Interview with Funeral For A Friend

Funeral For A Friend . Cologne, Palladium. 11/20/05 . Interviewer: Hendrik w. Matt and Ryan

Punk76: Describe an ordinary day on that tour.
Matt: Usually we get up at 11 in the morning and the go to the next city, where we arrive at about 3 or 4 in the afternoon Then we have time to visit the cities or do things like this, press. The hours before the gig we mainly chill in the bus or eat and drink something...

Punk76: What is more pleaseant for you? Being on a Solo Tour or travelling on a big tour like this?
Matt: Big shows, we are not headlining are nice, also because you get to see some other bands. But then playing headline shows is also cool, because you play certain songs you would not play in normal circumstances.There are things you like about each one really. I am not a big fan of playing for about an hour and a half. I am a big fan of 30 min gigs, I am a bit lazy.

Punk76: What are in your opinion the differences between your first and 2nd Album?
Ryan: It is more collective. It is more an Album than an collection of songs. The songs were all written in one period. The Album was written with highs and lows, different styles of songs. On the last album we had songs that we had written before, songs that we wrote in the studio, getting things specificly, because we had to. So there was a lot more pressure, the first time. This time it was a lot more fun.

Punk76: Why did you choose to reduce the screaming parts in the new songs?
Ryan: I think the music choose to do so, really. We wrote the music and it did not call for it. If it does not call for, it is just in the delude in the parts. I do not think we wrote that kind of record musically to reward that.

Punk76: Don't you think that the songs might sound too smooth on the new LP?
Matt: You see, I think the first record, Casually Dressed and Deep in Conversation sounds not overproduced, but really a kind of clean. That was produced under very technically exact circumstances with the producer we had. This record was actually recorded live in the studio and that a compliment, if you say the sound is clean: We are good at what we do, haha! Becaus that is Us! I think the most time that it took was the vocals. So I think it is not overproduced...
Ryan: ...it is just how we sound...
Matt: ...P.S. if you have seen us before, if you see us now, I think it is a kind of common and sounds very similar.

Punk76: Did you ever thought about making a Live Album?
Matt: Not yet! It is too early.
Ryan: We have a DVD with a live show on it.I think after 2 albums the time is too early,
maybe after another 2 or 3 Albums. Matt: Maybe when we’ve split up some time and come back after a few years and need some extra money, then we’ll do a live album...

Punk76: I read a quote from your guitarist: "We wanted to make an album that people either really love or hate.” What did he meant by this?
Matt: That shoud be Chris, he is famous for that comments. We didn’t want people to stand on the fence with this record, saying: “They are okay. I like them, but they are not my favourite thing.” We wanted to make people sit up and take notice and either fucking really hate Funeral for a Friend or really fall in love with us. We wanted to cut up all the crap.
Ryan: There are too many bands being safe.The whole scene has become very safe and predictable. This is not something we wanted to be involved in. That’s just not how we are as people and as musicans.

Punk76: What meaning has the girl in the bulletproof west on the cover of your new CD.
Matt: It is a represantation of the youth in the society and about its change in the time period from maybe the 1950’s. How kids these days have to protect themselves. They are more in risk of violence from the world around them. Back in the days everything was more golden. You could leave the doors unlocked and did not worry about stuff like this. It is a kind of social, political representation of the way we percieve the worl at this point of time.

Punk76: Do you think it is important to point on those social/political things?
Matt: I think, whatever you write about, or whatever you adress, it is always a part of it, no matter how small it might be, it is always there. It is just about wether you choose on how much sould be allowed. We are a normal political band, we do not stand on boxes ans shouts paroles. Our aim is to write good music and great songs and maybe inform people about how we percieve the world around us, so they can make their own kind of judgements based on this.

Punk76: History, your new Single: What is it about?
Matt: It is a very general theme. Learning from your mistakes and pull through when things are not so good. Rely on the strength of friends and family. It’s our first kind of Popsong, that reflects a really direct, open and universal kind of theme.
Ryan: I think when Matt did the vocals for that, he connected it to us in the band. If you have seen the video, it is a very welsh theme, all about the welsh miners and their life. They are in our families. In that kind everybody connects the lyrics to their personal and own experiences. Its related to the background that we grew up.

Punk76: What relation/connection do you have to the coal mine worker, to whom the video is dedicated to?
Matt: The songs is not directly about them, that kind of element. But it is one of those universal things. I like to think that it can be represented in different forms, different people. And judging based on what my background is: I am from a small mining community, we are all pretty much from mining communities. It is common for the area where we live. And I think with that in mind it worked really well.

Punk76: You just played some Acoustic Sessions. What where they for and why did you choose to do it?
Ryan: I think those Tiscali-Sessions. We did this session at Reading-/Leeds-festival where we played this year.Basically it was something cool for our fans to be able to see us in a much different envoirnment and to get our songs perfomed in a different way. Something we really enjoy doing from time to time. It is interesting to take that approach to present our songs in that way. We definitely would like to something like this in the future and do a full show in that envoirnment, acousticly. We are all really happy about it because, we all like the idea of doing this.

Punk76: Are you getting more relaxed these days?
Matt: It is a challange, individually, to present songs that sound more aggressive and alive, or more laid back.
Ryan: It inspires me to write a song, or maybe a couple of songs on the acoustic guitar.

Punk76: Did you ever thought about recording an Acoustic Song for an Album?
Matt: I think we started to do so. 2 songs on hours which where basically acoustic ideas and we flashed them up with some instrumental things, like “Drive” oder “History”. Maybe we will see if we are going to interpret other songs acousticly.

Punk76: You gave a Song to the "In Honor"-Compilation. A Compilation to beat Cancer. How important is it to support such projects?
Matt: I think awareness of such things is important. As a band you can have influence. You can put such thoughts into kids minds and they will actively become involved. As a band we get involved in cancer research from early on in our career. To be a part of that was a natural kind of step.
Ryan: I think people who are in this scene of music are very active in contributing to those things in society. It is a very productive part of the scene, something we are obviously very proud to be involved in.

Punk76: Typical question: Musical influences?
Matt: So varied! I am a big fan of Hot Water Music, I listen very often to them, one of my favourite bands. A lot of hardcore stuff. But also Bruce Springsteen also Country stuff like Johnny Cash. More politically active bands, Boysetsfire as an example.
Ryan: I listend to that Queen Boxset. 9 CD’s, really good. Dimmu Borgir, they just recorded their 2nd Album which is very well black metal.
Matt: We all like Singer/Songwriter stuff, Hardcore, Punk, Metal...

Punk76: Is it hard to get accepted in the scene as a Band from Wales, UK, against all those American Emo/Hardcore Bands?
Matt: Oh no, I do not feel we are judged for where we are from.
Ryan: I think it is very universal, the whole tour, this whole genre of music is very universal. Everybody has the same thoughts, musically and idealistically. Playing rock music, that is what everybody is here for and that’s what connects this tour, wherever they are from...

Punk76: Do You remember the first time you played together in this constellation?
Matt: Oh, where the hell was that!?
Ryan: I think the monsters, small pub, in the town where Darren and Gareth are from. Darren used to be a DJ in this Pub. So he arranged 2 shows in there, maybe 50 people each night and that was sold out.
Matt: There was nearly a stage, the kids where right in front of your face, you had people grabbing the microphone of and singing along. That were the early, early days. That was sweet!

Punk76:When was the point where all of you decided that the band is going to be your full time job?
Ryan: From that point I think!
Matt: Well, some of us still had a normal life until we really could sign with arecord label, that wanted to release our stuff. We released an EP on an independent label and as soon as we did this Chris quit his job and we had no money. That was a big learning point.
Ryan: I told at my job I was sick.But actually I was touring. Gareth did the same...
Matt: So we signed with the record label in Janurary 2003. That was from when we did this
full time.

Punk76: What´s the best song to play live?
Matt: I like “Roses for the Dead”.
Ryan: It is a song where people jump up and down, people ran to each other, raise their hands and sing.
Matt: It has all the elements that Funeral for a Friend is.

Punk76: I just saw the ticket prices for the forthcoming Robbie Williams shows here in Germany, which are about 70 – 80 € per ticket. What is your opinion about this?
Matt: I hope we will never come to those prices. We have a certain control. These people just want to make tons of money. I hope we are a band that will never come to ticket prices of 80 €. I think we take about 15 € for ticktet is that ok?

Punk76: It is!

Punk76: What do you think about downloading Music, whether its legal services like iTunes or here in Germany musicload oder unlegal ones.
Matt: I buy album on iTunes for myself. It is a good thing if you can’t see a record store. The new technologies go on, you can’t really stop them. And you can even get the Artwork from iTunes as well. When you download stuff illegally you do not get the satisfation of looking through the booklet... I am not angry on people who do this, because some people just do not have the money. But if you steal the music and copy it for friends, you take the money away that we use to come on tour...and that cheats other people and takes away the opportunity to see us. Things like myspace or Purevolume are good opportunities to get a first impression of a band.

Punk76:What do you exspect for the show tonight?
Matt: I exspect to rock like every other show! I expect the people in Cologne to give some fucking hand signals.
Ryan: I expect members from other bands to fuck with us a little bit, because it is the last night of the tour. Last night at the Story of the Year Tour one of them was dressed like an Ninja and started making fucking Ninja-Moves. That was weird!

Punk76: What’s coming up next?
Ryan: Fist the US-Headline Tour.
Matt: Yes, and after coming back we will do an UK Headline Tour. And I think we will came back next year in Spring time and do some German Dates. Before we are going to write new songs for the next record.

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