THE GHOST OF HELAGS | INTERVIEW
One part of this dark-hearted synthpop pair, producer Alex Ericson, is from Sweden; vocalist Teresa Woischiski is German-born, but both are currently settled in Berlin. What’s the story with The Ghost Of Helags, asks Carl Marsh of their singer.
Why did you guys settle in Berlin instead of staying in Sweden?
Teresa Woischiski: Basically, Alex was in Berlin already before I came. He was living in London before, and then he just was sick of the hustle and bustle of London and decided to retreat to the quieter Berlin. And for me, I was living in Barcelona before, and just wanted to change cities. Berlin sounded like a pretty good place to live and to make music.
It all started when a friend of mine was getting out of her flat and kept asking me from one day to another if I wanted to have her flat, but that must happen pretty quick. And then, you know, it just happened. It was pretty tough at the beginning for me, but then we met and started to make music, and all of a sudden, everything made sense.
Your debut album We Came From The Stars is a sublime combination of Alex’s electronic beats and style with your wistful, haunting vocals. What made you settle on that style of singing?
Hmm… it took ages, I guess. Just by the inspirations I’ve got, and because I don’t have this roaring, powerful soul voice. And so it went in the other direction, quieter – that’s more how I am, my music voice fits a lot with who I am. And that’s why it took a while – it takes time to find yourself in life, and with a voice also. Sometimes I wish I could sing like, you know, “roar!!” [laughs], but that doesn’t work. We tried it on a few tracks, but it never worked. So I’m just going to stick with it.
The band’s name has been bugging me, because I can’t figure out if it has some Nordic meaning! So what does it mean?
Helags is this mountain range in the north of Sweden: Alex is very familiar with it, and for me, it is also a super fascinating place. We’ve gone there to write, and it’s just very magical. It’s this perfect retreat place that gives you peace of mind when you’re there. Because there’s almost no internet connection! Nothing from the outside. You really have to go into yourself to search for inspiration, which can be quite terrifying, but also very nice. And so The Ghost of Helags sums that whole feeling up in the band name. I don’t know if people know what it is, but I’m glad you asked, because not many people ask.
Your debut album is released on Fri 5 Mar – sadly, you can’t play it live, as I reckon it’ll sound fantastic, so what do you want people to take from the release for now?
I don’t want to tell them what to take from the album, but I’m very curious about how people react. I hope that they take their own journey with it and feel their own feelings, and that it touches them in a way. That would be my dream if people were touched by our album in any way, ever. I love it when people turn to our songs when they’re sad, and they need that uplift, or if they’re happy, and they want to listen to a dance song or whatever. That’s just amazing, and that’s all I asked for, actually.
Feedback from the fans may help you write the next album too, right?
Yeah, definitely. We’re very, very curious, exactly. And we hope that we can perform it live hopefully, at some point!
Some bands sound better live, some better on record – it sounds like you know where The Ghost Of Helags fall in that statement…
That’s interesting because I never know! But as you say, some bands work better live whilst some bands are more album bands. So yeah. Interesting. But we love to perform live. And we miss it a lot!
The Ghost Of Helags’ debut album We Came From The Stars is released on the Warsaw label on Fri 5 Mar. Info: www.facebook.com/theghostofhelags
words CARL MARSH