Semifinalists

Ferry Gouw, Adriana Alba and Chris Steele-Nicholson have crowded around three Cardiff pub dinners and, perhaps more curiously for the locals, their attention is focused solely on Ferry’s mobile phone. I’m 200 miles away on the other end of the phone. The dynamics are a little tricky to say the least. You only start to really appreciate the nudging and nodding conventions of conversation when they’re not there. This is, in a ragged word, awkward.

In a way our chat reflects Semifinalists music. Subtle, understated- if ever a band were destined for a slow burning growth in popularity, this is them. Their self-titled debut album and impressive live shows should see to that over the coming months. No hype, just some good old-fashioned word of mouth. Guitarist Ferry Gouw agrees: “There’s hasn’t ben too much hype, which is the way we like it. Our first single (‘Show The Way’) sold out without any big push behind it.”

Having signed to V2 in June after just a year together, the band immediately went to San Francisco to record. “We recorded most of it at the Plant Studios, which is an amazing place where Metallica, Fleetwood Mac and the new American Idol have all done stuff and we recorded other parts in a place that used to be a packing house for ice,” says Chris. Referring to the reasonably methodical 5 months taken over the album, Ferry adds: “It was nice. We were given the space, freedom, instruments and time to play around with it.”

Early singles (‘Show The Way’ and ‘You Said’) brought obvious Mercury Rev comparisons. Not only were they musically similar but also, in drummer Chris Steele-Nicholson, one of the bands three vocalists, they possess someone capable of equalling the falsetto of Jonathan Donahue. Such is the giddy laughter that greets this suggestion, it’s almost as if we’re back in the schoolyard and I told everyone who Chris fancied. Eventually Chris is allowed reply: “Yeah thanks man, he’s a cool guy. If I’m going to be lumped into a category I’ll take that.” It should be said that the full LP shows more range demonstrating a pop side that has shades of The Concretes or Shout Out Louds.

Indeed whether it is on a record that is hard to pin down or with their projection enhanced live shows it is clear Semifinalists are a band bursting with ideas. Their varied backgrounds are therefore of little surprise. Ferry is Indonesian while Adriana and Chris grew up in San Diego and Chicago respectively. “We all met at film school in London and we’ve been doing projects, making music and films ever since,” says Adriana. “Semifinalists is the main project, and we have been playing together for about a year and a half.” In fact since releasing their debut at the start of the month, Ferry and Chris briefly formed the London indie super group Naked Babes with Tom Vek and Dev Test Icicle.

Side projects aren’t distracting this adopted London three piece from the main task at hand. A hectic summer lies ahead. In May they follow Architecture in Helsinki around the UK and hope to headline some dates of their own before hitting the festival circuit at Reading, Leeds and following up last years solitary festival appearance at Ireland’s Electric Picnic.

As our stop start conversation comes to an end, Ferry is apologetic: “Sorry man, we couldn’t hear you that well with this lo-fi speaker on my phone.” It’s quite all right because with this interview, like their debut effort, it’s clear we may have only started to scratch the surface of what Semifinalists are capable of.