Across these four tracks, her storytelling sits effortlessly amongst the fiddle, slide guitar and harmonies, with her clear, beautifully expressive vocal remaining undeniably her own.

Due for release on 6th November, ‘Missed Connections’ was recorded and produced by Alex Blamire at Polestar Studios and moves through Americana, Country, Folk and Bluegrass, with Zachary Savage on guitars and vocals, Niles Krieger on fiddle and mandolin, Alex Ferry on bass and Anneka Johnson on drums.

Already released as the first single from the EP, ‘Skinny Dipping in November’ opens with the harmonies and slide guitar we’ve grown to associate with Hels, immediately creating a sense of romance and nostalgia. There’s something wonderfully carefree about it, painting a picture of surrendering to a moment and, perhaps more importantly, remembering it afterwards.

Guitar picking and fiddle sit over bass and drums, creating a warm backdrop without taking attention away from those more distinctive foreground sounds. The fiddle in particular brings an emotional pull to what is otherwise a jaunty, upbeat melody. A fiddle-led instrumental break gives way to building harmonies before the guitar takes over, while Hels’ vocals carry the sentiment without forcing it. It’s a warm and very inviting start to ‘Missed Connections’.

‘Copenhagen’ changes the pace, with deeper bass, guitar and soft drums giving the recording a fuller sound. Having previously heard Hels perform this at Angel’s Cut in Darlington with just her acoustic guitar and Zachary Savage accompanying her on guitar, I’m not convinced that ‘fuller’ necessarily means better, but more that the two versions offer something quite different, despite being pretty stripped back in both cases. That also means that the storytelling has nowhere to hide, and allows the additional instrumentation to give the story a wider landscape. ‘Copenhagen’ is a song about a period of life lacking direction, something Hels explained on that evening in Darlington, but it never feels disastrous. There’s almost an acceptance of not knowing what comes next or even what you want ‘next’ to look like. Perhaps that’s what makes this track particularly relatable; we’re frequently presented with the idea that adulthood involves having some sort of plan, as though everyone else has quietly received a guidebook that we somehow missed. Sometimes we simply don’t know, and perhaps not knowing doesn’t automatically mean something has gone wrong.

The EP’s second single, ‘Love Is A Fire’, due for release on the 2nd October, brings another shift. Hels’ voice against the guitar is absolutely beautiful, while the re-entrance of the fiddle adds sentiment to a song which feels much more vulnerable. This is another love story, but there’s little carefree romance here. “Fanning the flames”, cursing love and seemingly wanting to leave it behind, Hels explores the point where love, overthinking and self-sabotage begin to collide.

“Has to be me or you, so it’s you.”

Then comes the question: “I need reassurance, can you give me that?”

There’s an interesting tension within that. Is asking for reassurance another symptom of the self-sabotage, or is voicing what you need actually the thing that might prevent it? ‘Love Is A Fire’ feels perched on the uncomfortable edge between the two. There’s vulnerability and honesty in admitting what you need from another person, or even yourself, particularly when part of you is simultaneously preparing to push them away.

By the time we reach ‘Woe Is Me’, the final track on the EP, Hels is happily embracing that great country tradition of being thoroughly miserable through song, and it works beautifully. The guitar is particularly clever here because it seems to echo the lyrics and their sentiment. Where often we see music and words pulling against one another, in this instance each appears to reinforce what the other is saying. It raises an interesting chicken-and-egg question; does the melody reflect the words, or have the words found their shape because of the melody? Either way, ‘Woe Is Me’ closes the EP with one of Hels’ strongest vocal performances and leaves little doubt that this musical direction suits her.

Hels says the title ‘Missed Connections’ emerged when she realised that ‘disconnect’ unexpectedly ran through all four songs; disconnect through time, from a former self and lost potential, or between people within a fractious relationship.

But from the angle of a listener, there’s another way of hearing those missed connections too. These songs feel like memories, thoughts and relationships being pulled back from places where they have sat, perhaps unexamined, for some time. Hels herself calls making the EP a “cathartic joy” and describes it as a time capsule of her life, and that seems particularly apt. There are summer romances remembered from a distance, periods of uncertainty revisited with greater clarity, relationships teetering under the weight of self-doubt, and sadness given permission to simply be sad.

Binding them together are Hels’ wonderfully clear vocals, harmonies, guitar, soaring fiddle and slide guitar, as well as the increasing sense that Americana and Country provide exactly the right chair for her storytelling to sit in at this point in her career.

Importantly, this doesn’t feel like Hels squeezing herself into a genre, it feels considerably more natural than that, and what’s great for us as receivers of her music, it looks as though she intends to stay awhile.

Following the release of ‘Missed Connections’ on the 6th November, Hels plays a headline show at Pilgrim in Newcastle on the 8th November, kicking off her Northeast tour. She has also been offered an autumn residency at The Glasshouse Studios in Newcastle, where she’ll begin writing an album that continues to explore this Americana sound.

20th October 2026