Shahs
From Minnewiki
History
Shahs was originally the one man band of Tom Helgerson, then a guitarist with the band Thank You. With the desire to work with other people outside of the Thank You umbrella, he asked his friend Kirk Hiatt to play guitar and the first incarnation of the band was formed. They were relatively unique in the Twin Cities music scene, basing their songs on simple "beatboxed" rhythms sampled live and looped through an amplifier. The limitations of that approach quickly presented themselves and multi-instrumentalist Bryan Wildes joined to expand the sound. After Kirk moved to Philadelphia to pursue an illustration career, Helgerson put the band on indefinite hiatus.
In early 2009, Tom resurrected the name and continued again as a solo performer. The mechanics of the music were still very similar to the original sound and two EPs, Divine Interest and GUTS (an homage to John Cale) were released in the summer and fall, respectively of that year.
Now based in Missoula, Montana, Shahs is still hard at work on new material and new sounds to explore.
Members
Tom Helgerson - vocals, keyboards, guitar, programming
2006-2007:
Kirk Hiatt - guitar, keyboards, vocals, programming
Bryan Wildes - bass, saxophone, vocals, programming
