“It was here where we would walk and cackle at awful jokes, lean in for the stories, make peace with our busy lives and draw meaning from the lessons we had learned since our last visit,” says Scott Helman, speaking about Nonsuch Park, a public park in Sutton, England,which is down the street from his late grandfather’s home.
The Toronto-based singer-songwriter titled his newest album after the park in tribute to his grandfather, Alan Davis, or, as Helman calls him, “Papa.”
“If my past works have been displays of discovery, this work is a declaration – a declaration of love, meaning, questions, and truth – and it is all dedicated to you, Papa. Thank you for helping me piece together the fragments of my life and giving me the space to do it.”
“My grandfather was a crazy dude,” says Helman. “He just enjoyed himself and it always made people laugh.”
“He would dance around with my friends like a maniac and go on rants about blues and jazz and music and art, and he just was full of life, and I think that’s what I’ve learned that’s so valuable,” says Helman. “I think we forget that the point of being alive is just to find meaning and to find joy.”
Joy, Helman says, was illustrated by the love his grandfather had for his grandmother, who suffered from the degenerative effects of multiple sclerosis. “She was quite sick for most of the time that I knew her.” But this challenge didn’t deter Helman’s Papa: “They travelled all over the world, my grandfather pushing my grandmother in a wheelchair for most of it… The dedication he had to living his life with joy is the biggest thing that I’ve learned, and that’s what I try to do in my life.”
Helman is wiser than his years. Whereas most “old souls” are resolved, Helman exudes youthful joy for life. “I just feel, never my age. I feel like either I’m 15 or I’m 70—I don’t feel 25, for sure,” says Helman. Why? “I like thresholds… I like the ends and beginnings of things… like the end of a year or the end of a show or the beginning of a show or when you first meet someone—those are the parts of life that are so full of life and emotion, and I try to look at things from that kind of place, so maybe that’s why.”
This topic of thresholds, seen throughout Helman’s music, is perhaps nowhere more evident than on the concluding track of the album, aptly named Papa.
“You’re looking back at your life / I’m looking forward at mine / We’re both running out of time,” sings Helman.
“That line to me was like, when you’re sitting across from someone who is at the end of their life and you know it and they know it… you meet them at that place. It makes you think about your life in a way where you can see it stretched out in its totality… I think it’s like the universality of the fact that we’re all kind of running out of time.”
It’s this dedication to finding the joy in life, in the beginnings and ends, that might just be the key to feeling ageless.
Learn more about Scott Helman:
- In 2019, Scott invited his fans to sign a document he named the Evergreen Manuscript, an effort to draw attention to the climate crisis and help cut global greenhouse gas emissions in half. Scott collected nearly 1,000 submissions, and through his “MayDay” initiative, is encouraging fans to help deliver the document to politicians and corporate leaders around the world.
- Follow Scott Helman on TikTok | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Visit Scott Helman’s Official site
- Watch the video for ‘Papa’ below: