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Helen Austin

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Hometown	Royston, Canada
Genres
Band Members	Just me!
Achievements
Upcoming Shows	None

Contact Information:
# Years Experience Performing Live:	20
Market Draw:	Home Market: 151-200
Performing Rights Society:	Outside US

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About the Artist

Helen Austin is a prolific singer/songwriter from the UK now living on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada.

Helen is no stranger to the stage and has worked as a professional performer for over 20 years, building a career as an award winning, musical comedian...

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Music

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Achievements

Top 10 in Singer-Songwriter (female), February 2011

Top 10 in Shout It Out with HANSON: Vancouver, BC, July 2010

Top 10 in Shout It Out with HANSON: Seattle, WA, July 2010

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Press Coverage

Austin nearing end of songwriting challenge by Paula Wild
On April 15, Helen Austin will complete her self-imposed challenge of writing a song a week. Not content to tackle just that, she also recorded and produced each song as she wrote it, uploading them onto the Internet so listeners could download them for free. All this took place in her bedroom/studio. And while she also filled the roles of wife, mother to a 12- and seven-year old, president of and musician in the Strathcona Symphony, and was breaking into the television and advertising industry. “I like doing a lot of different things and I love deadlines,” admits the 42-year-old. A year ago, Austin was bored with the work of promoting her most recent CD and EP. So her husband suggested she get back to what she really loves — making music. Austin started composing with no real plan in mind. But after she’d put together a few EPs, she made the commitment to write, record and produce a song a week for a year. At the end of that time, she’d finetune and polish the best songs for an album. Although Austin’s a prolific composer, it wasn’t easy. “I’d be getting the kids off to school all the while trying to keep a tune in my head,” she says. “Summer holidays were crazy and when we went to England to visit family, I had to write several songs in advance so I could release them weekly.” But the most difficult challenge was continuing the project after a close friend died unexpectedly. “I just couldn’t write a song that week,” she confesses. “That’s why there will only be 51 songs in the collection, not 52.” During her song-a-week gig, Austin also began working with music publishers. “I wanted to get my music out there in a different way,” she explains. “And I don’t want to do much touring any more; I’ve had enough of that.” (Before moving to the Comox Valley, Austin was a popular standup comedian in Britain and made her living on the comedy club circuit). Later this year, several of her songs will appear in the indie film Mayor Cupcake, starring award-winning actors Judd Nelson and Lea Thompson. And Austin’s music has also appeared on numerous MTV productions and Internet ads, including one for a Caribbean cruise. “The only problem is a lot of the MTV shows come out on stations I don’t get, so I can’t see them,” she says. As she winds up her song-of-the-week project, Austin says she feels both exhausted and sad. “It’s been a lot of work,” she acknowledges, “but it also resulted in some good songs. All the Letters, a quirky piece I churned out using letters of the alphabet, is one of my best songs and never would have been written if I wasn’t determined to write a song a week.” Austin says she’ll record the Best of the Song of the Week album this summer with a late-September release. She’s already captured the attention of CBC Radio show host Sheryl MacKay who interviews her on March 27 for a later airing on North by Northwest. And a two-week correspondence with Jian Ghomeshi, host of CBC’s Q, that included e-mails, twitters, a YouTube video and a box of Hot Chocolates, may also garner some future publicity. “I’m sad to see the song of the week end,” says Austin, “but it’s time to move on to something else. One of my publishers has asked for some purely instrumental music. That’s a new challenge, so I’m keen on that.”

Voices Three delivers with song & humour by Paula Wild
Voices Three, featuring local singers/songwriters Sue Pyper, Helen Austin and Judy Brunet, performed at the Sid Williams Theatre on Jan. 13th. A nearly full house and an enthusiastic response from the audience after the first number set the tone for the evening. Voices Three was the brainchild of Brit-born performers, Helen Austin and Sue Pyper. They wanted to showcase female songwriters in the Comox Valley and raise funds for the Comox Valley Hospice Society. They invited Judy Brunet to join them and proceeded to put together a concert that was musically entertaining and very funny. The three women are all passionate about what they do and accomplished in their own fields. Austin, an award-winning performer, is considered one of the funniest comediennes on the UK comedy circuit. Pyper is an award-winning songwriter with a contagious sense of humour. And Brunet, who spent a good chunk of her life in Sointula, wrote the Sointula Centennial song, Islander, which is now sold as a fundraiser for the Sointula Museum. The concert included many songs written by the three women. Themes explored setting down new roots, love gone awry, discovering personal power and watching children pass through rites of passage. I had expected good music and was not disappointed. I had even expected a few laughs, but was totally unprepared for the volume of humour that pervaded the performance and the howls of laughter it generated. As well as being musically talented, these women are very, very funny. Highlights included Austin’s song about the other side of childbirth, Pyper’s bathing suit blues and Brunet’s monologue on a very special relationship. All were hilarious! Accompanying the songstresses on stage was a backup band composed of Bruce Wing on guitar, Brad Hawkes on percussion and Trent Freemen on fiddle. I have reviewed Freeman in the past and he just keeps getting better and better. Although he could have easily stolen the show, he modestly remained in the background. Voices Three also contained a moving tribute to Comox Valley Hospice volunteer Wilma Blanchard who passed away late last year. The organization is always in need of donations, volunteers and members. If you’d like to help out, contact them at 339-5533, or CVHS1@telus.net.

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Helen Austin

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