Great Western Harp & Wax

Tweets by @GreatWesternHW

If you’ve stumbled on this as yet unpublished page, lucky you. You can hear an unfinished version of the first song the band plans to release.

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No shows are currently booked. The band is just getting launched, and we’re working on live material. Check back soon, or join our mailing list to find out about upcoming shows.

We really appreciate that you want to help support our music. We’re just getting started, and working up some ways you can do that. Check back here soon, or join our mailing list.

Great Western Harp & Wax is a new band from Columbus, OH, and the primary music project of Chris Helman. The songs I write are rooted in Indie Folk/Rock/Pop, and Americana with a mix of electric and acoustic guitars, piano, synths, organs, and more. I believe the songwriting part of the process is especially important. I work to craft meaningful songs with memorable melodies and instrumental parts that encourage active listening. I then take an individual song level approach to arrangement and recording, developing the instrumentation and overall sound around each song, rather than per album.

I’m originally from Cleveland, where I was raised on a healthy selection of classic rock groups. Out of those, David Bowie probably affected me the most. I still remember first hearing Ziggy, at about 10 years old, in the back seat of the car while my parents drove to buy wallpaper. The songs just made me sing, but my dad said I sounded tone deaf. I’m sure he was right. Like most, I spent my teens listening to all kinds of stuff, some of it good, some of it embarrassing. But, hearing Radiohead’s OK Computer was definitely an important moment for me. If you could wear out a CD, mine would’ve had laser-burn. I wanted to know how to make those sounds, and wished I had Thom Yorke’s voice. At that time, I was spending my nights in the basement pressing Record on an old 2-track cassette deck, and playing around with a bunch of 80s equipment from my dad’s old band. I was learning how to write songs on guitar, and wishing I had stuck with the piano lessons my parents made me take when I was little.

Since then, I’ve been trying to figure out how to focus my creativity. I studied Sculpture in college, ran a photography business with a friend, and worked on script writing projects, all the while knowing that music and songwriting is where my heart is. While in college, the songs of Tom Waits, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Magnetic Fields grabbed me, and I consider them seminal in my development as a songwriter. I could go on and on about influences. There are a ton of amazing songwriters and artists out there. I hope to be one of them.

Currently, the band is just getting launched. Lots of work to do, and there will be lots of music to come, so keep an eye on this site, join our list, and follow the band on social if you like what you’ve heard so far.

Drop a line. We’ll catch it.