Interview: Architecture in Helsinki

Australian five-piece Architecture in Helsinki are riding high after the release of their latest album. We exchanged emails with them about their current tour and future plans, ahead of their concert later this month at Razzmatazz.

Fans of Architecture in Helsinki have been waiting four years for your latest album, Moment Bends—are you confident they'll be happy and how do you think new fans will take it?

I hope so. We poured a lot of love and passion into this record and feel like it is the most honest and confident collection of songs we have made.

I think most of our fans have really embraced the way that we have evolved our sound with each record, it's something that we pride ourselves on. Never make the same song twice!

People have described this album as being the most grown up, focused offering you've delivered—do you feel that as a band?

Most definitely, having made immense pop records we wanted to step back and be a little more conscious about how we put this together. Making sure there was nothing extraneous and jarring. It was all about being calm/focused with this record but keeping the spontaneity.

On tour, how do you avoid just being five people behind synths—how involved do you get with the whole look/feel of the night?

We have always placed a huge amount of importance on our live show. We are constantly deconstructing our back catalog and performance and trying to improve it. We also love to make sure we are always playing with artists we love in venues that work with our show.

I read that you wanted this album to be of the time and place of you being back in Melbourne together—how do you feel that comes across in the tracks?

I think there is a depth to the production and performance that would not have happened if we weren't in Melbourne and together. It may not to be immediately obvious, though it appears over time.

It's fair to say that there is a strong Eighties influence to your music, how does that decade inform your music, look? Who are your influences from the period?

Our earliest memories of music are Eighties pop hits, so it is fair to say that that era of pop music is dear to our hearts.

It was also a time when experimentation and technology played a huge part in commercial pop. So, in that respect it is a creatively inspiring time in music.

I think people confuse or attribute the use of synths solely to the 80s. Our influences most definitely span the last 50 years, we aren't interested in pastiche!

You have been touring for the best part of a decade—what's the best thing about coming home?

We started touring in 2004. So yeah it's been seven years, minus a big gap from 2008-2011. So all in all, let's say we have done four or five years of constant touring—OUCH.

Home is cooking, Australian Rules Football and watching TV.

Who would you most like to collaborate with?

This is the hardest question as there are literally hundreds of people! Would love to make something with Sebastien Tellier.

The album is a mix of Cameron and Kellie on vocals—how do you pick who gets to sing?

We both sing the song and then decide whose voice suits it better.

Have you been to Barcelona before? If you get any time off, what will you do in the city?

We played at Primavera Sound in 2007. I came to BCN on holiday last summer and was lucky enough to be in town when Spain won the World Cup! Campeones Del Mundo! If we get any time off, we will be heading straight to Santa Caterina Market to get some food!

What's next for Architecture in Helsinki?

Touring until February. Then we make a new album. Which we are all very, very excited about!