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Oct 26, 2018 By Mark Redfern Helena Deland

To end out the week, we ask Helena Deland some questions about endings and death.

The Montréal-based musician just released two interconnected EPs, collectively titled From The Series of Songs “Altogether Unaccompanied” Vol. III & Vol. IV, via Luminelle Recordings. “Claudion” and “Rise” from Vol. IV, and “Lean On You,” from Vol. III, all made our Songs of the Week lists.

From The Series of Songs “Altogether Unaccompanied” Vol. I & Vol. II came out back in March. Of her decision to release a series of EPs, rather than one album, Deland said in a press release: “The songs are to be considered as their own little things. They are part of something larger, yes, but they live on their own.”

Read on as Deland talks about how she’d like to die, what songs she’d like performed on her deathbed and at her funeral, and her favorite endings to books, movies, and TV shows.

How would you like to die and what age would you like to be?

Ninety-eight seems like a great age, plus I like the number, there’s something almost perfect about it. I’d like to go choking from laughing too hard at one fatal joke.

What song would you like to be playing at your deathbed?

“Parlez-moi de vous” by Claude Gauthier. I find the lyrics so cute and the song itself soothing, though slightly sad. If those three adjectives can apply to death as well, it’ll be fine.

What song would you like to be performed at your funeral and who would you like to sing it?

“Just like heaven” by The Cure, performed by someone I love very much. Galore is the album we’d put on to clean the house before guests came over when I was a kid, and it always makes me very happy.

What’s your favorite ending to a movie?

This answer changes constantly but recently, I loved the last scene of Good Time. :”(

What’s your favorite last line in a book?

“And while Françoise took off the pins of the transoms, unfastened the stuffs, drew the curtains, the summer day she uncovered seemed as dead, as immemorial as a sumptuous mummy that our old maid had only cautiously undressed of all her linen before she appeared embalmed in her golden dress.” - Marcel Proust, In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower.

What’s your favorite series finale episode of a TV show?

The only show I got around to watching all episodes of was Friends, as a teen. It’s a 100% happy ending!

If you were on death row, what would you like your last meal to be?

Mac and cheese, with a side of corn on the cob.

What’s your concept of the afterlife?

I think it’s very much like before we were born! :( :)

What would be your own personal version of heaven if it exists?

Beautiful scenery (lakes and mountains, for example), somewhere dusk lasts for many hours, and great company, in early fall weather.

What would you like your last words to be?

“Hahahahahaah ahahah…!”

www.helenadeland.com

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