I suppose we’re all doing that at the moment, and there’s a lot of it.
Helena Montgomery is a latecomer to the business but one who set out to prove that it’s never too late to follow your dreams. She started studying song writing and music production at SAE Institute Stockholm just a few years ago then was signed by a Swedish indie label for a worldwide publishing deal.
‘Making Friends with Time’ is her new single, an uplifting country-flavoured pop track produced by multiple Swedish Grammy-winning Dan Sundquist.
Helena has been said to sound both like a female version of the Swedish band Weeping Willows’ singer Magnus Carlson (who as a solo artist does his bit to keep ‘Northern Soul’ alive in Sweden) and Suzanne Vega. Her playlists feature LeAnn Rimes, Dixie Chicks and Coldplay but she is distinctly an artist in her own right.
Her songs are inspired by her own life as ”an ordinary woman” in Stockholm and based on personal experiences, but subjects that other people can relate to. Open, honest, and fragile are words to describe her songs – and there is a certain strength in the fragility, which makes the songs hopeful.
“It’s so hard to see a loved one fall/ not being able to do anything at all/ keeping the memories/ the good ones still remain/ I saved them from the rain”.
Listening to the track the first impression it had on me was the similarity to the style of The Seekers, the 1960s Australian folk-pop quartet which is still going, and its classy chanteuse Judith Durham. It’s certainly easy listening but with the added bonus of pointed lyrics.
Making Friends with Time was released by Comedia / The Orchard on March 27th 2020
For more details find her on Facebook.