Helena May Side Effects – A Funk-Driven Call for the Soul

From the Heart, Through the Bassline

Let’s be honest – I wasn’t ready for Helena May with Side Effects. I thought I was, sitting there sipping bad coffee, thinking I’ve heard every variation of nu-funk, retro-soul, and that oh-so-trendy vintage horn section parade. But Helena May just swung the door open like a sunrise with brass. And not the polite kind. The kind that makes your feet move before your brain gives green light.

With Side Effects, she tiptoe into the room with basslines that snap like wet towels, vocals you feel in your chest, and a groove tighter than my rent schedule. If this is the first taste of Puzzle Pieces: Side B, we’re in for a heavy meal.

It’s not trying to be retro. It is soul, with its skin peeled back, its joy and chaos showing. The production is polished but alive, thanks to Fabian Wollner’s tight mix and Stuart Hawkes‘ masterful sheen at Metropolis. You can hear Vienna and London wrestling in the background like old lovers who still dance together.

Inside the Static: A Chair, a Screen, and a Truth Bomb

The video for Side Effects comes with a kind of quiet tension. Helena steps in – pink hair flowing, starry eyes scanning the room – and faces an empty chair like it’s holding something back. The screen behind her crackles with ‘no signal’ static, that soft, eerie hum we all know too well. She sits. She breathes. Tension all over. And then it starts – lyrics wrapped in gratitude and disillusion, calling out shortcuts, soul-selling, and the weird thrill of just being human. The camera holds its gaze, and you start to feel the weight behind each word.

Behind the visuals, the engine hums with purpose. Fabian Wollner – producer, director, cinematographer, gaffer, editor (yes, all of it) – shapes the video like someone who knows every crack in the floorboards. Shot across Vienna’s creative corners, from Loftstudio to Stellas 7, the video pulses with real atmosphere. Visual effects by Stefan Horninger give it that subtle surreal edge, never too much, always just enough. And of course, Helena in the frame, in the mood, surrounded by a cast that brings the strange little world of Side Effects to life. It’s a team effort, no doubt. But this one wears Wollner’s fingerprints like a signature on glass.

A Voice That Earned the Brass Section

Helena May plays like she’s still got something to prove, even though she is not new to the board. And that’s the trick, isn’t it? British-born, straddling the line between London and Vienna, Helena’s voice lays the foundation and raises the walls.

She cut her teeth with soul legends Kokomo and fronted Redtenbacher‘s Funkestra, so yeah, she’s done the homework. But Side Effects feels like her handing in the final thesis. Bold, joyful, a little dirty in the right places.

She’s already been baptised in Jazz FM flames and BBC Radio London praise, and rightly so. This is Helena calling the shots, beat by beat, like she owns the damn metronome. Writing with guts, singing like the floor’s on fire. Her lyrics talk about individuality, grit, self-love – and they don’t ease in. They walk straight through you, chest out, horns leading the charge.

And I like that. The world’s busy giving out side-eye. Helena hands you Side Effects like a vitamin shot.

It Starts With Jamiroquai and Ends With You Dancing in the Kitchen

She got hooked back at twelve, hearing Jamiroquai’s A Funk Odyssey. I get that. There’s always that one moment when the right sound unlocks a part of your brain that rewrote its own rules in funk and treble. For Helena, that door never closed. You can hear echoes of Incognito, The Brand New Heavies, Joss Stone too – but with a shade that’s entirely her mark.

Her 2021 debut album Funkalicious was already a high-stakes, 19-musician collaboration. That’s huge. It had that sweaty, live-band-on-the-edge-of-chaos feel. But Side Effects? This feels personal. It feels like Helena May cracked open her chest, took a walk through her musical upbringing, and came back with something lighter but sharper.

There’s a phrase in the press sheet: “perfect mixture of softness and grit.” I’d say it’s less a mixture, more a collision. And collisions make the best songs, right?

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Final Thoughts, Because Funk Deserves One

I’ve played Side Effects more times than I care to admit. Not because I’m chasing something new in it, but because it keeps finding something new in me. This song has legs. There’s no need of a trend to lean on – it carries its own rhythm.

And if Helena May is the one steering Puzzle Pieces: Side B, I’m on board. No disclaimers. Turn it up, and if you’ve got a pulse – follow Helena May on Facebook, Spotify, YouTube, and Instagram.

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