It was great to meet Dan, Steve & Rusty from HELPLESS, we met up with them after their performance on the Dogtooth Stage and got talking about their love of aggressive music after sharing a traditional 'Janner' greeting (It's a Plymouth thing!)

 

So, you've just played Download 2018, how was it?

Really good fun - I didn't know what to expect but it was great fun! 

Same as a Normal gig?

Just a bigger crowd, which is more comfortable as you don't see the faces. At all gigs you get into a zone so don't tend to focus on the audience once the first song starts.

 

Two weeks ago you were playing The Junction in Plymouth (great venue) and now you've just played the Dogtooth stage at Download 2018....

It was hilarious that we'd got it and as it got closer it got less funny.

 

How long have you been together?

Three years ago, Rusty joined Steve and Dan and played together for a while.

 

Listening to your music I'd describe it as "Brutal"? How's that fit with you?

That'll do! The boys are happy with that! When we make new music we always ask "is that horrible enough?"

 

I read a bio that described you as "The loudest & nastiest band in UK"

(laughs) all around. Music-wise maybe, but we're lovely people.

 

So your debut album Debt, did it come together easy?

We wanted to do more but what we'd done felt right so we went with that. Creating it worked well. There was no music management pressure which was welcome.

 

Any inspiration or theme?

Collection of ideas shaped together into Debt. No particular theme. We spent lots of time fine tuning it and we practised loads to get studio time right. We ended up recording it in 3 days! 

 

Do you prefer the studio or being on tour?

We love both, the creativity of being in the studio whilst with gigs, it's great to know you've nailed it.

 

What are your Touring arrangements?

Steve has a van so he's the driver. We don't listen to aggressive music when travelling, it's mainly Hip-Hop, we think it's important to save our energy for our aggressive music performances and not get acclimatised to the white noise.

 

Who's the Biggest pain?

Steve can be a grumpy driver because of the distance to gigs from Plymouth, I guess none of us are really, we're not really away for long periods to annoy each other enough. It tends to be weekend gigs away from the SouthWest.

 

Download 2018 has been a fabulous highlight for you, what's next?

Writing more music. We have a few gigs in August then we're going to focus on getting our new album nailed.

That's Quick?

It feels like we've taken ages. We just get creating whilst the juices are flowing and it's going well!

 

Away from music, what are you upto? 

We all have full-time jobs, Dan is in 3 bands and works at a recording studio (Plymouth Music Collective). Steve is in 3 bands and works in Horrabridge. Rusty is an Art College teacher and saw one of his students in the front row today, that was pretty cool! 

 

Challenges of being based in Plymouth?

The time it takes to get to gigs!  

 

How's the Music scene in Plymouth? 

It's pretty decent and very collaborative as there aren't big genre groups so bands don't compete.

 

We bid farewell to the guys, it was great to see a band at Download flying the flag for Plymouth!

 

Interview by Gary Williams

 

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