About That Song: Helena Hallberg
About That Song #36
In our special series, singer-songwriter Sarah Morris interviews artists about the songs that shaped them.
Hi! I’m Sarah Morris. I’m wildly in love with songs and the people who write them. There have been a few songs in my life that have been total gamechangers—songs that made me want to be a songwriter and songs I’ve written that made me feel like I am a songwriter. About That Song is a space where I can learn more about those pivotal songs in other writers’ lives.
In the 36th edition of this series, I sat down with Helena Hallberg, a Swedish singer-songwriter currently based in Nashville who fell in love with American folk music and the traditional Appalachian instrument known as the mountain dulcimer! We talked about songs that had an impact on her artistic journey and about her imminent Midwest tour that includes several Twin Cities gigs.
Helena Hallberg. Photo credit: Anna Haas.
Sarah: Hi Helena!! I met you in a tiny town in Texas last May, and I was immediately struck by the gorgeousness of your songwriting and the way you sing those gorgeous songs. Richly layered lyrics, with melodies that make elegant use of your vocal instrument. Your debut album, Epithet, will be released into the world very soon, and I’m thrilled to get to talk a bit about songs with you in advance of the release. Do you remember the song that you heard that made you want to be a songwriter? Tell us about that song.
Helena: Oh, I think it was an Alicia Keys song, maybe “Superwoman”? Looking back this is seriously on brand, considering that a lot of my music now is centered around mental health and female empowerment. It really got me into the piano, and AK’s vocal runs made me train my runs nonstop for like 6 months. And the way she used these extended chords really taught me a lot about harmony. And then she was just so cool, which I realized just now leads directly into the first song I ever seriously wrote, when I was 13, called “Blind.” I ended up putting it on my very first EP in 2016.
Fun facts about “Blind”: It’s still being played regularly on Swiss national radio (even after 8 years), and the boy I wrote it about sent me a message a few years ago saying he’d heard me on the radio. I was like “Uhm, do you know who this song’s about?” It was a fun moment.
Sarah: Ha! Yes, that’s a very fun songwriter moment. Also, I just went to listen to “Blind,” and I can totally hear the throughline from AK to HH! Once you began writing, did you feel like a writer immediately? It took me a few years of writing before I believed it—was there a song that gave you that “a-HA! I AM a songwriter!” moment? Tell us about that song.
Helena: Honestly, I think I’m still waiting on that moment—and that’s okay—but I guess actually holding my first EP in my hands almost made me feel like one? Also winning my first competition definitely was a lightbulb moment for me, because I felt like my songwriting actually hit home with other people. It was a song I hadn’t released yet called “Cause I Can” and it was one of those that just fell out of my head. I had just arrived in New York, didn’t really know what I was doing, and times were tough. “Cause I Can” really made me feel like my songwriting was more than just something I used for my own mental health.
Sarah: I do wonder if one of the special things about songwriting is that we might indeed use it for our mental health, and it ends up shining a light, helping others with their own mental wellness. Maybe having a glimmer of those moments, or the almost of that feeling is the just-right space to be in sometimes … as long as it keeps the pen(cil) to the page?
You play the mountain dulcimer, which is not the most common instrument brought out at songwriter nights in my experience. Was there a song that led you to that instrument? Or a first song that that instrument led you to?
Helena: Oh boy, I think this is gonna be the most stereotypical answer, but it was definitely Joni Mitchell who brought me to the mountain dulcimer. I was 23 and learning to drive—this was in Switzerland where no one gets their license early—and my driving teacher put on “A Case of You” and I was like “What is this instrument?!”
I think it was a combination of the words, the harmonic structure and the way she uses her head voice and mix that really drove it home for me. “She said ‘Go to him, stay with him if you can, but be prepared to bleed’”? That’s just an incredible line. I think it was just the perfect combination between pain and beauty, like a bear hug from a friend after a really exhausting day.
Sarah: Who can learn to drive when also falling in love with Joni Mitchell via “A Case of You”? That sounds like a questionable move on behalf of your driving instructor!
Helena: Then it took me like 5 years and the Atlantic Ocean to be able to purchase my first mountain dulcimer. I remember I had to figure out how it worked first, but then I pretty quickly wrote a song called “Your Side of the Pillow,” which is about the guy I was dating at the time. It felt so natural and easy that it made me just get more fond of the instrument. I’ve owned a lot of different folk instruments, but that song on that dulcimer really set up my hyper-fixation with the instrument.
Sarah: Back to that weekend when I met you in Texas, I remember being struck by your song “From The Outside”—the lyrics speak to sense of confidence and ease in rooting down into one’s outsider status, and you seem to be singing from the “forest floor”—which is one of my favorite places to sing from as well. Tell us about that song!
Helena: Aww thank you! I’m always happy to see how people interpret the song, because I think it means multiple things and was hoping I could create a sort of mirror situation with the lyrics.
The forest floor is seriously holy, it really is. This song was a cool one because I was messing with “Carey” by Joni Mitchell, which has a little dulcimer rhythm at the beginning and I think in that tuning, that harmonic V-I shape just stuck with me. You don’t really notice in the end product because it’s such a common phrasing, but that’s where it began musically.
I’d been chewing on the outsider-perspective angle for a long time, because growing up with multiple cultures, that’s the perspective I was used to. But it’s also about the path that leads you to an outside perspective, how tough that path can be, but how rewarding it is when you get there.
Helena Hallberg. Photo credit: Anna Haas.
Sarah: I am such a fan of anyone celebrating the journey. As a listener, I want alllll the songs about it, and as a writer, it’s something I find myself tripping over often.
Another song on the new album—“Surprisingly Disco”—ah! I was over the moon delighted listening to this song. The production and your voice immediately brought a smile to my face. The playful lyrics and melody made me listen on repeat. I haven’t heard “I’m down with the boogie” so expertly employed before. Can you tell us about that song?
Helena: Oh that’s wonderful, bringing a smile to people’s faces is the BEST! “SD” really came about because I had a moment of reflection last summer that made me realize I’d been suppressing parts of myself in my last relationship. I’d been listening to a lot of disco, and I just felt like disco is this weird genre that’s timeless but also tied to a very specific decade—and a lot of people either LOVE or HATE disco music, which I think made it a perfect analogy for the unexpected parts of ourselves we may not show everyone for fear of judgment.
Later, when we were discussing which tracks to put on the record, it musically stuck out like a sore thumb, but the fact that it was called “Surprisingly Disco” just made me wanna put it on there specifically so I can say it’s “Surprisingly Disco” for a folk album. Unfortunately I’ve only been able to make that joke two or three times.
Sarah: Is this the fourth time maybe? It’s a new joke here! One last question: You’re currently based in Nashville, but you’re headed up to the Midwest for a few shows at the end of this month! Where can readers hear you sing these songs live?
Yes I am headed to the Midwest! My Twin Cities tour stops are:
2/28 - Guesting at White Squirrel Bar - St Paul, MN (ALERT - SARAH IS HOSTING THIS SHOW AND TOTALLY BIASED BUT YOU SHOULD COME!)
2/29 - Leap Year House Show - St. Paul, MN
3/1 - "Almanac" Twin Cities PBS - Minneapolis, MN
3/2 - American Swedish Institute/Midwinter Folk Fest - Minneapolis, MN
3/2 - The Cedar - Minneapolis, MN
Get details about Helena’s tour on her website!
Listen to “Surprisingly Disco”
Epithet Album Credits
We recorded this album with an all-female production team (Gloria Kaba, Mary Bragg) at Power Station at BerkleeNYC in December 2022 and I’m fortunate to have been able to continue along those lines. The content created to accompany this record will also have been crafted predominantly with the help of female-identifying creatives:
Linda Kastrati (Studio Photography and Videography)
Talia Light Rake (Production Design and Direction for the music videos to “Surprisingly Disco” and “Epithet”)
Christina Dobre (DP for the music videos to “Surprisingly Disco” and “Epithet”)
Emma Franzén (Production Design and DP for the music video to “From the Outside”
Kaitlyn Raitz (Live Videos)
Sarah Hubner aka Honeysucklesketches (merch design)
... and many more
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sarah Morris. Photo credit: Tom Smouse.
Sarah Morris is a superfan of songs and the people who write them, and a believer that certain songs can change your life. A singer-songwriter / mama / bread maker / coffee drinker who recently released her fifth album of original material, she’s been known to joyfully sing with people in her Big Green Bathroom.
