Introducing: The Purple Helmets

Canadian band The Purple Helmets first formed back in 1988, releasing three albums and becoming a big name across the country with their fetching songcraft and raucous indie power pop meets garage rock. But, having released their last album in 1996, the band is back and making waves with a cool rock sound we intriguingly saw labelled as “Canadiana.”

The Purple Helmets hail from the small lobster fishing community of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, which has ferry access across to New England, in the US. The town is also known as a burgeoning scene of indie/alternative music led by The Purple Helmets, who signed a distribution deal with EMI subsidiary Atlantica Duckworth in 1994 and became a fans’ favourite across Atlantic Canada – as well as encountering controversy over their “provocative name.”

The band first started with Chris Thibedeau and Mike Carter, who’d played in a short-lived black metal band called The Horde, getting together with Don Leblanc, who’d been playing in local bands, and Jon Kini, who was known to sing on bus rides home from high school soccer games. The quartet jammed in Mike’s garage, learning cover versions of REM, The Kinks, The Beatles, The Clash, Van Halen and more.

“We were deriving ideas, styles, and tastes from a broad and diverse range of sources,” Chris told us. “This began to shape a sound for the band as we wrote and recorded our own material that many considered underground / indie /alternative. We eventually moved to Halifax, the capital city of NS to make original music and have access to venues to play on a regular basis.”

The band reignited the project last year as they challenged each other to write new material. They ended up writing more than 30 songs, which has been whittled down to 10 favourites for an album that they believe is so strong that it’s “a record of 10 singles.”

On what to expect from The Purple Helmets, Chris told us: “The sound takes hints of the 80s rock single (The Outfield, Tears for Fears, Bowie etc…) and modernizes it with the Canadian Indie rock sentiment gleaned from Sloan, Mother Mother, Metric, and Death from Above 1979. Our biggest feedback at the moment seems to be coming from the UK, because we think the fusion of those elements begins to tease out a sound that fits well with that unforgettable Indie Brit Pop sound over the years – but in our case it also rubs up against Americana. Maybe that’s because of where we live?

“Canada sits between UK colonial influence and the edginess of America. That’s why Canadian comedians resonate as the humour sits between Monty Python and The Two Ronnies on one side of the fence, and Richard Prior and Dave Chappele on the other. The same applies here. The songwriting is more mature as we’re a bit older and wiser now. The end result is ‘UK/Badfinger meets Americana/Big Star.’ These are just well-written pop songs. You’ll hear Bee Gees falsettos, clever lyrics, tons of intimate harmonies in 3rds and 5ths, and unforgettable melodies. Earworms!”

Our first taste of this Canadiana sound was Criminal Of Love, which was released on Christmas Day and takes a unique focus on how relationships can be repaired by machine learning and artificial intelligence. It opens up with a low droning sound, then a darting guitar comes in alongside delicious high-pitched vocals. It drops into laid-back vocals, and heavier stabbing guitars lay up a catchy chorus “Really should have said I’m sorry now, But I didn’t have the courage to be, Anyone but a criminal of love.” The pace drops again in a mellow verse with chilled out instrumentals with cheeky cowbell hits in the background, building up to an extended chorus. Interesting high-pitched vocals follow, including the intriguing line “with machine learning we anticipate the calm, and the precipice is fate,” before a final chorus.

On the track, Chris told us: “The reception has been fantastic. We’ve been receiving a lot of positive response from listeners, A&R folks, bloggers, playlist curators, radio stations etc… I think listeners should expect a brilliantly recorded and well-crafted song, with that cool 80s rock vibe, vocally strong, lyrically interesting and musically tight. Should have you thinking about Tears for Fears, Bowie or the Outfield, but certainly all TPH.

“The song is crisp in its drumming, with fluid bass and guitar lines that interplay with each other, accompanied by a powerful melodic vocal line that registers to B4, (a place few male vocalists attain!), dynamic harmonies that switch between 3rd and 5th notes, and a syncopation of choice synth places the song into an unmistakable paradigm fusing the retro 80s rock single within the sentiments of modern indie/alternative rock. It really sounds like nothing else out there right now. And at first listen, it’s obvious and it’s exciting.”

They’ve since followed that up with Highway 17, which opens up with light guitars that continue alongside laid-back vocals “I lost myself on the 17, A part of me I still remember, Driving along so recklessly, Through the darkest days of this cold December.” Heavier guitars kick in as it flows into a singalng chorus “Yeah, I’m never coming back, You’ll never hear from me, Yeah, I’m gonna lose my tracks, You can keep searching but you’re never gonna find me.” A second chorus gives way to a seriously cool guitar solo, which drops into a final blast of the chorus.

These two tracks are the first taste of what’s to come from The Purple Helmets’ fourth album, and first for 29 years, Weirdo Squad. On it, Chris told us: “The album is unique in that it pays homage to the various styles of music we have loved playing over the years. The collection of songs on Weirdo Squad intentionally showcases these genres. Today’s online music environment encourages a waterfall release of material on Spotify (to maximize the algorithm). While we originally planned to release two singles and then the full record, we’ve now pivoted (at the advice of industry representatives) to release all 10 songs in order, and then collate the album in the Spotify/iTunes library. The record is just so darn good!

“We’ve been lucky to work with Paul Suarez (Blink 182, Korn, Guns and Roses, Biffy Clyro). All of his engineering and production chops were learned working alongside Andy Wallace, who mixed just about every favorite record of ours in the 90s and 2000s. Suarez’s ability to engineer, record, mix, master, and produce this album puts it sonically in a place that few Canadian albums achieve. It’s clean, it’s loud, and it’s fat. The,n when you merge that with 10 well=written songs, performed emphatically in the studio, the end result is near perfection. That’s what we are excited for people to hear.”

As alluded to, the Purple Helmets draw influence from a wide range of music, from, from 70s AM radio, 80s singles, and 90s grunge to BritPop, 2000s Alt-Country, pop, metal and more.

We certainly write about anything and everything,” Chris told us. “Relationships, love, loss, what’s in the news, sci-fi, family. Influences to write can come from any source: an interesting chord combo, a personal event, an intriguing sentence and, of course, a desire to write. It’s an eclectic mix.

“As an example, I wrote Criminal of Love about how relationships can be repaired with the emerging power of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. It delves deep in its dreamy fascination of the topic, discussing the self-reflection and un-egotistical view of being a criminal or victim (of love) and how we are headed towards a path where AI will be used to help mediate and resolve these conflicts. This is highlighted in the middle 8 lyric, ‘with machine learning we anticipate the calm, and the precipice is fate.’ It’s out there for sure, but we love it. Where else would you see lyrics like that today? It’s very unique and original.

“At the same time, I wrote another pop song called Moon Base Alpha, whose lyrics simply summarize the Season 2 intro of 70s cult favorite sci-fi show Space 1999. It’s that simple and doesn’t really go any deeper. It’s just looking for fun and what might sound interesting lyrically and phonetically within the melody. In another example, Donnie has a song on the album called We Are The Ones Who Created This Mess, introducing heavier and darker lyrical themes focusing on Western foreign policy seeding political, cultural, and religious divergence.”

The Purple Helmets are gearing up for the release of Weirdo Squad, releasing the 10 songs in a waterfall process until the album is completed. “We’re bootstrapping this effort like a lot of indie bands, which means rolling up our sleeves and doing it ourselves including our own PR campaigns,” Chris explained. “It is busy responding to media outlets, radio stations, and other aspects from the industry. It is growing and scaling, and honestly, we could use some help. So, if you read this and you like the tunes and the band, please reach out and offer us some advice or assistance.”

And the band added: “Please check out other bands from Yarmouth Nova Scotia, Canada. It’s a strange microcosm of artists (a weirdo squad perhaps?) producing some of the best and most unique music you’ve ever heard. Look for Wintersleep, Contrived, Post Data, Cheval, Sluice, A.A. Wallace, Rain Over St. Ambrose, Dusted, Burnt Black and more…. including the Purple Helmets, of course! Stream this music and stream often!”

We found The Purple Helmets story fascinating and we’re really enjoying their new music, so we’re excited to see where this new adventure takes them.

You can follow The Purple Helmets on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and check out their music on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.