First of all; how are you guys doing these days?

Oh, pretty well… We’re working at the shop, still don’t taking some relax (as we never will, probably), rehearsing and going to start the works for the second album.

A lot has happened since we interviewed you, lets start with the beginning, you signed a deal with Alfa Matrix, how did you get in contact with them and how is the collaboration with Alfa Matrix?

Well, we met in a quite accidental way. We joined the Vampirefreaks contest for bands to be included in the first volume of “Fxxk The Mainstream”, but they did a mistake with the address so we directly sent our stuff to Alfa-Matrix that was the label behind this project. Suddenly they felt in love with us and proposed us a contract that we signed in few more than one week.

The first release on Alfa Matrix was the ep “Plaestik”, why did you release an ep first especially since it has some older songs on it. How did you get in contact with the other bands for the remixes?

Alfa-Matrix had the idea of publishing this EP with the aim of warming-up people anticipating the debut-album.

We decided to include “Voices” and “E-Race Generation” simply ‘cause they’ve been big club-hits and we never printed them on physical format. Featuring remixes came from the label since it’s their politic, you know…

A remix-contest was launched and the winners were Polish DJ Sthillmann and Canadian Eso/Indus-Metallers Rise Of The Fallen.
Angelspit, Neikka RPM, Implant and Headscan were been contacted by the label under our suggestion.

Personally we still love the Sthillmann one.

It’s always a great moment when your album is going to come out. Yes, we were excited and anxious to get it in our hands… It was getting older minute after minute!

Do you feel you took a risk with the album, after all you don’t fit in any category and your music is a crossover of many different styles, what were you expecting it would do?

That’s simply our music. We never give a fuck of expectations. We never please people. Probably the typical EBM/Industrial audience is tight for our album, but we don’t feel ourselves into this scene. In fact, the Alternative/ Rock/ Metal press and audience welcome us in a great way.
It’s a matter of mentality and ears.

How are the comments on the album and how do you look back on the entire process of writing, recording and producing? What would you do differently next time?

Next album is supposed to be pretty different than “A Voluntary Coincidence”. It’ll be much more ‘organic’ and full of Alternative Rock influences.
I look back at that period and I feel both admiration and repulsion. They weren’t only good days. But that negativity and alienation were true source of inspiration.

Jeez is no longer part of Helalyn Flowers, why is that and who are the new live members?

Jeez was supposed to join Helalyn Flowers but physical distance, different approach to sound and his involvement in his band Adam Kult haven’t helped at all. So we splitted in a very friendly way.

Now we are a 4-piece live act. We have a drummer (Ernst) and a bass-player (Michele) who accompany N0emi at the vocals and me at guitars.
Our impact is much more powerful and energetic now.

Our live-shows improved a lot since we became a 4-piece band. We have a good remembrance of our first show with this new line-up at Dark Fest here in Rome. People literally got crazy with us and we did a memorable performance. Also our recent date in London was good. Uh! I remember well also our first official date in Italy as promotional support of “A Voluntary Coincidence”. It was a festival in Bologna and we had (as well as almost all other bands in the bill) heavy technical problems due to incompetence of sound engineers. During the check they made believe us that the problems were been solved but they were lying to us… In fact when we started to play the show each fucking technical problem came out heavily. We didn’t give up but we brutally stopped at the fourth song almost destroying the instruments and saying a big ‘fuck off’ to engineers and organizers!

Some minutes later we discovered that there was a broken DI that no one through the technical stuff changed! People said us that engineers were drinking at the bar when non-headlining bands played… This to let you taste a bit the incompetence and non-professionalism in Italy.

We always go playing quite relaxed ‘cause we think that it wouldn’t happen worst than that time, ahah!

What is the biggest fun in live performance and also what is the hardest part of being onstage?

The biggest worry is when you have a bad sound quality from your monitors. In that case it’s difficult to hold on to some instrument in particular. Mostly if you are a singer.

The biggest fun is in the physical impact of the live performance, when you’re able to let your energy come out. And when audience is able to give it back to you stronger.

You will play at the summer darkness festival, what are you expecting of it?

Fun, warm people and a kick-ass performance!

See you in Utrecht on 9 August guys. We’ll have a great time! Thanks to you for interview and everlasting love and support.

www.myspace.com/helalynflowers
www.helalynflowers.com