Architecture in Helsinki is an indie pop group from Melbourne, Australia. Formed in 2000, the band is active and its line-up includes Cameron Bird, Isobel Knowles, Tara Shackell, James Cecil, Gus Franklin, Jamie Mildren, Sam Perry and Kellie Sutherland.

Formation and early line-up

The group grows out of a high school band featuring Cameron Bird, Jamie Mildren and Sam Perry. Bird starts writing songs at the turn of the century and brings in Perry and Mildren to help shape them for live performance. He names the band by circling words in a newspaper and using magnetic poetry. Kellie Sutherland joins in mid-2000 after meeting Bird at a party, initially playing clarinet. Later that year, Bird meets James Cecil, Gus Franklin, Isobel Knowles and Tara Shackell while studying at RMIT University, and the project takes shape as a full band.

Albums and releases

Architecture in Helsinki releases four studio albums: Fingers Crossed in 2003, In Case We Die in 2005, Places Like This in 2008 and Moment Bends in 2011. A later album, Now + 4EVA, appears in 2014.

Fingers Crossed is recorded largely in home studios in and around Melbourne after a period of discarded sessions and shows at the Empress Hotel in North Fitzroy. Trifekta Records releases it in Australia, and Bar-None Records issues it in the United States the following year.

In Case We Die is recorded in a large garage space in East Brunswick, Melbourne, with Bird and James Cecil working on production for months and many guests contributing. The album comes out on the band’s Tailem Bend imprint in Australia, then on Bar-None Records and Moshi Moshi Records elsewhere. A remix album, We Died, They Remixed, follows in 2006 and features reinterpretations by artists including Hot Chip, YACHT, New Buffalo, Mocky, Dat Politics, DJ Mehdi, Safety Scissors and Qua.

Places Like This is developed after Isobel Knowles and Tara Shackell leave the band in 2006, reducing the group to five members. Bird works on demos in New York, while the rest of the band collaborates remotely before the group records in Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Sydney and New York. The single “Heart It Races” appears in 2007. Moment Bends is made after more touring, with the band working in Melbourne in a renovated East Brunswick space named Buckingham Palace. François Tétaz produces the record, and Haima Marriott works as engineer and auxiliary member during the sessions. The release “That Beep” appears in 2008 and becomes the band’s most commercially successful song to date.

Now + 4EVA includes “Dream a Little Crazy” and a version of Jackie DeShannon’s “When You Walk in the Room”.

Style and activity

The band is associated with chamber pop, indie pop, indietronica, neo-psychedelia and twee pop. It tours widely in Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe, and plays festivals including Coachella, Sasquatch, Sound Relief, Big Day Out, SXSW, Primavera, GTM, Pukkelpop and Haldern. It also performs with artists such as David Byrne, Dr Dog, Death Cab for Cutie, YACHT, The Go-Betweens, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Santigold, Glass Candy, The Presets, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Au Revoir Simone, Field Music, Lo Fi Fnk, Yo La Tengo, Polyphonic Spree and múm.

DJ work and other activity

Architecture in Helsinki also DJs regularly, including support slots for YACHT and Hot Chip. The group hosts its own New Year’s Eve party called “Eye Do” in Melbourne in 2009 and curates a DJ stage at Laneway Festival in Australia in 2011.