Formed in North Hollywood, CA in 1997, Helen 55 rose from the ashes of Los Angeles hardcore acts Honeycomb and STS. Guitarist Shon Kornfeld (Honeycomb) and bassist D Valles (STS) found drummer Ian Perriera, and began creating their own blend of melodic, yet aggressive music. Honeycomb vocalist Ronnie was brought in, and soon the band was playing live and sharing stages with such acts as System of a Down, Papa Roach, Alien Ant Farm and many more.
The first 3 song demo was physically traded around the world for months, and soon h55 was online with 3 fan-made sites before their "Official" site was ever launched!
The band parted ways with Ian Perriera in 1998 and replaced him with Ford An. A new batch of songs were written and recorded at their own rehearsal/recording studio. The first CD "Amped" was released independantly in 1999, and sold over 1,000 copies. They replaced Ford An with Jerry Vidal in 2000 and soon after changed the band name to Fontaine. The 2nd CD, "The Wedding EP" was again independantely released, and the band played live in support of it for about a year before basically disbanding. Kornfeld and Valles would record another demo and play a few shows under the name Fontaine with new singer Sheldon Tarsha and x-Crazy Town drummer Kyle Hollinger in 2003.
Highlights of h55's career include being on MTV's "Snowed In Undercover", being interviewed by Matt Pinfield and filmed for Farmclub TV, and playing with lots of great bands, traveling, meeting and rocking new people.
Earlier in 2005, h55 guitarist Shon Kornfeld released "Helen 55 LIVE @ The Whisky" on his site http://www.shon.info, 7 songs of mostly unreleased h55 material.
Today, the members of h55 plan ..ing the lost "first" record. The first 3 song demo (Dumb Summer, The Taste of Sick, Dollhouse) came from a session of 10 songs... the other 7 songs are incomplete (half-finished guitars and no vocals). These songs are the ones that made Helen 55 a "buzz band" and gained them their fan base. Work begins soon ..ing the tracks, to finally be released in the near future.