Helena Deland

Helena Deland emerged from the Montreal indie scene in the mid-2010s with an artful, low-key style that concentrated as much on texture and timbre as on melody and familiar song structures. Featuring her notably gentle vocal delivery, Deland’s first EP, Drawing Room, saw release in 2016. Her debut album, Someone New, arrived in 2020.
Born in Vancouver and raised in Quebec City before relocating to Montreal, Deland learned to play the piano and guitar as a child. Her first collection of songs, the Drawing Room EP, was made in collaboration with Jesse Mac Cormack, who recorded and mixed the album in addition to formulating the arrangements. Ranging from airy synths and acoustic guitar to noir-styled electric guitar and harmonica, the set was unified by a hazy, understated quality and introspective lyrics. With a full band that included Cormack, Deland’s EP From the Series of Songs "Altogether Unaccompanied," Vols. 1-2 arrived on Luminelle Recordings in March 2018. Vols. 3-4 followed that October.
Deland toured with the likes of Weyes Blood and Connan Mockasin and opened a show for Iggy Pop in Paris before returning with her full-length debut. Featuring contributions in the studio from Gabe Wax, Jake Portrait, and her friend Valentin Ignat, and performed with her band, 2020′s Someone New was released by Luminelle that October. ~ Marcy Donelson