Josh Helgason

Musician Josh Helgason (Joshua Andrew Abel Helgason), born in Dec of 1985, is the frontman of a new project called Stars of Boulevard, and the former lead singer, synthesizer and rhythm guitar player of .

He started piano lessons at age 6 and finished lessons in grade 9 (Royal Conservatory of Music). At school (Boundary Elementary & Argyle Secondary - grad '03) Josh did the best in Music, Math and English classes but was a very unenthusiastic student and was commonly absent. He picked up the alto saxophone for school band in grade 4, playing it through to grade 12 and was a member of the jazz band for grades 8-9 and 11-12. He was also a member of the school concert & jazz choirs for part of grade 11 and most of grade 12. He would commonly skip classes and spend that time in either the choir room or the band room, which ever was vacant, and play the piano in either room. At 15 he and some friends formed the rock band Father Tritan which recorded a 3 song EP and performed one show. From 16-17 he was the lead singer and main song writer of a punk-rock band called Anita Hoare. He was the youngest member of the band with the other members being 23 and 25. At their jam room in the back of a custom furniture builders warehouse was a custom built stage complete with a lighting rig and PA sound system. The side walls were covered in posters of bands they all idolized, from The Rolling Stones to Jimi Hendrix to Metallica, and the wall in the proximity of an audience was covered in posters of pin up girls from Playboy and Hustler magazines. They had a working fridge that was always packed with beers and when the beers would run out they'd hang out at pubs. His girlfriend during that time, Tracy, came to the jam room to hear Anita Hoare rehearse a few times and mostly found them to be "loud". The band would only ever play one show together, at Vancouver's pub The Cobalt. After nearly a year following Anita Hoare Josh helped form a reggae band called Hello Dolly in which he played the bass guitar. That band would eventually morph into The Sessions when they changed their style to new wave-indie-rock and Helgason moved to lead vocals, rhythm guitar and synthesizer. He thought of the name The Sessions in July of 2004 while smoking marijuana on the patio of a friends house with an acoustic guitar in his lap. The name stemmed from his awareness that he enjoyed several types of sessions, including jamming sessions, blazing sessions and sexual sessions. The Sessions would go on to win a massive battle of the bands involving bands from 16 countries (7,631 total) and the final judgement was at the world finals in Rothenburg, Germany. They recorded with producer Bob Rock (producer of Metallica, Motley Crue, ..) and that album was made available on iTunes, as well as other recordings Bob was involved in, in the summer of 2008. After playing partys for The Killers, Hot Hot Heat and The Bravery, making several appearances on national television on Canada's talk show Urban Rush and receiving steady newspaper coverage things were looking bright for The Sessions and they were expected to go far but they were crumbling from the inside. Creative differences, different visions and personality conflicts were growing and dividing the band. Following a tour of California and Nevada in March of 2008, Josh made the tough decision to leave the band and was determined to quickly put together a new project and not give up on his dreams. The first players he thought of were the guys from a local band called UTS that he'd met when The Sessions and them had played several shows together. He sent a message to them asking if they needed another member and the response was that their drummer was thinking of leaving. Soon Josh had bought a drum set and guaranteed Ken Abbey (guitar), Johnny Kaye (vocals, synthesizer) and "British" (bass) that he'd be a good enough drummer shortly and a wicked drummer in time. Soon, due to personal demanding circumstances British was forced to leave the band and that opened up the position of bass guitar, which Josh was happy to fill. For the next several months the new band was unnamed and the three members (Kaye, Abbey, Helgason) auditioned several drummers to complete their lineup. They'd written many songs, of which they'd kept 7, and had just chosen the name Stars of Boulevard, props to Ken Abbey, when they came across Mike Reed in July '08. He'd just returned from the Music Institute of Los Angeles studying drumming and was looking for a serious band to devote his talent to. Stars of Boulevard is currently recording. Josh Helgason is the frontman, Ken Abbey on lead guitar, Johnny Kaye on bass and Mike Reed on drums.

Josh was born of Lisa Helgason and Andrew Abel in 1985 in Victoria, adopted by Janice and Douglas Jones of Vancouver shortly after and reunited with his birth parents in 2005 and 2006 respectively. He now has a close relationship with Lisa (now Lisa Thomas), his step dad Troy, half sisters Kaylee and Brianna and brother Bryce, Andy and grandparents Michael and Karen Abel.

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