Hanging with Helen Money
Alison Chesley, also known by her stage name of Helen Money, should be pleased.
It’s one thing to take the cello out of its usual placement in an orchestra or string quartet and, in a seemingly quirky twist, present it in the context of a rock club. It’s another to develop a unique niche with bold, new approaches to the instrument that make that make its presence in a rock context seem entirely appropriate.
After playing in a duo with singer/guitarist Jason Narducy as Jason & Alison, the pair brought in additional players in the mid-‘90s and found wider recognition as the band Verbow. Following the release of two albums on Epic Records, the band was dropped by the label, and Chesley left Verbow in 2001. The cellist has since kept busy around her Chicago home base, playing on numerous albums and composing music for film as well as for theater and dance groups.
For her own compositions, Chesley began working under the name Helen Money. Her debut album, “Helen Money,” was released in 2007, and she is now preparing to issue her latest full-length, “In Tune,” on the experimental indie label Table of the Elements.
“Since I started to do my own stuff, it’s just a name I came up with,” said Chesley of Helen Money, speaking from Chicago. “I felt like it would be nice to not have it be my name. There’s a little more…not mystery, but something to having a band name, and also I could invite other people in at some point if I wanted to showcase Helen Money. And I didn’t want any jazz or folk connotations, like ‘Alison Chesley Ensemble.’ I wanted more of a rock-sounding name.”
Considering what Chesley manages to wring from her cello, a rock-sounding name would seem required. By playing her instrument through a guitar amp, and with the use of pedals, Chesley can conjure an ominous, almost percussive sound. It should come as no surprise to anyone who’s heard her work that metal bands have taken note, and both Disturbed and Anthrax are among those bearing Chesley’s name among their album credits.
The Disturbed recording involved playing on a ballad, which is not Chesley’s forte.
“So, when they called me about doing the Anthrax thing I was like, ‘Oh, yeah – that’s going to be fun.’ And, sure enough, (Charlie Benante) wanted me to play stuff that was like playing along with the bass riff, and then he had some melodic ideas, too, that were really cool, but I kind of liked working with him because he was a little more open to making the cello sound fit in with everything, approaching it a little differently. And that’s kind of what I enjoy.”
Her new album, “In Tune,” offers a range of Chesley’s abilities, technically as well as compositionally, from the open vistas of “Segrada” to the charging, guitar-like string attack of “MF” and the frightening loops featured in the title track. While the record’s tones are generally dark, Chesley’s varied approaches are engaging throughout, adding and reducing texture from song to song. Plus, she decided to unveil a secret weapon to break up the proceedings: a cover of the Minutemen’s “Political Song For Michael Jackson To Sing.”
“My boyfriend and I were talking about how all the songs on my record were longer and pretty dark, and it would be nice to throw a cover in just to give people something to grab onto in a way, and also to have a reference to where I’m kind of coming from. I grew up in L.A. and I saw (Minutemen) play a bunch, and I thought it would be perfect because their songs are all so short, and I love that song.”
A seasoned live performer, Chesley/Helen Money has made a name for herself delivering compelling performances that explore the full range of her instrument’s possibilities in a stage setting.
I kind of feel like, as long as I deliver the songs with intensity, and I believe in what I’m doing up there, people will either dig it or they won’t,” said Chesley. “Some people won’t, but that’s okay. I’d really like a lot of people to hear this record, and I want to get in front of the right audiences to play. I think about that a lot, but then, once I get up there I have to believe in what I’m doing and hopefully the songs will come across.”
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