If you're wondering who I am, I usually tell strangers:
"Tristan Heles (she/they) is an artist, musician, and audio engineer from Baltimore, Maryland. They studied digital and fine art at Carver Center for Arts and Technology before entering their current career in audio engineering."
I made this website so that I could be a little more verbose though, so here's the long-version:
I am a Baltimore based audio and visual artist. My tagline for a while was "Maximalist/Microtonal/Multimedia" which was a goofy way of summing up what I do. While studying drawing in high-school, I got mad into the idea of maximalism as an art movement that I wanted to contribute to. I think it resonates with our overall contemporary aesthetic philosophy as people forced to live in the 21st centurty. I was also convinced of it's ability to overwhelm the senses into moments of catharsis. Since discovering maximalism I've gone back and forth with how strongly I identify my own work as a part of that movement broadly but It's always been a reference point that I keep in mind. "Microtonal" refers specifically to my non-binary gender identify and how that extends further into a viewing most things not as polar points to choose between but with a gradient of nuance between them. Then "Multimedia" of course refers to my continued interest in making art outside of any one medium. Both music and visual art have been core parts of my work since I first decided I wanted to be an artist and I try to find as many way to incorporate both into my life as I can.
For work I currently run sound at a couple of rock bars in Baltimore. I am also the "senior audio technician" at Orion Studios where I mostly run recording sessions and assist on mixes. I also engineered at The Watermelon Room, another recording studio in the city. I record many of the live shows that I do sound for, with either a small Zoom recorder just picking up the sound of the band on stage or by capturing multi-tracks from the board. I keep an archive of these and hope to one day have the largest collection of live music performed in Baltimore. I don't know who's in the running for that record but I should surely be in the top ten by now.
I also play drums and bass in a few bands. My first band was Super Duper Club, a punk three-piece that existed from 2018 to 2020. I kissed the bassist Joseph and then we started our own project called Gay Baseball in 2020. We continue to write songs together in that project and have recently brought in a drummer named Dalton to help actually make us sound good. Joseph and I also have a side project called Burger Monday which re-ignites the fury that we had during the Super Duper Club years. I also play in Dalton's band Benign Impact which is a much chiller rock and roll outfit. I also have my own solo recording project under my own name which rarely plays live but releases a new album once a year on February 17th (my birthday). I've also featured as a guest musician with a couple groups, including Cal Folger Day, Bailey Rhapsody, and in a couple performances for a local ambient/experimental residency.
I have a fondness for many things. This is an alphabetical list of my favorites:
Abstract art, ambient music, beer, Chinese cooking, the color of wet asphalt, comic books, drums, earrings, electric bass guitar, eyeglasses, harmonic saturation, heat, high waisted pants, honeysuckle, ink, lamb's ear, moths, origami, postmodern rock music, the public library, rain, Reaper, recording audio, soda water, Soulsborne games, stepped attenuator knobs, the towers on Television Hill, vector graphics, and walking long distances
If you've read all of this and still wish to talk to me I can be emailed at tristan.heles@gmail.com. I am working on getting a mailing list going for people that want to keep up-to-date on events I'm a part of and random thoughts that I want to share with the internet. For right now, if you send me an email with the subject "Holler At Me" I'll send you an email every once in a while.
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