JHelix “Upon The Earth”

Electronic and metal aren’t genres often joined in holy matrimony, but when they are, artists like JHelix might as well be the officiant. Raised in the deep Northeastern countryside and drawn to songwriting from an early age, he was quickly captivated by the shadowy allure of grunge, metal, and industrial, developing a lasting reverence for bands like Alice in Chains, Nine Inch Nails, and Type O Negative.

When the new wave of electronic music surged across the nation, JHelix was swept up in the current, fusing his instinct for recording and production with his love of heavy, atmospheric sound. “The freedom of creation that synths, drum machines, and computers gave me, along with the dark tapestries of sound a single individual could weave, was intoxicating,” he says.

For years, his work remained largely studio-centered, traversing alternative electronic, industrial, and even psychedelic pop terrain. Now, he’s branching out even further. This year is set to mark the realization of some of his grandest ambitions: releasing his most dexterous record yet, a project more than a year in the making, and returning to the stage with a band bold enough to deliver the music exactly as it was meant to be heard.

In today’s world, logging onto any corner of the internet is an invitation to enter a dark wood — each social media platform and underground community beckoning humanity down a long, foreboding path. Lurking behind the gnarled branches are self-appointed moral authorities, each convinced of their own virtue, contributing to a reality where the digital seeps into the physical, and vice versa.

In an industry often fixated on polished, wide-reaching appeal, “Upon The Earth” makes an iron-clad case for returning to grit and weight. Revisiting the textures, ambience, and musical wallops of classic alternative metal, JHelix leans fully into the genre’s raw power. He showcases his growing prowess as a metal guitarist, stacking ripping, formidable riffs beneath transcendent refrains, each chant urging those busy “fighting amongst themselves” to open their eyes and remember the value of the soil beneath their feet.

With billions of voices all clamoring for attention, recognition, and praise, his outcry mirrors a universe where “we can’t relate to one another’s hearts anymore.” For JHelix, this isn’t political commentary, but mere observation — the voice of an unsettled soul bewildered by how disconnected the human family has become.

Enlisting a dream team, bringing the JHelix experience to the people is more streamlined than ever: as always, the artist visualizes the concept, and with the help of a high school acquaintance-turned-friend, Mike Sal, brings it to camera, with editor David of DavideoPro refining the now distinctive aesthetic of a JHelix work.

In the “Upon The Earth” music video, much like in real life, the lines between the natural and digital worlds blur — he’s not just standing “Upon The Earth” but becoming one with it, shifting between lush green forests and pixelated hellscapes where faceless bots take swings without rhyme or reason.

When these distorted realms collide, war breaks loose, unleashing chaos. “We’ve lost our hearts,” he cries out, but maybe it’s not too late. Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to go touch grass. That reality is just a click away, if people are willing to log off long enough to find it.

You grew up in the Northeastern countryside but were drawn to darker music early on. How did that environment shape your creative side?

So, where I grew up we were on I believe, somewhere between 50-60acres of undeveloped pine forest. Then, outside of our property was something like 100 more acres of forest owned by the state…some sort of land trust. Vermont as a whole is very undeveloped when compared to many other states, so raw nature is absolutely everywhere… deer in your yard in the morning was a common thing, along with lots of other types of wildlife always around.

As a kid, it was very common if I didn’t have any friends over, I’d be wandering around in the woods hiking and exploring. This direct contact with nature attracted me to music that spoke the most natural truth or raw honesty… really giving me a “go deep or go home” approach artistically. Darker music tends to dwell on the deeper side of things. I like that.

Bands like Alice in Chains, Nine Inch Nails, and Type O Negative were early influences for you. What about their sound pulled you in?

Oh God, where do I even begin (haha). I think in order of appearance in my life, NIN might have come first. I remember I was on a trip in Colorado… my sister, who was an avid horse enthusiast, had a summer job as a rancher out there, so my family got to vacation there at a discounted rate. One day, a bunch of us kids were in a van on some sort of day trip, and another kid with a Sony Walkman told me to check out this band he discovered.

The band was Nine Inch Nails, the album was Pretty Hate Machine, and the song was Terrible Lie. Hoh lee shit! I was blown away immediately… I had never heard anything like it before. I was instantly hooked on the dark electronic walls of sound that Trent could weave. So sick! Alice in Chains was a pretty similar thing. My sister had just received her first 10 free Cd’s from Columbia House (you gotta be of a certain age to get this reference!), and one of them was AIC’s album Dirt. She put it in the little egg-shaped Sony boombox we had and pressed play. From the very first “AIYYY!” of “Them Bones”, I was hooked…game over. They shaped me musically forever after that day. What an original sound.

Speaking of an original sound, Type O came a bit later in my life…I think I was fully a teenager by then. The song Wolf Moon was insane. Somehow, these vampire-looking dudes were creating this mournful, soulful, and almost medieval opera-sounding music, and it really got my attention. Add to it that they were worshippers of the forest and nature, and I was in.

Your music blends electronic textures with heavier sounds. What do you enjoy most about building those layered atmospheres in the studio?

I’ve always liked being wrapped up like a blanket in audio. Sure, a song with a catchy little tune is always fun, but I’ll take a song with a melodic rhythmic pulse that glues it together any day. I like being absorbed by music, not just listening to it. This is what I’m always seeking to capture in my songs. Unfortunately for me, because I’m the creator of my music, I have an extremely complicated relationship with it, so my brain flips to engineer/analysis mode when I’m listening to my own stuff. It’s much harder to pull myself in with…well… myself..haha. So essentially if I can manage to hypnotize myself with it at some point after creating the song…I know I’ve got it right!

“Upon The Earth” has a darker, heavier feel. What inspired the direction you took with this song?

I would say about 80% of my musical catalogue has a darker, heavier feel, so Upon the Earth is actually pretty “on brand” for me! Where I would say it’s a bit different is that it’s fully Alternative Metal, and based mostly on traditional rock band instruments (drums, bass, multiple guitars, singer, etc.). I do have one synth in there that’s kind of glueing the sonic tapestry together, but the rest is traditional. This is no accident. If you go back to my last single “Breathe,”, you’ll hear that I’m doing it there too, but in that song, there are two synths. I’ve been working on a full-length album this whole time behind the scenes, and I’ll share a little secret with you… There are no synths on the entire album! It’s straight-up traditional Alt Metal. I’m pretty excited about it…so as you can see…Upon The Earth is part of a big musical transition for me.

The track touches on how the digital world has changed the way people connect. When did those ideas start showing up in your writing?

Oh, I’ve been talkin’ shit about the internet for quite some time in my music… haha. If you’re looking for a specific time when I really ramped it up, that would 100% be on my album The Corruption. Even the cover itself was a disturbing artistic representation of humanity being held hostage by the internet. It’s pretty much the theme of that album. I released it in the second part of 2020, and I know we all have such lovely memories of that time in history. I meant to do more promotion on it after release, etc., but well….Covid. 

The music video moves between natural settings and digital chaos. What was the vision behind those visuals?

I wanted to create a visual representation of the dark way we seem to communicate with each other on social media, and how it contrasts to the real world. The two Sith Lord-looking characters slicing and smashing me up throughout the track, I refer to as “Bots”. Nothing about them is compassionate or gentle; they just want to watch the world burn. I also tried to incorporate bullying, glorified violence, totalitarianism…you know all that great stuff that the internet is promoting these days. In stark contrast is the natural, trippy feeling of the forest scenes… which is where we should all be going to get some fresh air!

You worked with Mike Sal and DavideoPro on the video. What has that collaboration been like?

So, David and I at this point are kind of a well-oiled machine. He’s been working with me on everything from album covers to logos to all my music videos since 2018! Crazy that it’s been that long. The visual component to my content that at this point just “feels” like JHelix stuff is in large part due to David’s ability to turn my ideas into visual art. Shout out to David! This was actually the first time I worked with Mike Sal. We went to the same high school back up north, but didn’t know each other. Somehow we both ended up in ATL, and years later, here we are working on something. He’s a professional live sound engineer as well as a drone footage guy, and several other things inside the music biz. Working on this little project was quite literally a walk in the park for him… haha.

You’re also getting ready to bring this music to the stage with a band. What are you most looking forward to about performing these songs live—and anything else you’d like to share with fans before we wrap up?

I haven’t done any live sets since 2018, I think. Yikes, sounds pretty bad now that I say that out loud. It’s a bit tricky when you’re a one-man band. Sure, people are doing it I suppose… Ed Sheeran is kind of setting the bar pretty high here… haha. But it’s tough enough getting decent gigs with a cover band, let alone when you’re just one dude creating original industrial music with no band. It really takes a sustained, focused effort, and to be honest, I’ve been far more focused on creating original new material than just about anything else over the years. Now I really want to share all this new music with the world, though, and it’s going to require a band setup to do it justice live in my opinion. That will be an entirely new world of work I’m about to open up on myself (facepalm), but when it’s time, it’s time… and it’s time! I guess I would say to anyone who really digs my sound or my lyrics… go stream my other tracks (over 45 released), my music videos, and my creative video series. They are all waiting for you! And stay tuned, because I’m just getting warmed up!….

Follow JHelix

https://jhelix.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@JHelix
https://www.facebook.com/jhelixofficial
https://x.com/jhelixofficial
https://www.instagram.com/thismusiclife

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