We Cast Music: That Beep

Song: That Beep

Artist: Architecture in Helsinki

Album: That Beep EP

Architecture in Helsinki is an Australian band based in the suburb of Northcote in Melbourne. The group consists of Cameron Bird, Gus Franklin, Jamie Mildren, Sam Perry, and Kellie Sutherland.

Most of the band members can play multiple instruments. Their music makes use of a wide range of instruments, from instruments such as analog synthesizers, samplers, the glockenspiel and handclaps; to concert band instruments like thetrumpet, tuba, trombone, saxophone, clarinet and recorder; and the more standard guitars, bass and drums.

The band has been on multiple national and international tours. They have toured the United States with acts such asDeath Cab for Cutie and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and opened for David Byrne, The Polyphonic Spree, Yo La Tengo andBelle & Sebastian. In May 2009, they opened for The Presets concert held at Festival Hall in Melbourne.

History

Name of the band

Even though they mention Finland's capital Helsinki in their band name, it wasn't until the Flow Festival of summer 2007 that they played in Finland. "When we were in Norway at the end of last year there were a few Finnish interviewers who came to interview us mainly about the name. I think they were quite perplexed. To us, the name means having to answer many questions and inquiries about the name, which I guess, is entirely understandable," the band members have said.

Formation and Fingers Crossed (2000–2003)

Architecture in Helsinki began with Cameron Bird in the late 1990s in Albury, New South Wales. Bird and fellow Architecture in Helsinki members Jamie Mildren and Sam Perry were members of a teenage funk-grunge band called The Pixel Mittens, and after a time the trio moved to Melbourne from country Victoria. The band played one or two small gigs before going into semi-hibernation. In 2000, while studying photography at art school, Bird met James Cecil. The two had an instant musical connection and within a couple of months Cecil joined the band on drums. Around that time Bird met Kellie Sutherland at a party and invited her to play the clarinet on some of the band's songs. The band began work on their debut album at Supermelody world, James' recording studio built in a church hall on Melbourne's Southeast side. Recording was halted though when Bird had to leave for an extended holiday in the US, leaving the album unfinished. On his return, Bird, inspired by his experiences in Portland, Oregon wrote three-quarters of the songs for the album in six days. The songs marked the new direction for the band - short, catchy pop songs. Once again at art school, Bird met Isobel Knowles, Tara Shackell and Gus Franklin who would complete the band's lineup. The three new members filled in the gaps on the album to complete it. After nearly two years of work, Architecture in Helsinki's debut album Fingers Crossed was released on 9 February 2003.

In Case We Die (2003–2005)

In 2005, Architecture in Helsinki released their second album In Case We Die on their own Tailem Bend label. The album featured guest appearances by many local musicians. The album was produced by The Carbohydrates (James Cecil and Cameron Bird's production duo) in Cecil's Supermelodyworld studio, a large garage space in Melbourne's inner Northern Suburbs. It was mixed by Tony Espie (The Avalanches, New Buffalo, Robert Palmer), at 001 Studios in Melbourne.

In Case We Die received three ARIA Award nominations including Best Independent release, Best Artwork and Best Adult Contemporary Release. The song "It'5!" (pronounced "it's five") received wide airplay on the Australian national radio network Triple J and reached #56 in their annual Triple J Hottest 100 countdown in 2006 (for 2005).

Lineup changes and We Died, They Remixed (2006)

In mid-2006 a bulletin posted on the band's MySpace page stated changes to the band had been made and that Isobel Knowles and Tara Shackell were no longer members of the band. The group cited "creative differences" as the reason for their departure.

On 28 October 2006, Architecture in Helsinki released We Died, They Remixed, an album consisting of remixes of their entire second album, In Case We Die, and a remix of the song "Like a Call" from their debut album Fingers Crossed. Artists who provided remixes included Hot Chip, New Buffalo, Safety Scissors, DAT politics, Mocky and Isan.

Places Like This (2006–present)

On September 2006, Architecture in Helsinki announced on Pitchfork Media that a new album was in the works for 2007 and that the songs would be played on their autumn tour. In February 2007, the band announced on their MySpace blog that the album would be titled Places Like This. Places Like This was engineered and mixed by Chris Coady who has previously worked with TV on the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Grizzly Bear. The recordings took place in Dave Sitek's (from TV on the Radio) studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and in Sydney's Big Jesus Burger Studios between November 2006 and January 2007. The first single from the album, "Heart It Races", was released in May 2007. The album was released 28 July 2007.

The band was also successful with singles such as "Debbie", "Hold Music", and "Lazy". "Heart It Races" was later nominated for an ARIA award in the Single of the Year category. "Heart It Races" and "Hold Music" came in at number 19 and number 36 in the 2007 Triple J Hottest 100, respectively. In 2007 they did a Take-Away Show acoustic video session shot by Vincent Moon.

During the band's New Year's Eve performance on 1 January 2008 (they came on at midnight), it was announced that it was James Cecil's last show with Architecture In Helsinki.

They released an EP titled That Beep in November 2008. It debuted at number 82 on the Australian ARIA Singles chart. Their forthcoming album is titled and is to be released in 2009, currently under the "project name": Vision Revision.