Eric Helin Design - Eric Helin: Music

Music & Lyrics

I've been writing songs as long as I can remember. I was a music major in college before I decided I should pursue a more practical major like the studies in Ancient Classical Cultures. Business wasn't exotic enough and besides golf, bored me. There are periods in my life when I've written less music and periods when I've written more, but wherever I've been, I've alwas continued writing music. My songs are often in ballad form and my musical style is probably best described as adult contemporary. My songs include a variety of themes from the humorous to the political. A significant number focus on the romantic love of male/male love. I've included a brief selection of some of my songs.

"As the work of a highly skilled songwriter, his songs would be memorable even as mainstream compositions. These songs reverberate with the undertones of a kind of gay angst. Couple this with a vivid visual imagery and the result is a unique interpretation of the gay experience. In addition, his use of complex, internal rhyming schemes and metaphorical nuance all combine to make these songs a brilliant tour-de-force of musical expression. These songs often act as vignettes for individual gay experiences in such a way that they take on a universal "everyman" quality making it possible for anyone who is gay to readily identify with them. It is romance and not sex that is the driving force underlying much of Eric's gay-themed material. In a lifestyle where overt sexuality and risqué innuendo sometimes seem to be the prevailing focus, it is refreshingly absent from his work. Instead, he has opted to base his material on romance - that is not to say his work lacks erotic elements.

"My struggle to accept my homosexual orientation was difficult and it played out in my music."

Eric's Songlist: