Solid Foundation: “Bungalow” singer Scott Helman builds concrete future

Scott Helman photographed backstage at the 2015 MMVAs. ©marcandrew.ca

Scott Helman is building a solid future in music.

The 20 year-old started by reigning over his hometown of Toronto last year when he owned the stage at the 2015 MuchMusic Video Awards alongside today’s hottest acts Ed Sheeran, Jason Derulo and Nick Jonas.

Scott’s debut single “Bungalow” earned him a MMVA nomination for Best Pop Video and the tune has gone on to be certified gold in Canada with sales amounting to over 500K.

“Bungalow” also found a home on the charts.

Scott’s hit spent two weeks at No. 1 on the CBC Radio 2 charts, it entered the Top 15 on Alternative Rock Radio and peeked at No.8 on the Canadian Top 400, a spot right behind Skrillex, Diplo and Justin Bieber’s hit “Where Are U Now.”

Those aren’t the only hot lists Scott has climbed.

The guy is No.1 on Teen Vogue’s “14 Singers Who Are Going to Dominate in 2016” ahead of two-time Grammy-nominated “Ex’s & Oh’s” singer Elle King.

Now Scott’s achievements are being rewarded with two 2016 JUNO Award nominations: Breakthrough Artist of the Year and Pop Album of the Year for his debut record Augusta.

“I didn’t expect a lot of this to happen,” Scott said backstage at the 2015 MMVAs. “I just try to take it day by day and stay in the moment. It’s been really cool.”

Scott set all of this into motion when he started writing songs at age 13 and the young pup looked for inspiration in all the right places.

“When I decided to pick up an acoustic guitar I would listen to people like Ray LaMontagne, Bruce Springsteen. Predominantly singer-songwriters,” he said.

By the time Scott turned 15, he had a game plan and managed to sign a recording contract with Warner Music Canada.

“When I first signed the record deal I thought I was going to be in a room with men in suits smoking cigars being like, ‘Here’s what we do, kid.’ But it wasn’t like that,” he remembered. “It was surprising and amazing. They saw me as a songwriter before anything.”

Canada has been seeing a lot of Scott lately. He spent last summer performing on stages at some of the biggest music fests in the country like the Calgary Stampede, Edgefest, the Ottawa Bluesfest and Rock the Shores.

When fall came around, Scott introduced himself to Europe where he met up with Canadian superstars Walk Off The Earth for a 25-date trek across more than 10 countries including Berlin, London, Milan and Paris.

It was also with fellow JUNO nominees Walk Off the Earth that Scott took his music to the US for the first time before touring 2015 away with Matthew Good.

Scott looks back at these memorable outings as huge learning experiences.

“Playing live is something that shows me a lot. To see people’s reaction to the songs, to the music is a really special thing. Now I go into the studio and I’m thinking about that aspect of music.”

That’s right. Scott is already in and out of the studio working on new material even though his debut album is just a little over a year old.

“I’m always writing,” Scott said.

And that just gives us more reason to keep our eyes on the breakout star.

Get Scott’s debut album Augusta on iTunes now.

Posted by Marc Andrew on Feb 17 2016. Filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.