Helena Jesele has big things ahead of her in 2013, with many musical luminaries pegging her as one to watch over the coming months.
With her cracking debut album Sweet Sticky Fix out at the beginning of February (read our review right here), we talked the charming Irish singer about the freeform way the album came together, comparisons to Amy Winehouse and going to Pinewood studios.
So Sweet Sticky Fix is out on February 4th, what can you tell us about it?
I don’t even know where to start. I’m just so happy with it. Sweet Sticky Fix was two years in the making and was, in the best possible way, a labour of love. Artistically what I was going through was a great thing, this tumultuous love affair. I wasn’t so good for my peace of mind, but it led on to these stories that I could put into the album.
I didn’t set out thinking I didn’t want to do the album like this, it took on a life of its own. By virtue of what I was going through at the time, it’s just seemed to mould into this album I had no idea it would be like to start with. I’m delighted with it now obviously but it was a real process. What I was going through personally was being reflected in what I was writing about.
Also, the thing about Sweet Sticky Fix is that none of it was planned; it all seemed to just come together, even down to the producers I worked with. I worked Tuth and Soul in Brooklyn and that happened by accident. Or you could say it happened serendipitously. Then Paul O’Duffy was pretty much the same thing. He wanted to work with me because he loved the stuff I’d done in New York.
A lot of the time artists or producers will say they want to do an album like this, or a label might say but then it just seemed to grow from lots of different influences, which was a great thing. I always like to say that this album is a tale of two cities. You’ve got the Brooklyn influence, the London influence and then this Irish girl in the middle. It’s quite an interesting musical sandwich.
The album’s very much a whole, not just a collection of singles. Was that something you intended from the beginning?
I personally wanted to make an album that flowed and all reflected each other in some way. All the songs are quite individual stories but come from the same experiences I was having. I love those albums that you can sit and listen to from start to finish.
I know that’s quite old fashioned as these days people just download singles and rarely a whole album. Even me, sometimes I’m quite lazy about that and I’ll hear something on the radio, like it and just get the single. So that’s quite bad, but I wanted to create something that people would want to sit down and listen to from beginning to end and take you on a journey for want of a better expression.
I think it does that, I’ve given it to some friends to do some market research for myself and that’s what they told me. In fact one friend of mine, I hope he’s not just being biased, said that it “casts a spell on you, entrances you and takes you somewhere else”. Which is exactly what I wanted to do! I didn’t know how, but I ended up with my wish at the end without having to proactively work hard to create that.
It all happened naturally by virtue of working with the producers I worked with really listening as to what I wanted to do. Each song was crafted individually, but they all seem to tie in somehow. It’s funny because a lot of the tunes are in a minor key and then you’ve got Sun Is Rising at the end which is the only major key song on the album. It’s almost like it breaks the spell.
So the collaborations happened by chance? Can you tell us a bit more?
There are two words I think brought this album together synchronicity and serendipity. With Truth and Soul, I sent them a YouTube clip a friend took of me singing Cry Me A River. We shot it in Black and white as it’s a Julie London song and one of my favourite tunes and someone in the business said to me “You should contact Truth and Soul because they would really like you”.
So, in for a penny, in for a pound. I’d heard what they’d done with Aloe Blacc on his album and they would have been a dream combination. I really wasn’t expecting to hear anything back, but they got back to me within 24 hours and said that they’d like to know more about me. Within a month and a half I was on a plane to New York feeling extremely nervous about writing with this lot. It was really intimidating, I was sat their thinking “S**t, what if I can’t get the lyrics right” but they were so easy to work with and we had such a laugh, they were very funny and I felt very relaxed with them.
I wanted to finish the album in London though. I’d had ideas about finishing it with Truth and Soul in America, but I thought musically, I’d like to have that London influence. Musically, I thought it would make it more interesting. Don’t ask me why, I just get these strange ideas sometimes. Again, someone suggested Paul O’Duffy as he’s really into the jazz and a the soul stuff that I’m into. But I wondered “Is he really going to want to work with this unknown Irish jazz singer”, but he did!
We met up and got on really well, as he’s Irish too and so I was very quickly sitting writing ‘Girl In London’, which is probably one of my favourite tracks on the album and I wrote another four with him.
That happens quite a lot in the music industry; you can talk and network with musicians quite easily because I have demos I can send demos to these people. If they like it or don’t like it, they will tell you. I was really pleased to have both of them to write with because the writing experience was so different in a really nice way.
The album has got a very cinematic quality to it doesn’t it?
That happened by accident too. That’s the amazing thing about creating music, is that you have to let it take on its own personality some times. I think that’s what’s happened here. Most of my influences come from stuff like the Tarantino soundtracks, and I did play some of those to Truth and Soul and I suppose elements of those have slipped in without us noticing it really.
For the London recordings, you worked with a full string section. What was that like?
Oh my God that was incredible. Making this album, I’ve had experiences that have felt like I’m in a film, it’s not really happening to me. It’s all so amazing. I remember my manager and me driving up to Pinewood studios and I had to pinch myself. I mean, I could see the Bond studios!
Then Paul had booked this amazing place called The Sound Studio there and we walked in to see this huge string section. I was allowed to go in and quietly sit and watch them and it was magical. I was hearing the arrangements and it was amazing. There was a brass section as well! I didn’t get to see the New York session because I had to fly home, but to see the London ones was unbelievably cool. I loved it and it was one of the best experiences I’ve had to see these incredible musicians playing songs I wrote. I mean, how the hell did this happen!
You’ve been getting a fantastic reception to the singles you’ve released, what’s that like for you?
I have to say, even when I read a really nice review, I always get a tear in my eye because you can’t imagine that when you’re in the process of writing these songs. I feel like these songs are my babies, then you have to let them go. So that can be quite difficult because I worked so closely on the songs. I get quite shy about people hearing them for the first time, although after a while you get used to it.
To get this feedback is amazing, it’s an incredible feeling that you’ve given everything to this song and that people really like them. I love to get that sort of feedback, it’s very touching.
That’s why we do it after all. People think it’s a really glamorous life, but it’s really hard work and to get reactions, be it from an audience or a tweet keeps you going. You make the music for other people really. It’s a service I suppose (laughs).
A lot of people have you marked down for great things this year. Does that add pressure or spur you on?
Both. What scares me is I’m getting these Amy Winehouse impressions. I think we’re very, very different artists, but it’s probably because we both have dark hair our music is influenced by older music. That scares me a bit because she was such a legend in her lifetime, so I’m not too sure about that comparison as it’s very intimidating.
The last review I got described it as ‘Amy Winehouse meets Portishead’ which is quite good actually, because you have the retro vibe, but something much darker going on. Some of the songs do have a dark edge.
I’m far more influenced by bands like Portishead and Massive attack than Amy or Adele believe it or not. A couple of people have picked up on that which I’m rather pleased about, as bands like that weren’t especially commercial. It does make me rather want to go and hide as it’s quite intimidating.
It’s not just your music that’s been called retro, but your whole style. Was that a conscious thing by you?
No! The hilarious thing is I’ve always worn black, I’ve always had my hair this way and I was wearing eyeliner like this before anyone I knew. It’s not fully on sixties, when Duffy came out she was full on sixties, but I suppose the classic little black dress has always spoken to me. I do variations from it of course, but the image was the very last thing I thought about, which sounds stupid.
I was always more interested in the music than the image, as I didn’t really want to change my own image. I was far more concerned with making a good album than fannying about with an overhaul and makeover.
I’m sure I’ll change my tune if I get signed to a major label and they make me wear weird s*** and get tattoos. Or a bunch of piercings and a bright red Mohican. My father would love that! It’s just something that never drives me necessarily.
So, rounding up, what’s the plan for 2013?
At the moment we’re just trying to get reactions really. It’s hard to plan a tour until you know that people are going to come along. So the plan is to go to radio with a single in the next month and build a fanbase. I mean, I have a lovely one at the minute, but I’d like to increase it.
I just want people to hear the album. Also, I feel that some of the tunes are made for film, there’s quite a filmic, visual quality to them, so I’d love if they got there. A tour will probably be more sping/summertime though.
Helena Jesele’s debut album Sweet Sticky Fix is out on February 4th and make sure to read our review of it right here.