Izzy Heltai

Originally from Brookline, Massachusetts, Heltai is the child of two mathematicians and first-generation European immigrants. “My parents worked really hard in very secure jobs, and I think they always wanted us to be able to do whatever we wanted with our lives,” he says. Heltai started on classical piano, but soon became fascinated by folk singers, and picked up the guitar. Inspired by Joan Baez and Simon and Garfunkel, he started obsessing over songwriting as a teenager, and soon realized that it was “the only thing I really wanted to do with myself... You know how a lot of musicians say ‘I listen to tons of different music’?, Well, I really only like listening to sad songs” he laughs. Heltai moved from Boston to the small town of North Adams, Massachusetts at the age of eighteen, and took up residence in his friend’s closet for one hundred dollars a month rent. “I really fell in love with the small-town lifestyle. In North Adams there is a lot of space both physically and mentally to slow down and create, and you don’t need to be working all the time to get by financially, so people have time to freelance, and be outside, to get to know one another.”

Photo Credit: Joanna Chattman