playdeadnation: Interview: Max (Helalyn Flowers)

Helalyn Flowers is an eletronic industrial band from Italy, that consists of Noemi Aurora and Max. The duo has put together a sound of their own, combinig electro industrial with pop, spiced with futuristic features. The male part of the band, Max is here to have a chat with playdeadnation!

pdn: Hey Max! Please tell me, what made you and Noemi Aurora decide upon this name for the band?

Max: I came up with this name. It’s born in just one moment, that kind of ‘right’ moment you know… There’s no plan, no sit-in, no people behind a table. ‘Helalyn’ is an English archaic term for ‘hell’, but it was originally meant as ‘hidden’, ‘subconscious’ or ‘aridity’. If flowers can grow from arid and dry then nothing is impossible. This demand for freedom is the core of Helalyn Flowers.

pdn: Helalyn Flowers is clearly a puzzle put together by a lot of different pieces. What were your sources of inspiration in getting to the musical style and image you guys adopted?

Max: Both Noemi A. and I are huge fans of music and use to listen to a lot of bands, a lot of genres. In the same way we’re fascinated by specific visual approaches that we love to re- interpret and make ours. When we started Helalyn Flowers we were influenced a lot by Bjork, Miranda Sex Garden, Marilyn Manson’s “Mechanical Animals”, Rammstein, Korn, Faith No More and a lot of the Eighties Dark Music. We crossed all this with a synthetic and futuristic background, both musical and visual, incorporating elements of Glam Rock and Cyber Punk.
pdn: When and how did you and Noemi meet?

Max: We met almost 13 years ago because fate wanted so.

pdn: How did you two get the idea of working together on this band?

Max: I heard Noemi singing a lot of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal stuff and I was really shocked by the power of her voice. She never joined a band since her artistic activity dealt more with Contemporary Dance, Musical and so on. I came from 10 years of underground musical scene during which I played Punk, Hardcore, Thrash and Death Metal. I felt I still had to express a lot of me, so the very first embryo of Helalyn Flowers was born. We called the band “The Claw” and used to be a 4-piece band with traditional electric instrumentation before realising that nobody really understood what we were trying to do. So, we surrounded ourselves with synthesizers, racks, keyboards, drum-machines, PC and started to write songs. We didn’t give a fuck about limits, genres and scenes and just after 6 months our first “Disconnection” MCD was out.

pdn: If you could pick any band, who would you like to share the stage with someday?

Max: If I had to answer this question years ago I would have done an endless list of the bands that inspired Helalyn Flowers’s sound, like Depeche Mode or Marilyn Manson, just to name the first couple of main ones. Today, I’m less fascinated by this kind of things. I knew some of these bigger acts and shared stage with a bunch of them. And do you want to know what’s the backstage like? No smiles, no talk, no support. No nothing! I think this is the thing of the goth scene I hate more. Those people showing depression, hostility, coldness at any cost. Or contrary, bands that have fun only when they go junk or have some groupies around. I love sincere people, guys who are truly themselves and not a reflection of a fucking pose. The bands I would have toured with are all dead, and I’m thinking of Lords Of The New Church, Ramones, Nirvana… I’m here just for myself.

pdn: Are you guys working on any new material at the moment?

Max: Yes! We have a lot of new stuff and still we’re working on ever more new and fresh ideas. We don’t want to rush it this time. We want it to be perfect for us. It’s our third album and I think this is a very important step. I can say that it’s not “Stitches Of Eden Pt. 2”; it’s PURE Helalyn Flowers. We’ll give much more room to the electronic background and have very big guitars on it. We just finished the mix for one new song “Before The Sunshine” which will be released by Alfa Matrix very soon and that will anticipate the most Metallic Goth Rock of what’s coming forth.

pdn: What are the band's plans for the future? When will we hear new stuff from Helalyn Flowers?

Max: At the moment, we just want to go on with the making of the new album and count on having it released by the first half of 2012. It’s possible that we come back in the UK starting from March.

pdn: Thank you so much for answering these questions! Anything you would like to add for your fans out there?

Max: Thanks to you for this pleasant conversation. I take the occasion to introduce my new solo-project named ‘The Wet’. Debut Cd out on 31st October 2011. Here I perform a very wild and primitive crossover of Industrial, Hardcore Punk and Thrash Metal with sonic references to Ministry, Slayer, Sepultura, Atari Teenage Riot, Skinny Puppy, Ratos De Porao and Throbbing Gristle. Enjoy here:http://www.facebook.com/thewetofficial
http://www.reverbnation.com/thewet
You can purchase a special package by visiting my official website:
http://www.thewetofficial.com/
Helalyn Flowers are deep into the making of the new album which will surprise you all!
Stay Tuned, STAY TRUE!!!