Memoryhouse

Memoryhouse

18 June, 2010
by: Domzig

Oh Canada...

It seems that the whole of the western world is awash recently with what Pitchfork has been calling 'glo-fi'. At SXSW this year, it seemed like you couldn’t turn a corner without being confronted by some band like Neon Indian, Washed Out or Small Black and that woozy, ethereal psychedelia thing – if you want to know what that felt like, take a trip over to Transparent’s excellent blog and take a listen to what’s going on over there.

Hailing from Ontario, Memoryhouse are holding up the torch for good old-fashioned dream pop. A duo consisting of neo-classical composer Evan Abeele and photographer Denise Nouvion, they have built amazingly thoughtful, if ever so slightly melancholic, slices of pop on a foundation of ambient loops, whispering tape noise and haunting guitars. If you can imagine Yann Tiersen’s soundtrack for Goodbye Lenin performed by the Cocteau Twins, you’ll sort of get what I mean.

These Days- Memoryhouse by mydarksky

So I think it’s safe to say that you’re both big Max Richter fans. Any particular favourites apart from Memoryhouse? I really liked the Waltz with Bashir soundtrack.

‘Sunlight’ from ‘Songs From Before’ is my favourite Max Richter song. Apparently he used a vocoder on the strings, though I may be mistaken. Whatever effect it is, it's a really elegant song.

Waltz with Bashir was good. His soundtrack work is underrated – his compositions for Henry May Long were pretty great, mostly consisting of a few variations on some of his (all too brief) songs from 24 Postcards in Full Colour.

I feel your music has a real cinematic quality. Are you influenced by movies as much as you are by music?

We're definitely influenced by film; we've both studied film in school, though Denise is far sharper than me. I think we're both really attracted to moods, so we tend to let mood and atmosphere determine where a song will go, and in that sense, it inhabits the same narrative properties as scoring a scene from a movie.

What would you say are the main elements of your music? What bands inspired you to start making music?

I think piano and reverb are two big elements. Even if there's no piano in the final arrangement, our songs tend to all begin there. We're featuring it a bit more prominently now I think, with the stripped down 'Lately' recording, and a new song that we're releasing as a B-side in a little while. I think our piano-based material always leaves room to breathe, sometimes guitars get too messy.

There are tons of bands that inspired us, but I think the reason I started writing was that it helped me relate to people.

The lyrics to a lot of your songs come across as being quite dark. Is there a theme/feeling you’re trying to get across?

Ah, there are some dark ideas in the songs, but I think there's a sense of humour in them too. It's like a winking darkness.

There's a bit of a Kafka influence in our writing. Take a song like 'Lately', where on paper the lyrics may seem overly sentimental, but the affect with which Denise delivers them makes them sound very casual, almost mundane. I always pictured it as a conversation, like in a grocery store or something, very dryly asserted, equal parts dire and ironic. It can play both sides, it definitely is sentimental, but at the same time, it knowingly references this overwrought and increasingly diluted dialogue and actually makes it mean something.

You covered Grizzly Bear once – are you excited to be playing with them in Hyde Park?

We're definitely excited to be on the same bill as them, though I think we'll leave 'Foreground’. We're the students, they're the masters.

So it’s Canada Day on July 1st? You guys are Canadian right, could you explain what it’s all about? Are you supposed to do something special?

I'm not sure, I mean, I know it is technically in celebration of the birth of our nation, but I don't know what that means anymore. I guess it's the inverse of Independence Day – they celebrate their separation from the colony; we celebrate becoming a part of it... I don't know, there are fireworks, and rides, because of course there are fireworks and rides.

Who's your favourite Canadian?

Hard to say. I guess my mom.

Memoryhouse have a bunch of shows coming up in London, starting with the opening slot at this year's Serpentine Sessions and including a show with Parisan visual artist Jamie Harley at the Social on the 2nd of July.

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Domzig