Welcome to this, my debut album. I am so grateful that you’ve taken an interest. When you start making music you have no idea who will hear it and then of course, you’ve no idea if they’ll like it. If you are brave enough to share your music you’ll find that inevitably some people like it and some don’t. Because that’s life and even the top ‘household’ bands have their detractors don’t they? So then you think, what can I do to make it ‘better’ or more appealing. In the end, the only answer is to do what comes naturally to you. As in life I guess? Creating something which is ‘your sound’ seems a bit high brow, but people started saying ‘well I could tell it was one of yours within seconds’. This perplexed me as they were all different (as far as I could tell!).
 
After a few months, reeling from positive comments and an award for my debut EP from Clouzine Magazine (under my ‘maiden’ name MidLifeMix) I decided to just carry on, while balancing the desire to throw the rule book out the window – and yet create sounds that made sonic sense in some capacity, so they were accessible? 

It is a big responsibility making music. I certainly feel that it is anyway. If someone is generous enough to take time out of their day (or night!) to click on a link containing something you’ve made, their ears need to not be offended by it. It means I have so many mixes of each track. I got to mix ZZZZH with the Ian McMillan track. Almost four and a half times round the alphabet! Why? Well it was a complex piece and each time I listened I noticed something else and I just couldn’t leave it. Of course, you change one thing and then this can have a knock on effect in a different instrumental part...and so on. Oh the joys of mixing! As you can see, I take this very seriously. And the fact that you are reading this and perhaps listening to the music means that all that time and effort was worth it. 

The play by Elizabeth Alker on BBC Radio 3 Breakfast show in the middle of July 2021 was an absolute dream come true. To have the ‘seal of approval’ from the BBC’s classical radio stations, albeit a presenter who has a gloriously open mind to the word ‘classical’, was out of this world. What’s more her listeners were very enthusiastic about the track on social media. Hello if you found me because of that spin of (Teaching Darkness) How To Fly featuring Ian McMillan. Thank you for ordering this album on the strength of it. Another big responsibility! I hope you like some of the other tracks too!

As alluded to by Elizabeth, I was a ‘late starter’. She said I was 54 when I started but she didn’t say how long I’ve been doing it for. So I’ll let you into a secret, I started making music only last year, assembling sounds into instrumental pieces. Using a free app called Garageband. When you’ve got your ideas arranged into a way that pleases you, you then have to produce and master it! And there the real work starts! Plus I also had no experience of either of those things. So it was an uphill struggle. I am so not the most tech savvy person you’ll ever meet. 

The ‘composition’ of a track is in a way the easy bit. Mixing it so the various elements are heard by the listener as you intend, panning across the head (headphones definitely enhance these tracks, I had a bit of fun with panning left and right as you will hear) without distortion, muddy sounds and of course, without sounding ‘wrong’  ie timing, structure or tuning issues, with no clicks where you’ve joined the instruments in the mix, etc, is no mean feat. I take my role very seriously and want to take you on a pleasant trip over the course of these 11 tracks. 

If you have any questions please email me at helefonix@gmail.com
https://www.helefonix.co.uk/

Nature's Grace album

This is a tribute to my grandparents Herbert and Gladys Davies. My grandparents were joyful companions to me and my sister Julia in our childhood, and we all benefited from them living next door. Something for which I will always be grateful. And when their only other grandchildren, our cousins Sally and Mark used to come and stay, our lives were further enriched.
The Little Things is OUT NOW on all streaming platforms, part of my debut album Nature's Grace which is also out now on all streaming platforms.
https://helefonix.bandcamp.com/album/natures-grace

 
My grandparents really provided a glorious backdrop and embedded a sense of right and wrong, gently and kindly. When I took my video out to record them chatting to me in 1992 I captured lots of detail about their younger years. 

Some of the chat was hard to hear and my granddad has a wonderful Teeside accent. Even my dad, on hearing the video recently said he'd never realised what a broad County Durham accent his father had. When I was deciding which bits to use to immortalise them, I felt that these phrases summed up their approach to life. I hope you enjoy the track.

Thanks to Charlie Deakin Davies, my eldest, for cleaning up the vocals on this, it was pretty tricky to do and I am really happy with how it's turned out.

“You see it only boils down to one little thing doesn’t it? 
Being Kind
Makes all the difference
We live each day as it comes and we enjoy it
It’s the little things in life that really count
One thing we’ve always been able to do and that’s laugh
Well I say, now your granny just laughs at me you know
I’ve had a very happy life and I’m very grateful
Oh it’s like being in heaven here”

There's also a video of them saying most of these things!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n49usYsS4GE

https://www.helefonix.co.uk/

Feel free to get in touch via email : 
helefonix@gmail.com
Bandcamp : https://helefonix.bandcamp.com/
Twitter :  https://twitter.com/helefonix 
Soundcloud : https://soundcloud.com/helefonix-midlifemix
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/helefonix/
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/Helefonix
Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyLXvfwXjdPo1bsaF24t_3A
Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/artist/7xXiGIzlyGqrl91hDNb66i
Website : www.helefonix.co.uk

The Little Things ft Herbert and Gladys Davies

The natural sounds for this track were recorded in summer and I think this gives the track a lightness of touch, in contrast the strident violin part. Certainly means the birds were gloriously audible too. And I shot footage which will accompany the track at some point! Capturing rain sounds was a challenge as it’s easy for it to sound like a general background hiss, but I managed to find a spot where there were drips from a roof landing nearby so you can tell it’s actually rain. 
Loved playing around with sounds to create some ‘raindrops’ in the musical accompaniment too!

The thunder adds the air of nature doing its best to be dramatic. I loved the simplicity of this track and also, the power. My other half insists he can see if accompanying the opening of a film where the protagonist is driving up to a huge old mansion. He sees a whole screenplay in his mind, but I’ll spare you the details as this is definitely off topic!

The Storm

This might surprise you, but technology is so amazing that these voices were not generated using a human in my studio. And that means it’s not me either (to answer another FAQ!). It’s possible she was recorded in SOMEONE’s studio, just not mine. And with the wonders of modern technology (especially since covid put a stop to the usual kind of music creation) we’ve had to be more inventive and push the boundaries. 
The choices about the way these notes are delivered, the notes that are sung and the harmonies they generated was my creative decision.  
Thank you to Anna Phoebe, an artist I admire hugely for playing this on her Soho Radio Culture channel show 3rd August and Chris West for premiering for me on Phoenix Radio 1208 on my birthday (6th July)!

I felt I needed some waves. It had a strong ‘Sirens’ feel about it. And so I asked my friend Daniel Parsons from Amongst The Pigeons, if he could try to capture some natural waves for me to add. For which Chris West kindly 'tweaked'. Which I feel really add to the meditative calm state this track engenders in me. It was quite a departure to use voices and I might experiment with more of this if people like it.

https://helefonix.bandcamp.com/album/natures-grace

Maids of the Mer

When I was asked 'what bird's THAT?' when the track started I realised that it's not common knowledge that most birds have at least two 'sounds'. Their 'song' and their warning call and sometimes another sound as well. Blackbirds are often heard but perhaps we don't link all their three sounds to the same bird. In addition to the 'song' which is pretty familiar, there's the 'pinking' sound as I call it, which can go on for quite some time, often in the evening or morning when there's no one else around, so you can hear it clearly. Then there's the call they make as they fly off alarmed, which is quite involved, with a tuneful squark over a few seconds, creating an arc of sound in the sky. The beginning of this track captures two blackbirds having an altercation. 

This track caused me a lot of problems. I created the tune for the blackbird first, like I did with the Thrush. However, I just couldn’t get any musical accompaniment to work. And then it dawned on me (ha!!), I was trying it in the wrong key and it’s actually A minor not A Major. (60bpm)

Once I had made that adjustment, it fell into place. I feel this track is the one of the most lively ‘dance’ type tracks and love the variety it adds to the track listing and the whole overall experience of the album.

I know people say that the album is dead. And that no one has got time to listen to a whole album of music. So I had to think long and hard about whether to leave some of these tracks out and have it as an EP. Then I thought, is the album dead? Does anyone listen to them? Well, I do. I love listening to my records in particular. Really immersing myself in the experience. Being present in the moment, doing nothing else. Just listening. It’s something we don’t do much of these days. So many demands on our time. So if you are listening to this album for the first time, all the way through, in the order I’ve curated for you, thank you.

Blackbird Has Spoken

Thrilled that Cerys Matthews played this track on her 6 Music show in early May! My first BBC Radio 6 Music spin!
This track seemed a fitting one to open the album with. My first proper foray into recording and including birdsong in my tracks. The song thrush was so vocal in winter, often the only voice in the garden. It’s what gave me the idea for this track. I wondered if it was possible to somehow blend the birdsong around me into more conventional sounds we’re used to from stringed instruments. After all they are clearly making music of their own. Might it work as a hybrid? How would that be possible? I had absolutely no idea. Perfect for recording for this track I felt. So whenever I heard him, off I’d trot to see what I could capture.
Once I felt I had a good enough capture I had to think about things like beats per minute and the key! Birds don’t really conform to a key in the conventional sense. Maybe they took a leaf out of Schoenberg’s ‘atonal’ book? But I did find that certain notes and scales fitted better so for this one I determined C major would work best. Weirdly 'standard'!
The beats per minute was easier in a way. (This is 96 bpm in case you're interested). Birds do tend to sing their call or song with a rhythm with roughly the same space between their phrases.That’s if I use more than a one phrase sample at a time. With this track I created a verse, pre chorus, chorus structure with a middle eight and created the song thrush melody line first. Then I set about seeing what instrumentation best suited the various sections. I had no idea what I was doing.  But I was enjoying the challenge. Once I had finished I needed to get an objective opinion. I decided to approach someone known for their extremely broad taste, as well as being a supporter of ‘experimental’ sounds, Neil March from Trust the Doc. Certainly I had never heard anything like this before but Neil’s reaction was wholly encouraging and he asked if he could play it on the very next Trust The Doc show on Exile FM. He said his listeners would be the best judges of it. Flattered and surprised I agreed. Then waiting for the reaction on the very lively thread was nerve wracking. But they were very kind and actually, more conventional radio shows have also warmed to the track, with Cerys Matthews playing it on BBC 6 Music a particularly sweet vote of confidence.
The Thrush call is so varied that it’s possible to imagine you are listening to lots of different birds! They are great mimics too. All these calls are naturally occurring. I’ve not manipulated or retuned them in any way. The only thing I’ve done is chopped them up so they might not be in the timing they appear in the wild, but it’s ALL the song thrush!



 It's on pre order here. will be out end of July https://helefonix.bandcamp.com/album/natures-grace

https://www.helefonix.co.uk/

Song Thrush Serenade by Helefonix

Life is not about who you once were. It is about who you are now and who you have the potential to be.  About having fun. 
Throwing out the rule book! Thrilled to have had some lovely support from various unexpected quarters.
Teaching Darkness How To Fly was a lovely pastoral excursion, where I set some prose by Ian McMillan to local found sounds. It found a home on BBC Radio 3 (thanks to Elizabeth Alker on her Saturday morning show), and on Cery's Sunday show on 6 Music, who also shared my first 'bird as soloist' experiment Song Thrush Serenade on national radio.
These two tracks are on my debut album, Nature's Grace.

'Who Do You Wanna Be' attracted the kind attention of Tom Robinson and was honoured to make it into his broadcast mixtape on 6 Music. 
BBC Intro Channel Islands (a remix I did for Michael Donoghue) and featured in Fresh Faves from Fresh on The Net as well as on the super independent shows such as WorldWideFM thanks Nitin Sawhney, Anna Phoebe and Kayla Painter, Tim Willett's New Music Generator, Neil March's Trust The Doc show (who have both invited me to share my music at their events,) Andy Sharman's KYN Show, Amazing Radio, Rich James Electro Show, Chris West's The Tripwire, Slava and Trev's show, Russ Evans Electro show and more, many of whom play me week after week and have me as their opening or outgoing show tracks. I am so grateful. 
A collaboration with THE Jackie Weaver earlier in 2021 resulted in national TV, newspaper and radio coverage, which was huge fun.

I'm creating a range of music, from what could be viewed as classical for a modern era I guess? telling a story through notes rather than words. I also love a beat, prose and some simple phrase work (either my own voice, samples or spoken prose) and I love a bop!  so my genre is not really defined or fixed BUT people say they can tell it's my work. I've also been honoured to be asked to do remixes by a number of artists and these have been going down well.

This piece for the Featured Artists Coalition was fascinating to research and write - Ageing and Raging: https://thefac.org/news-directory/fav-insights-by-helen-meissner

Grateful to LA based magazine for this comprehensive interview!: https://shoutoutla.com/meet-helen-meissner-music-producer/

How did it all start?
A glitch in the matrix meant that Garageband ended up in my lap! (I have since moved to Logic)that's Lockdown for you!! never had any desire to write or produce before but love what's coming out in the mix and hope you do too.  
Supermassive black holes in my production knowledge of course. Happy to be guided by anyone who cares to get in touch!
It's a bit like having a baby without realising you were pregnant! There's plenty more where that came from, from other dance to more chill. The world is my oyster. (Boring bits, based in Herts, legend in my own lunchtime). Wrong side of 50, right side of life, left of centre, off of the strip. 

Old enough to know better, young enough not to care

Bring it on!!!

https://www.runninwithmyrhythm.com/2020/08/midlifemix.html?fbclid=IwAR0Ea41vTdcZ8EppwnX2BXqTIBEMW0l5f3s1osUp1wR0_fcbkn2A9C-a1Bc

Email : helefonix@gmail.com

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/helefonix/
Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/7xXiGIzlyGqrl91hDNb66i