You Me At Six’s Max Helyer on the band’s last dance: “When one door closes, another one opens”
You Me At Six knew about their breakup long before we did. From the Easter eggs in the throwback aesthetic for their now-final album Truth Decay (2023) to their final UK festival shows at Slam Dunk, where they topped the bill in 2024, their victory lap has sufficiently lived up to the status of a band who have been a mainstay in British rock for the last two decades.
“It’s been a lap of honour, so far,” confirms guitarist Max Helyer, speaking on the eve of their final UK shows. Having already waved goodbye to North America, South America, Australia, and Europe, the “dynamic” of each farewell show has stormed into fifth gear, with hundreds of fans confirming the sentiment felt within the band: they’re in the form of their lives.
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Boasting a career that includes chart-topping albums Cavalier Youth (2014) and SUCKAPUNCH (2021) and numerous hometown headlining performances at Brixton Academy, Alexandra Palace and Wembley Arena, the Surrey five-piece announced their decision to call it quits in January 2024, promising one final worldwide tour – neatly dubbed The Final Nights Of Six.
Breaking out with snappy pop-punk and emo-tinged numbers like Save It For The Bedroom and Stay With Me, You Me At Six’s greatest hits catalogue boasts a whole range of sound palettes, from the blissful, clean balladry to No One Does It Better to the crunching post-hardcore tones to Bite My Tongue – a collaboration with Bring Me The Horizon frontman Oli Sykes. Pure indie seeped its way into VI (2018), before SUCKAPUNCH incorporated monstrous synth lines backed up by an underbelly of dense guitars.
“We wanted the setlist to be a journey through all eight albums,” says Helyer, describing the challenge of cramming their mighty discography into one last hurrah. “It’s up and down, it’s a journey, it’s dynamic. Our fans love our slow songs – but you can’t play a set full of slow songs… we’ve got a core set, and then another 10 songs that we’ve earmarked to replace [one another], especially when we’re doing double nights [in certain cities].”
Max Helyer of You Me At Six. Image: Press
Heavy, Clean and Everything In Between
Loading the tour bus for one final time, Helyer is opting for a concise set of guitars to choose from, avoiding overwhelming himself with an “arsenal” to choose from. “My main guitar? It is a Fender Telecaster,” he admits, quoting his 2017 custom shop model as one that particularly changed the game for him on the VI tour. “I drifted from it and came back to it, around album five or six, and it’s just so diverse. It is a workhorse. Having an array of [Telecasters] that I know are all going to work on whatever tuning – they are the best of both [worlds] for heavy and clean.”
Along with an American Tele, Helyer’s 1985 Gibson ES-335 covers all bases with regard to the early, humbucker-heavy You Me At Six material. Having had such a chameleonic, ever-changing guitar sound across their discography, the underlying core consistency loops back to his amps and pedalboard.
After swapping traditional Marshall JCM 900s for Audio Kitchen’s Little Chopper around the Cavalier Youth cycle, Helyer went in search of a more “warm, huggy” sound for their 2017 record Night People. “I wanted to mess about with two amps… I also needed to have more of a spike, more of a cut-through sound.” When a Fender Twin presented itself to him at Nashville’s Blackbird Studios, there was no looking back.
“[I was told] the only other person who has blasted that Fender Twin as loud as me was Jack White – his sound was so abrasive. That blend of a Little Chopper and a Fender Twin in front of my pedalboard, that was the sound. The amps are both just before biting point where they’re loud, but they’re singing, and you can hear it in a clear dynamic.”
While a conversation Bring Me The Horizon’s Lee Malia inspired a recent efficient switch to Neural DSP Quad Cortexes, the fundamental Max Helyer pedalboard is his pride and joy, as he gives us the full, extended rundown. “The TC Electronic Hall Of Fame 2 is the perfect [reverb pedal] for studio and live,” he begins. “I’ve got options on a small pedal – I’m tweaking the decay and effects constantly throughout the show.
“I’ve got an Electro-Harmonix Bass Microsynth that I use for songs like SUCKAPUNCH and No Future? Yeah Right – it squelches a little bit, and saturates it more towards a synthesizer sound. Being a guitar player, the Bass Microsynth reacts in a different way and just gets that little bit more grunt out of that lower end.”
Image: Press
No Future? Yeah Right
With his ever-evolving, “adventurous” approach to guitar playing, You Me At Six’s Wembley Arena swansong on April 4 will by no means mark the end for each member, individually. “When one door closes, another one opens. Come April 5, my doors are open again. You never know, I might make some more music, collaborate with somebody else, join another band. You don’t really know in this world… it’s just got to feel right to me.”
Revealing that he’s recently been working with Leicester pop-punk trio Mouth Culture, the “lottery ticket” of open-minded collaboration is something that’s excited Helyer, ever since You Me At Six opened that door around Night People to the likes of Snow Patrol collaborator Iain Archer and former Kaiser Chiefs drummer Nick Hodgson. “[Songwriting has] always been in my blood, and I won’t ever stop that,” he says. “If that’s in the rock world, pop, dance, hip-hop, RnB – I love so many different styles of music.”
For now, though, Helyer’s full focus, time and attention is on You Me At Six – because the last dance has begun. One more stint on the road with his fellow axeman Chris Miller (“we’re like yin and yang – we complement each other in such a different spectrum”), this band of brothers were always determined to see this illustrious career out on their own terms.
“We’re just humbled,” he concludes. “I’m glad that our music has had such an impact on people’s lives – that’s number one for me, always is. Something that has brought us five a lot of joy, creating music in the studio, has resonated with people all across the world. My job is done, because of that.”
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