Music > Interviews
Interview with Funeral for a Friend
13/02/13
People are pouring their relief out over Twitter. At time of writing, ‘Conduit’, the band’s sixth studio album, has been out a mere five days and the plaudits are coming in from every avenue that ought to matter – the musical press – and the avenue that really matters – from the fans. The relief comes in two guises; one, after the Best Of album back in 2009, it was thought the boys might be winding down; and two, in some ways, they already had wound down. But in the subsequent four years, the Welsh rock band have put the hard back into hardcore and regained their appeal that their debut ‘Casually Dressed…’ had put them on the map for. It’s a triumphant Rich we speak to on a cold, snowy morning ahead of their headline UK tour…
How are you doing today Rich? It’s all good; we’re just in the van at the moment, about to go over on a ferry crossing. We’re doing a few dates in Ireland, so –
- Does that mean you’re in the illustrious Holyhead? Yes, Holyhead, we’re on our way to.
That’s where I’m from, so I know of its unique, erm, beauty [LAUGHS] [LAUGHS] Yeah!
So how’s the weather there Rich? I’ve got to do that British thing of asking you about the weather – - It’s snowing here; we’ve had quite a bit of snowfall, to be honest with you. Quite a lot of the things went down, you know, a lot of the roads and the schools and stuff, but it seems to be fizzling out a bit now. We had a tiny snowfall last night, which made the roads slightly treacherous this morning, but we like a bit of drama, so onwards and upwards!
And you were in Japan last week – how was that? Brilliant – we love Japan. We’ve always been received well over there and it’s always a great place to treat ourselves. It was brilliant; we went over to Tokyo to play one show and then came back, so it’s nice not to have jetlag!
Do you guys approach your foreign commitments with the same enthusiasm, this many years in? Oh, very much so; I love travelling and when you go somewhere like that, it’s just so different there that you go and have such a great time, you know. You go there, play for a couple of hours of it, then the rest of it is pretty much the most amazing holiday ever!
Now, it’s an exciting time for you guys – obviously the album comes out next week; is there the same feeling of apprehension, or expectancy when it comes to the 6th studio album? We’re just like really excited and we’re all extremely happy with this album, like every member feels like we’ve done a brilliant job of it, and it’s a tip of the hat towards our early influences, so we’re just really excited to put it out. So far, with all the press we’ve had, people are really buzzing about it, so we’re really stoked and excited and can’t wait to put it out now.
Outline has actually had the pleasure of interviewing you guys before, and we spoke to Matt in 2009, which was just after the release of the Best Of… I think the scary thing for fans is that when a band releases a Best Of, you worry that they’re drawing their music to a close, but you guys seem to have carried on with what seems like renewed enthusiasm since its release – is that fair to say? I think you’re absolutely correct! Yeah, I think a lot of people thought we were gonna finish after the Best Of, but it was more to do with the record label – they were on Atlantic, I think – they wanted to just squeeze a bit more cash out of the band and stuff. It wasn’t something the band particularly wanted to do, but yeah, we’ve definitely got a lot more enthusiasm now.
After the 2009 chapter in the sand, it looked like the band were on to a stable line-up, but then Gareth left and you joined Rich. Can you tell us, from your point of view, what do you think has been at the core of the band, despite the varying line-ups?What’s at the core of the band? I think just a passion for writing good music. That’s what we want to do; we all love music, we all love travelling. Just a passion for writing music, I think that’s it. None of us have ever set out to be megastars, we’ve just been happy playing music and if people love that and want to pay for records and shows, then so be it like, you know. It’s never been about doing anything else than doing what we love.
With Pat joining more recently, it means obviously that you’re not the new boy any more! I know! Or the youngest – bastard! [LAUGHS] Is Pat the youngest, is he? He looks quite young doesn’t he – he’s a fresh faced young lad. He does look quite young, yeah! Was there any kind of initiation? Do you boys do that? Do you have to pass tests – I don’t know – eat anything strange or run round naked somewhere, like a fraternity initiation? No, no strange initiation but he gets a lot of grief; we just mug him off all day! It’s a bit like school really, you know, with the new guy – he gets beat on all day! [LAUGHS] I think you missed a trick there though – I think you could have made him work for his place in the band. Yeah, definitely – we should have thought of something, shouldn’t we?! I think it’s fair to say that since ‘Your History is Mine’, you’ve reclaimed your hardcore origins. You’re certainly not mellowing in your older age, are you?! You write and play with as much verve and energy as you did all those years ago. What’s keeping it fresh? Do you think you newer members are keeping the other boys on their toes? I think it’s definitely played its part in it and the difference now is, with past members as well as us, is that as we’ve aged, and spent a lot of time in the industry, you kind of mature and don’t get caught up in all the bullshit, you do what you’re comfortable doing, and with the art you make. That in turn, we want to make heavy music – it’s what we grew up listening to and what we still listen to, so it comes with being older and comfortable and saying “fuck it – this is what we want to do. Tough shit; if people like it, they like it.”
You released this album and the last, ‘Welcome Home Armageddon’ on Distiller Records – is there something about them that makes you feel at home on their label? I think with Distiller, they’re a great bunch of guys, which is the most amazing thing ‘cause they kind of just let us do what we want to do, like, you know? They’ve been brilliant with every kind of idea or concern we’ve had and let us be who we want to be and run with it, which being in a band, is the position that all bands want to be in, really. Other people would try and change who we are, but they’re great as a label and I think they’ll go on to do bigger and better things. They’re good people and they’re fantastic.
Now, you’re a band who releases full albums – this will be your 6th album, so I’ve been asking everyone and I have to ask you – what do you think of the demise of HMV? I know it’s by no stretch the only record shop out there, but what do you think of it? I think it’s quite sad times really. Obviously I remember being younger and going to record stores and flicking through and finding stuff, but I think it’s just a sign of the times. I think probably, CDs and stuff will die out, but maybe vinyl will carry on and become much more of a collectable thing, but as a music fan you get annoyed if you go in and buy something that you could pick up on Amazon, cheaper and it arrives the next day. When I went to a record store before, I always went with the idea of what I was going to buy anyway. Now, it’s easier to do it online anyway – you can sample it and get it from the comfort of your own home. It was just an inevitable thing that was going to happen. Yeah, I’m a little sad about it, but I’m one of the culprits that buys everything online.
I think I’ll miss the nostalgia of flicking through the racks at an insane pace though, and still being able to spot a gem of a record – - Oh definitely, it was a lot of fun doing that, but I don’t know, I think things move on and you’ve got to move on. As long as people are still buying music, then it’s all good. You watch, in ten years time there’ll be no CDs and it’ll all be vinyl.
Well they do say that vinyl is the only format on the increase, don’t they? Very true, yeah!
Being a Welsh girl myself, I know how insular Wales can be, but there’s been a brilliant history of – quite broadly speaking – Welsh hard rock bands come out of Wales. What do you think is in the water there? Erm… boredom? I think it’s that – with the exclusion of Cardiff, although a lot of good bands come out of Cardiff as well – in Wales there’s that small town mentality really; people are born there, they die there and they don’t do anything with their lives, really. But there’s a lot of youth there that are stuck and the join bands either just to do something, or to break from the norm; boredom and that kind of mentality spurs on great music. It’s like an outlet for people. I don’t know, maybe us Welsh people are just good at making music!
I think that’s definitely true, yeah! Now you guys have always brought a really lively show to Norwich – from our previous interview we know it has been the base for the best comeback from Matt; when someone shouted “Your mother sucks cocks in hell”, he shouted back “Well at least yours is there to keep her company”. You’ve also had karaoke on stage in Norwich with one of the fans. Is there no such thing as an ‘average’ gig for you guys? We’re definitely one of those bands who goes in to each show thinking of it as an individual show; we rehearse a set, obviously, and songs, but there’s no particular point where Matt speaks, or the things he says, we just go and feed off the crowd and see what happens, like, you know? There’s been some crazy things at our shows and that’s what keeps it fresh for us, I mean, we’ve had human jenga! That was a good laugh!
How do you do that? Is it three people on three people? Yep, you just keep going until you reach the ceiling?
Who pulls someone out by the feet though?! Nah, we just leave them to their own devices!
I was having a look at HateFace, Matt’s photo blog and what was good to see and read about is that Matt’s obviously still voraciously discovering and listening to new music. A lot of bands I speak to, especially like 10 years down the line like you guys, are kind of a bit sick of music. Is it the same for you Rich? Do you still eat up music now? Yeah, yeah, I still love listening to new music and like you mentioned, I’ve taken a lot of new bands from Matt, actually, from stuff he’s picked up, so yeah, we love listening to music. I think last year and this year as well have been massive years for like heavy music and hardcore music, because there have been so many good bands releasing records, and I think heavy music is on the up again, thanks to some really good new bands.
Now, as we said, you keep every gig lively, but what makes the perfect audience for you? Craziness. If you want to dance, dance around; if you want to sing, sing! If you want to get up on stage, get up on stage! It’s a free for all; we just want you guys to have as much fun as you want. Just go for it!
Emma Garwood
Funeral for a Friend come to The Waterfront on February 9th. For tickets, go to www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk. Read the uncut version online at Outlineonline.co.uk