Funeral For A Friend

8 August 2007 | 11:19 pm | Staff Writer
Originally Appeared In

Funeral For A Friend earnt themselves a massive, cult like following with shredding guitar parts and screeching vocals… which is why it was such a shock when the Welsh lads released a straight up rock album this year. Bassist Gareth Davies spoke with us about writer’s block and their upcoming Australian tour.

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Funeral For A Friend earnt themselves a massive, cult like following with shredding guitar parts and screeching vocals… which is why it was such a shock when the Welsh lads released a straight up rock album this year.

Bassist Gareth Davies spoke with us about writer’s block and their upcoming Australian tour.

Interview with Gareth Davies (bass)

of “Funeral For A Friend”.

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By Cameron Chambers.




 


Thanks for doing this interview

man. 


Thank you as well. How are you? 


I’m great thank you, and

yourself? 


Very good thanks! 


Where are you guys at the moment? 


We are in Wisconsin in the US

and we are on the Warped Tour. It’s been great but our stretch is

coming to an end. We’re actually finishing up this Friday. 


Is there your first tour in

the US since “Tales Don’t Tell Themselves” was released? 


It’s our first trip on this

record, yeah. 


How’s the crowd been reacting

to the newer songs? 


Great actually! You only have

a 30 minute set on Warped and we don’t get to hit the US very often.

Plus, we’ve been away for nearly 12 months so we’ve been mixing

it up between old and new. 


The new songs have been doing

down great! We’ve been playing the more immediate songs – the biggest

songs first and foremost. MySpace is a wonderful tool so people already

know the songs we posted online! Ha ha


While your new material isn’t

as heavy as your last couple of records, I imagine that songs like

“Into Oblivion” have inspired some fairly huge sing-a-longs in the

live setting? 


Yeah, it’s definitely getting

there. We did a small tour in the UK once the record came out and the

response was great! 


A lot of bands say their third

album is make or break - were you guys feeling the pinch when it came

to writing “Tales Don’t Tell Themselves”? 


Honestly, it didn’t bother us.

We were comfortable in what we were doing. I think we were more excited

as “Funeral For A Friend” than we have been since we did our second

EP. It felt like we’d lost a bit of excitement and that things were

starting to become monotonous. We were in this cycle of record, and

then we’ll tour for 12 months. Ok, let’s record again, and then

tour again, record, tour, ha ha. 


We’d gotten ourselves into that

mindset and when we came back after touring for “Hours” we just

found it really boring. We thought that what we were doing sounded like

everything else that was going on at the time. 


That’s when we decided we were

going to rock the boat and changed it all up. 


Your press kit says that you

guys encountered some pretty heavy writer’s block when it came to

this record. Do you think you put too mush pressure on yourselves to

“out do” previous Funeral albums? 


Well, we wrote 9 songs and were

really disinterested by them. Around the same time, Ryan’s wife gave

birth so we all had a 2 week period that we spent apart. When we came

back, we just said to each other “does anyone feel what we’re doing

right now, let’s put it to a show of hands”. No one was into it

so we started from scratch then and there. 


As soon as Matt brought the concept

forward songs just started pouring out of us. Every day was really exciting!

We would all just go into this room with no windows and sit down as

a group and write these songs that we were really enjoying. 


I don’t know if you guys

like to think of “Tales…” as a concept record, but

I find Matt’s lyrics give the album an overall consistency that was

maybe missing in the past – almost like a story teller I guess? 


Oh, it’s a total concept record.

Everyone’s scared to use the term and we don’t know why! It’s

an absolute concept about a fisherman getting lost at sea and the effect

that is has on his wife and daughter. He then needs to overcome his

fear of the water and needs to find a way of getting back to his family. 


There’s nothing too pretentious

going on – it’s how we feel if something happens at home because

every time we go on tour in the US we’re 5500 miles away from home! 


I can think of one reviewer that

didn’t read the press release properly and he said that Matt sounds

pretentious, that he sounds like he’s telling a story. We were like

“you missed the point, he is telling a story”! Ha ha 


I read that you guys wrote

a 12 minute track and diced it up and turned those 3 songs into the

focal points of the record – that’s a pretty unique approach to

song writing. 


When we wrote those 9 original

songs, we had this crazy idea – this off the cuff notion – that’d

we’d write a 20 minute epic and do it as a release later on. This

song had some really good sections so once Matt brought the concept

in we chopped it into pieces and wrote songs around those pieces. 


That gave us the 3 songs you mentions

and then we went from there. 


Your produced Gil Norton has

done a fantastic job on “Tales…”

– whose idea was it to bring in the 26 piece orchestra? 


It was a combination of things

really. We had the core songs recorded and then we sat down with Gil

and said that we wanted to try more instrumentation. We agreed that

if we used strings we didn’t want to use them in the conventional

way – we wanted to do something a little more interesting – so before

we know it, we had an orchestra! 1 or 2 cellos turned into a 26 piece

symphonic orchestra! Ha ha 


We really pushed the boundaries

of what we can do as a band. The most exciting moments were in the studio

in London and we were just saying that we were here with real musicians.

No drums and guitars bullshit, real musicians for the day! 


These people had never even heard

the music and they sat down and nailed it al in 2 takes! It was just

flawless and once it all came together and we had everything in the

mix it sounded great! 


Your drummer Ryan was quoted

as saying “We realized that we weren’t taking any risks. I wasn’t

prepared to be in a band which wasn’t adding anything”.

“Funeral…” could’ve easily released

“Hours” part II but you guys chose to push yourselves harder than

most bands would dare – that’s pretty rare these days. 


That’s why the music industry

is so fucking stagnant! It’s just regurgitating the same shit over

and again… especially in this scene! 


You’ve got to try and stand

up and get somebody to notice you a bit more. That’s what we aimed

to when we wrote those songs. Everything sounded like everything we

had done before, so it was boring us. If we had released a record that

sounded the same as something we’d already done then we would’ve

been selling ourselves out by playing the safe card. 


We’ve already got those fans

you know? So if we just released something that was half hearted we

knew they’d buy it. It’s more ballsy and gusty to rock the boat

though. 


If people like the new record

then that’s cool. For the other people who don’t like it, thanks

for your support over the years. Bands don’t take these risk anymore…

it’s just such a “flash in the pan” industry. Somebody’s got

to start taking part in trying to become something of a legend – or

at least be remembered for longer than 5 minutes! 


Were you

ever concerned that your fans might not stay on board given your change

in direction, or were you guys just like,

“fuck em”, we need to do this? 


We were never like “fuck em”

because at the end of the day, they got us here. They got us to this

point. But for us to be happy in what were doing it was not an option

to release “Hours Version 2”. For people to say – and I read forums

– that people wish we’d written another “Hours” we’re like

“YOU HAVE THAT RECORD, WHY BUY IT AGAIN”!?!? 


You’ve locked in another

Australian tour this September – what can audiences expect from you

guys this time round? 


Umm, well, you can expect much

of the same, ha ha! A high energy set with a big mixture of old and

new.  


A lot of people seem to be worried

that because “Tales…” is a concept record that we’re only going

to be playing new stuff. All our songs work well together, it’ll be

fine. Just lots of old and new! And we’re bringing our good friends

Bayside (USA) and Dopamine (Wales) along for the ride! 


Has the dynamic of your

live show changed with the introduction of your newer material to the

set? 


It’s definitely got its highs

and lows at this point. We move the moods up and down. It’s still

high energy and a lot of crowd participation – maybe some finger clicks,

ha ha ha. 


As you mentioned, we’re incredibly

lucky for you to be bringing Bayside (USA) with you for this tour

– how did that come about? 


They were a band that we heard

good things about, so we met them and watched them on the Warped Tour.

We just thought that this will be cool to bring them a long! 


They’re great guys and a phenomenal

band with great songs. It’s going to be a great tour! 


Have you toured with Bayside

(USA) before or was that your first

interaction? 


Nope, that was our first interaction

with them. 


You must’ve really hit it

off then? 


Definitely, ha ha. 


It’s going to be a great

tour man, really looking forward to it. 


Thank you very much. 


That’s about it mate, any

parting words? 


Thanks to everyone for all the

continued support and thank you so much for your time today! 


It’s been a pleasure, thanks

for the interview. 


Take care. 


 


I’d like to mention that

Gareth was one of the most polite and genuinely enthusiastic band members

we’ve spoken to here at KYS. Make sure you all check out their upcoming

shows with Bayside!



For more information on Funeral

For A Friend check out