The Galaxy is OK - The Minstrel Life and Domestic Bliss of Mark Helm

It was one more day living above a night club in Scandinavia after one more night of playing cover tunes for overserved patrons in another nondescript establishment. Mark Helm found himself in a never-ending, meaningless relationship with the love of this life: music. He could keep playing like this forever or he could regroup and go home.

Mark came home. But he still had music to get out of his system. His plan was to use recordings he’d made overseas supplemented with some new recordings and give his friends a tape - a farewell to the musical part of his life. Fortunately for us, those tapes made it into the hands of Bruce Brodeen of Not Lame Recordings. His journey is now documented on his solo debut, Everything’s OK (Not Lame NL061) - a brilliantly diverse collection of harmonies, humor, horror and hope.

Fufkin had a chance to talk with Mark about his life, influences and his musical sojourn.

fufkin: So tell us about ‘the tape’.

mh: I wasn’t planning on doing anything with that tape other than giving copies to my friends. I had been disappointed by record label rejection with my group radioblue a few times. My life had spun out of control while I was living in Denmark. I had just come home and was recovering and just putting things back together again. I had a new job. And it wasn’t that I didn’t want to do music anymore… I just didn’t want to be in the music business anymore. I was never, ever going to put out my own CD, not that I have anything against it. Some of my best friends put out their own stuff - and they should because they’re brilliant. People like Kevin Johnson, Last Train Home, Lu Bango. That’s one of the great things about the technology these days…the ability to record and release your own CD. But I was against doing it myself because I didn’t have enough cockiness anymore after what we went through with radioblue - we almost got signed, then everything fell apart. Also, I’d been part of a project with Jamie Blake on A&M Records where some of my musical ideas and other work went uncredited. It was too much when Jaime ended up on Beverly Hills 90210 playing a couple of songs and I saw a skinny little 18-year old guitar-syncing parts I should have been playing. . I mean, I wrote songs with her and went into the studio to play partly because I’d been promised the guitarist slot in her touring band. That didn’t happen. Mostly because, by this time, I was over 30 and Jamie and her people didn’t think that I fit the image of her band. Anyway, her record came out and it was pretty good. But A&M did nothing to promote it and it just died.

Anyway, I was just so jaded. I moved back to DC and had these tapes that I wanted to play for some of my pop friends because I was proud of it. I certainly wasn’t going to give it to any record companies. I didn’t want to set myself up for disappointment again. Then one day, I get a long email that was signed “Bruce Brodeen” (head of Not Lame Records). It was really thoughtful and kind. And you know what…honest to God, I thought it was a joke.

fufkin: (slight laugh)

mh: It’s not really funny because I was really upset about it. I thought, ‘fuck you guys’. I go through all this shit to get back on my feet. I asked people not to make any copies of the tape without me knowing about it only to turn around and find out one of my friends had made copies of my music, put a cover on it and sent it out to people. Then I find out it had gone to this guy at Not Lame, who I had a lot of respect for, but I never imagined anything would come out of it. And then I get an email that is just so over the top, I was positive it was a joke. I remember distinctly reading it and being so upset - almost to the point of tears and saying to myself, ‘this is fucking cruel’. So I call Eric Sorensen up and basically tell him ‘this has gone too far. I really appreciate you guys trying to help me out but I really didn’t want anyone to get a hold of this.’ And Eric said, “What are you talking about?” And I said I had gotten an email from someone claiming to be Bruce Brodeen. Eric said, “oh, no no. That was really him!” I couldn’t believe it. No one had ever said stuff like that about my music, especially in writing. For the first time in my life, he (Bruce) made me feel like a legitimate ‘artist’. (Below is a copy of the email)

…i'm not sure what you purpose of creating this music was, at the time, but i'm certain of one thing: it's about as pure a distillation of a soul, as i've heard. listening to the songs, it felt like i was violating a private, long locked door to someone's most innermost fears and self-loathing. the music is so bare, so genuinely unpretentious and devoid of commercial concerns or inclination that any one not moved by it must be soul-less. it hurts, it lifts up, it renews, it goes thru some sort of life cycle that you dare not wish on any loved one. no record has ever quite reminded me of big star's "sister lovers' because that record has all of the same qualities as much of your material.... it’s dark, intensely personal, not slotting itself comfortably into anything that preceded it, symbolically in disarray as it mirrors a life trying to find a harbor, the music of Big Star’s Sister Lovers and much of the songs on the tape of you sent to me, are Sister Lovers in truest sense of connection of those two words.

mh: I honestly didn’t think it was a cruel joke, I thought it was someone busting my chops. I didn’t think they were trying to hurt me but that’s how I perceived it. I can remember getting to the end of the email and feeling like somebody kicked me in the chest…I actually started to cry. You gotta remember-at this point in my life, I’m totally emotionally exhausted. I was sitting in my computer room saying, ‘why would anyone be so mean?’ I guess I just couldn’t believe that anyone would like my music THAT much and would have gotten what I was trying to do. It just hadn’t ever happened. I’d been doing it for so long and it had never registered with anyone and for someone like Bruce to get it…I didn’t believe it.

Of course, then it turned out to be true. And to this day, if I’m ever feeling bad, I just pick up the phone and call Bruce. I probably wouldn’t have continuing pursuing music if it hadn’t been for the encouragement of Bruce Brodeen.

fufkin: How has the reaction been to the record?

mh: I was hearing silence from the pop thing that Not Lame is the center of, but Bruce warned me not to expect the typical jangly pop people to necessarily like my record. He said they’d listen to it because it’s on the label and he was hoping they would ‘get it’ but it might not happen. He basically cautioned me not to get too excited. Believe it or not, the only review the record has received so far was in the Washington Post from a notoriously tough critic named Mark Jenkins. He said, ‘the record cohered into an elegant whole.’ But let’s face it, this record, as far as a Not Lame record is concerned, has been ignored, almost snubbed. But some people I really respect, like Bill Lloyd and Doug Powell, liked the record and that means more to me.

(Editor’s note: Doug Powell said, “I have to rate Everything's OK as my favorite Not Lame CD of 2000. Pop music with a deeply personal foundation that gives it substance not easily found in the genre in general. Very inventive arrangements with lots of great sonic 'gifts' waiting to surprise the listener.”)

The musicians I respect that have heard the record seem to like it.

fufkin: Your songwriting has obviously been influenced by a wide variety of artists?

mh: Yesterday: Beatles, Beach Boys, Neil Young, Big Star, Eagles, Poco, and the list goes on. Today: Mark Eitzel, with and without the American Music Club, Wilco, Grant Lee Phillips, Ben Folds, Jeff Tweedy, Lloyd Cole.

fufkin: How would you describe songwriting?

mh: Songwriting is storytelling. And the story I’m most interested in is the story of self in relationship to the other. That’s a complicated way of saying I dig love songs! Seriously, I do think the best artists are writing about themselves and the people and things they care about-- not about ideas or concepts or abstractions. I always write from my own experience, concrete things about me and my life. And it’s not just because I’m only interested in me. Writing can be a way to use ego without being egotistical-to sublimate the ego and to project it out, to force personality and feeling into something universal that everyone can understand. The singer-songwriter genre gets a lot of shit for navel gazing because of people from Dan Fogelberg to Jewel. But the best writers paint a picture of the navel that others can look at and say, “Hey, that could be MY navel!” I try to take a lead from that approach and to also be mindful of my influences and use what they have taught me. A lot of people-myself included-are criticized for being too derivative. But these days, most of the great songwriters take the best of the best of the people that have influenced them and use it. T.S Eliot said, “Amateurs borrow, Artists steal.” So, whether it’s Brian Wilson or Marvin Gaye or Alex Chilton or Neil Young, you take it and then do your best to make your own statement. The Beatles wouldn’t have ever made “‘A Hard Days Night”’ if they hadn’t heard Chuck Berry. And no one gave them shit for doing that. It’s one thing to do a song that’s deeply influenced by the Beatles or Beach Boys, but there is a big difference between ‘aping’ your influences and making your influence your own. I would like to think there is a difference in what I’ve done.

fufkin: What’s next?

mh: Well, I’ve got a track Bill Lloyd is helping me with for the ELO tribute disc that’s coming out in the fall. I’m also in the process of building a studio in my basement. For ‘OK’, I gave Bruce about 40 songs of which only 16 made the disc. Since then, I’ve written another 10 or 15 songs. And I’m starting to do some things with Lu Bango, Frank’s brother and an exceptionally talented writer (pick up his solo debut the little bang theory from NL). Lu and I are playing a few club dates and I’m hoping to have a Mark Helm/Lu Bango track on the next disc. The next record should be more organic and of a whole. I’ll try to not wait five years before I get it finished.

fufkin: Since the release of OK, you and your wife Jenni have an addition to your family, Cooper. How is fatherhood?

mh: Fatherhood? It’s everything I thought it would be only about ten times better. I was a little nervous…would I be good at it? I also thought it might be difficult but I found it’s magical. This kid is gorgeous and he seems to bring out the best in me. Jenni has been wonderful and she’s made it really easy for me. Cooper is a family name from Jenni’s side and the Lee is for James Lee, my best friend and former band mate in radioblue. So welcome Cooper Lee Helm.

For mp3 clips, video and to purchase Everything's OK, click the cover below or click here



For a complete description of the songs and lyrics on Everything's OK, check Mark’s web site at www.markhelm.net. For more about Mark’s day job at Friends of the Earth, check http://www.foe.org.

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