Architecture in Helsinki are a Melbourne pop band that have just released their fourth studio album, Moment Bends. I had a chat to Cameron Bird, the frontman of the five piece, about everything happening with them this year.

Hi Cameron, how are you?

Good thanks!

That's good! So, it's been four months since the release of Moment Bends. How has the reception for the album been?

Yeah, I think it's been really good. It's definitely been a grower which I was kind of hoping for and most places we've played and have been to seem to have given it a really positive response!

And big congratulations on the J Award nomination! This is your third J Award nomination, which is a huge deal – do you reckon it'll be a case of third time lucky?

(laughs) I don't know about that – we've never won anything in our lives so we're not gonna count on it, but it's obviously a huge honour to be nominated and to be among such a great collection of albums that it will be by the end of the year. We're just happy to be recognised amongst that.

Your songs, particularly on the latest album, are so layered and intricate yet ridiculously catchy at the same time – what's your songwriting process?

Well, I guess it's usually a case of writing songs in the studio, we don't usually take songs in written. I usually take in an idea in varying states of completion – sometimes it's really truly small and sometimes it's quite skeleton like. This time around, I don't think there was anything that was't written in the studio. Most days we would just come in with some ideas I recorded onto my phone or something and we'd test it out, sometimes it would be a super fast process and it would just come together – but sometimes it'd be super slow.

It took two years to get the album together which is a lot longer than all your other albums – why do you reckon it took so long for Moment Bends?

I guess we really started working on the record full time at the start of 2009 and finished mid last year, so in that time we were working probably five or six days a week on it – full, big days. I think it was just the level of precision we were going for the songs and with the songwriting I think that we really wanted to make something that we didn't have to sort of go back and revisit and make excuses about – it was really something we wanted to be a strong and successful document of tis point in our time.

It does definitely sound more polished than your older stuff. Why did you decide on “Escapee” as the second single from the album?

That was a song we as well as most people working with us felt like the right song, the right choice. When we played it live people were getting really excited and it as really fun to play and we just felt like it was the right choice.

It's such a great song, and I love the music video too. How did you come up with the idea for the clip? It seems pretty low key in comparison to some of your other videos...

I think it's actually the first video we've never made that we have absolutely no input into it was just a case of us turning up on the day and being told what dto do – I mean we knew firstly what the plot was and we said yes; we got a treatment that was like one page or whatever and Marcus Soderlund (director) told us where it was going to be shot and yeah. It was shot over one day and we just went along with it and that's what came out!

It's so good, I love it! Also, you just played Splendour in the Grass, how was that?

It was incredible. It was probably – no, definitely – one of our favourite shows, festival shows especially, that we've ever played. It was a really immense crowd and the response was just kind of overwhelming, we all had goosebumps. It was really incredible.

Were there any highlights of the festival, particular sets that blew you away?

We literally came in and played a left straight after because we'd been touring for a few months, so we didn't get to see Kanye or any of the others on the day.

Oh, damn!

Yeah, but it was definitely very much a 'go in and soak up the atmosphere, walk around' type of thing, it was beautiful sight and we were just really excited to be playing there.

Festival atmospheres are always just amazing. How do you find playing festivals compare to your normal club shows?

Well, between 2008 and 2011 we only played a few club shows, in fact we were playing mostly festivals. During that time I think we really turned into... well, I wouldn't say were were a festival band because we definitely are club show band, but I think we kind of understood how to play festivals much better. We worked out how it worked best for us. Obviously when playing a festival you don't have that same captive audience you've got at a club show, so you ave to really win the crowd over. In face, we work hard to do that so I really always enjoy that challenge and for us when we play a show, the crowd is such a huge part of it – the show is as much about them as it is about us and we like to feed off their energy so to speak.

You recently just played a show at the Sydney Opera House for Vivid Live – what was it like being part of such a great festival and playing one of Australia's most iconic venues?

Playing at the Opera House was one of the most incredible experiences ever for us. I think we feel like we did it really well, we had a choir that we put together come in, and had a whole lot of extra instrumentation and I think it was just... well, it definitely feels like a dream that we got to play there. Our families were there and it was just one of those shows that you always remember. I doubt that we'll ever play there again and just to be able to do that was such a great experience for sure.

Your tour dates at the moment don't seem to include many all ages gigs – any plans to add some to the tour for your younger fans?

We're really hoping to. I mean, we're not sure yet, I think we're hoping to add something on late this year, it just depends on a few factors, but we're really hoping to add some for sure. Definitely a big priority for us to play all ages shows – I think it's just that it can be a lot harder and harder with government legislation and laws to play in venues and have all ages shows and not pay a million dollars to put them on. It's really hard, and we would love to play every show all ages – we have no intention of just playing overage shows, we would love to play all all-ages shows, just kind of hard to do.

I totally understand. Where do you guys draw inspiration from as a band and as individual musicians?

I think as a band and as individuals our inspiration comes from a million different places, you know – music from the last fifty years and art from the last fifty or hundred years, and films, sport, you know, the natural universe. It's kind of so many different things. I guess I would say we just love to really get into the things around us and take that into our creative universe.

So you're going to be all over the country towards the end of this month and throughout next month, and then you're off to Europe! Needless to say you're excited – how long since you guys were playing over there and what are you going to be doing over there?

Yeah! It's our third tour there this year, so we're excited to be back again, and we're playing in a few places we haven't played before which is always exciting. I guess as is the case for each new album, we're just trying it out in front of more new people and in new places we haven't played before so we can keep ticking them off the list, you know? Exciting!

How do you find the crowds in Europe respond to the crowds at home? It would probably be a pretty different atmosphere?

Yeah. I mean, obviously it's very different to how it is here – culturally every country we play in responds differently to music, crowds are all different from country to country and even from region to region. It's the same in Australia – in some cities the crowds are louder and most responcing compared to others. It's cool, it just makes eery night different you know, it's not a case of pulling up and knowing exactly what to expect – every show is different so it's never repetitive.

I guess you guys get a lot of questions about your band name – but do you guys ever play in Helsinki?

Yeah, yeah we've played in Helsinki a couple of times – we just played there about a month ago and it was awesome. It's definitely a good place for us to play. It's very strange, it's like a home away from home, you know?

Definitely – that's so good. To wrap up, AiH gigs are well known to be positively buzzing with energetic and fun vibes. Is there anything out of the ordinary people attending your upcoming gis should expect?

I think we're just going to be playing the new record and getting those songs cracking, and hopefully going to be playing some old songs that we haven't played for a long time, and provably a few surprises here and there!