acoustic show, which
eventually morphed into “An Intimate Night with HELIX: Acoustic songs & story-telling”. This was after the release of
our acoustic album SMASH HITS UNPLUGGED. (I was going to make up t-shirts for that one with the caption: GOT
SMASHED? Lol.) The 7-1/2 minute rap introduces the show. Not only did it take a long time to write, it took even longer to
memorize. When Kaleb left at the end of last year (under great terms-we still write together) it marked the end of another
HELIX decade-or as I say in the rap-another Duckade. Although the rap may sound funny, it’s exactly what happened to us
in our career. The song EAT SLEEP ROCK was written in Toronto with Sean Kelly, who I’ve written with on many HELIX
albums. Sean plays for Lee Aaron, Gilby Clark, Nelly Furtado, and many others. He’s one of Canada’s premiere guitar
players. We thought the song was perfect for this compilation. It is a statement of what HELIX is all about: Work, work, &
more work. Giving it 110%. It’s a 24 hour passion that never lets up if you want to succeed in this business.

Who did the fantastic artwork layout for the CD booklet and tray card?
Brian: Brent “The Doctor” Doerner handles all my videos and artwork now. Brent and I are like brothers. He played guitar
and wrote many of our hits ie. “Dirty Dog” from NO REST FOR THE WICKED. He’s a super creative guy. It was Brent who
came up with the effect we used on the first video.
For the “Eat Sleep Rock” video, who produced it and came up with the idea for that?
Brian: Brent came to me with the effect and it blew me away. We slowed down the track 50% and then mimed the song
perfectly on time. If you got ahead or behind the beat the effect didn’t work. As well as slowing everything down to be in
time, you also had to exaggerate your movements. The COVID virus limited how many people could be at Brent’s at one
time, so we all shot ourselves individually on green screen. This was difficult to do because slowing down the video meant
that now it was 7-1/2 minutes long. By the end of it we were all soaked from sweat. Brent then took all the band members
(who had been shot separately) and put them together on one screen. Then he added the album cover artwork as
background through the magic of Adobe Photoshop, then an effect where you can alter the perspective. Lastly, an
“earthquake effect” was added to the middle 8. We decided to use one continuous shot of everyone as part of the effect.

Will the band release anymore videos for this release?
Brian: We’re presently working on one for “The Tequila Song.” It’s going to be our best yet and lots of fun. Can hardly wait.
It’s coming up this weekend.

With this Pandemic going on, are there any shows in the future lined up yet?
Brian: There were shows we cancelled through the spring in western Canada. We also had two acoustic shows (sold out,
I might add) that went down the drain and a big festival in New Brunswick in September. All gone…There was also a big
show at the drive-in in Saskatoon with PRISM that ended up being cancelled. I really don’t see big concerts coming back
until a COVID shot is invented. People are scared shitless to go out. What’s really a shame is that we just signed on with
Danny Stanton for the U.S. and Europe for live booking. Danny is Dee Snider’s road manager, has been in the business for
years, and is well respected. He also handles other acts such as Foreigner.

I see you mentioned on your morning facebook videos, the band is currently writing new music. Please tell us about
that.
Brian: Yes. It’s been kinda on hold for a couple of weeks because of the lock downs here, but I have lots to work on until we
get back together. We’re about half an album deep now. I’m also going to be working on putting out a solo album which is
going to be It’s a Business Doing Pleasure reworked. That album, released in 1993 was never supposed to be a HELIX
album in the first place. It was supposed to be a solo CD. This is the first time I’ve really tried to put a
best of (kinda) album under the name VOLLMER. I’m going to call the
album It’s a Pleasure Doing Business. It will
be the best songs from the HELIX album (ie.
Tug o’War/Look Me Straight in the Heart/That
Day is Gonna Come) plus a couple of
unreleased songs Mark Ribler and I penned.
As well, I want to add a couple of the great
Sean Kelly/Vollmer compilations over the
years: Best Mistake I Never Made/Get Yer
Hands Dirty/Angelina for instance. Maybe
write a few new ones too. Anyhoo, that’s
another project I’m working on.

Thank you for taking time for this interview
and any last words to the fans?
Brian: Thanks for the loyalty & support. Your
money for our albums/concerts/merchandise
fund future Helix projects. It keeps music
going. It keeps me going. Much appreciated.