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Guelph’s memoryhouse has been making waves via their gorgeous blend of Boards of Canada-style production and dream-pop vocals. The band, made up of Denise Nouvion (vocals) and Evan Abeele (production/instruments) is set to leave North America for a tour Europe in June, where they will play with, among others, highly buzzed about Toronto artist, Diamond Rings.
Denise was kind enough to participate in an interview with Who To Hear via email:
Who To Hear: When did you two meet each other and had either of you been involved in composition before memoryhouse?
Denise Nouvion: We met a few years ago through a mutual friend, although it’s odd that we didn’t meet before that since we’ve both lived in Guelph all our lives. Evan studied classical composition in University; my relationship with music is more instinctive.
WH: In an earlier interview with Pitchfork.com, Evan mentioned that John Brion’s “Phone Call” was one of the samples used (slowed and buried under a crystalline layer of synth textures on “Lately (Deuxième)”) What degree of the music on The Years EP is sample-based?
DN: We often use archived sound effects, but the only true samples are in
Lately (Deuxième) and the voice in The Waves.
WH: Does memoryhouse function as a band which writes it’s songs through playing on what comes to mind or through songwriting?
DN: Evan’s formal training leads him to write more technically, so the songs are planned out sometimes even before Evan picks up an instrument.
WH: There has been massive web/blog hype surrounding the rise of
memoryhouse; from venerable indie tastemakers like gorillavsbear to
Canadian sites like Spinner. How has the build-up affected your band, from writing to booking shows outside of Ontario or Canada?
DN: When we were first recording songs, we never had the intention to ever formally release anything or to become a “band” that plays shows. It’s weird to think that we’ve been getting so much attention, especially internationally, when we haven’t really made much of a mark in Canada. It’s definitely overwhelming to go from being a University student and never leaving my apartment to a musician that’s about to tour Europe.
WH: Recently memoryhouse posted via twitter that the band is contributing music to a film (Weston Currie’s “Congress: A Thousand
Years of Death”). How did memoryhouse get involved and how is the
project progressing so far?
DN: We were both fans of Currie’s work, especially the video he did for Grouper’s “Hold the Way”. When he came to us and asked if we could work together on something, we didn’t really have anything ready to release, so Evan offered to contribute something new for his film. We’re lucky to be working with such amazing visual artists, and we’re hoping to continue working with Currie as well as more filmmakers in the future.
Big thanks to Denise for her direct insight into the latest Canadian breakout artist’s workings and origin. Check out their EP, The Years, out now via Arcade Sound Ltd./Inflated. Hear the EP opener, “Sleep Patterns”, above.
The band has an official tumblr account, where you can hear unreleased material and more: http://memoryhouse.tumblr.com/
