Architecture in Helsinki have just released their brand new album ‘Now + 4ever’, unlike their previous records the band has taken their time with fifth studio album.

OUTinPerth spoke to lead vocalist Cameron Bird about their new album.

What’s it been like recording the new album?
Yeah, recording the new record was a great process for us. We leased out a studio space in the centre of Melbourne and sort of built a studio there and spent a year and a bit writing and recording the songs, and then we took them over to Canada to do some mixing and yeah, Bob’s your uncle.

It’s been 3 years since the last album, you guys really didn’t get a break at all has it just been touring and then straight back into it?
Yeah, basically that’s how it works in the modern day. You can’t go away for too long. That said, I guess we toured for a year and a bit on the last record and then we had a couple of months off and then we built a studio and recorded for a year. The record’s been finished for a while so we’ve had a bit of time to get all the bits and pieces together and brace ourselves for the oncoming year.

You’re about to do ‘Groovin the Moo’ for a third time, what keeps bringing you back to that festival?
Yeah, love the festival. It’s a really wonderful touring festival. I think it’s the best touring festival in Australia in my opinion, in terms of playing in regional centres rather than the capital cities and the line up is always really great and diverse, and it’s not really nichey like a lot of the festivals seem to be now. I think they’re onto a real winner.

When a festival is in a regional area, it’s not like the punters just wandered down, you’ve really got to make an effort to go.
Yeah, exactly. I think that generally breeds enthusiasm, because people have expectations or they have a real desire to have a good time, too. It always means the crowds are you know, dressed up and people get really into it.

Have you got a favourite band you’ve been on tour with?
I guess, there’s… Thinking back to tours is very sentimental because you often don’t realise at the time how significant they are in the course of your musical life, and for us I think a few stand out. Probably early on we got to support David Byrne from Talking Heads, which was huge for us and we’ve remained friends with him, which is, you know, something we’d never dreamed of.

We were lucky enough to tour on one of our last tours with The Go-Betweens which for us was a huge honour, they being arguably the greatest touring band of all time. So there’s those iconic people we’ve toured with but there’s also bands like Glass Candy that we toured with in the States in 2007. Plus time, I think, you remember really fondly.

Both Robert Forster from The Go-Betweens and and David Byrne are people who have an interest in the intellectualisation of music.
Yeah, definitely and I think I’m always working towards that. I think that people who look to think about music and consider themselves music nerds are people that I’ve always really admired. Because you can learn a lot from reading their writings. David Byrne and Robert Forster are both incredible songwriters but they’re also incredible writers.

A friend of mine said whenever he thinks of Architecture in Helsinki you always sound really fresh and new. As you go through time how do you keep that freshness as a band?
I think we have a real disregard for what is popular currently. [Laughs] I think that’s what it is. Our music is a real mash-up of different- I don’t think any one of our records has a particular artist that we particularly want to sound like. We’ve always really wanted to avoid pastiche. The way we approach writing is very much, it’s almost like it’s a reflection of all of our influences. I mean, every band is like this but I think the way that we produce and write music is that we go “Ok, here’s a song,” and then we take each part of the song, it might have a different reference point or influence.

So it’s like, we take the drums that we really love from this record in 1955 and then we go “well I really like the sound of this synthesizer from 1991”, and “I really love this guitar on this record from 2007” and I think it is probably the fact that you can’t really pin down a particular sound that we have. I think that’s something that’s probably not conscious, but it’s something that we probably also pride ourselves on, having that understanding of the music that we make and the music that we’re inspired by.

I think part of the music business is the videos, is that a part of the process that you enjoy?
Yeah, definitely. For us music videos are us important as any element of the record making process and the way that you present yourself visually as a band is for us integral to the way that people understand our music and what we’re trying to communicate. So if you can create a product or a record or whatever you want to call it that delivers your message every clearly and with great visual impact, then people will have a better understanding of your music. So for us, making music videos is a really great way of communicating what it is that we’re trying to tell people.

Architecture in Helsinki’s new album ‘Now + 4Eva’ is available now.

Graeme Watson