HÆLOS seem to have emerged out of thin air. The mysterious electronic band consisting of Lotti Benardout, Arthur Delaney, and Dom Goldsmith just released their album ‘Full Circle’ in March. Their music is cinematic and spacey, designed for how you feel after a long night. They wanted to capture the feeling of “treading the line between darkness and euphoria.” That’s exactly what it does, it completely engulfs you.
When “Dust” hit the internet last year it was an overnight sensation. It was picked up by Line Of Best Fit, then subsequently, a thousand other blogs. The three members of HÆLOS soon found themselves bombarded with emails from labels, managers, and blogs.
Lotti recalls the release, “it was just a whirlwind of activity that came on us. It happened so quickly and we had been writing for a couple of months. We all had these songs that we kind of pulled together to work on so we quite rapidly had a nice body of work that became the basis of the album.”
When you listen to ‘Full Circle’, you feel like you’re in a trance, like you’re trapped in another world. They are so intentional with their themes, the cyclical nature of their name, the album, and even their videos are made to complement each other. Their idea was to be universal and accessible.
“A lot of the themes on the records are about returning to yourself and the constant process of change. The name works for us in that sense, it translates to everything, it’s a universal symbol, and it will connect with everybody. The themes and the record come from a personal place but we wanted to use universal themes to allow people to interpret them as they will,” Says Lotti.
The three musicians had all worked on previous projects but came together to collaborate on HÆLOS. They hadn’t known each other very long but all have similar vibes musically. When “Dust” became a sensation they were all forced to get comfortable working with each other very fast. They knew they had a good project in mind, but creating music with someone is an intimate process. They all collaborate equally on songs, if one person isn’t happy with a part, they re-work it until they are all satisfied. It makes writing songs a sensitive, time-consuming process, but in the end it’s worth it.
“We’re all very opinionated and very sensitive, all of those things that most people are and especially artists, and it has taken us the process of getting to know each other and how we worked best together. When we did first get into a room together we really played to each other’s strengths and weaknesses. That definitely felt like a really strong bond between us. When you write alone there’s always a moment when you get stuck or you can get trapped in something and it’s hard to get out of it, and working in a collaboration, those moments still happen, but it’s not as frequent and it makes for an enjoyable process,” says Lotti.
After “Dust” picked up traction they knew they had to take advantage of that moment. They shut themselves away and knocked out a full album. They didn’t want to take a long time and lose momentum. They knew they had to put the work behind their creative process.
Lotti says, “If you’re committed to your art, your passion, you have to close the door on other aspects of your life. We had fun doing it, but especially in the end, you’re in the studio for so long. We wanted to get an album done and it happened quite quickly. I think it was a snapshot of the moment and we wanted to capture that. You’ve got to be committed, if that’s what you want to do you have to give it 100 percent or else it’ll never be fulfilled.”
One thing they were specific about was the live performance. A lot of studio-based projects struggle live because of how they are formed. HÆLOS wanted a live show that was different from the recordings, they wanted to use live instruments, not press play on a laptop. They knew it wouldn’t sound like the recordings but it would be an interpretation.
“I think for us it was really about bringing the record to life, we have two drummers on stage, and that’s how we saw the music happening. I think it’s about having a human element on stage, having things that can go wrong, and things that are spontaneous and brilliant there’s something really wonderful about having people on stage and feeling those moments.”
Their work ethic and dynamic live performance set them apart from so many other musicians. They are making the festival rounds this year as well as touring.
Find their tour dates here.
Watch their amazing video for “Dust”.
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