Todd Helvig Distill CD

Fast becoming a movement, Distill is the next installation of the New Folk sound from Todd. Full of energy and life, yet pared down to it’s essence, Distill consists of live recordings of new (and a few refurbished) originals. It’s an up-close and personal expose of songs written to be heard as you can now hear them: solo and straightforward.When asked about the new album, Todd had this to say:“After one of my sets promoting my last cd release (A Stones Throw) a guy came up and purchased a cd. He asked if the disc he was buying was just me playing my songs. I told him the songs had been built up with bass, drums, harmonies, etc. He looked slightly disappointed and said he’d really like a recording that was quite simply the way I played them on stage. I had considered that before, but always went back on it thinking that the songs wouldn’t sound complete enough in today’s market.Then I realized this: My songs are honest and simple. They hold the silence as dearly as the chord. And I’m not creating for a ‘market,’ I’m creating because that’s what I do. What better way to represent that than to record them the way I play them live; No filler, no icing, just hit record and play. And that’s what I did. I named the album Distill because it is, and was, the process that satisfied the urge. My goal was to strip away the excess and distill the creative process down to its core.” The unpolished truth is Distill. Songs like Parallel Lines, I Believe in Love, and Everything I Need lay out Todd’s devotion to basic principles that life can’t be fully lived without. Prison Song , Better Days, and Undone speak directly to the nature and substance of humanity’s weaker (often hidden) side. Petrified, Crystal Man, and In the Gloaming strive to make human the human. There is but one exception on the album. The song entitled Tap the Flow “was an afterthought that was too good to be left out. It began as a little song/zygote that blew up in the basement late one night. I take no responsibility for said explosion.”“It’s about catharsis, exploration, and embracing the truths we are faced with each and every day.”Please take a second to sample the tunes, buy a cd, and visit Todd’s website. New and old fans welcome!*All quotations are direct comments by Todd.