Heloise and the Savoir Faire 9 December 2015 on Rocket Shop
Heloise Williams
WORDS BY TOM PROCTOR, PHOTO BY Bob Colquhoun.
Heloise Williams, of Heloise and the Savoir Faire, joined host Brent Hallenbeck on 'Rocket Shop', Big Heavy World's local music radio hour on 105.9FM The Radiator.
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The electro-pop, rainbow beat explosion Heloise and the Savoir Faire dashed into the Big Heavy World space this last Wednesday. Fresh from the exam hall she jumped straight into bellowing out a few new tracks from her upcoming record, demonstrating perfectly her juxtaposed personality of highbrow brain-box to dancefloor filling booty shaker. On hiatus since the birth of her own little mini-me, she’s now ready to fill your speakers with her new brand of “adult-contemporary” (her words not ours.)
Heloise spent a quick fifteen on the couch chatting mythology, sugar addiction and why Science is just a little more real….
TP: So you’ve come straight from a pre-req exam for your pre-med. A step away from music or just adding another string to your bow?
HSF: I like researching things. I was an english major then a theater major, and then I was a musician, but then i was like - Science, I don’t really know anything about that. It really grounds you. With English you get so many stories about humans and what we’re like, or who we aspire to be, but with science it’s the nuts and bolts, what all this stuff is, you know?
TP: You started your flirtation with science after the first album. Was that part of the impetus to move from Brooklyn to Burlington?
HSF: Well I went to college here and my husband (and band member) James is from Vermont, so I was back here often. He went down to New York to be with me and we were there for a long time. After we released the first album it got to a point where I felt very saturated and needed to go north to cool down and reconnect with myself. We figured we’d come up for summer, I’d write a brilliant record in three months, but then, oh god no. It wasn't going to happen ‘cos the pressure was on. I was doing all this obscure research on Tolkien, Icelandic mythology, phenomenology, the stories that are told over and over again, the basis of religion, and well…
TP: You got lost in the research?
HSF: Oh my god, I wanted to explode. Then I was like...Science. I just couldn't deal with the whole scene, I just wanted to go get a job doing something real. I have been a bit of an extremist in my life.
TP: Congratulations on your first kid. Has becoming a mother changed your approach to writing songs and producing music?
HSF: (Laughs) I haven't written anything. I do feel like I am now coming out of the fog, there was a record I was making before Huey that I was trying to get out, but he beat me to it. It’s not mastered yet, I am really excited about what i’ve already done I just need to do some finishing touches. I want to release that in the spring, I said to James that we should do a Beyonce and release it online right before Christmas and no one would know about it.
TP: I listened to your recent collaboration with Slow Knights. The track Sheet Cake has some very interesting lyrics, care to expand on that?
HSF: Oh god, you listened to that (Laughs.) It’s so weird. Del from Scissor Sister asked me to work on a song idea. He felt it it sounded a little sincere and wanted to add a touch of humor, so he had this idea about sugar addiction and its relation to sex and started talking about his obsession with pastries. I don’t personally have a big sugar tooth I like hard alcohol, so as far as drugs far that’s my drugs of choice. But we started riffing on that concept and he cut and paste it all together to make some kind of narrative , I was so red faced throughout the entire project the most disgusting stuff was coming out of my mouth. The band is like a super group of all these amazing singers; Bridget Barkan, Xavier Smith, I felt like I was the weirdo in between the professionals, I’m proffesional too, but I don’t consider myself...wait I’ll just flip my script. I’m a total pro. (Laughs) I totally held my own.
TP: So with the new album is their a tour to accompany it?
H: Hopefully. (Laughs) If I can find a babysitter.