HELVETICA BLACK

Helvetica Black was formed out of a shared love of music and design. Based in Philadelphia, the band is a guitar-based duo consisting of Royce Epstein and Matt Haggett. Royce and Matt met in 2017 after Matt relocated to Philly from Portland, Oregon. Matt is a veteran of the Portland indie rock scene, where he mainly sang and played drums in several bands and worked on his graphic design career. Royce has lived in Philly for a long time, immersed in the design, art, and music scenes. She started playing music as a kid, but didn’t play electric guitar until much later in life when she founded a couple of all-girl bands in addition to writing about music and design. Together, they both play guitar and sing, where they interweave lead vocals and guitar riffs for dynamic effect. They characterize their band’s theme as “Tender Garage”, where reverb and distortion meet heartfelt melodies. The touch of surf comes from Matt’s jangly note playing on the vintage Gretsch, and the bright twang of chords on Royce’s beloved Mustang. They play their guitars over their own recorded bass and drums, which allows them to play as a duo with the sound of a four piece. Their musical influences straddle the spectrum of cool rock n’ roll: 50s Doo Wop, 60s Garage, 70s Punk and Power Pop, 80s New Wave and Indie, and 90s Britpop and Shoegaze. If you listen carefully, you will hear all of this and more. Both Royce and Matt serve as DJs too, under the names of Madame Duchamp and Man Raydio.

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Happy holidays one and all! We have a gift for you from Helvetica Black, a new holiday song called “No Crying on Christmas”. You can listen on our Bandcamp page here or contact us and we will send you the mp3. It was fun to write a tender garage Christmas song, we hope you enjoy it. Everyone stay safe, healthy, and all the best in 2022 xx Royce and Matt

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While the world has been on lockdown and is now re-emerging from the pandemic, we are also re-emerging with renewed energy and purpose.

We are big fans of Music Declares Emergency, a collective of music industry professionals and organizations in the UK that is acknowledging our climate emergency and calling for change.

One of their campaigns is NO MUSIC ON A DEAD PLANET. We agree and Royce got her t-shirt delivered from the UK. All of us can spread the message that climate action is urgent and needed now. Sherman approves. 

Check out the campaign and get your own tee. There are several styles, this one was designed by Anthony Burrill.

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Happy holidays to all of you! Whatever you celebrate, and however you are celebrating, we hope 2021 will be a better year filled with good vibes and rock and roll. Stay healthy and safe! xo HB

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Join us for a Thanksgiving weekend Living Room concert! We will be streaming via Facebook Live on Sunday November 29th at 7 PM ET/4 PM PT.

More info and link for event here

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Hi kids, it’s been a while since the start of Coronavirus lockdown, and like everyone we have been hunkering down, trying to stay safe, healthy and sane. Sadly, one of our gigs was cancelled, and we miss playing live. We were able to play a live living room show at the start of the quarantine, and of course make time for making some new music.

Regarding Covid, we have been listening to all the stories out there - some with happy endings, and some with sad ones. We were very moved by one story in particular, where a Mom passed away and could only say goodbye to her kids through walkie talkies. So we wrote this song. We hope you enjoy it and consider donating to organizations that are helping frontline healthcare workers and everyone affected by this pandemic.

Thanks and you can listen to the demo of Walkie Talkie here.

Walkie Talkie - Talk to me! Walkie Talkie - Do you receive? Walkie Talkie - Talk to me! Walkie Talkie - Please - Don’t Leave!

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New show alert! We are pleased to be playing in Wilmington at 1984 with these great bands: Mega, Gorgeous (from Brooklyn), and our friends M. Bullette. We are up first, doors at 9 PM. See you there, Delaware!

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Finally worked on a new demo for Adult Feelings, our punky ode to Rom Coms.

Meet cute, it’s the Rom Com dream At first I don’t like you, and you think that I’m mean But then the sparks send us reeling I’m starting to get.....Adult Feelings

Enjoy by listening here

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Thanks Kung Fu Necktie fo having us play and say goodbye to 2019 along with our friends Dear Althea and Aspect Ratio.

We had a fun and productive year with debuting our band, writing songs, performing live, and of course many rehearsals in our studio. We can’t wait to share more songs with you in 2020. Happy New Year and may your year be rocking in the right direction.

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This Saturday Night! We are playing Saint Nick’s Garage and Psych Rock Xmas at Oddity Bar in Wilmington DE. It’s an awesome bill with our friends Kitty Rotten, Kiss Boom Bah, and Empty Shapes. Come celebrate the holidays the way it should be - with some reverb and distortion!

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New gig coming up! December 30th at Kung Fu Necktie in Philly with long time friends Aspect Ratio and Dear Althea. Doors at 8 PM and we go on second. Should be a great night! Come celebrate the holidays and the new year with us.

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Hanging out in Hudson NY

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Thanks to Mohawk for having us play their Designers Who Rock series! We played a great set, played some new songs, and it was our debut in NYC.

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Helvetica Black is happy to be part of Designers Who Rock!  If you are in the A&D community in NYC, come on out to Mohawk Group’s showroom to be part of this amazing night and jam to our Tender Garage tunes. We are on at 7:45.

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On the hottest day of summer, we present a demo of a new song called “Snowblind”, now up on Bandcamp.

Listen here

I went snowblind Flying too high, Trying too hard To find meaning behind

You and I Flying too high, Trying too hard I went snowblind 

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Great gig at Bourbon and Branch in Philly with our friends M. Bullette and Kitty Rotten! Thanks to everyone who came out!

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We are playing a special show with our friends M. Bullette and Kitty Rotten on Tuesday, June 18th! 

It’s at Bourbon & Branch in Northern Liberties, Philadelphia

You can buy tickets here, $8 advance, $10 at the door, 21+

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Our friend Roberta Gruber did this amazing illustration of us at our last gig. Thank you Roberta for this incredible drawing!