There is absolutely no denying that the '80s were Metal/Hard Rock's inaugural years. Ah yes, the old school. Most of the bands that were formed in that era did in fact achieve success, some more than others. Though the vast majority of '80s Metal bands are now ancient history, there are some that have stood the test of time and to this day continue to put out material regularly; MEGADETH, SLAYER, IRON MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST, METAL CHURCH, among others, come to mind. Hell, even POISON is still around.

HELIX is another band that have defied the odds. Remember the song "Rock You"? You know... "Gimme an R. O. C. K. What you got? Rock! And what you gonna do? Rock You!" Yeah, that's HELIX, and they've outlasted pretty near every Canadian Hard Rock band there is, with the exception of RUSH. With more than 30 years on the scene, HELIX have delivered some real classics like "No Rest For The Wicked" (1983), "Long Way To Heaven" (1985), "Wild In The Streets" (1987) and the immortal "Walkin' The Razor's Edge" (1984). There just simply aren't many bands out there that have stuck around this long and are still doing what they do best. Though there have been some cracks in the road along with way, HELIX hasn't derailed. They're still hungry, and according to mainman/vocalist Brian Vollmer, the only original member, the band's golden years are still ahead of them.

What keeps you going in HELIX? What gives you the drive to keep making music, and keep the band alive?

"I think some people are just born to do certain things and you know, if you follow your own star, everybody has their little special purpose. I always knew I wanted to be in music; it was something I enjoyed doing. I don't have a job; I have a big hobby that's lasted my whole life. First and foremost is the music, but there's other reasons obviously. I'm financially compensated pretty well for doing this; I make a good living at doing this. I get to live the life. You know, a lot of times my wife comes the out on the road with me; she's a Rock N' Roll person too. We get to rub elbows with, you know, people like The Trailer Park Boys. In the last couple of years we toured with ALICE COOPER last spring. The year before that, we went over to Sweden by way of England - went to the Hard Rock Cafe in London and partied with Bernie Shaw from URIAH HEEP. Then we went to Sweden and I rode all the way back from Sweden to Copenhagen, Denmark with Sebastian Bach. We sat together and reminisced. So that's definitely part of it, you know. Being able to meet those people is a thrill for me. My wife and I both love this lifestyle and wouldn't trade it for anything."

I agree with you - it is important to do what you love to do.

"Mhmm. You'll never be good at anything that you don't like doing. Most people know what they want to do; most people don't follow through in that. You know, I see it, especially now at my age, people that made a choice for either security or money; now here there are, they're retiring... that hate for that job is coming out as diseases and all sorts of negative things... whereas I've really really enjoyed my life and I look back on it with a lot of fond memories, and I look forward to the future, you know. And I think, because my voice is in good shape, I can do this 'til I die, I really do. James Brown move over."

Listening to "Get Up!", your voice hasn't changed a bit. Not a bit.

"Well, we redid 'Heavy Metal Love' and the voice sounds exactly the same. I was taught bella canto at an early stage in my career because I got throat nodules and I was told it would never sing again. I went to studied from Edward Johnson, who way back in the 70s and 80s taught everybody at Rock or Pop on the circuit. It takes years and years and years to learn how to sing properly, but now I have very few voice problems and I go out there and I can sing Classical music or I could sing Heavy Metal music. But you know, you have to look at this as a career in a long term thing. The problem with a lot of kids nowadays... and it was even prevalent back when I started... you know people want to be stars in a year and the business isn't like that. Maybe for the odd person it is, but for most people in the music business it's a long-term commitment. You're looking at years and years and years of work developing your craft, developing your writing skills, how to perform on stage and the biggest thing that prevents people from making it is just that they a) have no game plan and b) they can't put up with the day-to-day things that aren't sensational, like answering your phone, paying your bills, not making any money, not seeing your family, playing in some shit-dive where there's five people there, you know what I mean? It's surviving that and developing your craft. Basically, I love what I do. You know, I had a game plan; I still have a game plan for the next 20 years for myself, and that's to continue putting out albums and just work on developing my own persona."

How do you keep your voice healthy? Is there anything that you do specifically that aids in keeping your voice healthy?

"Yeah - learn how to sing properly (laughs)."

Nothing like drinking chocolate milk or anything like that? I've heard a lot of singers do that.

"No that's terrible for your voice. Listen, the human voice is the hardest instrument you can learn how to master. Unlike any other instrument, like piano or drums or something like that, where you can watch your hands or your feet, your voice is invisible. Secondly, your body is your voice. So unlike guitar, if you break a string, go buy a new string. In the case of your voice, if you physically hurt your voice, you can't just go out and get another set of vocal cords, right? The best way to take care of your voice is to learn how to sing properly. Most singers end up with vocal problems, or have vocal inadequacies, because they don't know how to sing properly, especially in Rock and Pop. Just the nature of Rock singing puts extra stress on the vocal cords. Most vocal cord problems, like sore throats and nodes, are caused by stressing out the muscles of the neck, chin or face, and that tension from those muscles is transferred to the vocal cords. Vocal cords are the most delicate string instrument in the world - more delicate than a violin string. The way they're supposed to work is they're supposed to gently vibrate together to create sounds, which is really only vibrating breath between your vocal cords. So when singers... especially if they sing Rock and they're screaming and they're pushing, that tension goes to the vocal cords and they strike each other far more forcibly than they should, you end up losing the top part of your voice first, and eventually you develop nodes, which are essentially a callous on the vocal cords - your body's defense mechanism against the harm you're doing to your vocal cords by singing with tension in your neck. So when you learn how to sing properly, you learn how to a) lift your throat to get the tension out of the vocal cords, b) focus your voice forward on the mask of the face, which is essentially your hard pallet, c) inhalation - learning how to inhale your voice, which is the act of taking breath into your head as you're singing, and the last step is to hold the breath - keeping your diaphragm locked flat, and the hold of the breath then working on your range. The average range is about two octos; the maximum is about three octos."

Sounds like there's a real science to it.

"There is a real science to it. I don't know who developed it but... see the reason bella canto's been lost is because nowadays anything goes. Even Bob Dylan is a singer. But way back in Opera and all, where you had to make a purer tone, that's when this method was prevalent, especially if you're in the golden age of Opera. The problem, once again, with Rock singers isn't so much the total quality - it's a fact that Rock singers sing with tension on their vocal cords. But you can learn how to do that, as I have, and still not lose your sound, but take the tension off the vocal cords. Basically it's your breathing, focusing on your voice, things like that. Once again it isn't a crash course. It took me, you know (pauses)...30 years... to learn how to use the technique, and now I teach."

Oh you teach vocal lessons as well?

"I teach vocals now. Also some of my students have been three of the girls from KITTIE, Jennifer MacLaren who used to be on Network, Tim Hicks from SERIAL JOE. (pauses) So, that's what I do. I actually would probably make more money if I just stuck to teaching, 'cause I make very good money. There are very few people in the world who teach true bella canto anymore. You know, by learning how to sing properly - and I'm glad you brought this up - I'm 51 now, I should be able to sing until I'm 70 years old. The earlier part of your career... if you're looking at this as a career in the long-term, as a life-long thing, getting in the music business... a lot of my peers, people I've been in the business with for those years, they didn't make any money in the early years, for whatever reason, and now their voices are burnt out. Their careers are over because they have no voice left whereas I feel I'm reaching my peak as a singer at 51 years old. I probably won't peak until I'm in my 60s, believe it or not. My voice has gotten better. Once again, 30 years ago I was told by a voice specialist to pack it in... I'd never sing again. That's proof of the effectiveness of the technique."

...and also determination I bet

"Well, you know, that goes without saying. Just being in the business... it takes an incredible amount of stamina to stay in this business. I wanted to quit several times myself. It's the day-to-day thing that drag you down and you know, everybody wants to be a rock star and everybody wants to be an actor and everybody wants to do something in the limelight. But because everybody wants to do it the competition is fierce. So you have to just be so much better than everybody else and you have to do everything as well as you can to give you that extra edge to continue in the business. One of the reasons why we never made any money in this band in the... I'll say the golden years of the band... was we always took the money and we invested it back into the band. On one hand, we didn't make any money and on the other hand, that is part of why we had longevity in our career - we had a definite plan to succeed and to stick around for quite a few years. We weren't looking to get the ring at the end of the rainbow and pack it in and then jump out of it."

I read - I believe it was on your website once - where you said that HELIX is the most expensive hobby you've ever had.

"That's true. Back in, I guess about... well first off in '97 when I split company with William Sipe and then in 2000 when Daryl (Gray - ex-bassist) and I went our separate ways, I started rebuilding the band. The band had been neglected, in my opinion, for many years, probably since about 1994. It took an incredible amount of time, work and money, you know. I invested thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars back into rebuilding the band and now it's starting to really pay off. The band is getting good money when we play now. We're starting to get back down in the States like we were during much of the 1980s. Two years ago we played Sweden; we're probably going to go back there again next year, and probably other parts of Europe. But it's just like any other business - you have to have a game plan and you have to approach it as a business, you know. If you approach is simply as art, it's not going to get too far."

I totally agree with you and I think it's really good that you kind of have that balance.

"Yeah, and because I'm doing it myself I'm very careful about where I spend the money to promote the band, you know. When I take on a project, like when I did my book ('Gimme An R!') for instance - my book cost me $14,000 to put out on my own, out of my own pocket, right. So I had to sit down and figure out how many units I had to sell to break even. But it was a good investment, in my opinion, because not only was there a potential to make a lot of money there by selling the books, it was also a great publicity thing. I thought it was a very good story to tell, you know. We're one of the oldest bands in Canada; there are not too many bands older than us - maybe TROOPER, RUSH... I don't know of any other bands... and you know we've had everything happen to this band... tragedy, comedy... and it has sold well. Now instead of sending out say a promo pack when we get gigs or when we're doing an interview at the radio station or newspaper I just send them a book."

You're working on some new songs right now...

"We've actually got songs recorded that aren't even on this album. That was another thing about continuing on with the band... when Paul (Hackman - guitar) died in '91 I believe it was, and when Brent (Doener - guitar) left that band in '89... those were my two writing partners. I don't play an instrument so I was kind of at the mercy of whoever I wrote with. The 'It's A Business Doing Pleasure' album I went down and wrote with Marc Ribbler in Brooklyn. We had written 'Good To The Last Drop' off of the 'Back For Another Taste' album. In retrospect, the band took a left or right hand turn - whatever. It wasn't what fans expected of HELIX. And then I went on to write with different writers, and I spent most of the 90s and early part of 2000 tried to find compatible writing partners to write music that sounded like HELIX - not only good songs, but good HELIX songs. It was by accident that I ran across Gord Pryor and Steve Georakopoulos. I've known the guys for 20 years but we've never written together as a team... and we just clicked. For probably the first time in the career of the band we've been very prolific writing the songs; hasn't been a problem at all to come up with material with these guys. The chemistry is really good. These four songs - we actually had them written when we had the rest of the album written, but we didn't have time to record them to coincide with the Trailer Park Boys movie release. The reason why we wanted to do that was because Capitol (Records) and their infinite friggin wisdom EMI decided to license 'Heavy Metal Love' for the movie and then when they found out that Universal got the distribution for all the movie soundtrack, they pulled the song from the movie soundtrack, which I thought was pretty disrespectful of the company, because we basically did everything for those guys and that's the way we get repaid. So, lesson learned."

You guys were with EMI for pretty much your whole career up until now.

"Yeah, but you know, things happen for a reason and we tried to turn a negative into a positive by re-recording that song ('Heavy Metal Love') and we're probably going to go out and record more of the old hits; maybe every time we go into the studio we'll just take one song and rerecord it. And like I said, I can sound pretty well, exactly like the original, so."

There is virtually no difference, yeah.

"Well, you know these big companies are making a big mistake. I keep trying to stress this with Capitol Records; I don't know if they hear me or they don't want to hear me, but all these big record companies with bands like HELIX, they've invested millions of dollars, they own the master recordings to the songs... you know, instead of working new bands, which get downloaded and which I think like 5% of them actually make money right, wouldn't it be better to spend a tenth of the money and market the old band that everybody knows and bring something out by them? But they obviously don't see it like that. The music business is going through a major shift now. I think you're going to see a lot more sites where you can actually just go to a band's site and download the song and pay - a song at a time. It's funny; it's kinda gone full circle in the music industry that the business started out with bands releasing singles. Bands that used to release albums initially, when Rock N' Roll first came out, especially in this country... bands who take a single or 45 to the radio station and if they have no singles that got airplay, then they put out the album. Then somewhere along long the line it just became common practice for everybody to release an album, but now with iTunes and things like that, it's going back to the song again."

Do you think that that's going to be more beneficial to bands?

"Oh, I think it's going to be beneficial for sure because basically with modern technology you can record your own tracks and just throw them up there. You get a live show and throw it up - like a song at a time. It's endless. Acoustic versions, I think it's great."

I think you're right. I think more and more bands are going to do that in the future.

"Record companies will probably be more of an advertising machine than anything else. There's still a problem, even with technology, with getting exposure. There's a billion bands out there. How do you find that one band and that one song for that one band? Where record companies are still going to play a part is being the money behind exposing that hit song; in other words they're the filter. When you hear a song on the radio basically what's happened is bands have gone to record companies, got signed and then try and market the song, right."

What do you think gives HELIX that advantage in that respect?

"Well, unlike a new band, HELIX has developed markets all over the world, you know. We had a number one album in Sweden; we toured several times across Europe, all across the United States and Canada. So I still get e-mail from all over the world. That's a definite advantage. Basically, you if you're doing an album for $15,000 bucks your break even point is a thousand units. Well, it's a pretty safe bet that you're gonna do a thousand units... eventually."

Which hit album in Sweden was that?

"'Long Way To Heaven'. #1 album."

Let's talk about the golden years of HELIX...

"They haven't happened yet." (smiles).

Okay, let's talk about the '80s era. What was your favorite album to work on... what album did you have the most fun writing?

"Probably 'No Rest For The Wicked'. It was our first album. A lot was done on the fly. We actually recorded part of the album in Tom Treumuth's basement. He used to have the mixing board up in the living room and he'd have to run down the steps and say 'Okay, start!'. And we role out the songs. 'Check Out The Love' was done there. That was a very special album. It was written very quickly - within a two-month span I think. And then after that it took us like two or three years to write an album."

The video for "Heavy Metal Love" - where did you find that girl?

"Well, we didn't actually find the girl. The girl was found by Rob Quarly and Champagne Productions. That's who did that video and they auditioned several people. There were two girls running - the girl that ended up being in the video and another girl. I believe the other girl showed up with her biker boyfriend so she got 'X-ed'. The girl that ended up in the video actually committed suicide several years later, and her sister was in the 'Don't Get Mad, Get Even' video."

In a lot of your videos you do a lot of jumping and splits etc. What type of a routine do you have for yourself to be able to be limber and have that flexibility on stage?

"Well, I've exercised from the early days of the band. Even though I was on a football team and stuff like that in high school, I really wasn't an athletic type of person. But very early when the band started my manager at the time took me out jogging. I remember we were in Grand Bend, Ontario... and from then on I was always in the habit of jogging or working out. During the 80s, when we were down in the States, Fritz (Greg Hinz - ex-drummer) and I would go out running everyday, lift weights every day. It just became a habit and physical exercise has been a part of my life. I've got my wife going to the gym now too. When I'm at home I do 3-5 miles on the track in the morning. I'm usually there at 6:30. I get up at 4:30AM. I like exercise; I like going to the gym; so it's not like I have to force myself into the routine. Another part of my health as I got older was the fact that singing the way I do... I've always sung diaphragmatically and I've incorporated the use of my diaphragm into every aspect of my life really. I can use my diaphragm to breathe when I'm walking, when I'm riding my bike. Most people are oxygen deprived. Most people only breathe out of the very top of their lungs and it's called clavicular shallow breathing. When you use your diaphragm you get eight times the amount of breath that a person normally when they breathe. That's why when you go to yoga, what's the first thing they teach you? They teach you deep breathing. Well, I've used deep breathing my whole life, and I think breathing is very very important to your overall health. You know, you can quit eating for a couple of months; you can quit drinking water for maybe a day and a half/two days; try to quit breathing for 15 minutes. That shows you how important breathing is. I was a heavy smoker during much of the 80s. I smoked three packs of cigarettes a day and yet still I can go out on my bike. I've quit for years now, but I can now go out on my bike and do like 10 k every morning or jog five miles on the track and never get winded. I never really get winded on stage either, unless it's hot."

Over the years there have been several lineup changes in the band. How have you dealt with each new member coming in, in a new situation, or when a member has left?

"Well, first off, you know, there's been a lot of members of the band. When the band started off back in 1974, as it is in every band when you first go on the road... there are always some people that are going to bail out, where it's just not the life for them. We went through that in the early part of the band's career, but then I started to gain a steady lineup and the lineup that people identify with the traditional HELIX - myself, Paul (Hackman), Brent (Doerner), Fritz and Daryl (Gray) - ironically was together for I think four years of the band's 32-year career. Although Paul, Brent and myself were together from 1976 to 1988 - quite a long time. (Pauses) I think it was much more traumatic in the early days of the band when we used to change members. Nowadays, I run the band; I've been there for 32 years; I'm the only original member; and the guys in my band... you know what - they're hired guns. They're excellent musicians, excellent players, and most importantly, they have the right attitude. You know, in the 90s we had a lot of players and some of them just didn't have the right attitude, and so I had to get rid of them. It's as simple as that."

What type of attitude?

"Of, for instance I fired some people because they did drugs; I fired other people because they had a rock star attitude; I fired other people because they couldn't be on time; I fired other people because they thought they were going to run the ban and I wasn't. You know what I mean? I always told people this: I said look it, 'This ship's got one captain and that's me.' ... and it's had many crews but the captain is only as strong as his crew, you know. You're only as strong as your weakest link. So basically over the years, I just weeded those people out. I got better people; I got a great lineup of guys in my band now. They're dependable people and they've got the right attitude. But you know, they're also professional people... they're great players, great performers, and they know what to expect. This isn't their first barbecue... they've been around. A lot of my guys have toured the States, toured Canada for sure."

A lot of bands in the mainstream music scene have that rock star attitude. What is your take on the whole rock star attitude?

"I don't know because I try not to have it myself. But you know... I don't know what makes people act like that, I really don't. Most of the people I meet that are successful in this business aren't like that - not everybody, mind you. Ronnie James Dio - now there's a true gentleman. Ian Gillan is another guy. You know, I've met some dicks out there."

Do you think that Heavy Metal and Hard Rock is on their to the way back? I mean, people have been talking about this for years. "Oh yeah, Heavy Metal is coming back!" Every year it's the same thing. "Metal's coming back!" What is your opinion on that issue?

"Well, I don't think Metal ever left, or heavy Rock for that matter. The problem is a lot of these bands from the '80s are putting out shit albums. You know, the bands that are putting out good albums - AEROSMITH, BON JOVI and, METALLICA - they're still selling albums. We know who isn't selling albums. But you know, it's because of the material. It all boils down to the songs."

Why do you think the bands from the '80s are not putting out as good material as they did when they were in their prime.?

"Well, some of them are fucked up, and we all know who those bands are. Some of them don't give a shit; some of them are jaded. Once again, I worry about myself. I don't know, look at all the Metal bands out there that quit putting out albums. As soon as they didn't have a record deal they stopped."

Where would you like to see HELIX between now and the next 10 years?

"I'd like to see us back where we were in the 80s, and I think that's quite possible. We're already starting to build and play bigger venues and get tours and get offers from overseas... to continue putting out albums. Now I've got my writing team in place; I got a great team behind me. They're all top shelf people. Danny Brodbeck who works on the record works for Clive Davis on a lot of his projects. He's right down the street from me in London, Ontario, believe it or not. Gord Pryor who's co-managing the band with me now. Gord was in BLUE BONES; he was an excellent singer himself; he's been around; he's a great writer. You know, between him, myself and Steve - Steve's a vastly underrated guitar player - fantastic guitar player. In 10 years - just keep going, just do what we're doing... probably play more often, but not too much. I don't think I have to, but if I had my druthers I'd probably just rather play and probably give up teaching for a while or teach very select people."

Do you think you are ever going to be able to pout out an album that was as commercially successful as let's say "Walkin' The Razor's Edge" or "Long Way To Heaven"?

"Oh, for sure! Why not? [FIN]