An interview with…HELIOS CREED
Sprogg Magazine
Issue #2 (limited to 1000)
Summer 1990

Helios Creed, given his name by a mushroom, began his career as guitarist for the now legendary band Chrome. His most recent solo recordings are Last Laugh on Amphetamine Reptile and Superior Catholic Finger on Subterranean.

Helios agreed to be interviewed before his show at a vastly under attended gig at Stache’s in Columbus, Ohio. Unfortunately, I flubbed up the recording and he was kind enough to repeat the interview after the show.

When he began playing with Chrome he says, “We weren’t perceived as a band then,” sipping his beer. “The reason we never played out live until we’d been putting out records for 3 or 4 years. Damon Edge never wanted to play out live, but I did.” Of course that had to hurt sales. “Yeah, the mystique was nice, but the money would’ve been nice too.” Chrome, probably because of Helios’ solo work, have been regaining a surge in popularity recently. “When Jesus Lizard did “Chrome”, they played the wrong chords. They didn’t realize it until they saw me play. At least Prong played the right chords on “3^rd from the Sun”. Those guys are trying to be cool with me so I won’t say anything about those guys.” But what does he actually think of someone doing the songs he wrote?  “it’s a nice feeling to know people acknowledge songs that you wrote. I wouldn’t mind getting a few royalties from it though,” he laughs.

Copyrights are no help to Helios Creed, because even though he wrote the songs he doesn’t “own any of the Chrome rights because of Damon Edge. He weaseled his way into owning them.” The Jesus Lizard and Prong did however list his name in the credits – “They’re being cool about it.”

Helios Creed uses more guitar effects than any other guitarist I’ve listened to. It’s very mesmerizing and done with enough style to avoid sounding gimmicky. “I was always into effects. The more effects I saw, the more I would buy.”

At this point we were interrupted by a drunken Marcy Mays of Scrawl. “Is this a Sprogg interview? If it is you’re wasting your fucking time! I’ve done one and it’s bullshit!”

Of course she’s joking and when she leaves Helios asks me who she is, and after I explain he asks, “What’s a Scrawl?”

Back to the area of guitar effects, he says he has seen people use effects to cover lack of ability but has also “seen people do the opposite and sound totally bland where they could use a little effect. I’ve been accused of using too many effects but I’ve played that way for years, and I like it. I think it’s fun.”