CS Hellmann On the Making Of “Waves Waves”
What was the creative process like for this particular song?
The song started on acoustic guitar with some real grungy dissonant voicings. I was listening to a track called “Endings” by Lint which has this real droney guitar playing and arrangement that really inspired me.
As I was developing the lyrics from some sketched out ideas I had written, the line “wave waves rollin on you” really stood out to me and became the focus of the chorus section of the song. I developed it into a simple repetitive refrain.
I was preparing for a recording session in a few days and had a few other songs in mind to record, but I was excited and inspired to finish the song up and get it ready to record.
How did you approach the arrangement and composition of the music for "Waves Waves?"
The original acoustic demo version had a very standard intro/verse/chorus/verse/chorus arrangement. I wasn’t expecting there to be a whole guitar solo instrumental section of the song, but the song really asked for some nasty guitar playing which I was more than willing to introduce into the song.
How did you work with the producer or engineers to bring your vision for this song to life?
The production of the song really leaned heavily into Artic Monkey AM era guitar riffs as well as some Marilyn Manson & Nine Inch Nails gritty guitar playing and vibes. I was listening to a track at the time by Milo Korbenski called “Rooster” that had this dark spooky vibe with a memorable guitar riff that was present through most of the song that reminded me of some of the 90’s/2000’s alt rock bands I loved listening to growing up.
We ran the guitar through 2 different amps, one of the amps running through his space echo machine which gave the solo a very trippy vibe. The lead guitars I used my Gibson Les Paul and the rhythm tracks I played my 1967 Fender Coronado II.
Jared Corder who produced this track added some vintage Juno synth sounds as well as some Radiohead-esque mellotron choir voices in the pre-choruses to give it a darker poignant soundscape.
Can you tell us more about you as an artist?
I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and started playing in a band when I was 16. I caught the music bug early and went on to play in a band in college and professionally post college in Chicago. We toured most of the East Coast and Midwest, playing South by Southwest, Summerfest in Milwaukee among other larger festivals. I started to get burned out and decided to leave the group around 2010 and took a long hiatus from music. I relocated to Nashville and joined a short lived band before I started branching out on my own to release music as CS Hellmann.
It started as a bedroom pop kind of project and developed into a wide range of styles and sounds. Being a solo artist you have some more freedom to experiment which I did on my debut album “Closer” which blended lo-fi production sounds with dreamy pop and psychedelic motifs.
As I have developed as an artist I’ve leaned more into Dark Wave and 80’s sounds which I think work well with my lower crooning vocal register.
What do you enjoy most about performing live and connecting with your audience?
I have a couple shows lined up this year which will be the first I’ve played live with a full band as a solo artist. I did an in-studio acoustic performance on WXNA a few years ago, so this will be the first time I’ve played out in quite some time. The pieces have finally come together with a longtime friend of mine Sean Bennett playing drums and Henry Aaron who will be playing bass and synth.
I am looking forward to getting that immediate feedback from an audience and feeding off their energy. One of the shows booked will be aired live on Lightning 100 in Nashville Sunday September 14th which will be really cool to get a chance for a larger audience to hear us play live.
