Photo by Emma Kate Rothenberg-Ware
Disarmingly charming with an air of sincerity and an ability to lack seriousness in all of the right ways, Izzy Heltai is a musician worth paying attention to. Fresh off of the release of his critically-adored debut album Father this past October, the indie artist is ready to continue on his journey, wherever that may take him.
Heltai welcomed listeners back with his first single of the year, “Day Plan” on February 5th. A folk tinged track inspired by the monotony of daily life in isolation accompanied by a lyric video (below) of the singer driving along scenic Route 2 in Western Massachusetts. A restless person at heart, yearning for road trips and tours across the country to undiscovered locales, the idea of living alone inside during a frigid New England winter was not one that Heltai necessarily welcomed with open arms. A self-described introverted-extrovert, Heltai admitted “I like being alone but there’s a difference between being alone and being as alone as I’ve been this winter, which is way too much.”
Being outside is one of Heltai’s greatest loves, whether that’s driving around, hiking, or just being active outdoors, something the winter had made virtually impossible. “For so long as a teenager, [I didn’t like] sports or being active, now as an adult I realize it was just so gendered I was traumatized by even the idea of trying it that I convinced myself that I just didn’t like it. But now I’m like, “I could just try a sport”, I mean I’m terrible [laughs] but I wanna play basketball!”
Feeling a sense of identity in his body is relatively new to Heltai, who is an openly trans man. “Growing up with a stable community gave me the confidence to be so sure in what my sense of self was… people weren’t telling me that they knew better than me,” says Heltai. Understanding of the opposite experience for many people who are/have transitioned, he adds “[people] want to tell you who you are and what you should be and if you’re told that enough it’s hard to trust yourself.”
Photo by Emma Kate Rothenberg-Ware
These stable communities that have influenced his growth both as an individual and musician are the basis for his latest single “My Old Friends”, released on March 12th. A jubilant bop that dances it’s way from introspective folk towards a more indie rock sound, the song illustrates the strange experience of figuring out where one’s home truly is. “My sense of home does not come from a location… it comes from people,” describes Heltai. On his Bandcamp page Heltai further explains, “It’s about realizing that the place I’d just left, the place I thought I was done with, was still where I wanted to be.”
This kind of back and forth of feeling is something Heltai grapples with a lot in his personal life. Having bad anxiety, the singer/songwriter confesses he hates feeling like he’s in an in-between sort of place. “I get so antsy so I feel like I have to keep changing.” Finding comfort in concrete lines, this has caused him to bolt from more tepid situations faster than he maybe should have. “Sometimes you have to stay in places of uncertainty.”
Able to relax and still find the silliness in a situation, Heltai has taken this uncertainty and anxiety from the inspiration of “My Old Friends” and gives it a joyous video treatment. Out today on his YouTube channel, the music video for this latest single is simple in the way that it shows Izzy dancing around while lyrics pop up on screen, but showcases the manner in which he can keep his head in the clouds, even when the whole world wants to ground us. “It’s important to not take a lot of moments too seriously in life. You should be able to have fun, life sucks for the majority of people.” Having described himself in the past as a sort of “grown child” rather than an adult, Heltai sees no shame in continuing to find pleasure in young adult fiction or even bubblegum pop music. Even as he continues down this path to being a professional indie musician he describes how he’s “too tired to judge people’s taste in music… if something brings someone joy, I don’t think anyone should be able to say it’s bad.”
As for the rest of this year, Izzy has plans to continue releasing singles until the mid-summer, with the goal of them coalescing into a new EP. Being fortunate enough to live near his frequent collaborators, continuing to record new music has been easier than expected given the COVID circumstances, with Heltai going as far as to say his creativity these past few months has been the most prolific he’s ever been. Between adding to his tattoo collection and trying, rather unsuccessfully, to break into the world of social media/Tik Tok, Heltai has found the time to give his listeners exactly what they want: more.
Stay up to date with Izzy Heltai on his Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Spotify and check out the new video for “My Old Friends” below!