Scott Helland.

If I have to introduce Scott Helland...well, then you shouldn't be reading this to begin with. This interview is almost two years old and was done for what was supposed to be #2 of We Are Robots zine. Oh well..



-How did you get into punk rock? was there any particular band/record/event that made you think "this is it!"? what were your musical tastes pre-punk?

Scott- What got me into punk music was hearing the Ramones on college radio when I was about 12, then it was bands like Black Flag and Minor Threat and it snowballed from there. Motorhead was a big influence too. The first record I bought was Rocket to Russia (Ramones), and as soon as I heard it I wanted to be a musician... there was no looking back. Before getting into punk all I was exposed to was my parents Jazz record collection and what was on regular commercial radio at the time, Deep Purple, Tom Petty, Beatles, Queen that kind of stuff.

-Please tell us about the start of both Deep Wound and the Outpatients..did you prefer one band over the other in any way, or better put, did you see both bands as inherently different in the way you approached playing in them?

Scott-Deep Wound was my first band, Lou and I met in high school, he was the only other kid there that liked hardcore. We put up flyers looking for a drummer who could play super fast beats and J Mascis (from another town) answered the ad, and Deep Wound was born. I think we actually tried to play as fast as possible...especially at shows, it was just insane. Six months or so later I started Outpatients with my older brother Vis and drummer Mike Kingsbury, we jammed a few times and we clicked right away, I played in both bands until DW split up. Playing in both bands was definitely a different experience, it seemed like Outpatients was a bit more serious, we practiced more, wrote more songs and played more shows. Deep Wound was kind of the opposite. There was also a certain chaotic-ness to the existence of DW, sometimes it seemed like we were just of bunch of crazy kids. But I listen back to some of the stuff we played and it's pretty cool, I'm proud of it...both bands put out some good stuff.

Outpatients live in Argentina, 1992.

I know the Outpatients actually toured out of the US, but did Deep Wound play a lot of shows? what was the climate like at shows in your area during that time?

Scott-Deep Wound pretty much played in Massachusetts, the western MA and Boston scenes. The shows back then were great. There were fairly small turnouts at shows, 30 to 50 kids sometimes more in Boston. Lots of slammin', but for the most part everybody was cool, friendly and respectful.

Despite being from Western Mass, Deep Wound often get lumped in with the Boston scene of the time, what were your relations with these bands like at the time? other than the mighty Siege, i can't think of any other band from around West. MA from the time, any particular band that time forgot and you think was great?

Scott-The Western Ma bands didn't really hang out with the Boston bands, it was 2 hours away and it was just 2 different scenes. Outpatients played a lot of shows in Boston though, with bands like SSD, FU's, the Freeze, Jerry Kid's etc. Deep Wound played with some of ..em as well. Seige wasn't around early on but I think they were from Eastern MA anyway. Some cool western Ma bands back then were Da Stupids, All White Jury, B.I.U.

Possibly the greatest record cover ever.

The DW 7" cover is a fucking classic, and one of my favorite covers ever, please tell us a bit about it, as i know for a fact other people are curious about it.

Scott-The cover was Lou and my idea I guess, being the odd little blokes that we were, we got an ice cream cone and wandered behind a hospital in Westfield MA, we saw a pile of slugs and grabbed a few and put ..em in the cone, I held it up to the sky and Lou took the photo. It just seemed to fit, plus it looked hilarious.

What about that demo with Gerard Cosloy on vocals that's been reportedly lost forever? were there any unreleased songs?

Scott-Hmmm I don't remember playing or recording anything with Gerard Cosloy, maybe it's been buried deep in my head?

Let's go for a bit of dumb/geeky trivia: i've heard the solos on the DW songs were played by J because Lou could not pull them off..true?

Scott-No, not true, J just wanted to play leads on some of the tunes, I think Lou was just like yeah, go for it. Lou wasn't a lead guitar guy anyway, and J wasn't really yet either! ha ha

The Outpatients kept on playing until 1995, afterwards you played in School of Violence with your brother Vis and Darkside NYC, before your current Gipsy Nomads venture...any special memory from those years? what are your feelings about your your ex-bandmates current bands/musical projects? i somehow think a collaboration between the Gypsys and your brother's industrial/noise stuff or Witch could be pretty suitable..

Scott-Playing with SOV was pretty cool, we had tons of gear so we were extremely loud, it was like a train a bulldozer and a truck barreling down the road. The drummer Mark is dead now, so there are the usual bittersweet memories of a fallen band mate, no need to tell any stories there. As far as Darkside, they were a great bunch of guys, I did have a bit of an altercation with the singer Rich onstage once. He liked to swing his arms around and I liked to move around, and we smacked into each other onstage and were pretty pissed off for a bit, but we laughed about it after. I get along with everybody I've ever played in a band with except I haven't talked to my brother Vis in years. But you know, sometimes things have to be that way for a while and then hatchets are buried, just hopefully not in anyones head. Now a days playing with The Gypsy Nomads, it's not much different from the punk days, it's still very diy and independent, very punk rock in attitude it's just a completely different style of music.

As far as a collaboration with some of those bands and The Gypsy Nomads, sure, sounds good to me, when's rehearsal.

When Damaged Goods reissued the Deep Wound discography i was hoping you'd make at least a limited amount of DW knit sweaters. will you ever? i need one.

Scott-I don't think there will ever be any sweaters made, J's mom made it like 20 something years ago, but you know if we ever do, you'll be on the list for gettin' one.

The Gypsy Nomads

Are you still even remotely interested in current hc/punk stuff?

Scott- Every once in a while people will play some new stuff for me that's pretty cool or a new band will request us on myspace and they sound really good, but I'm just in a different scene now, so it's a natural process to lose track of music that your not involved with. I guess I get bored so I change and explore different music. Though, punk and hardcore is a part of who I am as a musician today, it always will be and I'm proud of that.

How does it feel to see something so small and "unlikely to succeed" that you were a part of get to be so big and influential to current pop music in general?

Scott- Back then I would never have thought it would have so much influence, and the fact that people still like Deep Wound and Outpatients and seek it out is pretty cool, if by chance someone along the way was inspired us, that's great too.

Any closing comments, plugs, whatever?

Thanks very much. Check out our myspace pages, myspace. com/outpatientswmass, myspace. com/deepwound, http://www.myspace.com/thegypsynomads