Hailing from the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia, Helena Massey is a singer-songerwriter who draws on any number of influences from around the world. Released in 2016, her debut album, Myths From Mercury, found inspiration in Europe and India, weaving an experimental amalgamation of folk and classical capable of bearing the folkloric weight its title suggested. Follow up EP Temperance a Suncloud developed the style further, Celtic folk tones blended with retro pop to confirm Massey’s adventurous and evocative sound.
Next month sees the release of Brothers Puffins & Half Skulls, the third Helena Massey album and first with Wellington-based label, Home Alone Music (run in part by Brooke Singer of French For Rabbits). With its warm and intimate style, the record uses the personal in order to chart wider themes, Massey’s distinctive vision able to focus on both our fragmented times and the distant past. Dreams and mythology are presented side by side, Massey searching for some persevering ancestral link amid the atomised, ahistorical present, and finding solace and meaning in the throughline of chronic pain.
In preparation for the release, Helena Massey has unveiled the album’s lead single, ‘We Will Drive Ourselves Home’. With an airy yet enveloping style, the track feels like the culmination of everything Massey has done to date. The mythic atmosphere remains, though has now been honed beyond its abstract shape, its newfound sense of specificity and personality masking none of the grand mystery and weight. Check out the video directed by James Kates below:
Brothers Puffins & Half Skulls is set for release on the 4th September via Home Alone Music and you can stream & buy ‘We Will Drive Ourselves Home’ now from the Helena Massey Bandcamp page.