Semifinalists review and interview - York City Screen Basement Bar - 06/06/08

A pair of film students making re-shaped 80s synth music sounds like a potentially nightmarish show. With all the scope for ego, artistic pretension and sneering superiority, the liberal helping of art school kids who don’t quite know how to play their instruments that is currently heaped upon our musical plate is enough to make even the trendiest music fan sick to the stomach.

Semifinalists, however, completely avoid being the dreaded uber-trendy art students-cum-musicians with their sheer unbridled enthusiasm and desire to entertain.

Rejecting the idea of playing the “toilet venues” as a means of building up to play the big shows, Ferry and Chris replied with an outraged “no” when asked if they slightly resented the smaller gigs. “You’re closer to the people you’re playing to,” explains Ferry, “It’s more like a party than a concert. They [the audience] are involved in the show way more.” By seeing the audience as an integral part of the show; by wanting to party with the people who like their music, Semifinalists show a markedly different attitude towards York’s more modestly-sized events than some bands who seem to think they’re too important for them. Later, their performance perfectly presented how comfortable they are with abandoning inhibition and image on stage. Dancing like no-one was watching and clearly having the time of their lives doing it, Ferry and Chris are the ultimate two-person party.

Chris and Ferry constantly deflect praise and shirk ambition to become commercially successful, saying “what, like in the Grand Canyon?” when it was asked if they thought their sound would work better on a larger scale. Chris elaborates on their indifference towards bigger shows by saying, “it’s like you’re on a podium and you’re the people who are expected to entertain,” describing the awful expectation that surrounds stadium shows.

Preferring to talk about their artwork or friends' Test-Icicles rather than arena tours, Semifinalists reveal the importance of their artschool roots. “Film affects me first, and through me it affects the music,” explains Ferry. “It’s not that the film affects the music in a very lateral way.” Having met at film school, Ferry Chris and ex-member Adriana finally settled upon Semifinalists as a band after flitting between other projects, and committed themselves to it fully. Semifinalists as we know them today have only ever produced their own artwork (“No-one else is quite up to it,” deadpans Chris) believing that “being in a band, there are so many channels of expression that it seems like a waste not to utilise all of them given the opportunity.” Their matching outfits (white trousers, white t-shirt) and mindblowing dancing gives the impression that they’re just two friends hanging out and having an amazing time, as much of a cliché as it may be.

Having released their last single “Odd Situation” on minor label Young and Lost and currently signed to V2, do they feel any pressure to eventually sign to a bigger label? “There are a lot of people out there who just don’t care [about the quality of music] who are trying to climb some sort of ladder,” says Ferry, “then it always ends up kind of bad…” That Young and Lost were friends of theirs and enthusiastic about their music was enough to make them release a single through them, despite the fact that their second album is released this month, and Y&L generally sign fledgling acts.

Their ambivalence towards commercial success may be a problem. Not because it would shatter any dreams of signing a twelve album deal with a major label, but because York might never see them again as they are. Semifinalists give off the impression that they are a constantly evolving project, rather than a finished product to be bought and sold. As nothing is allowed to stagnate, very little is preserved. They’re playing in London on Wednesday in their last show for some time. It’ll be amazing. You should go.

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