NO PAIN IN POP

29.7.08

Chest Pains for God and Godden

Photo of John Maus by Nic Amato + Beaterblocker logo

Is John Maus the millennia-bored voice of the almighty? He’s leant his hand to the work of Noah Lennox and Ariel Pink, but it remains hard to tell. On 'Bennington', an exclusive track pulled a while from the new Beater Blocker compilation ('Read On’ for details), stone-throat John looms as he has always done, somewhere above and beyond it all, a spectre trapped in a hidden zone. He's reaching out here though, succumbing to an earth-bound mortal whose "fucking eyes" he just won't forget, aiming a love song down from on high but tumbling in the process, below his beloved, elevating the girl to divine status and sucking the natural order of things inside out like a petty black hole. Claustrophobic swirls of synth-silk worry and toil to wrap and save the fall from grace, but it's too late so all they can even hope to do is swell, spread and brace and try to hurl him back to his pedestal, parachute-cum-catapult, a trampoline for a God limbs clumsy and in tears. How fucking absurd.

John Maus - Bennington

Find John Maus kicking around with the busy tastebuds at Upset! The Rhythm, who manned decks at the launch of heart-attacked Ed Godden's Beater Blocker charity compilation (alas we couldn't make it, proof exists that we were here).

Buy Beaterblocker from Phonica here for £7. For more on the comp plus an interview with Godden Read On... Ed Godden is 21 and lives in London. Last year he was out in Bristol, took too many drugs and had a heart attack. At 21. NPIP imagines that sucked – yeah, pretty much – but luckily for Ed the staff at Homerton Hospital were on hand to guide him away from death’s gaping rot of mouth and back onto the smiling streets of Hackney, where fried chicken bones fall from the sky and street corners are guarded like fires. Rejoice!

‘Cept there was a guilt that clung and couldn’t be shook. You can understand I suspect. Watch poor elderly unfortunates trolleyed off under blankets and you can x the usual dryout day guilt something exponential. So Ed did what any young buck with thanks to give would do and made a mixtape. Beaterblocker has 15 tracks from people like Vladislav Delay, Alex Smoke and Dirty Projectors' Angel Deradoorian (as well as the John Maus track featured earlier) and it’s on sale now for £7 from all the best places - Rough Trade East, Pure Groove, Boomkat, Phonica et cetera. All the proceeds will go to the people who kept Godden breathing at Homerton Hospital. Find the full list of tracks after this short stretch of dialogue.

How’d it happen, Ed?

I was out in Bristol for a friend's birthday. A few of us got some cocaine in (a couple of friends thought it was primarily speed - but I've never taken that before). I wasn't crazily addicted to the stuff - more like a payday treat. As the night went on, I didn't feel too ace, but carried on taking it.

And then? Bad times, right?

I got lost – I just couldn't stop thinking how 'hilly' Bristol was and ended up at a random house party somewhere. Eventually I found a mate and asked if I could crash at his house. I couldn't sleep and my chest area felt like a screwed up crisp packet. I was lying down with my head in a pillow for hours still wired. I had no idea what a heart attack would feel like or whether the pain was being exaggerated by my state – I thought it could have just been heartburn so I put off going to see anyone about it. I didn't end up going into hospital until two days later.

I was always under the impression it was an instant, chest-clutching, rushed-to-hospital thing with heart attacks. How long did they keep you in for?

I was in the Homerton Hospital for just over a week, just resting up the majority of the time and having loads of ECG/blood pressure checks and quite a bit of morphine to start. I was very dazed the first few days. I had an angiogram (where they put a wire through your largest artery either via your groin or your wrist - thankfully my doctor chose the latter). This was to see if I had any serious problems, as my Dad had trouble with his heart in the past. Fortunately I was given the all clear but it hit home that at 21 I was incredibly unhealthy - drinking all the time, smoking, hardly ever eating dinner, no fruit and veg, very little exercise...

Sounds worryingly familiar…

I've changed my lifestyle big time, but I really don't want the whole thing to be some anti-drugs campaign. This sounds incredibly corny but... whilst I was going out having all this fun, there were so many wonderfully good natured people looking after really sick people and I just wanted to say as big a thank you as I thought I possibly could.

Was there anything or anyone in particular at Homerton Hospital that prompted the comp?

An old man was wheeled away in my first day of being on the ACU (Acute Cardiac Unit) ward and then another man the day after. All the doctors and nurses that work there, helping people for a living. They were really nice and calm. I don't do much to help anyone else ever, so I wanted to repay some gratitude - especially as my case was self-inflicted. I felt very guilty indeed.

How did you go about getting the artists involved?

I started by asking a few friends based in London and the South East to put tracks on. I then e-mailed Sasu Ripatti (Vladislav Delay) about a possible contribution and he was quite shocked to hear about it, as he'd had major problems with his heart that were drug related in his twenties. Once he gave the OK I contacted a lot of my other favourite musicians and everyone tried to help in any way they could. The whole project's been really fun.

Did you ask the artists involved to write around a theme at all, or did they just contribute whatever they had?

Yes. Some. Due to label agreements a few artists couldn't provide exclusive material, but allowed me to choose anything previously released so I aimed to make it as fitting as possible to the cause. A few of the musicians were on lengthy tours so they let me have one of their hidden gems! So maybe they’re not all related, but I’m just really chuffed with all the donations.

Any plans to continue Beater Blocker after the compilation's released?

A label, I think! The launch on Thursday was awesome. I definitely want to put out more records and put on more parties. I have material that was offered in recent months but the disc was full…

Various - Beaterblocker compilation
Rhodri Davies & Louisa Martin - Soldercup [edit]
Marissa Nadler - Diamond Heart
Marsen Jules - Yara Series 1
Alex Smoke - It’s A Carni Life
Dead Leaf Echo - Anti-Matter
Loren Dent -Winter During Wartime
Vladislav Delay - Raamat
Robert Babicz - If I had A Dream
Abdullah Flex - Tell Me
Ghosthype - Sufferah
Qwerty - Butterjam
John Maus - Bennington
Women & Children - The Wolfman’s Tick-Tock
Klimek Kingdoms - Here We Come
Deradoorian - Grey Teeth (of Dirty Projectors)

Labels: interview, music

4.2.08

0800 0800 0800

photo: Tobias

"I take no sides. I am interested in the shape of ideas. There is a wonderful sentence in Augustine: 'Do not despair; one of the thieves was saved. Do not presume; one of the thieves was damned.' That sentence has a wonderful shape. It is the shape that matters."

I’ve wanted to interview Jack over a game of chess for while. Numbers, colours and angles would say more about his band than any number of runs through regurgitated influences and tours and new albums. I wanted a photo of him over the board, darkened and hooded like the GZA, and phrase phases opening, middle and endgame. Leave the game in a perpetual stalemate and perfect symmetry.

But Jack can’t play chess; it’s “just a weird game”, and maybe black and white are harsh tones for These New Puritans. You’d need a crystal ball; it’s hard enough keeping your head out of time with mirrors and smoke woven into estuary English. Especially over buzzing fifties Christmas rock‘n’roll in a kitsch Shoreditch diner, running throughout the tape like a ghost of music past.

Whilst twelve months ago These New Puritans were typecast as ‘new-rave’; now they’re merely ‘new’. ‘Beat Pyramid’ is strikingly original for what is, essentially although begrudgingly, a guitar band. Previous tracks now run free in their natural environment, with each idea pluvial, streaming in and out of songs, running concurrent with the album itself. Due to looped opening and closing tracks, when set on repeat it will run seamlessly forevermore. It shouldn’t be released to a fanfare but to the sound of indie-kids heads expanding.

But that’s my sentiment, not Jack’s, and there’s only so much that can be said about oscillating eardrums. After, he said the interview should be about his ‘media manipulation’, but it’s more a deconstruction of the entire process. It might read otherwise on dulled office eyes, but there’s as much ego to him as there is meat on bone, nothing but a unique perception of the inherent contradictions and failings of the entire ‘music’ enterprise itself…

Read On...

How was 2007?

It’s been alright. I don’t like to dwell on things.

Okay. Well, the album was originally scheduled for a November release, but has been held until late January. What did you think about that?

I was verging in on suicidal. Well, that’s an exaggeration. I have to control everything about the band, I think it’s really important; I want to move on as quickly as possible from everything, every couple of days. The album being delayed kinda deconstructed that though. I did get to record the ‘Elvis’ EP and ‘FFF’ so it worked out positively in the end. Maybe no one would have bought it in November; it’s got more chance of sweeping the globe in January.

And you’ve changed a lot over that period, as the new EP (recorded after the album) is testament to..

Hmm. I’m embarrassed about being in a band, so it’s hard for me to answer musiciany questions. I mean…. we change every second. We’re always trying to re-answer the question “what are These New Puritans”. Every moment, every second, every day we ask it and answer it in a different way. We want to be everything.

Well, the common (mis)conception of TNPs is that you’re either a kinda high-end arty London scene band, or a new-rave band. You do seem to have been lumped in with both to some extent; the Vice tour and festival, the Dior Homme collaboration, playing at Fabric, the Digital Penetration compilation…

We mean all things to all people. It’s all good. We’re always in flight from ourselves. People can try and pin us down, but the band is always different from ourselves, not least what other people think. I don’t really care at all. I want to do all things. Lots of our songs do different things. ‘Elvis’ is a pop song, and we’re releasing it because we can be a pop group. It’s just funny; we’re not new-rave. There are many things that could offend me more…

How about the ‘Southend scene’ that seems to have been created around you and the Horrors, Ipso Facto etc…?

What I’ve invented for us is the Thames Estuary tradition, starting with (JMW) Turner and Daniel Defoe, and running to Dr Feelgood and then us. That’s where I imagine we fit in. It’s a really great place. It used to be overrun by malaria and the average man used to have 20 wives, they just had to import more and more women. This was only a hundred years ago and that’s true. It’s a murky place, and it’s an easy place to map into a feeling to make murky music. I always say in London everything’s been done; in Southend nothing’s been done. But I think all those bands are too scientific in what they do, they get caught up in the science of music. Our album is magic music; we bridge the gap. It bridges the scientific with the magic.

What kind of magic?

I mean real magic. It’s all rituals. When we made the album was the idea behind it was to make a ‘Beat Pyramid’- it’s us inscribing the pyramid into the air, literally cutting in the airwaves...

“I’m writing in the airwaves”…

Exactly! In a thousand years there are codes that won’t be deciphered in our music. It’s always hard with interviews. Every word I’ve just said is a lie. It’s impossible to answer. Everything I’m saying is code, and it’s filtered through all the questions and interviews I’ve been asked before, and I feel I can never really communicate what we are. I mean it’s not just about music; there’s something above us we can’t grasp. That’s what makes us These New Puritans.

I’ve always thought that because a few kids are having lots of fun I could never possibly imagine ‘new-raving’ somewhere I’m justified in listening to darker stuff like you or Burial or Gang Gang Dance…

I feel an affinity with Burial. We’re weird kindred spirits or something… There are quite a lot of similarities. Did you know we existed on the internet before we existed in reality? We put pictures up and then music and only played gigs a few months later because people liked it. I think people think that it’s a contrived thing- that we’re trying to act intelligent. But it’s an accident, we’re just pop music. It’s not that elaborate is it? It’s just strums…

You seem to make out there’s more to the band sometimes, and less others…? Maybe because you consider TNP and yourself completely separate?

I do a lot of music under a lot of psydeums. But I’m not ashamed of TNPs, it’s just my job is to direct. It’s like making a film, the others are the actors and so I’ll make sure the bigger picture has other strands that weave together to make the band, and they’ll carry out their tasks.

Tell us about the album then. I like how streams of ideas weave throughout; parts from older songs resurface as new… and the looping, circular structure…

There are lots of ideas, I could go on. The reason why we called it that is that we wanted to construct a pyramid with its secrets and geometry. There are themes running throughout; mirroring, cycles, silver. I think it’s important there’s an overriding theme to it, because songs like ‘Doppelganger’ and ‘Elvis’ don’t fit together at all. When I was doing it I was thinking of electronic sounds, literally electronic waves. It’s probably too pop for an intellectual audience and too intellectual for a pop audience. Not intellectual… maybe just self indulgent.

Perhaps the most striking and original aspect is how rhythm heavy it is... there’s a real bond between the melody and rhythm. This sounds stupid, but do you think there’s a genetic connection between you and George? And how do you write the songs when they’re so unconventional…

Yeah, genetics… Me and George have been playing since we were really young. We’ve had lots of imagined bands; TNPs are the first one which has become real. So it probably helps. Like the film metaphor, I’m the all seeing eye and have to make sure the whole things come together and the others take care of the minutiae. I lot of the time I’ll write them on the computer and say ‘interpret that in a TNP way’ or ‘play like hip-hip’. I don’t care about the riff or anything; it’s not that musical. We’re a band of drummers really.

What’s next for the band?

I’m starting to draw everything together. The next thing is going to be Steve Reich meets dancehall. Do you know Vybz Kartel? It’ll be ensemble stuff like that. My eventual aim is to do nothing on stage- just sit there and let everyone else do everything. I mean… the best bit about being in a band is writing album credits. I’m basically in a band so I can write credits….

---

Earlier, at the junction of Kingsland Road and Old Street, I had nearly killed us both by choosing to run the road on a red light. Jack said something. It didn’t really make much sense then, but perhaps it does now. Aptly, it leaves us in circularity. For circularity, read inevitability; for inevitability, read circularity…

“You should begin the article”, said Jack, “with my death…”

Labels: interview, music

9.1.08

Cuffs and Collars

Fuck Buttons blast their nihilistic beat way past eleven

“We,” says Andrew Hung of Fuck Buttons, “are sound fascists”. As the name of his band suggests, he isn’t entirely serious. Or indeed accurate; if a controversial label must be applied to their approach to sound they are clearly “white-noise supremacists”. Formed in Bristol in 2004, the duo, consisting of Hung and Benjamin John Power, plays what Hung describes as “nihilistic noise,” a ferocious weltanschauung of drone, shoegaze and post-rock.

Read On...

Like most successful fascists, they are disdainful of the practical conventions of their contemporaries. Among their many laptops and electronics, the pair’s only traditional instruments are charity-shop kids’ toys with circuits bent, broken and wired through distortion pedals. Vocals, when they appear, are distorted beyond recognition. Though Ben lists only “the loud and the free” as an influence, they are clearly caught somewhere between My Bloody Valentine and Sunn O))). Fuck Buttons sound like God blowing his nose in slow motion.

What sets Fuck Buttons apart is an ability to express this sweeping abrasion as euphoria, not dread. The recent single “Bright Tomorrow” starts with a steady sheet-metal of feedback, then opens a slowly yawning chasm. A melody is eventually revealed, a simple battered nursery rhyme that repeats throughout. “There’s definitely an emotional element to it,” says Andy. “An idealism.”

This idealism is amplified beyond belief through a live sound system. On stage, facing each other over a table messy with gadgetry, the two perform more by telepathy than eye contact, creating a deafening noise that resonates with captured, looped screams. It’s simultaneously uplifting and chaotic, a bizarre half-gig, half-club atmosphere that leaves the audience torn between dancing and covering their ears. As Ben says, they play “as loud as it’ll go.”

Having quit their day jobs and signed to ATP Recordings, the boys’ 2008 is looking increasingly bright. Their debut LP, Street Horrrsing, is out this month. Produced by members of Part Chimp and Mogwai, it is sure to be as loud as it is weird.

Street Horrrsing is out February 11 on ATP.
www.myspace.com/fuckbuttons

By Tom King Written for the lovely people at Tank Magazine...
Forza Tank.

Labels: interview, music

19.12.07

Let's Raise The...er...An Article About Steak Mtn

‘Steak Mtn’ is the brainchild of New York based illustrator Christopher Norris. Within the context of this twisted moniker Norris has set about creating some truly unique and amazing work that’s never ceased to impress us. Originally from Florida, Norris flew the coup (and his old band Combatwoundedveteran) a few years back to start a new studio in the city. We snagged an interview with the mysterious gent to see how this sea change had affected him and find out what’s hiding in those Mtns.

Read on...

Hello, We’re from a place called the UK, hope you can find us on a map, you ever been?

Yes, I actually have been….once. Yeah, once, I was there about 6 years ago on a small vacation with friends. Last year I was suppose to return for my solo show TEENAGE SWAP MEAT at the Best Gallery, but mountainous complications surrounding the space, my ability to produce & the fascism of time basically handicapped me and us from making it all happen in full bloom. Bummer.

You used to sing in a band. Awesome, give us your most earth shattering lyric.

Really? I mean…alright…..well this is from the (terrible) Combatwoundedveteran song 15 MINUTES ON A FORKLIFT and actually might be the last lyrics I wrote ever…and that was…..7 years ago, so I suppose this might be as good of an example as any other tragically stunted punk rock lyric I could quote for you : “Constructing drag strip coffins for unravel civilians. Whirling around, acting handless, beating on skulls for abbreviation. We are translated from the monaural sounds and turn on in sparks, to build our own lightning and punctuate the old plastic way. Complaining heads are shorting out, spilling vomit and stopping reproduction naked fumbling in the dark, painted silver for reflection. We are translated into pixels, digitized for champion knitters. Fawning fucking idiots over the monaural sound. You got your finger in the gushing hole of the bad years, it's getting everywhere and you're painting pictures with the blood. Gross.”

It seems like life for artists in the states is so much better compared to the rest of the world, there’s much more of a thriving, interconnecting and original community who all seem much more well-equipped. Is the grass really greener?

If this was 1994 & the world felt way larger than it actually feels in 2007, I might agree with you. But with the internet now firmly informing almost everything every mom, grocery clerk and artist does, it is harder to accept that train of thought as reality. Meaning, location doesn’t necessarily have the weight as much in these high technology days, you could be Damien Hirst from Lyman, Nebraska, just finished “For The Love of God”, took some digital photos, email blasted every gallery, culture blog and art news satellite that was locatable on the internet and make a million friends, get famous and trudge forward into being a total island unto yourself. It is not so much about just having the ability to create anymore, it is about how much you footwork you are willing to put into getting your mission completed : you have to know how to really harness the arms and legs of “the future” to create or become a part of a community, get your art out there & make the name for yourself that you think you deserve.

So, most of your heroes listed on your myspace come from a cinema or fine art background but the majority of your work is for musicians. How did you find yourself turning to the music arena?

Well, when I was young, punk and hungry to make something of myself & my drawings, I began by looking directly at my inspirations & idols to see how they “made it” (or at least how I perceived and/or if they even made it), guys like Pushead, Gary Panter and Raymond Pettibon used music as their ground zero to getting themselves in a successful position with their art (their actual mindsets in this statement is pure speculation, but the trajectory of their careers is public knowledge, so obviously that was what I was looking at). I thought that if I could position myself working with bands and record labels, that that would eventually translate in me being able to go past the ghetto of band work and into strictly doing my own thing. Essentially I have been looking for my Metallica forever.

What was wrong with Florida?

Nothing at all. Florida is a pretty interesting & odd place if you celebrate the fact that it is America’s human dumpster : a unconsciously organic, fleshed out & greyed over patchwork of high and lows in personality, interaction & function. It is not a bad place to call home or headquarters, that is if you like sweating 16 months out of the year, which I don’t at all, so I moved to New York which is ACTUALLY a terrible horrible stupid place filled with absolute punishers, dinks and goofs. It is the negative to Florida’s relative positive.

Where do most of your clients come from? (don’t tell me! ‘MySpace’)

Well, I do a lot of foot work & cold calling of people/bands/organizations I am either artistically interested in or think may further my standing in being able to make Steak Mtn. all this-island-earth and shit. But, recently a lot of my clients or conspirators have come to me because of Steak Mtn.’s work with Against Me! So no, not Myspace….I actually have not netted any jobs from Myspace at all, that is more of a peer to peer networking thing for me, an ability to happen on interesting artists, hear terrible bands and send tons of fan mail.

What’s on your boombox/ipod/decks/mind-ophone right now?

- Girl Group Sounds Lost And Found (One Kiss Can Lead To Another) Boxset
- Ennio Morricone
- any Paysage D’Hiver I can get my hands on.
- any Pocahaunted I can get my hands on.
- Wooden Shjips S/T
- Goatmoon “Death Before Dishonour”
- Bone Awl “Meaningless Leaning Mess”
- The Films of Jean Rollin Compilation
- Them “The Story of Them”
- Black Dice “Load Blown”
- Against Me! New Wave”
- Bob Dylan “Desire”
- Health S/T
Do you mange to make a living from your art or are you still dancing at that club?

Still dancing at the club for sure. However, in the next year, I should be able to retire from night sweating, pole climbing and dust selling, essentially fulfilling my prophecy of going ankle deep on this art garbage.

What’s next? Where can we get our next Steak Mtn facefull?

Lots? I am finishing up a huge Against Me! t-shirt project, which was doing a shirt design for every song on their recently released “New Wave” record, I am on the last design as we speak. Going into 2008, I will be still working with them a lot because they are about to have that banner year (including working on a video for their song “The Ocean”); I have a solo show (called THE MOST EXPLOSIVE PICTURE EVER!) in Chicago on April 4th at the Threadless Store which will coincide with a shirt I designed for their Threadless Select line; I am hopefully going to be working with the band Pocahaunted on some of their stuff; I am doing the next Fake Problems LP; a new Combatwoundedveteran discography of out of print crap called “Farewell Gaylords” is coming out; a few Steak Mtn. shirts will eventually be available through No Idea Records including the upcoming “YAY! GOD!” shirt; I am working on doing an Alphabet book; I am doing a film related illustration zine with Mark McCoy; I am going to work on a clip art magazine with CSDIV; a shirt for Ryan Russell Photography and hopefully HOPEFULLY I will have some more interesting gallery shows to work towards (hint hint hint hint hint artworld hint hint hint). Now, it is really the crack of dawn on most of these projects/stuff, so none of it may happen or all of it might explode, so don’t hold me completely to any of those creative promises.

www.steakmtn.com
www.myspace.com/steakmtn
www.steakmtn.blogspot.com
www.theliquorice.blogspot.com

Labels: art, interview

18.12.07

Raiders Of The Lost ARC

Remember the ill-fated ‘New Cross scene’ of a few years back kids? Yeah, I know - the underground became the overground and whatever there once was fizzled out in weeks – but it was probably the first time music fans were drawn, both physically and mentally, to New Cross.

Angular Recording Corporation, a label run by two Goldsmiths students, was at the centre of all that. At a time when the area wasn’t at all recognized for music they threw club nights and released compilations of local bands. As a result they are now renowned as the first label to release the then unknown Klaxons, Bloc Party and Art Brut.

It has since expanded to become a hugely influential full time label and is now home to the outstanding These New Puritans, the Violets, and strangely - as each event in the Angular world is given a catalogue number - numerous ordnance survey trig points, websites, an office and a Townace van.

No Pain In Pop met up with one-half of the ARC, summertime Klaxons bassist, and “official inventor of nu-rave” Joe Daniel to discuss the label, the future and how to make moolah from music…

Read on...

Why did you start Angular? Any idea it would become your full-time job?

Well, we just wanted to release something so we could go in Rough Trade and say “we made that”. We had no idea what we were doing, we just read ‘45′ by Bill Drummond and thought it would be a fun thing to do. We liked music a lot and that’s all the experience you need. We wanted to put out bands we loved as a whim, not a business decision. I suppose it was because we think that artists who aspire to be signed to a major label have just bought into a huge scam, and they end up working in a worse relationship than they would have got working down the pub. As long as running Angular continues to be the opposite of work I think we’ll carry on…

How did you make money - both as a student, and for the label?

The best things were those adverts around college for medical tests- a tenner for 15 minutes work! I worked in a call centre for a while and had a job moving old instruments. Once moved a left handed piano- the inventor said he just woke up one day and had this brilliant idea to make a piano but reverse the keys! The money for the label came from a grant from the local council, which is why we originally put out mostly local bands. We put their logo on our first release in exchange for two grand.

Would you have started Angular without coming to Goldsmiths?

Probably not. I mean the fact you only have four hours work in your last year means you can do things outside your degree, which is probably more important than actually doing your degree. But I don’t think it’s as liberal as it thinks it is- we weren’t allowed to do nights at the Union and they didn’t offer practice spaces for bands- but it does defiantly create the framework for you to do things.

Is there something that unites everything done under the label- an Angular ethos?

Yeah defiantly, but I can’t put my finger on it. I guess it’s not wanting to be involved in things that everyone else thinks is cool. We have and have always had a very disdainful attitude towards everything considered fashionable or popular.

Any advice for students looking to start their record label?

Well it’s an ailing industry now, so you’re unlikely to make any money. But if music is the only thing you want to do don’t let it worry you. So go for it, young guns!

What does the future hold for Angular then?

I don’t really think about the future that much, though I’ve just recently had an amazing idea. I can’t talk about it at all though, it will only be revealed when it happens. That’s gonna take up a lot of the future. Aside from the music there’s gonna be a commemorative map as the 50th catalogue number - a map of the UK linking everything we’ve done. And we’re talking now about releasing a stationary set. It’ll be the second ARC set- once we made a one off geometry set and angularised it with our logo and raffled it off as a prize at a gig. It’s probably worth a bit now..

Labels: interview, music

27.11.07

Semifinalism

With a string of new shows and a second album looming Semifinalists are back after a disappearing act that left us wondering whether they’d given up the ghost. Their first album became nothing short of a soundtrack to our lives and to play it now brings us floods of fond memories. We managed to get their attention long enough to delve into their world and try to pick apart what makes them tick. Can their new album of 80s pop-twinged ‘love songs’ follow in the shoes of their anthemic debut?

Be there No Pain In Pop: You've been gone for a while working on the second album. How do you feel the first album was received? Do you feel it achieved, both critically and artistically, what you wanted?

Ferry: Artistically it was everything that I could’ve done at the time, and with Chris and Adriana in the brew I felt that I was involved in something that was beyond what I could even imagine achieving. I remember it being received well critically. I don’t think it’s a factor that we dwell upon for too long. Feels nice though.

Adriana: It’s always a surprise when you put something you’ve made out there for people to take in and react to. I think because this was the first band I was in, I had no expectations. I was much more enthralled at the collaboration within the band, understanding a language we were creating as we went along making the first record. Artistically it was a foundation for us, not from which to adhere, but one from which to grow.

NPIP: How has the band evolved during this time? F: We always aim to try out new things, explore new grounds, and between us we listen to a whole bunch of different stuff. So the natural reaction was to move into something new and see where we stand, how we respond to it. To me it sounds harder and tighter, darker.

Chris: For me the concept was to put the band in a new, unfamiliar aesthetic territory and see if we could find our way home. Hopefully that process provokes certain questions which will be answered during the making of the next record.

A: We were still in school when we made the first record, so I think since graduating and leaving that space, we’ve spent a lot more time living in the real world frame of mind. Personally, a lot has happened since the first record, a lot which has pushed us to constantly take stock of where we are and where we’re going, logistically and artistically.

NPIP: The music industry has changed a lot over the last 2 years what with Myspace and downloads in the charts. Where do Semifinalists now stand with regards to these changes?

F: Myspace, just like anything else, could be the best or worst medium for putting your music out there. It definitely gives us a direct channel to people who want to listen to our stuff, something that the industry is always slow to adapt to. But sometimes the music becomes so instant it’s almost over before the song ends. A part of me misses the culture of exploring an album, which is hardly the focal point in today’s industry. Sounds cliché but I don’t know much about the charts.

C: Myspace may have changed the music industry in the way it conceives a marketing strategy, but from our standpoint it doesn't change anything essential about music.

A: Music has always been one of the most easily accessible art forms. But now it just feels like music, along with so many other things, is literally just a click away from you. I totally appreciate Myspace in terms of finding out about bands and stuff, but I still haven’t personally downloaded a song yet, it’s true. There is something so special about physically searching for music; going through CD and record bins, looking for new things, old things, bargains. And then the afterglow of enjoying the album these artists have made; the artwork, the lyrics, even reading the ‘special thanks’. That’s all bypassed by this need for an instant gratification these days, which is sad, I think.

NPIP: What do you think of the British music scene right now?

F: I only know people around me and whoever a friend recommends. There’s a whole bunch of good stuff: Macc Mello’s my favourite rapper at the mo, Tapedeck (holla), our friend Tom James makes the most beautiful minimalist guitar folk. There’s Graffiti Island who I just found out about, Lightspeed Champ obviously and Hands on Heads are pretty sick. I don’t know if they are in a scene, and I don’t pay enough attention to comment on anything that I don’t like.

C: I've been in the states all this time, but got hold of Tom James' CD and it is lovely. Lightspeed Champion is doing it awesomely. Naturally.

A: I’m not sure about what the ‘scene’ is right now. I think I’m out of the loop in terms of what’s going on over here in the UK, to be honest. From the little I know, there seems to be a lot more electro stuff happening, some of it’s pretty neat, some of it isn’t.

NPIP: Any contemporaries either within the music world or in the larger world of the arts and pop culture that you rate right now?

F: See above for music. Picasso’s been pretty good. Early Tony Oursler videos are way cool. Humphrey Bogart’s not bad. Oh, right, contemporaries. Matt Damon’s a completely underrated actor, in my view. Dunno who else. Clipse? Al Columbia’s comics, Ted May’s comics (funniest guy alive), Johnny Ryan, the now sadly defunct Fort Thunder collective.

C: At the moment been into John Cassavetes, Yasujirō Ozu and Bruce Springsteen.

A: Lately I’ve been listening to lots of American bands, not sure if it’s because I was back home for a lot of this year. West Coast stuff like Abe Vigoda and Pharmacy, stuff out of Baltimore like Videohippos. And Bark Bark Bark and Telepathy are amazing! This band from Japan, Escalade is so gentle good. I’m really into this magazine that’s out now called ‘Good’. And I’m a big ‘Flight of the Conchords’ fan.

NPIP: Your band has oft been linked to Test-Icicles due to the personal relationships and how the two bands started. Would you care to shed some light on the links there? What do think Of Dev Hynes’ Lightspeed Champion project?

F: I was friends with Tim (Damn Arms) when he was living in London, and Sam knew Tim had just come over from the States all by himself. I knew Rory from a long time ago. Dev was a member of the “Rival Gang” that we always wanted to adopt as our own. Between us (and Chris, Tom, etc, etc) we were just forming/dismantling new bands every week. Matty had just started old skool White Heat at Infinity, and would let us play as any band we wanted.

But yeah, Lightspeed Champion’s awesome. It’s obviously something that’s very dear and personal to Dev, and it stems a lot more from things that he genuinely loves; he’s pouring into it things that are sincere. So yeah, it’s cool.

C: I really love what Dev has done with Lightspeed Champ. It's beautiful, honest song writing.

A: I’m loving Lightspeed Champion’s stuff. The orchestrations are amazing.

NPIP: Your live performances have a cinematic quality to them, not least the projections of images drawn from the natural world. Does the live performance inform the writing process or are they two separate entities that are married after the songs are written? Has the live performance evolved with this new album?

F: I don’t think the projections informed the writing, but the images definitely came from the same place that the songs came from, so they’re related in that way. We’re trying to build a bigger live sound; involve more people, rock out more, and make it even more fun.

C: We were in film school when we worked on the first record, so it came together naturally.

NPIP: How was working on the new album, was it an easy process? The songs on the Myspace have an almost eighties pop feel to them in an expansive simple minds sort of way…

F: Working on the album was an awesome experience. If working on an album could be easy I don’t think the album would sound that good. But it was rewarding, emotional, and fun. We’ve always loved 80’s pop unabashedly. It’s a natural progression (regression?) really, to use that medium as a valid form of expression as opposed to easy novelty value.

C: I had lots of fun working on the record. Yeah, we got together some 80's synth sounds and went for it.

A: Yeah, making this record was a lot less organic than the first one, which I suppose helped the overall aesthetic. I don’t think we ever went into it thinking that we’d have this flavour to this next record, it just came about during recording. The ‘80s pop medium’- it’s so weird to call it that. But I think we did what we always do, which is start from small moments, be it lyrics or a melody that feels true and right, and then build from that.

NPIP: Thematically, what is the new album about?

F: It’s pretty different for everyone, I think. But it’s a lot more direct, a lot more first person narrative, some kind of cruel analysis. I don’t know if there’s a general overriding theme.

C: No lyrical theme was put up at the outset as something to move towards, but the way the record was recorded and the sounds we used created an aesthetic through line.

A: I guess you could say it’s filled with lots of different kinds of ‘love’ songs. Lots of songs also seem to start out in these, almost cinematic, scenes that then get dissected through lyrics and music.

NPIP: Semifinalists have always had a very strong aesthetic. The last album spawned some rather beautiful seven inches. Has your aesthetic developed, and will we have more beautiful seven inches?!

F: I hope the aesthetic has developed. It comes naturally so far, but it also responds to the changes in the music. It’s still a little early to tell how it will all pan out once it’s ready to be put out.

C: Yes, check out our myspace for more evidence.

www.myspace.com/semifinalists

Labels: interview, music