MUEN: HI HELLER! COULD YOU FIRST EXPLAIN THE NAME? IS IT YOUR REAL NAME, NAME OF YOUR BAND, OR DOES IT COME FROM SOMETHING ELSE?

HELLER: HeLLeR is my real name... It's an invented name created by my mother, It's taken from HeLL plus HeR... I think that my mother ment to transmit to me that the world is divided in two big parts: positive and negative... And that If I want to be complete I must learn to love my positive and both Her HeLL, that's why HeLLeR... For sure I used to divided my name in other parts like DarkHeLLeR,
SpiritHeLLeR, BabyHeLLeR, EmoHeLLeR, MatrixHeLLeR, etc...

MUEN: YOU MUST HAVE BEEN BORN IN ITALY.. IS MILAN YOUR HOMETOWN WHERE YOU GREW UP?

I was born in Milan, but I grew up in a small beautiful town called Varedo, just not far from Milan, here I've learned to play and to write music, Varedo is the Home of my Music... I've grown up with a lot of friends, driving fast with motorbikes and playing guitars every night - everywhere...

MUEN: I NOTICED SONY WAS LISTED ON YOUR PLAYER.. WERE YOU ONCE SIGNED TO SONY? OR WAS THE SONG JUST PUBLISHED BY SONY? IS MUSIC WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO LOS ANGELES EVENTUALLY? AND COULD YOU TELL US SOME OF YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH THE LABEL IF YOU HAD ANY?

I've never signed with Sony (they only published my first single: "Cammino Di Notte," they proposed a contract to me but I said: No TNX... :S You can think I am crazy, and maybe you're right, but signing with Sony in that moment, accepting their conditions, would have ment to become a commercial thing, I was so young and with no experience and I just loved my music too much, to give them the power to transform it and to tranform myself in that wrong way... Today I know It would be very different... I'm sure about myself and I'm not arranged to change anything so they would sign me without any compromises... In Italy labels treat artists like commercial products, they don't think about music as an artistic way to communicate, they don't consider art, they just think about money... So they use to promote what they think could make more money... I went to LA to learn something more about music.... In LA music is played at every corner, in commercial centers, in parks...everywhere... there are a lot of concerts every night and the way they can play in pubs or disco is better, sounds and volumes are always done in a very professional way... They use to breath music, in each club of Sunset Blv there is a live music show, one or more bands... In Italy it's not the same. Here the scene is very different...Clubs are often not able to accomodate more than one band per night, and they don't usually have good stages for the bands... I played since I was born and this is not enough for me... that's why I went to LA, and that's why LA is become my second Home...

MUEN: HOW OLD ARE YOU NOW, AND WHEN DID YOU FIRST START SINGING? DID YOU HAVE PROFESSIONAL VOCAL TRAINING AT ALL?

I'm very young but I was born in a Rehearsal room and my first words are from a song... so... I can really say that I was born with my own music... My father was a guitar player, a lyricist writer and he worked as a DJ in a little network... He brought me with him, because I didn't sleep, and he put me in the case of his acoustic guitar and I used to sleep, quiet... I wrote my first song at nine, it was called "I Want To Be A Hero" and I started to play in pubs when I was 12... I Studied a lot, I play gutars and piano, and I studied jazz, soul, and mask singing...

MUEN: WHO ELSE HELPS YOU WITH THE MUSIC? DO YOU HAVE A BAND AS WELL, OR OTHER COLLABORATORS?

I've always been alone, writing music and lyrics, arranging my songs; I've worked with alot of famous Italian producer without enjoying them, their way of work was too mechanical and cold... but now I have a very good producer, Daniele Persoglio, he helps me to record and arrange the songs... Musicians in this album are too many( almost 30 ) and the album has been played by a lot of friends some of them are famous, some others not, but they are all very very good musicians and each one of them has a paticular attitude which is different from others... I have also a band, for live shows, they are fantastic and I love to play with them because we can create a particular feeling and a powerfull energy on the stage...

MUEN: HAVE YOU DONE MANY LIVE PERFORMANCES?

I think more than 100 live dates each year... Is that enough?

MUEN: HOW MANY SONGS DO YOU CURRENTLY HAVE, AND ARE THEY AVAILABLE ANYWHERE IN STORES OR ON THE INTERNET OTHER THAN MYSPACE?

I wrote thousands of songs... in the album there will be about 15 tracks... some in English some in Italian... I think there are some of them around into the net, in the site www.helleroom.net or in my profile of my space www.myspace.com/hellernet or I don't know wherelse... You will find the others in the album... It will be published this Autumn 2007, I don't decide the label yet... But I'm sure you could find it in stores, and in the most popular net distribution...

MUEN: ALRIGHT, WE WILL COME BACK TO YOU TO FINISH THIS INTERVIEW, CIAO

HELLER: As usual a little kiz from... HeLL!

(To Be Continued)

Interview by G. Cataline