Double Vision

It’s just a couple of days until Helicopter Helicopter hits the road, which means the quartet has limited time to get back in good health. “We’ve all been sick,” explains guitarist/vocalist Chris Zerby. An ordinary citizen would call the office to let the boss know he or she won’t be coming in, cuddle up on the couch under a thick blanket, stare in disbelief at Crossing Over With John Edwards and choke down can after can of chicken soup and ginger ale. For touring musicians, though, the show must go on. But Zerby, perhaps inspired by the perky power of the ten crunchy, off-kilter numbers on the group’s third and latest disc, By Starlight, shrugs off the multiple illnesses. “It’s no big deal,” he says.

Guitar-pop fans should be making a big deal out of By Starlight, though, which is so catchy that singing along becomes compulsory by the third listen. Zerby and Julie Chadwick, the band’s crush-worthy second guitarist/vocalist, craft killer hooks that are accessible by design. “We’ve gone from being a little bit more indie rock,” Zerby says, “to just wanting to make music we can sing along to in the car and enjoy playing.”

The two didn’t always interact so easily. Four years ago, Zerby and Chadwick, alumni of the Boston scene after playing in the punk bands Flycatcher and The American Measles, respectively, endured an inauspicious introduction. “I was playing with a bunch of people, just getting something together, and then Julie came down for rehearsal and played with us and it was just awful,” Zerby recalls. “It was the worst thing ever, and it shocked her so badly that she packed up her gear in the middle of a song.”

Zerby and Chadwick eventually became friends and decided to give playing together another chance. This time, they chose a different musical route, eschewing the abrasive edge of their previous outfits and concentrating on melodies. But while emphasizing catchiness is standard practice for pop acts, the group’s lyrics, most of which do not address boy-meets-girl scenarios, set it apart from the pack.

“I like to write about evolution, the ocean and space,” Zerby says. “I like to write things that are more impressionistic and loose-ended. I just take things that I’m reading about or that I’m interested in, and they pop into the songs. A lot of people have picked out the space motif that’s on By Starlight. There seems to be a lot of that in there, but again, it’s not really a conscious thing. It’s just whatever happens to be in my head that day creeps out.”

While Zerby’s writing process might be abstract, the group’s recording process was disciplined and grueling — so much so that producer Mathew Ellard (Tanya Donelly, Juliana Hatfield) required back surgery after the numerous fourteen-hour sessions finally ended.

But life at Q Division, where the group recorded By Starlight, wasn’t all retakes and back pain. The facility offers an unorthodox soda machine, dubbed the “Q Brew,” that’s been rigged to dispense beer, albeit without alerting buyers to the brand.

With such facilities at its disposal, it’s no wonder that Helicopter Helicopter longs to return to Q Division once it secures both financial backing and a healthy-backed producer. (Ellard should be ready to return to his duties by next spring.) In the meantime, Helicopter Helicopter plans to test new material in front of live audiences — sore throats and colds be damned. “Bringing it on the road and playing it, even if it’s not quite ready, really helps you gauge what works and what’s not going to work,” Zerby says. “It’s funny. You might think to yourself when you’re playing it in front of people, ‘This kind of sucks,’ which you wouldn’t have realized in practice.”