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Chris Helme

Forget Your Regrets

What are you up to at the moment?

"I’ve been listening to a lot of music recently. It’s either writing or listening; I don’t usually do them at the same time. So I’ve been sat back and listening to a Townes Van Zandt boxset, which is fantastic. I’m about to start writing for the next album as well."

Your album has taken a long time to arrive. Are you relieved to have it out there?

"We had a load of hassle with trying to get deals and stuff, but in the end it all came out well. We’ve got it out, it’s in the shops, and we’re promoting it at the moment. It’s just nice to have something out there again."

What do you think of the album?

The Yards

"I know it inside out, so it’s hard for me to be objective. The only way I can be is to get completely trashed and pretend I’m somebody else listening to them for the first time, which usually works. I don’t think it’s that bad. I like all of it. There’s two songs I don’t like but I didn’t like them much anyway, everyone else in the band does and it’s a democracy. We’re writing this new one together. I’ve got two albums worth of stuff but I don’t want it to be a mismatch of rock songs and acoustic songs."

Would you consider releasing an acoustic album of your own?

"Yeah, but it’s finding time to do it. I’ve got all the gear at home. If I was to start to recording something like that now, it’d probably sound like Townes Van Zandt, which isn’t a bad thing. I like that but it’s difficult to sing country music in a Yorkshire accent. I think it’s a little scary doing solo stuff. I think I’m frightened of actually doing it. People tell me they’ve been waiting for an acoustic album for years and they know I’ve got the tunes. Then there’s the expectation there too, so I don’t want to get it wrong for them, so I end up avoiding the situation."

There’s a lot of emotion in the songs, do you ever worry that you’ve revealed too much of yourself in them?

"Not at the time when I’m writing it. I realised recently that I don’t keep a diary because I’m frightened of someone finding it, but what I have been doing is chucking what I’m thinking into songs and trying to veil it with something. I try and be a bit ambiguous so it means something different to the listener. Maybe I do, maybe I don’t but that’s what songs are about, aren’t they?"

You’ll always be associated in Manchester with your time with John Squire in the Seahorses. How do you feel about that?

"Well, it’s a fair cop isn’t it? It was a great time when I was in a band with John. We just really slogged it when we were doing the tour and we didn’t get chance to write. He wanted to go one way and I wanted to go the other. Obviously all the people who were part of the mechanics of the Seahorses went with John because he was a safe bet, kind of like a meal ticket forever.

I found it really hard to get things going after the band split up. People were always asking me what John was up to and, to be honest, me and John, we weren’t particularly close. We got on well when we were in the band, but I don’t think he’s going to invite me round for tea.

It’s funny. The Roadhouse (where the Yards are playing) is where I auditioned for John Squire. He came to York to see us play and I was drunk. He asked me again to do another gig in Manchester; he wanted to see me play outside my environment. I ended up playing at the Roadhouse in-between two punk bands, which was quite strange."

Do you have fond memories of the place?

"It smelt of p**s, it probably still does!"

How’s The Yards a different experience than The Seahorses?

"Where do you want me to start? (laughs) It’s great. With the Seahorses, one minute we’re rehearsing in the Lake District, the next we’re off to America to record an album, which was great, but at the same time, you were pushed from pillar to post, you didn’t really get chance to see or feel anything. I joined a band because I didn’t like being told what to do. It’s the same with a lot of bands that are signed to a major. It sells records, but ultimately, I don’t think it helps the creative process at all.

We’ve had time to develop what we’re doing, we enjoy ourselves and we play music because we love it. It’s not music by numbers, where you have to be note perfect every time. We probably play a lot of the songs a lot different than we did the last gig, so we have a lot more fun."

You have a rolling group of friends who’ll join you up on stage such as Hayley Hutchinson…

The Yards

"Yeah, we’re trying to expand on this. It’d be cool to get everyone that we know that’s half decent to get up and do some stuff with us. Hayley’s brilliant, she’s completely natural and she sings from the heart all the time."

You appeared on Hayley’s album…

"Yeah, Stu (Fletcher, Yards and ex-Seahorses member) played bass. That’s the thing about York. She wanted some backing vocals and she either couldn’t be arsed to do them herself or she wanted a different slant, and she asked us to do it. I sort of remember the session, I think I was hungover from the night before, but I just went in, sat down and did what she told me to do really. She had candles burning and stuff like that at ten o’clock in the morning in a pitch black studio. I didn’t really know what time of day it was."

She helped you out when you played York Minster. What was it like to play such a place?

I don’t think I’ve ever been so nervous in my life. The audience… you could hear a pin drop. We were a bit worried about the sound before we did the soundcheck, but it was the best sound we’ve ever had. You did feel a bit weird sat on an altar with big crosses everywhere and all these saints looking down on us. I’m not the most religious person in the world, but it was a bit daunting. It was a great gig, having 500 people in there, sat behaving themselves and then going mad at the end of every song, it was cool."