HELD
... is an electronic trio composed of Shell Harris, Oliver Nagy and Alex Dop, hailing from Germany and the UK. Inspired by their diverse musical backgrounds and their shared passion for creativity, they formed HELD to craft a distinctive collective sound that blends their individual talents. Their music is a captivating blend of cinematic electronic pop and androgynous vocal harmonies. The three members met in Liverpool, the vibrant musical hub and home of Shell, where they all graduated from Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Institute For Performing Arts.
Who are the artists/musicians behind HELD and how did you get into music?
Shell - From Liverpool, started out in the acting world and only realised in college that she had a powerful voice and how much she enjoyed using it.
"Acting allowed me to leave my body and be someone else, I could emote under the cover of the character I was playing, but music and songwriting in particular, didn’t let me hide and that terrified me… So naturally I gravitated toward it”
Alex - Producer, Composer and Songwriter, Alex. From touring the UK in various bands, playing in front of 10,000 people to recording in Peter Gabriels studio, Alex has been creative his entire life. His ability to write and produce has helped him to compose scores for short films and games.
Oli - Born and raised in Cologne, Germany, Oli started singing, ands songwriting, from a young age and worked with big names from the industry during his time as a solo artist with Universal Germany. After graduating from The Liverpool Institute For Performing Arts, alongside Michelle and and Alex, he toured the UK and Germany with multiple music projects. Supporting bands like The Libertines and Feeder.
"Some quiet" sounds simply great, what's the story of the song?
We wrote this song shortly after the Covid pandemic when everyone was pretty much in lockdown and we couldn't see our loved ones. It was an awfully difficult time for most of us. The song is about running away from the noise and wanting some quiet from the madness of the world.
It is ironic because we had a lot of "quiet" during the pandemic, locked inside our homes, but somehow the never-ending news cycle and social media made it seem very difficult to have some space.
What were the main challenges that you faced in recording the new release?
Honestly it was time, I know that sounds a little boring and it would probably be cooler to tell you that a dinosaur broke through the window half way through Oli’s perfect take, but it was simply time. As independent artists, living in a city like London, you tend to be juggling about 3 jobs, so trying to find time between 3 people all with 3 jobs was a challenge. Luckily we own our own studio and produce our own music so that was a huge help. During that time it did feel like the studio was our little safe haven of creativity away from the madness of the city.
How do you approach the process of writing, composing, and producing your music?
The writing approach differs each time, we don’t really have a set process. Sometimes Oli might come in with a melody or a verse, or Shell might have a concept she wants to explore, or Alex will have a Haiku that sparks an idea. From here Alex will jump behind the console and begin laying down some production ideas whilst Oli and Shell craft the lyrics/melody.
Eventually a song begins to form and from that point it's as if we all hear how the finished song will sound so its just a case of pulling that out of, what Alex likes to call, ‘the ether’. I guess that is the beauty of having worked together for so many years, so much of the process is unspoken and just works. Alex will generally produce the entire track from here before it is sent off for mix & master.
What are some of the challenges or rewards of being a musician in the current music industry?
The challenges are quite naturally what every other independent artist experiences and that is lack of funding and time in an industry that is kind of eating itself. EVERYONE has the ability to make music, which is amazing in many ways, but challenging when the market is so saturated and, naturally, a labels primary interest is profit, so they’re looking for a sure thing.
However, when you pull all of that away and you come back to why you’re doing this in the first place you realise that you’re not doing it for the traction, the numbers, the plays you’re doing it because you can’t not do it, creative art is how artists make sense of the world, it's their form of therapy, so life (and arguably the world) would be much worse if they weren’t creating. As we see it, what it means to be an independent artists is changing, and with platforms such as Patreon and Buy me a Coffee you can find your own small fan base who can fund your creative process, which is a really beautiful thing. So hopefully we can reach a place where a creative career isn’t gate kept as much, because there is room for everyone.
Do you still remember the first song you ever wrote?
Yes, the first song that the three of us ever wrote together still plagues us today as people say it's the best song we’ve ever written. It's a really emotional song called "Stay With Me" that makes everyone cry, but we actually wrote it about a messy night out.
What do you have in store for the near future?
Well, although we’ve been writing together for years, this project is a pretty new one for us, so we’ve got a few more songs in the pipe line to release and then its back to our safe place (the studio) to create a little more and see what happens.
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