Kevin Bronson on November 27th, 2009

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Three years ago, weary from touring and wan from the chasm separating their dreams and reality, Jim Evens and his bandmates in L.A. trio Helen Stellar decided to take a little break. They’d just had a song in the Cameron Crowe movie “Elizabethtown” and released “A Prayer to Myself,” a compilation of their first three EPs that came out on the Vinyl Films label run by Crowe and Andy Fischer.

“We put out the record, the movie came out, the soundtrack came out. … I guess we had some expectations that somebody would help us out,” Evens says. “We wanted to record more but none of us had any money. We wanted to tour but none of us could afford to. We’d been put through the ringer.”

But the “little haitus” enjoyed by singer-guitarist Evens, bassist Dustin Robles and drummer Clif Clehouse turned into months, then years, with little more than a peep out its members except a solo EP Evens made under the name Jim, Son of James. And the threesome’s small cadre of faithful worried Helen Stellar might not be heard from again.

• ||| Stream: “From Here On” (demo) [audio:http://www.mediafire.com/file/tzlw6y12fpvu6t6/Helen%20Stellar_From%20Here%20On.mp3]

• ||| Stream: “Show Me the Good” (demo) [audio:http://www.mediafire.com/file/wnjz0lmmdgn/Helen Stellar_Show Me the Good (demo).mp3]

Worry no longer. Energized by new material and the addition of a fourth member, guitarist Eli Lhymn, Helen Stellar is finishing up work on a new album and on Wednesday at the Echo will play only its second show in the past three years.

The album – whose working title is “If the Stars Could Speak, They Would Have Your Voice – And It Would Say I Love You” – refines Helen Stellar’s neo-shoegaze aesthetic, with Evens’ soaring vocals riding a cross-stitch of reverb-heavy guitars and driving beats. Mopey, it’s not, as the paean to new beginnings “From Hear On” reveals. “It’s hopeful – very positive for the most part,” Evens says.

So is the general outlook of the band, which has come a long way since becoming accidental Californians in 2003. Back then, Helen Stellar was based in Chicago, and its EP caught the ear of KCRW-FM’s Nic Harcourt, who invited the band to appear on “Morning Becomes Eclectic.” On a by-the-bootstraps tour, they made it to L.A. for the gig – but en route to another show, the trio’s band broke down 90 miles south of San Francisco. “We had $80 between three guys, but we had a friend in L.A.,” remembers Evens. They ditched the van and made their way south.

Evens, Robles and Clehouse juggled day jobs, made another EP and toured. Progress seemed slow until Crowe took a shine to the track “io (This Time Around)” for his movie. (The band might actually appear on screen next year; the Gregg Araki film “Kaboom,” currently in post-production, features a scene in which two college kids go to a Helen Stellar show.)

By 2006, though, “we all kinda need to catch up on life,” says Evens, who continued writing and tried his solo project but missed his longtime bandmates. “And I missed playing loud.”

When early this year Clehouse called Evens with the idea they should start playing again, the frontman didn’t hesitate long. “As much as my brain told me I should try something new,” Evens says, “every other cell in my body was screaming at me to do it.”

As the band started to practice again, the chemistry was palpable. “We plugged in and played for a couple of weeks just to see how it felt,” Evens says. “This band is great at making ideas flourish – it just works out. they trust me and I trust them.”

The new material reflects’ Evens increasing confidence as a singer. In fact, in writing the new songs, he came up with the vocal melodies first – “before, it was the guitar parts or the piano parts first,” he says. And Lhymn’s contributions are not to be undervalued.

“The writing leaves a lot of room for him. I’m not a lead guitarist; I’m a singer-songwriter who likes to make a lot of noise. A lot of what Eli is doing is really melodies,” Evens says. “There’s nothing too cerebral about it – it’s all feel. Our hearts are on the outside of our chests on this one.”

||| Live: Helen Stellar performs Wednesday at the Echo as part of Decembering With Buzz Bands LA, a show that also features KAV, Square on Square and Nightmare Air.

Live photo from Helen Stellar’s 2008 show by Jessica Holmes Photography