By: Staff
With a beautiful vocal display, CS Hellmann releases “Something Simple."
The intro to this song captivates your attention with its unique combination of mind-stopping synths, vocals, and guitars. Like a palate cleanser for the ears, you can't predict the song's direction, leaving your mind wholly open and clear to absorb the artist's expression. Every artist has a vocal display, and this one was a favorite of mine. Soft and breathy, the feeling is akin to when someone you adore puts their hand on your shoulder and says, "I'm so glad you're here." The way those words feel and warm your heart is the sensation I get from CS Hellmann's vocal presentation.
After experiencing this, the title "Something Simple" had an even bigger impact on us. The song flows like a gentle river over my ears. I loved the synth arrangement, perfectly blended with the guitars. The song's intentionally irregular flow once again creates the sensation of unpredictability, keeping things exciting. We can promise you this song would be amazing paired with your favorite beverage at the end of the day, feet up, allowing your mind to wander. Check out this great track, "Something Simple" by CS Hellmann.
We also got the chance to chat with CS Hellmann and we are excited to share the details with you the fans! Here are the highlights and what we learned.
Where do you create your music, i.e., in a home recording studio or with a producer? How do you finalize your finished work, i.e., self-mixed / mastered or another source?
Most of the music I write starts at my home studio. I usually take a lyrical idea I wrote down in one of my notebooks or a guitar riff/chord progression I recorded on my phone and start to develop the idea further into a song. Once I feel I have the basic structure of the songs (intro/verse/chorus/bridge/outro) I will record it all together onto my phone. I have the ability to multi track record a more polished demo, but I really like taking my songs in the rawest form to develop further with a producer to collaborate and flesh out all the arrangements and sounds.
For the last couple of releases I have been working with Jared Corder from the band *repeat repeat who has been recording and producing my music, and I had Nathan Dantzler from thehitlab for mastering.
What was the most challenging part of bringing this project to life, from the initial idea to the final recording?
I think there’s always some self doubt and being self conscious of what you write and what you want to release to the world especially doing it as a solo artist. You have this feeling of imposter syndrome and think there’s so many other great artists and songwriters out there how am I going to be able to compete with them.
I finally had to accept that not everyone will like or appreciate the work that I do, and I just have to follow my gut and continue to try and get better with each subsequent release.
Is any part of your music's message or purpose you feel fans or the industry has overlooked? If so, what is that element, and why is it so important to you?
I think generally speaking the criticism I get from music critics is my vocal presence and delivery - it’s very soft spoken and emotive and I get a sense of dismissiveness from these critics that haven’t really taken the time to immerse themselves into my world of music
What has been the most motivating force in creating your music?
What really made me start wanting to be a solo artist was being able to express my emotions and feelings in a very direct and passionate way. At the time of this project’s inception I was dealing with heartache and rejection and anger and it really fueled the fire for me to start writing meaningful music to me personally.
What part of the music making process is the most stressful, ie the creation, the actual release date etc?
The most stressful part is the promotion and leadup to the release of the single by far. You expend a lot of energy trying to pitch your music to radio dj’s, music playlist curators and bloggers and it really takes away time you could be spending to creating, writing, and recording more new music.
If there was one thing you could change about the music industry, what would it be?
I think music services such as Spotify need to overhaul the way they not only compensate artists, but to level the playing field and dig deeper into artists and bands that are gaming the stream count/followers and inflating their numbers. As I’ve become more familiar with playlisting websites they are a bit sneaky in how they automatically subscribe you to following a certain artist, or liking a certain song. It cheapens the meaning of these numbers, and maybe that’s part of why Spotify only pays you a fraction of a cent per stream.
Where do you see your sound and artistry heading in the future? Are there any exciting new directions you're exploring?
With the latest release Something Simple, Jared and I really honed in on some more analog/tape warmth in the production, and I think it really opened up some new avenues to explore with my songwriting and recording. I am excited for our next recording sessions in November to see what we can come up with.
Do you play any instruments?
Yes, I mostly play guitar, but I can competently play bass guitar, ukulele, and mandolin. I am also a good button pusher on the synths.
Please tell us about the last time you performed. Where was the show, and what was your experience?
I haven’t played out live much at all since I started this project a few years ago. I did a live in studio performance at WXNA which was really cool. I hope to have more opportunities to play live in the near future, but unless I do a solo acoustic type gig, it’s quite an undertaking to hire a band, rehearse, and play a one off gig.
Have you ever been on tour and can you tell us a little about the experience?
Yes, in my younger days in my early 20’s my band would tour a lot of the Midwest and East Coast playing colleges, radio stations, small to medium sized clubs, and festivals. We got the opportunity to open for One Republic, Better Than Ezra, The Academy Is to name a few bands. We also played SXSW a few times and played some bigger festivals like Summerfest in Milwaukee and Warped Tour. These were formative years in my life learning to be an adult and essentially running a business with your friends. There were less glamorous moments such as sleeping in our van in Walmart parking lots and driving hours to a city to play in front of 5 people, but it also created some magical moments of playing sold out shows and building a sizable fanbase.
Was there ever a time when you emotionally felt, “I can’t do this anymore”? Can you tell us why this happened and how you found the strength to continue?
I started getting burned out touring when I was with my band in Chicago and was ready to move on to a different place musically than where we were at. My mom was sick with Parkinson’s at the time and felt like I needed to move home to be closer to family. I guess you could say the seeds of my solo project started back in Cincinnati, but it wasn’t until I moved to Nashville a few years later did I start taking it more seriously.
What advice would you give your younger self and why?
I would say to my younger self to be confident in who you are as a person and as a musician and artist despite what the critics may say. I had been told many times over the course of my life that I wasn’t good enough to be a musician or singer or artist, and for a time I believed that criticism. But when I was able to block those negative thoughts out and focus on what mattered to me the most in my music things started to fall into place.
How do you feel about social media?
There’s good and bad to it.
It’s gotten so algorithmic in what news feeds it shows you and what it tries to sell you in advertisements that it’s hard to look at for more than 10-15 minutes at a time. All the engagement farming as well is a big turnoff for me.
Sites such as Youtube though can provide a lot of helpful tutorials for fixing your car or bike or computer, and I found out about artists like John Moreland and Billy Strings pretty early on in their careers from Youtube, so if you can sift through the BS it’s actually a pretty great thing.
What is the most motivating thing a fan or anyone has ever told you about your music?
I’ve been told by a few people that they are inspired that I am still creating music and it has fueled their own passions and interests - whether that is music or not. I sort of feel like I can’t let them down now, haha.
Check out his latest release and listen to more of CS Hellmann on Spotify.
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