Helzuki
Kristian Purcell
R34 at Mineola, NY, 1919, 2010 (Oil on canvas, 61x76cm)
click the images below to get info
Sometimes, when someone tells me they make art, I might expect the stuff they make will be "Ok...". Maybe it's just me and my pessimistic outlook on life, but I often have low expectations when it comes to these things (it's a good way to be, since most of the time I'm pleasantly surprised, which is a nice reaction, right?). These arty people show you their latest thing and you're all "Oh wow, that's great!" but in your head you're not really thinking it's truly great art, only that its great that they are pursuing creative endeavours in general. I've been in bands and struggling to have my music heard for years - some of it not very good at all - so I know what it feels like to be humoured by your mates. And of course you're grateful for it, that's what your mates are there for. We all need encouragement.
But then there are people that come into your life who are so good that they knock you on your arse, and you can't believe they are working day-jobs in Bedford and not being shown at the Tate. A person who forces you to recalibrate your scale of superlatives (that handmade coffee cup you liked on Facebook is suddenly not so literally "awesome", for example). Kristian Purcell is such a person. A proper artist. I also have the honour of calling him my friend.
I met Kristian rather unglamourously, as a result of trolling Myspace for potential musical collaborators. This was back in 2007 when Myspace was still sort of happening, but also sort of starting to shrivel and die. He lived in Bedford, he liked Bowie, he could sing and play guitar. That was enough for us (well, enough for me - I'm sure Matt would prefer the Bowie connection didn't exist, since he has had to endure both of us drunkenly screeching our way through "Teenage Wildlife" at least a dozen times to date. I don't think he finds it amusing, which is a shame since I'll probably be inclined to do this as often as I'm drunk on red wine for the rest of my life). He joined the band, we gigged a little bit, wrote some music together and made a record in the spare room of my house. He worked various day jobs, teaching contracts and working at the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery & Bedford Museum; he wasn't famous or critically lauded or making any money from his wonderful art and it didn't seem right.
I remember when he transformed the Wellington Street house he was living in at the time into a makeshift gallery and invited the town to see (and possibly buy) his work. It was a genius bit of initiative, and Matt and I both felt like arseholes for trying to haggle down the prices of the two small pieces we ended up buying that night. Mates rates? C'mon we're all struggling artists here... I also remember sitting with Kristian in the Gordon Arms a few days after Xmas 2008, having a deep discussion about music and art and what the hell we were doing with our lives. We're both the same age, and we share the same frustrations that stem from being unknown, from dealing with universal apathy on a daily basis, the fears that we might have missed our opportunity to be successful. During the course of that conversation we discussed studying our disciplines again and maybe I should take the plunge with the PhD. Within months that wishful drunken chatter had become a reality for me, a decision that (I feel) has put me on the right track with my career.
Kristian deserves success because his art is great. And it's getting better. If you're reading this and you're not familiar with his work, you need to check it out immediately. If you have the means to, invest in one of his pieces now - they're bound to be worth stupid amounts of money one day (chat to him, he might be able to do "mate's rates"). Comment on his blog, because god knows we all need a bit of encouragement.
And the musical collaboration continues, sort of. There are wishy-washy plans to record new material with the band in the new year, but a far more concrete prospect is a gig we'll be playing together at Bedford Esquires on the 20th of November (this Saturday night). It's more a Kristian Purcell solo gig with me accompanying on piano. I think we're even doing a couple of Helzuki songs from that record we made in my spare room in 2008. Should be fun to bust out the furry red stage piano once again, it's been too long.
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UPDATE: GIg has been and gone, and here's a review
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it's little bits of nothing...
23/01/10 18:09 Filed under: New Music
The songs took a while to record, and even longer to mix. The recording process was veerrrry casual - maybe one or two wine-fuelled evenings a month at best we would get together to spend on it. And we wanted so many layers, despite being only a three-piece band - the attraction of the newly built studio in our house made us want to experiment and see how much we could get away with. Then came the mixing...
At first we struggled with the mix, partly because of the number of layers we had put down, but mostly because we didn’t know what the hell we were doing. Then we stopped mixing because I got a new bit of kit in the studio and I was convinced that we had to start again - I think it was when the Liquid Mix arrived. Then, when Matt had mixed the first three tracks, I decided that I was ‘sick and tired’ of the songs and left it in his hands (his slow, methodical but admittedly consistent hands)... I was all “I don’t wanna know about it, don’t wanna hear those songs again!”. I think I was just frustrated with the slow pace of things.
Then, I started my PhD studies and suddenly all my spare time was gone. Matt was sort of mixing this project on and off, just to get it done and out of the way... and around this time we somehow decided that our old studio monitors were too coloured (which they were...) and we replaced them. Hence the need to start mixing again. Then, shortly after that I bought some sweet mastering plugins, and at this point I was just like “oh hell, give me those mixes, I’ll bang them out in an hour”. Which, after all the previous drama, is exactly what I did in the end!
All said and done, I think I am proud of these songs. They represent a fun time of experimentation and sharing of ideas, and a super steep learning curve in many respects - I learned so much about multitrack recording, and even more about my own creativity and how I can work with others.
The E.P. is available for free from www.helzuki.co.uk, and will be on iTunes and Amazon and everywhere else in a few days. Hoorah!
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Happy New Year! Let the teenies commence...
02/01/10 14:50
Apologies (to the one person who actually reads this blog! Hi Liz), it has been a while since I have written here - I can hardly remember what actually happened in December, I can only remember a blur of flu, snow, christmas concerts, student uni applications and just general end of year stress. It went so quickly, as did the rest of 2009... which, on reflection, I suppose has been a very big year for me. It was around this time last year that I decided to create this site and try to write some music again - I remember announcing it to Matt & Liz on New Year's Eve 2008 at the Roy Ayers Jazz Cafe gig that I wanted to start my PhD over again and be a composer, and amazingly somehow I actually had the balls to give it a proper go rather than leave it as just wishful talk. I really do feel like I’ve come a long way in these last 12 short months. It’s a shame Helzuki didn’t make it, but I suppose that was always going to happen...
2 weeks off work has been wonderful - I’ve been dividing my time between writing music and playing xbox/being a bum. The game “Dragon Age: Origins” temporarily took over my life for about 6 days straight, which was great fun. It’s not often I get the chance to completely geek out like that, and it only happened because I managed to get sick with flu and couldn’t think straight enough to get any other kind of constructive work done. A blessing in disguise! I definitely have a “thing” now for the guy who voiced acted the Alistair character. SWOON.
Music writing wise, I’ve been developing some pieces for piano solo + laptop technology, which has been a real blast putting together. That, and slowly chipping away at the String Quartet (sloooowest composition ever! writing it has been like pulling teeth... but in the end I think it will come together as something i can be proud of)... also the LCO thingy which i will be working on as soon as this blog post is competed. Plenty to do, as always.
I hope everyone who stumbles across this little message has had a wonderful holiday break. Here’s to the Twenty-Teens being the best decade for us yet.
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Finally some Helzuki music..
19/04/09 23:42 Filed under: New Music
Check www.helzuki.co.uk to hear my band’s latest stuff.
We spent a few too many months laying these eggs! I think the next batch will happen a lot quicker and with more focus and enthusiasm. Still, we learned a lot through the process of making these. We’re thinking of adding another 3 songs to these and releasing an EP in a month or so.
Aside from being stricken with Matt’s pharyngitis not once but TWICE in the space of two weeks (WTF?), and playing my way through Mass Effect, I spent the rest of my holiday time mixing a few projects and marking student work. Term 3 commences tomorrow and I turn 30 the day after that. I discovered the Flaming Lips’ cover of Borderline, Ute Lemper’s Little Water Song, and the original Grey Gardens which have all enriched my life wonderfully. Another find: Kutiman’s Thru-You project which just blew me away. Finally, I now exist on IMDB as a composer. Another brick in the wall!
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We spent a few too many months laying these eggs! I think the next batch will happen a lot quicker and with more focus and enthusiasm. Still, we learned a lot through the process of making these. We’re thinking of adding another 3 songs to these and releasing an EP in a month or so.
Aside from being stricken with Matt’s pharyngitis not once but TWICE in the space of two weeks (WTF?), and playing my way through Mass Effect, I spent the rest of my holiday time mixing a few projects and marking student work. Term 3 commences tomorrow and I turn 30 the day after that. I discovered the Flaming Lips’ cover of Borderline, Ute Lemper’s Little Water Song, and the original Grey Gardens which have all enriched my life wonderfully. Another find: Kutiman’s Thru-You project which just blew me away. Finally, I now exist on IMDB as a composer. Another brick in the wall!
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Suffering from...
29/03/09 19:58 Filed under: Work
... string arrangement overload at the moment. Not only am I doing arrangement for strings with my students at work at the moment, but I have had my own busy string arranging agenda going on at the same time. Spending far too much time pondering harmonics, alto clefs and double stops these days. Rah! I have already decided, next composition is going to be electronic.
I banged out three today and I think they’re going to turn out just lovely. :) One full song (and a bitty part of another) for Monty, two alternate arrangements for a Helzuki track and (finally!) a first draft of the slow movement for my “proper” quartet. Will post results once they’re recorded this wednesday.
Nothing more to add, just thought y’all should know I’m busy here.
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