“Oh, you were in Deep Wound?”: an FAQ for punk roots thrasher Scott Helland, whose prolific songwriting has yielded over 30 records since the ’80s, ever since that fateful flyer fell into the hands of lo-fi heroes, J Mascis and Lou Barlow. Helland has since opened for many great rock bands, including Hüsker Dü, Black Flag w/ Henry Rollins, Cro-Mags, COC, 7 Seconds and more.
Eventually, Helland jettisoned punk rock and thrash metal in the ’90s, picking up an acoustic that he began strumming and chasing after atmospheric melodies and the songs that came with it. He relied on looping and self-sufficiency, which eventually led him down a path of spy-noir instrumentals, inspired by The Rockford Files, The Man from Uncle, I Spy, and others from childhood immersion.
In the tight-lipped, complex and solitary characters celebrated in those shows, Helland finds an analog for his own go-it-alone forays into stylish post-punk guitar composition. “I like the thought of providing music for a movie inside someone’s head,” he says. Thus, his solo career under the moniker Guitarmy of One was born.
The title ‘Overtones of Hercule and Holmes’ is a tipping of the hat to those classic detective characters. Hercule Poirot is from the Agatha Christie series and Holmes, of course, is from Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series. “I took my perception of those characters and wrote a soundtrack for them,” Helland says. This song fits with the rest of the album, The Spy Detective Collective, which is inspired by spy and detective shows from the ’60s and ’70s. The album has an all-instrumental spy-noir feel, with driving acoustic-electric melodies over propulsive electro beats.