Young pop artist Helman a little older, a little wiser

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This article was published 30/10/2017 (3243 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An audible sigh could be heard through the phone from pop artist Scott Helman after he confirmed he had just celebrated his 22nd birthday.

“I hate saying that out loud, I just turned 22. Now I’m, like, in my 20’s… I can’t pull the ‘young genius’ thing anymore,” he jokes.

The Toronto-based artist, who plays the Pyramid Cabaret tonight, indeed has been given the young genius classification before. At the ripe old age of 15, he caught the eye of Warner Music Canada, which signed him to a development deal and gave him time to hone his writing chops. In 2014, Helman dropped his debut EP, Augusta; the lead single, Bungalow, remained on the Billboard Canada charts for 22 weeks. He parlayed the EP’s success into opening slots on tour with Walk Off the Earth and Matthew Good and it earned him two Juno nods.

Now, Helman — whose sound has been described often as a mix of Jeff Buckley and Vance Joy — is on the road in support of his debut full-length, Hôtel de Ville, which already has spawned the well-circulated single Kinda Complicated.

Though success has come to Helman early in his life, he explains that it was still a long road to get where he is today as a musician and songwriter.

“I got signed when I was 15… I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to be famous and rich tomorrow,’ but it doesn’t quite happen like that,” he says, laughing.

“That’s something I learned. And I’m grateful for that because the journey of writing my music and making art that I really care about and can believe in is something that means a lot to me.”

But being a young man presenting pop-focused music isn’t always the easiest path for someone who wants to be taken seriously as a songwriter. Helman says he hasn’t experienced too many encounters with people writing his music off as fluff — and he thinks that could boil down to a shift in the mindset of present-day music consumers.

“I truly don’t believe that that stuff matters anymore. I think it did in the ’90s and even in the early 2000s and indie music was such a thing. I think people just want good music and music that’s honest — and pop music is part of who I am, it’s what I was raised on. That, as well as Neil Young and Pink Floyd and Jeff Buckley,” he says.

“I would be lying if I didn’t say pop music was a very essential part of my artistry. There’s definitely people who are assholes about art and they think the genre defines the quality and the honesty of what the person is saying but I don’t think the general public really feels that way. Maybe they do and I just don’t know, but I just think honesty is more important than that.

“There’s some responsibility at hand to break the idea that young kids can’t make pop music and rock ‘n’ roll at the same time. I don’t get why those two things have to be separated.”

Helman has been touring pretty hard in the months following the release of Hôtel de Ville, and says his plans are “hard to conceptualize” because every day is so full.

He has found some time to start working on new material, however, using the immediate post-album window as an opportunity to feel out some different musical paths without the pressure of a release looming.

“When you’re in a state like that, I think your writing is really fun. You can be as risky as you want to be because you have all the time in the world. It’s like if you know you have all this time ahead of you, why not take all the weirdest and craziest chances with your music, because there’s no pressure to put out another record? So I’m just writing, going deep in the well and writing the weirdest, most heart-wrenching stuff — because it’s like, why not?

“Some of the best ideas, I think, come out of just being free.”

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @NireRabel