Hooked Like Helen is husband-and-wife duo Nikki and Jonathan Stipp, whose sound embodies a unique vein of alternative music; dark lyrical themes of unresolved trauma and existential pondering providing a refreshingly authentic perspective crafted from their home studio in the woods outside Cleveland. Their combined musical influences include artists such as Queen, Michael Jackson, Twenty One Pilots, Green Day, Tori Amos, Mariah Carey, Nirvana, and Prince whilst Nikki’s powerful vocals bring to mind artists such as Kate Bush and Ellie Goulding.
Hooked Like Helen‘s Tori Amos cover of Winter is deeply melodic and despite Nikki’s hauntingly powerful vocals, the track has an elegant warmth to it, which allows one to engage with the track from the opening bar to the last. Nikki and Jon tell us about the inspiration behind their cover of ‘Winter’ (Tori Amos Cover), “When our friend/fitness instructor asked us to play “Winter” by the incomparable Tori Amos, within minutes of dissecting the first few bars of the song we quite frankly fell in love with it. We realised that it needed to become a more significant part of our musical journey and we decided to record a full-length cover of “Winter” for release to the world”. Nikki adds, “Winter is about a girl’s relationship with a father figure who believes in her and sees greatness in her that she might not see in herself. Ironically, I did not have anyone in my life who fit that role for me as I was growing up, but I think this might be the very reason the song resonates with me on such a visceral level. Music allows us to escape, to imagine, to build castles in our minds. When I sing and play “Winter”, I am (for 4 minutes and 30 seconds) one of those girls with a dad who loves her”.
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