Architecture in Helsinki

Architecture in Helsinki
Architecture in Helsinki performing in Helsinki, August 2007. L–R: Kellie Sutherland, Jamie Mildren, Gus Franklin, James Cecil, Cameron Bird and Sam Perry.
Background information
Origin	Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia
Genres	Indie pop, freak folk
Years active	2000 (2000)–present
Labels	Trifekta, Bar/None, Tailem Bend, Moshi Moshi, Polyvinyl, Scotland Yard, Co-Operative, Modular, Downtown
Website	www.architectureinhelsinki.com
Members	Cameron Bird Jamie Mildren Sam Perry Kellie Sutherland Gus Franklin
Past members	James Cecil Isobel Knowles Tara Shackell

Architecture in Helsinki is an Australian indie pop band which consists of Cameron Bird, Gus Franklin, Jamie Mildren, Sam Perry, and Kellie Sutherland. The band has released five studio albums: Fingers Crossed (2003), In Case We Die (2005), Places Like This (2007), Moment Bends (2011), and Now + 4EVA (2014).

Architecture in Helsinki developed from a short-lived high school music experiment in Albury, New South Wales, by childhood friends Cameron Bird (lead singer), Jamie Mildren and Sam Perry. By 1999, the trio had moved to the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, where they used the name Architecture in Helsinki for Bird's first collection of self-penned songs. Bird got the new band's name after cutting up a newspaper and re-arranging words. They played a small number of gigs before going into hiatus. In 2000, while studying photography at art school, Bird met James Cecil, the two developed a musical connection and within months Cecil joined the band on drums. Around that time Bird took up guitar, he also met Kellie Sutherland at a party and invited her to play clarinet for the band.

The five-member group began to work on their debut album, Fingers Crossed, at Super Melody World, Cecil's recording studio built in a church hall in a south-eastern suburb. Recording was halted when Bird left for an extended holiday in the US, leaving the album unfinished. Upon return from Portland, Oregon, Bird was inspired to write short, catchy pop songs, which marked a new direction for the band. At art school, Bird met members of The Rhinestone Horns, a brass ensemble, and he recruited Isobel Knowles, Tara Shackell and Gus Franklin – all three originally from Victoria's Western District – to complete Architecture in Helsinki's eight-member line-up. In 2002, the group signed with independent record label, Trifekta, which released their debut single, "Like a Call" in December. Nearly two years after starting work, Fingers Crossed was issued on 9 February 2003. Most of the group's members play multiple instruments and their music makes use of a wide range of instruments, from analog synthesizers, samplers, the glockenspiel and handclaps; to concert band instruments like the trumpet, tuba, trombone, saxophone, clarinet and recorder; and the more standard guitars, bass guitar and drums.