Today, we sat down with The Halo Trees drummer Stefan Helwig to talk music inspiration, music growing up and much more! Be sure to check out their music below after the interview on Spotify!
Interview:
Answered by Stefan Helwig (Drums)
What is your inspiration to write your music? Is it your surroundings?
I guess you could say that the city of Berlin plays a certain part in the songwriting process, but recently we’ve branched out and gone international, as with Dark Clouds over London
Apart from that, I’d say it’s mostly the quirks of life as it happens, that inspire our songs and our lyrics.
What type of music did you listen to growing up?
My dad had a lot of AC/DC and Manowar in his collection, my mom favoured Depeche Mode. When I started taking drum lessons, my teacher introduced me to Herbie Hancock and generally music with a certain “groove” to it, and it remains a huge inspiration for me to this day.
Is there someone you looked up as a hero?
No one in particular, but I’m still fascinated that our band leader Sascha manages to come up with so many different ideas for new music. I usually joke that when he introduces new demos, he has at least ten “raw songs” up his sleeve, just in case.
If you weren’t a musician, would you be doing today?
Well, music isn’t our main source of income, at least not in that sense. As far as I (Stefan) know, Sascha’s work is still related to music, but my main field, athletics coaching, is a bit off the mark. Though, from a drummer’s perspective, that might still fit the bill of “music-related.”
What advice do you have for our fans out there that want to create music?
Honestly, just get going and try out as much as you can! Don’t limit yourself to a certain style of music and if it sounds good to you, play it to people whose opinion you value. Most of making music is just creating something and standing by it confidently. At least that’s my take on the matter.
Oh, and of course: Practice! Not joking, just get in there, play to the songs of your idols as close as you can, and make sure that your skills on the instrument are always above what you actually play live. You’ll need a certain comfort zone to account for the “pre-game jitters” 😉
For example, for the new album—Summergloom—I really had to work on my odd-time signatures, there’s a lot of tricky stuff going on in the background. I recommend you listen to Algorithm to find out what I mean. Find out more for example on our Bandcamp page. After the release on Oct 8th you can listen to the whole album there: http://thehalotrees.bandcamp.com/
Music:
