Architecture In Helsinki Crazy For Degrassi Junior High

Architecture In Helsinki's Cameron Bird is excited to visit Toronto for the first time. No, the Australian isn't looking forward to seeing the CN Tower or catching a Jays game.

"It sounds kind of dorky — we're huge fans of Degrassi Junior High," he says over the phone, 14 time zones away. "We actually cover a Zit Remedy song. It's part of our set and has been for a while. In fact, a friend of mine is there right now and he found out that his room used to be inhabited by Snake. Can we put something in the article that if any Zit Remedy members want to come to the show, they should? Especially Snake."

Jokes aside, Bird's band have been one of the year's most talked about. Their much lauded release, In Case We Die, has brought them to North America for two major tours in 2005, which is basically unheard of for an Australian band who don't have a North American residency.

In fact, when trying to think of any well known indie (and we mean indie, The Vines don't fit into that category) Australian bands, we in the Chart office could hardly think of any besides Architecture. Bird says it's not all that surprising.

"A lot of bands don't have the money or the time to tour overseas," he says. "Even in this time where music is so accessible, there's nothing getting over the geographic isolation of Australia. Psychologically, we're so far from the rest of the world.

"Australians also have a bit of an inferiority complex where they think everything that comes from overseas is better
than the stuff we have here. There is a support of the music, but some American touring band will come and 2,000 people will go, but then some local band that's infinitely better will play and 50 people will go."

Bird does think things are getting better. Just before this interview took place, the band were nominated for three ARIAs, the Australian equivalent of the Juno Awards.

The acclaim, however, doesn't come without an odd hitch.

"It's kind of weird and exciting — we got nominated in the adult contemporary section (laughs)," Bird says. "We're up against all these hilarious has-been rock dudes. Everyone else in the category is over 40. I don't know why we've been nominated, but we are. Unfortunately we can't go to this thing we all grew up watching. We found out and we were like, 'Damn, we're going to be away!' It's OK. We'll get over it."

In Case We Die was recorded at the band's studio, Super Melody World, a name we can only assume is a joke because it's essentially a converted garage and storage space. With the band not doing much in the studio, the storage element remains. "It's kind of a dumping ground for when we move around. If you go there now there's a big analog desk in the middle of a pile of shit," Bird says.

With eight people in the group, Architecture In Helsinki are also perhaps one of the few bands in the world today who can identify with the dynamics of The Arcade Fire. But they have the added challenge of getting all eight bodies to the other side of the world, where Montreal's indie champs already have easy access to their main touring continent.

"It's not really practical, but we see it as some demented camp and that usually gets us through," Bird says. "We're all still into it, but if at the end of this three month tour we had to do another one we'd probably be at the end of our tether. I think this tour will definitely, without trying to be gender specific, separate the men from the boys, as they say."

Here are Architecture In Helsinki's tour dates and remember Zit Remedy members are welcome:
# October 1 Toronto, ON @ Rancho Relaxo
# October 2 Montreal, QC @ Cabaret

source: chartattack