Index Mag Interview
INDEX MAG sept/oct 1997
HELIUM 20 questions for mary timony with amy kellner
mary timony of helium writes songs about witches and goddesses, sluts and prudes, all fantastical beings. There's an image in the video for "honeycomb" which perfectly captures her music: mary strolling through the woods wearing a tutu and dragging a stuffed bunny on a leash. The music is sweet and sour melodies, power chords and xylophones, tons and tons of hazy imagery. And for comic relief: electronic handclaps and a gong. I love helium the same way i love xanadu and stevie nicks.
mary is shy about being so talented. She plays lots of instruments, and she sings high and low, come hither and beware. On her last tour she ditched her rock band and played guitar accompanied by a violinist named joan. Together they played songs from helium's latest EP, no guitars, and from their upcoming album, the magic city, which i will listen to while knitting a black shawl for the wintertime.
mary had a cameo bit in the sichel sisters' movie all over me, as lead singer of the fictional all-girl band "cootchie-pop" (ha!), in which she sang one of heliums' earlier singles, "hole in the ground," that has the best line: "there's a lot of things i'd like to do, boy one of them's not you."
even though she was out on the road, touring with pavement and royal trux, i was able to transmit 20 questions through encoded electrowave signals, and she promptly sent her answers back to me via carrier pigeon.
1. what sign are you?
MT: i am libra, sign of the scales.
2. do you believe in astrology?
MT: i believe in astrology mostly because it gives me something to read about in the paper that has to do with me instead of them. I need to know what is going on in my predestined life, the life led by my other self. don't you?
3. what r u listening to now?
MT: i would highly recommend the new polvo LP, which is one of the best records i've ever heard. i am really looking forward to hearing the new syrup USA record, because syrup is way ahead of everyone else, a really great band, one of my favorites. as for older music, the hissing of summer lawns by ms. j. mitchell plays in my head heart constantly, and lately i have also enjoyed a little sabbath, nick drake, earth, wind & fire, the gap band, and pink champagne. i like to venture into the non-rock universe also.
4. how was your tour with pavement?
MT: the tour was crazy and lots of fun. our shows were pretty haphazard at first since joan and i had only practiced about twice, but they got better.
5. were there any crazy backstage shenanigans?
MT: well, i thought that maybe things had gotten a little out of control when i realized that on the last night that our friend, kendall, joan, and i were actually making everyone stand in a circle backstage and play "telephone", however i also realized that telephone as a game actually does work, and is quite entertaining, you should try it sometime.
6. what kind of guitar do you play?
MT: charvel, 88, lime green, jumbo frets. actually i just bought a jazz master which is quiet but nice.
7. if you wre an animal, what would you be?
MT: i would like to be a rarely seen deep sea fish for a day, just to see what it would be like to communicate through vibrations, if they do have days under the ocean, and then i would like to spend most of my time as a lion, king of the jungle, comfortably roaming the grasslands.
8. do you have any pets?
MT: no, but my parents have a dog named ping, who i feel very close to.
9. favorite book besides mary daly's gyn/ecology?
MT: i am a sucker for the stories of wealthy ladies of the 19th century at play and caught in the trials of love, you know, jane austin/the brontes.
10. if you were going to be executed and could have anything you wanted as a last meal, what would it be?
MT: due to the stress of the situation, i dont think that i would be thinking about food at that point.
11. what's the most annoying thing a guy has ever said to you about your band?
MT: well, a young man came up to me recently at a show in new orleans, and said that in his opinion we should really get a tabla player, and that i should be listening to john mclaughlin, because it would be good for me. i found this to be really annoying!
12. what makes you sad/mad?
MT: the shortness of life and the beauty of people makes me sad, let's not get into what makes me mad...well okay... as a female, i get pissed about the fact that some people in this life have more freedom, psychological and physical, while others have to struggle against destructive forces which stunt their personalities and experiences, and have to deal with the fact that somewhere along the line they've been trained to be servants on an unconscious level.
13. what makes you glad?
MT: creation makes me GLAD, and by this i mean and kind of force which counteracts the type of destruction i mentioned above.
14. in your lyrics you use lots of images of angels, butterflies, stars, and doves. explain.
MT: in order to escape this climate of destruction, i have attempted lately to enter a created world, which is populated by different types of creatures, generally female, and that exist beyond the limits of usual reality, under the ground or up in the sky, or even long ago! these things you listed - angels, butterflies, and doves are vehicles in the songs, usually for the character to get into this other world.
15. is there power in the reclamation of "girly" things?
MT: more than reclamation lately i am thinking of escape, as i said. is this imaginary separation realistic? no. i was reading this article about the heavens gate cult in the paper last time i was down in north carolina, and the guy who wrote it was saying that there is something stunted about the imaginations of people who are obsessed with, or think they will find fulfillment in, outer space or cyberspace, and that instead we should all find spiritual fulfillment in nature (i.e. trees, leaves of grass, bees, meadows), like all these great poets, blah blah... and he went on to list them. this is why helium is more closely related to dungeons & dragons and other fantasy-making than anything artistic.
16. why is the new EP called no guitars?
MT: there was a rumor that is was an all-keyboard record, plus one of the songs is about how i hate the guitar, and in saying this i decided in real life that i like it okay again.
17. who are some of your heroines?
MT: mary daly, joni mitchell
18. does it freak you out that i know all of your songs by heart?
MT: do you? thats cool.
19. what is your most prized possession?
MT: i have no valuable possessions as such. however, i just bought a sports watch at a gas station for $2. it has three pictures on it of a litle man engaged in some kind of sport. the first one is soccer, the second is swimming, and the third is a cryptic picture of the man riding something which resembles a broom. since my sport is broom-stick-riding, and witching in general, i feel this watch represents me.
20. and finally, what is it you like about fantasy?
MT: to enter a fantastic world is to escape this one. the imaginary landscape i like to inhabit is post-patriarchy, outer space.
Reprinted without permission. Thanks muchly to Chris Carlucci for the article.