Heaven or Las Vegas - Interview: Architecture in Helsinki

As one of the hottest groups on the planet I’m sure Architecture in Helsinki need no introduction. HOLV brings you our exclusive interview with band member James Cecil. Enjoy!

HOLV: Hi, how are things?

JC: Hi! Well right now its battle stations as our luggage is stuck in Singapore and we're playing here in Paris in a few hours! So we're trying to cobble together rental gear. If you've seen our live show you will know that we use LOT of different instruments, so this is a big job. We also have a load of samples and sounds to load into the machines if we can find them. In a nutshell we're freaking out!!

HOLV: You have a new album in the pipeline for later this year, can you tell
us what to expect from it?

JC: Expect a good time, more melodies that will get wedged between your temples and a big emphasis on rhythm! It's more bombastic than our last two albums, and sounds a lot more like the way we play live at the moment.

HOLV: Have the line-up changes altered the style of your music?

JC: I guess with less people there's less ornamentation and more of a focus on what the ojays referred to as "the groove to make you move". Live we are all playing non-stop for the whole set, which makes the whole experience a lot more … sweaty. On a good night this extends to the audience! I think when we started playing some of the same songs with two less people we all realised we would have to work a lot harder to produce the same amount of energy - just having 8 people on stage has its own energy which an audience responds to. So I guess we have all lifted our game a bit. We are definitely tighter now as well.

HOLV: How difficult is touring Europe when you are based in Australia? Do you
really need to come over here and put on a lot of shows to make it worth
your while?

JC: Yes, obviously the expense of flying us all over here is pretty insane. Generally we have had to make all of our tours as long as possible to get maximum value from our airfares - so often it has been 8 or 9 weeks, europe and then the US or vice versa. This increases our chances of making a profit, though i'm not sure whether we have yet made one from touring in europe. We might have been close a couple of times, but generally spending anything more than a couple of days in England destroys that possibiility. It is still a mystery to us how everything can be so much more expensive there when its so close to europe and the US.. But i guess there are a lot of people in positions of huge power that know the answer, and they're not telling me!

HOLV: What one item from home will you be taking on tour with you which you
simply can't do without?

JC: Right now what springs to mind is all of our gear! For me its my earplugs, but overall I would say probably our laptops - whenever there's wireless internet you can see the excitingly sociable side of AIH as all of us check our emails..

HOLV: I've just checked your tour dates and there are no Scottish gigs! I'm
disappointed. Will the people of Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh have to
wait long to see you live?

JC: Well we have played Glasgow and Edinburgh a couple of times each before, and they were super fun! But yes, sadly this trip we're not making it up there. In a way my bank account is thanking me as I won't be let loose in Mono records again... You can blame all of that England between you and the rest of Europe... it's a long time to hold your breath.

HOLV: Lastly, I think Architecture in Helsinki is probably one of my favourite
band names, how did it come about?

JC: We used to rehears in a studio opposite the MCG cricket ground in Melbourne. One day we were on the roof, and looked down at the amazing patterns created on the footpath by the seagull shit during the Boxing Day test match. If you squinted at it it spelt out "Architecture In Helsinki". True story!!

Interviewed By Hammond