“We’re pretty much on the verge of finishing up our third album,” he informs us. “Just polishing up the last couple of songs. It’s a good time, we’re getting really creative at the moment in between shows. We’re really excited about it.
“I think it’ll be a pretty lengthy…I want to use the word ‘opus’, but we haven’t reached that status yet, but we do tend to write some pretty long songs. We’re branching out, and a few of the three-four minute songs are coming out. It’s a little bit of different territory for us. But it’s all going well, our third album is coming out very, very shortly. Later this year, we hope to get it out. Which will be volume three. It isn’t yet titled. We have a title in the works, but we’re not releasing that information just yet.”
The band are at the tail end of their tour in support of the first single from the album, Bullets, and the tour hits Victoria this week, with a show at The Espy in StKilda this Friday and at the Bended Elbow in Geelong the night after. They are massive fans of playing at the Espy, and can’t wait to play there once again.
“We love the Espy,” Dario enthuses. “The Espy, for me personally, would have to be one of the best venues in Australia that we’ve played at. I’ve been on the road with these guys for the last two and a half years, and we’ve seen a fair few venues, but The Espy is awesome. I love the food there!”
The support card for the show is a real eye opener, featuring the avant garde sounds of Ennis Tola, the ballsy, in your face rock of Dive Into Ruin and in an intimate acoustic set from live wire former Mammal and Full Scale frontman Ezekiel Ox. It’s an exciting lineup that should pull a very strong crowd to St Kilda’s finest venue.
“It is [a massive lineup],” he agrees whole heartedly. “We’ve got Ezekiel Ox playing an acoustic set, which I’ve never seen before. I’ve seen him play in plenty of bands, like Full Scale and Over Reactor, but keen to hear him up close and personal with his acoustic stuff. Ennis Tola, which to me are amazing. Musically it’s just far and beyond. Then there’s Dive Into Ruin, who are awesome. So yeah, really looking forward to it.
“I think so,” he continues, regarding the size of the crowd the night should pull. “You never really know with the scene as it is today. Being an independent band in Australia today, it’s really hard to get people out of their comfort zones. We’ve had good long chats about it in the band room, or on the road or even just over a beer at the pub, about people being complacent about going to live shows these days. It’s hard to get people away from their home theatres, or their X-Boxes or Playstations to come to see a live band. We strive for live music and the scene, and it’s getting a bit harder these days. But we’re trying to up the ante with our live show, the whole lighting production and that side of it as well. We just want to push people out of their recliners at home!” He laughs.
There is likely to be a second single released from the new album, and another tour to promote it, before the full album drops, to build some momentum leading into the main release.
“Yeah I think we would [release another single and tour behind it],” he says. “We don’t like to sit still in one place for too long, we are a pretty busy band and we like to get on the road as often as we can. Grow our fan base and basically work for it. We’re on the road a lot, meeting new people all the time, so it’s good.”
And as for the longer term future, Dario is very confident that Helm have a great deal of creative juice left in the tank. “Yeah, I definitely feel there’s more material to be released,” he says. “We’re playing around with a few more tunings, broadening our sounds a little bit. We’re settling in, we’re not going anywhere, we’re in it for the long term.”
BY ROD WHITFIELD
