Architecture In Helsinki

Mon 4th Apr, 2011 in Features

It’s been a long time coming, but Melbourne’s indie-pop experts Architecture In Helsinki have finally made their hotly-anticipated return to the limelight. They’re back, bigger and better than ever and armed with their most assured studio effort yet, Moment Bends. According to bandmates Cameron Bird and Kellie Sutherland, its creation came as the stars aligned. “The way that the writing and the creative process works with our band is that the chemistry’s got to be right,” Bird reveals. “It’s about getting the perfect conditions for the songs to be made in. That Beep was the start of that process for us and after that we were really trying to work out what it was we wanted to say with the record. That started to form around 2009 and we worked pretty hard after that.”

Throughout the process of bringing Moment Bends to life, Architecture In Helsinki again embraced freedom from any label or higher power pulling the strings, ensuring a familiar and rewarding creative experience. “We’ve never done it any other way. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have to answer creatively to some external force,” muses Sutherland. “I suppose for us, because we had our own studio space and we set the scene with That Beep and had figured out how we wanted to go about recording, we were more focused on getting the songs out and giving them time to breath and grow… rather than concern ourselves with time-lines, release dates and things like that. We were very lucky in that respect.”

This absence of obligation encouraged the band to work as long and as hard as they deemed necessary, Moment Bends taking shape through many arduous hours and a renewed passion for their craft. Their ethos in turn resulted in a fulfilling outcome for all involved. “The songs on Moment Bends we spent longer recording than we spent on our entire last record. We were way more meticulous and all about every single detail than we’ve ever been before,” explains Bird of their latest achievement. “In the past I think we’ve always had regrets about things we’ve done. You know, we really love all our records for different reasons but we wanted to make a record that we didn’t feel like we had to make excuses. I think because we took the time to make this record the way we wanted to make it, for the first time ever, we feel really confident that it’s exactly what we want it to be.”

A quick spin of Moment Bends is bound to delight any pop music enthusiast: from the instant, melodic magnificence of Contact High, to the retro-romance of W.O.W. and again in the pulsating silver-tongued Denial Style, it’s obvious that the band have returned in fine form. It’s a pleasing result given the band’s professed ambition to achieve a high standard of pop music across their career. “I think it’s always been something that we’ve really strived for. Its manifested itself in different ways on each record, but we’ve kind of got to the point where we have the ability and the understanding to be able to fully realise what it is we’ve been trying to write,” reveals Bird.

“Ever since our first record we’ve always been trying to write pop music, but it comes out in different ways depending upon what you know at the time and your experience of what’s going on around you. With this record I think the experience of making three records, touring, meeting people and buying records and travelling… all those things contribute to the music you make.”