Ahead of the release of their sec­ond album Emi­ta Ox on Sep­tem­ber 13^th via Frenchkiss Records, the young New York-based trio Hel­lo Mary have start­ed a run of shows in the UK. Their first was at End of the Road where they absolute­ly nailed it on stage and the crowd’s reac­tion and ensu­ing merch queue hint­ed at their future suc­cess in the UK. There’s a cool insou­ciance about the band on stage. Vocal­ist and gui­tarist Hele­na Straight embraces her role as front­woman, coax­ing dis­tort­ed fuzz from her gui­tar. Mean­while, bassist Mikaela takes more of a back­ground role – a calm and com­posed presence.

Still in their late teens and ear­ly twen­ties, Hele­na Straight (vocals, gui­tar), Mikaela Oppen­heimer (vocals, bass), and Stel­la Wave (drums) formed Hel­lo Mary in 2019 from a youth music pro­gram in their New York City High school. Tour­ing part­ners of Sil­ver­sun Pick­ups, Amer­i­can Foot­ball, and DIIV, Hel­lo Mary have already seen crit­i­cal acclaim.

While their for­ma­tive record­ings, 2020’s Gin­ger and their 2023 self-titled album, saw the band pay­ing homage to the alt-rock of the 90s, their upcom­ing album Emi­ta Ox sees Hel­lo Mary forg­ing their own path, tak­ing a more exper­i­men­tal approach to song­writ­ing. The band have adopt­ed cer­tain ele­ments from their tour­ing con­tem­po­raries while mak­ing a sound dis­tinct­ly their own. 

Their set at End of the Road was an indi­ca­tion of just how many gen­res make up the Hel­lo Mary sound, bring­ing in ele­ments of shoegaze, noise rock, post-rock, and mixed-metre com­po­si­tion. There are moments of dreamy, ethe­re­al instru­men­ta­tion com­bined with unfil­tered, noisy chaos.

UK Tour
3 Sept – Brix­ton Wind­mill, Lon­don (head­line)
11 Sept – Rock City, Not­ting­ham (w/ Amer­i­can Foot­ball)
12 Sept – Bar­row­lands, Glas­gow (w/ Amer­i­can Foot­ball)
13 Sept – SWX, Bris­tol (w/ Amer­i­can Foot­ball)
14 Sept – Round­house, Lon­don (w/ Amer­i­can Football)

Hel­lo Mary / Web­site Hel­lo Mary / Sec­ond album Emi­ta Ox on Frenchkiss Records, release date 13th September