And finally we come to the present of the Helix saga, currently right up to the “Brother From A Different Mother” single. Thank you Grant for allowing us to bring the world up to speed on Helix. The Trailer Park Boys had a huge impact at this time, and though Helix suffered numerous lineup changes in this period, they also had some triumphant reunions with classic Capitol era members. It also featured some successful collaborations with Sean Kelly among others.
Please enjoy the third and final Helix special on Grant’s Rock Warehaus!
HELIX – “Brother From A Different Mother” (2022 download single)
In 2021, Helix recorded a new song called “Brother From A Different Mother”, about a good friend of singer Brian Vollmer. It was released in 2022 as a download, complete with “NFT’s” which…I don’t know what you do with that, but the mp3 file can be downloaded and played like any other!
The song “Brother From A Different Mother” is one of the heaviest Helix tunes. Fast as a shark, and heavy as a rock! The chorus is as memorable as any other Helix single, but the guitar playing is stellar. From solo to riffs, the guitar provides the undeniable hooks. There’s a slow breakdown in the middle with piano, and amazing gritty backing vocals by Cheryl Lescom.
Brian’s lyrics are heartfelt and sincere. You can tell this was a friendship he really valued. Let us hope for a physical release, be it a single or an album.
Here’s one of the super-secret tapings I’ve been talking about! Helix – Part One was the Capitol Years with Martin Popoff and Tim Durling. I twisted Grant’s arm and talked him into covering the rest of the Helix story. In Part Two, Tim and I joined Grant to discuss everything Helix from Over 60 Minutes With… to Live in Buffalo. There’s a lot of story there, from Paul Hackman’s unfortunate death to the lineup changes that followed. Some great music too: Back For Another Taste, It’s A Business Doing Pleasure, Half-ALIVE and B-Sides being some of the highlights we discussed.
In Part Three we’ll finish the story, going from Rocking In My Outer Space to “Brother From Another Mother”. We will also discuss the first two Helix albums in detail since some killer reissues fall in these years.
It is inevitable, even in this digital age, that things get lost! I’ve been writing about music since the early 1990s, with my first music reviews posted in 1994. All of that stuff is gone now. My earliest reviews were unpublished, just saved onto a disc or printed out and given to friends. Those discs are long gone now, 5 – 1/4″ floppy discs that went corrupt, and later on 3 – 1/2″ floppies that met the same fate.
The very first review I posted was of the first three songs from Motley Crue’s self-titled album in 1994. It was posted March 15 1994, the day of release, with a full album review that followed. These were posted on a local computer bulletin board called the Wanderer’s Rest, run by a guy named Sheldon Parkes. Incredible that I still remember his name 30 years later, but there are minimal records left. The Wanderer’s Rest had a problem with its users, who tended to be antisemetic. I bailed out, and posted Black Sabbath reviews on another board, called Arrakis. It was run was a local home-schooled kid name Doug Pretorius. Naturally, all those reviews are lost now. Amazing how I can remember these guys’ names. I met Doug once or twice for a few minutes, and never met Sheldon at all. It would have been interesting to see how bad those old reviews were! I know my Motley review has not changed in praise or enthusiasm. I liked it just as much upon release as I do now. I followed it with a review of Quaternary. I remember praising the industrial flavours of some of the tracks, and the aggressive lyrics.
In the early 2000s, I began posting my reviews, rants and lists on a website called IAM, under the name Purpendicular. Unfortunately all those reviews were lost when I deleted my account in 2004. I don’t remember much of what I posted, but I worked on the content and I know there was some good stuff that I would have re-posted here, if I still had it.
In early 2006, I met and interviewed ex-Helix guitarist Brent Doerner. That interview is still intact, rescued from a Maxell XLII 110 cassette. Another tape was not so lucky. A year or so following this, I talked to Brent’s live band, including guitarist Shane Schedler, now-retired drummer Brian Doerner (then doing double duty in Saga), and the late Ralph “Chick” Schumilas on rhythm guitar. I lost the tape, and the interview was never transcribed. I felt like shit. I remember I wore a suit to the interview, which Brian asked me to take off as it made him uncomfortable!
I can only remember one quote from the whole interview.
Me: “So Brian, I heard that you were singing lead vocals on ‘Billy Oxygen’ on the last Helix tour, is that true?”
Brian: “Yah, so??”
I then went on to praise the song, and told him how happy I was that Helix were playing it live again. That is unfortunately all I can remember. Maybe I’ll find that tape one day, though I have tried mightily. I could swear it was on a red TDK.
Even in the digital age, things get lost if you don’t own control of your context.
I recently lost two great interviews that I did with some incredible rock stars, because they were not on my channel, and that channel doesn’t seem to exist anymore. On September 23, 2021 I interviewed Greg Fraser of Brighton Rock and Storm Force. Andy Curran and Sean Kelly both dropped by for an episode that you could have called “This Is Your Life Greg Fraser”. The Storm Force guitarist dropped tons of knowledge and great stories. What a loss! If I had known it would disappear, I would have downloaded it for my own records. The other lost interview was with Slik Toxik’s Nick Walsh, which I called a “bucket list” interview. This one happened on November 17, 2021 and included great stories about Nick sending his audition tapes to Ratt and Jimmy Page. All lost forever now.
If I ever do another interview for a channel that is not mine, I will download it, and re-upload it to my own YouTube channel as an unlisted video. That way, it’ll always be available, even if it’s not publicly available. I will still be able to watch it and use it for research.
So, as we mourn the loss of content both great and insignificant, we look to the future and saving these things properly. Loss prevention tactics for the digital age.
This interview, only my second after Eddie Jackson of Queensryche five years earlier, turned into a terrific text article on former Helix guitarist Brent Doener, called Cranking the Decibels. I am very proud of that, and listening back to the full 1 hour 16 minute interview for the first time since 2006, I had a lot to work with. Including some pretty cringey questions from me. But Brent was more than generous with his time and we had a great chat that zoomed around numerous topics.
Highlights for me listening back today:
Brent’s heartfelt admiration for artists he loves and passion for music.
Clickbait road and studio stories about music legends such as Lemmy.
Tom Jones.
Brent taking apart his songs for us, explaining the structures and lyrics.
His influences from many genres.
A moment at 42 minutes and 30 seconds of Brent miming the drum part to his song “Billy Oxygen”.
Praise for his band which included Shane Schedler (guitar) and the late Ralph “Chick” Schumilas (guitar), and trying to woo singer/bassist Hills Walter into the fold.
Brent had a warm, open nature, never saying no to a question no matter how dumb, and he helped turn this interview into an extended conversation always circling around the love of music.
This interview was recorded on a Maxell XLII 110 minute cassette with one side change midway. It’s long but unreleased in this form until now.
The always difficult-to-please Chris Sarre called this a “Top Five” show last night, and I’m flattered but have to agree with him! Thanks to Rob from Visions In Sound, and Harrison the Man Metal Man for showing off your music and entertainment collectables last night. From rare CDs, autographs and Australian exclusives, to board games, books and odds n’ ends, we saw a lot of cool items with great stories behind them.
The LeBrain Train: 2000 Words or More with Mike & Friends
Episode 111 – Cool Collectables! Helix bass, Rob Daniels and Harrison Kopp!
Tonight I’ll be showing off some previously unseen treasures of my collection. The summer months offer a wealth of riches, including a variety of things at the cottage. From books and magazines to toys and games, and finally my new acoustic bass formerly owned by the late Don Simmons of Helix, there will be plenty of fun things to look at tonight. Rob from Visions In Sound, and Harrison the Man Metal Man will be on hand as well with their own treasures.
While this episode will be less focused on music than usual, it will be 100% zoomed-in on fun.
NOTE: I am not a musician, so no song requests on the new bass! I am a casual fan just looking to fart around to some records this summer on the porch. We will be taking a nice close look at the bass but I will not be able to play you a song.
As always, your participation is encouraged and desired. As David Lee Roth said, “It ain’t no good without an audience” so please like, share and join us live!
It’s official: the earliest swim on record for any summer at the lake is May 13! If you don’t believe in global warming, then I can tell you that past weekends in early May, we were snuggled up in jackets and long pants. This year, early May was as warm as early July used to be. What an incredible weekend. Clear and sunny until late Saturday. By then we were indoors waiting for the Toronto Maple Leafs to once again exit the playoffs in the first round. But I’m jumping head of myself!
Traffic was light but the music was heavy. Albums for the drive up:
As expected, both were awesome on the road. There was no clear winner. Interestingly, Jennifer liked “Roots In My Boots” by Scorpions, which I considered a bit of a throwaway. Regardless, both albums did well on the highway and rocked us safely to the cottage in two hours.
Not a new release, but since the good Doctor was next door, it felt right to serenade her with some of her best music!
From there we settled in with the first hot dogs of the year, and I began to prep for my show that night (Top 11 Star Wars movies) by watching The Phantom Menace. 10 years ago, the only way to do that would be to bring a DVD and watch it on the laptop. If we wanted to watch a Star Wars movie 30 years ago, we needed to bring the tape and a VCR! Everything is so easy now, but dependent on a good internet connection. That connection enabled me to do the first cottage show of the year, and a success it was. I experimented with some new lighting and it worked way better than last year after sundown. A successful show — and one of the best we’ve ever done. Certainly one of my favourites.
It’s always hard to sleep after a caffeinated show like that. I got four or five hours, and was up and at ’em early Saturday. It was so quiet. Most cottagers have not opened yet — their loss! They were not able to listen when I rocked Kiss on the front porch on Saturday. Kiss albums this weekend included Dynasty, Kiss, Hotter Than Hell, Peter Criss, and Rock and Roll Over.
I made fish for breakfast (trout) and went to go pick up my new bass from neighbor Donna. Her brother was Don Simmons of Helix, and this bass used to belong to him. It is my honour to play it on the porch in his memory. Although I use the word “play” very loosely. I have never played bass before and can only “barely” play guitar as it is. It took some time to get used to the size of the body. Even the neck felt huge. But it sounded great and really rumbled the porch.
I made chicken and steaks on the barbecue and burned up a bunch of old wood — without losing my glasses this time. After being on my feet all day Saturday, I took it easy in the evening, missing the bright orange sunset. I had been on my feet all day and it felt good to rest up in the evening.
We departed for home early Sunday. Albums for the road home:
These albums, Priest especially, gave me some serious retro vibes, as if I had stepped into a time machine and was 16 again. I had this happen numerous times last year, and I wrote about that feeling in multiple previous chapters. It’s a very intense feeling, as if I was no longer living in the year 2022, but had stepped into 1987 again. It felt as real as the steering wheel in my hands. Looks like this summer will be no different. Lots of flashbacks in store!
An excellent start to what I hope will be an amazing year.
Amazing weekend at the lake once again, and you can see it all right now, to the tune of “Space Marine” by Max the Axe from Trillion Dollar Threats! This short metallic blitz of a song is a condensed and concentrated rewrite of “Hard Drive” from their 1995 EP Bodies of Water. It’s a fantastic tune from Max with another killer riff.
This year represents the earliest “first swim of the year” on May 13, a record. A sign of a hot summer to come.
In this video you will see my new Fender acoustic bass. This originally belonged to Don Simmons of Helix and I am fortunate enough to have bought it from his sister Donna. This will provide many hours of summer entertaining at the cottage as I slowly become acquainted with this lovely instrument. Tomorrow you’ll get the full story of the weekend in Record Store Tales #987: The Summer Awakens.
There’s a certain amount of pride that one takes in being a Helix fan. Helix the band are almost as old as I am! They formed in 1974 and put out their first independent album Breaking Loose in 1979. And what a debut it was! With a handful of road-tested songs, the band plied the waters of guitar rock, with a foot in sci-fi prog and another in boogie-woogie. Just check out their first minor hit “Billy Oxygen” if you don’t believe me. They’ve been releasing music steadily ever since, with Capitol Records and others, with only a minor five year gap between It’s a Business Doing Pleasure (1993) and half-ALIVE (1998).
In 2022, Helix are back with a new single called “Not My Circus, Not My Clowns”. They’re getting ready to start gigging again after two years of Covid-induced hibernation. The current lineup consists of founder Brian Vollmer, classic members Daryl Gray and Greg “Fritz” Hinz, and guitarists Chris Julke and Mark Chichkan. Julke has already been in the band eight years, and Chichkan had countless gigs with Helix in the mid-90s. These veterans absolutely know how to give ’em an R. Then we have Sean Kelly helping out in the studio to boot, adding some nitro to the mix. In other words: Helix are still potent.
It’s fair to say we all miss Paul Hackman. I never met Paul though I’ve met most of the others. He sure was a talented writer, and many of his songs like “Heavy Metal Love” are beloved classics today. Fritz Hinz has been through hell and back, making a stunning recovery after a coma-inducing fall from a roof. In recent years we also lost original guitarist Ron Watson, keyboardist Don Simmons, and road warrior Brian Knight. Brian Knight was a kid from our neighborhood, who went to do road work with Helix for many years. We lost him in 2021. Yet Helix keep on going, and going, and going. Even former guitarist Brent “the Doctor” Doerner has a new album coming out called The Ashtray Sonatas.
Speaking of the good Doctor, I first befriended the guitarist in 2006 at a Helix gig. I knew a guy named Shane Schedler, who was in his new solo band, and this led to an interview with Brent at his home. It was the first of several visits. A few months later, with a few gigs under his belt, Brent screened some live footage of the band and had some friends over to celebrate. It was that night that I wrote up the official bios for his band. I remember telling Brent I wanted to write the band member bios for his website and then running around the room getting quotes from all the members. It was a lot of fun. Definitely a personal highlight.
So for the first time since the first time, here are the Brent Doerner’s Decibel bios that I wrote.
Thanks to everyone who’s ever been in Helix for rocking us.
BRENT DOERNER’S DECIBEL
Band Bios and Fascinating Factoids
BRENT DOERNER (Lead Vocals, Lead & Rhythm Guitars)
“What’s right is what’s left after you’ve done everything else wrong.”
Not just every guitar slinger out there can claim to be a part of a Canadian rock institution. Brent Doerner can: He spent over 15 years in Helix playing guitar, writing, singing, blowing minds and winning fans the world over. He has the battle scars and the gold records to prove it, but that’s not the end of the story. A new chapter has just begun with Decibel, a new rock band of good-time tunes and unique lyrics that continues his legacy with pride and vision for the future.
CHICK (Rhythm Guitars)
“If you don’t have rhythm, stay at home.”
Ralph “Chick” Schumilas has been around the block once or thrice. He has 40 years experience as a musician. In the beginning, he was a drummer which gives him a rhythmic edge that’s tough to beat. Formerly, he was the co-owner of Buzz Marshall studios, and has played and written with such luminaries as Cheryl Lescom, Rob Juneau, and Keith Gallagher among others. He brings his immense songwriting experience to Decibel’s solid live repertoire.
HILLS WALTER (Bass, Lead & Backing Vocals)
“I’m not working for road rash.”
Hilliard Walter’s résumé is impressive in its diversity and scope. He’s been paying his dues in the clubs across Ontario for the better part of 30 years. Rock, however, is only one part of Hills’ musical makeup: He’s done punk, new wave, funk, soul, and every combination and isotope of those styles that is currently known to modern science. He’s played with Soul Circus, Sthil, Dezmanhall, Ed Bertoli, and lots more. He saw Helix make their big break and said, “I can do that too.” Now, Decibel is the main focus of this talented bass player with the soulful voice. When he sings, you listen.
SHANE SCHEDLER (Lead guitars, Lead & Backing Vocals)
“They tried to bury the double lead, but we’re going to rectify that.”
Shane’s history as a recording artist goes back to the mid-90’s when he was a member of the guitar-driven trio Martyrs of Melody. With the Martyrs, he released two independent CDs and began honing his songwriting craft. He’s been grinding his axe for “seven point something Olympic years” (you do the math). He now writes, sings and plays for Decibel, a band that makes him beam with pride. Shane is also proud that he hasn’t cut his hair since grade nine.
BRIAN DOERNER (Drums, Vocals)
“Some drummers think ‘time’ is a magazine, but they don’t have a subscription!”
Brent’s twin brother Brian Doerner is legend on the skins. His discography reads like a “who’s-who” of rock: Helix, Saga, Brian Vollmer, Ray Lyell, Refugee, Myles Hunter, and more. He first picked up the sticks after seeing the Beatles on TV in ’65, and it’s been a love affair with music ever since. A respected session man and teacher, Brian has inspired the others to new levels in their playing. Now that the twins are back together, the chemistry onstage is infectious.
mikeladano.com 