Keyboardist Jon Goodell, drummer Scott Twitchell and guitarist Tim Gregory of Norman band Helen Kelter Skelter dropped by Lazy Circles Brewing to discuss the Norman Music Festival and their 10 years as a band. Helen Kelter Skelter will be playing at 9 p.m. Friday at the festival's West Stage.
Are you all from Norman?
Jon: I was born and raised a Norman kid.
Scott: I’ve lived here since I was in fifth grade, so pretty much
Tim: I’m a Normanite, and Eli is a Normanite.
Jon: Yeah, Cody’s from Wayne Payne.
Scott: Cody, our bass player, is from Wayne. He’s been here since college, though.
What has made you stay in Norman?
Scott: For me just family, honestly. I can’t really move away from that, you know. I used to live in Austin, Texas, for about six years when I was in my early twenties, and I spent some time in Seattle and Los Angeles. But I ended up coming back to Oklahoma for a band thing, and it just happened to be that I was originally from here so I just stayed.
Tim: I teach guitar here, so I'm able to make a living just in music full time, and my parents are here. ... And my cool band.
Jon: Family and, yeah, y'know, HKS has been a band for 10 years, so.
What is it about Norman as a culture and as a town that you enjoy most?
Jon: One of the things that’s cool about it, and kind of a bummer about it, is that I feel like ... because it's a college town, it’s kind of super scene-y. And what I mean by that is like, scenes develop and kind of like explode and then ebb, so it does kind of change all the time. The double edge of that is there can be pretty big lulls in between them. ... As long as there’s a cool thing and people are, like, into what they're doing, even if it’s not music that’s like necessarily my style or whatever, it’s always cool. Yeah.
Tim: The arts community’s gotten like way better since 10 years ago. It's like, we have art walks, there’s tons of new bands flying in.
Jon: Being Norman kids, like (Tim) grew up where he teaches now, he took guitar from there, and like I did. So, like you as kids, you got to see it and were like, "Oh my God," and now that we’re older, we’re kind of the people that are doing it. You kind of take that mantle or whatever, and it kind of keeps you going. It’s pretty cool.
Who are your biggest influences, as a band and as individuals?
Jon: The stuff I’ve always listened to that influences how I think about music with them is other rock, keyboards, like Pink Floyd and way back, and bands like Black Mountain and other kind of keyboard-adjacent rock and roll bands really affect kind of how I think about shaping the sound in the band.
Scott: Like every drummer does, like Nirvana, Jimi Hendrix, you know. ... I also just always had ears for hip-hop. ... My rock drumming is definitely influenced probably more by hip-hop than other drummers. ... And I grew up listening to Motown and stuff like that with my mom’s vinyl collection.
What’s your favorite part about being a musical artist?
Scott: I enjoy it but I also don’t enjoy it. At this point, I’m middle-aged. ... When we play shows I feel it the next day. ... Being in a band, there’s a lot of hassle to it, just gear-moving alone and when you’re younger that stuff doesn’t matter. When you’re older, it starts to matter. ... During the pandemic and other times in my life where I had to take a hiatus for whatever reason, I would know immediately what was missing. And I find that I’m just a healthier person when I go through the hassle of being in a band.
Tim: I just, I love the lifestyle of it. I love meeting new people, making friends with people who are in other states or other bands, meeting other bands, being in old smelly bars. Yeah, I don’t know, it’s just a fun way to live life.
What do you hope that people get from your music?
Jon: Good times.
Tim: I think having people feel something is good, and them being able to escape. I mean, that’s what I enjoy about music.
As a band, what has been one of your most formative moments?
Scott: For me personally, ... it was kind of on the tail end of a lot of the COVID restrictions. ... We were all asked to open for this band called The Sword. Their career was kind of winding down, and ours was still chugging, and it was just kind of one of those things like where we did the show and it was like, yeah, we can do this. We’re still in it, and if these titans have asked us to open, you know, we’re doing the right things.
What are some of your favorite spots around Norman?
Scott: I really like The Winston. I will go there for their draft old fashioneds. Me and my wife will generally have two or three, and then we’ll have a good cry session and then we’ll go home.
Tim: Scratch Basement Bar is pretty cool.
What does Norman Music Festival mean to you and what does it do for you as a band?
Scott: I think a lot of people know us because of Norman Music Festival, honestly. Usually when I meet somebody new ... and we get to talking, talk about the band stuff, a lot of times they’re like “Oh, I saw you at Norman Music Festival.” At this rate, we’ve been a band for so long that we’ve done just about every stage you can do.
If somebody doesn’t know any artists that are going to be at NMF, what would you tell them to encourage them to go?
Jon: My piece of advice would be like, the stages outside are cool, you should hear some bands, but really do try to make a point to go by, like, Bluebonnet and like some of the smaller stuff, too, to see other people because that’s where a lot of local people will be, and don’t shy away from that.
Scott: There’s an absurd amount of talent in this town. ... It’s almost like a weird kept secret, I think like, nationally, and at some point, people are going to figure out that whatever’s happening here musically is really worth being interested in and supporting and whatnot. And, essentially they’ll be on the ground floor of what all happens in this town, once people figure out ... that one, that there’s an amazing amount of talent here and two, investing in that talent is a, you will get a huge return on that investment.
Maybe the city leaders will be listening to me speak on that. ... There can be other things besides OU football, God bless them, but our economy doesn’t have to hang its hat on football because there’s a ton of talent here that isn’t necessarily football-related.
This story was edited by Shelby Emery.
