Vol. 1, Issue 2
Photo Field Trip & Music Rec
Book Location: Natick, MA
The third act of my book, Of Blasphemy, is set in the Puritan Indian Praying Town of Natick, Massachusetts, in the early 1660s. Throughout the book, I try to weave my fictional story through the fabric of real events, and the history of Natick created the perfect backdrop. The minister John Eliot even makes an appearance. Another important figure in the early days of the town was John Speen, a Christian Massachusett Indian. While he does not appear in the book, he is mentioned, and I created the character Sarah Speen, his fictional niece, who plays a big part in the story. I live in the area and recently snapped some photos of my story’s setting.
Music Recommendation: Hel Vy
TikTok is an amazing resource for discovering music you would otherwise never hear. That is where I found Hel Vy—an indie singer/songwriter whose music is like fantasy and horror poetry in song form. I found her while in the middle of writing Of Blasphemy, and her music made me feel the way I hope my book makes readers feel.
What makes Hel Vy so fascinating, at least to me, is that I’ve truly never head a singer like her. She has the vocal purity, control, and range of Ethel Cain and Hannah Reid (London Grammar), but a more accurate comparison is Serj Tankian (System of a Down) because she isn’t afraid to do weird, dramatic, silly shit with her voice. She layers octaves, obliterates her own beautiful tones with vocal fry, and holds notes in uncomfortable, sometimes unsettling ways.
Sparse instrumental arrangements create a dark, folky feeling like Aerial Ruin or Norma Tanega, but more intimate and suffocating. Her song below, Dead Man’s Float, is creepy and unrelenting. The ever-quickening heartbeat underneath the vocals is almost panic inducing.
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She has two EPs on Spotify—The Drowned Man and Vampire. Both are amazing. They are haunting, beautiful, and kinda fucking scary. Hel Vy has much more music on her Bandcamp account.
If you’re into unique, under the radar music, Hel Vy is for you. She packages superb lyrics with perfect execution, while facing neurodivergence head-on and putting the most vulnerable parts of herself out there for the world to see and hear. She is an artist who will do big things and is worthy of support.