Funeral For A Friend

It’s difficult to believe that it’s already been around seven years since Funeral For a Friend burst onto the unsuspecting UK music scene, but four albums, a string of EPs and countless shows later, the welsh five-piece release new retrospective collection ‘Your History is Mine: 2002-2009.’ We caught up with Matt and Kris on an uncharacteristically blustery and wet day in Brighton recently to see how it’s going in the FFAF camp. 

Hey, thanks for your time. How have you found the three shows of the tour so far? You seem to be playing some slightly less typical towns and venues this time around... looking forward to the shows to come? 

Kris Coombs-Roberts (guitar): Yeah I’d say so, the first three shows have been pretty good. Plymouth especially, we hadn’t played in seven years, so it was nice to be back there playing. A lot of the venues on this tour are quite intimate which is kind of nice, to get into people’s faces. 

Matthew Davies-Kreye (Vocals): The temperature can sometimes be a bit... aggressive towards us, Plymouth was ridiculously hot. And also, I think over the years we’ve done the kind of usual tours that we do, more the common towns and cities, so we tend to play a few more obscure places. We haven’t played here for a good many years, it’s good to be back on familiar ground with this record. 

Yeah, you’ve brought out an impressive range of bands on this tour, with Telegraphs and Save Your Breath playing tonight and a few more nights, and The Xcerts and Spycatcher playing a number of dates later in the tour. Have you had chance to check out the support acts so far? 

Matthew: Yeah man, Spycatcher we’ve been a fan of for a few months since we heard we first heard their five track EP, while Telegraphs and Xcerts we know through their MySpace’s, and their records also. We try to make a good effort in bringing out UK bands that rival the talent that US bands have. Save Your Breath are from our neck of the woods and we’ve had the privilege of playing with those guys before. I just think that for us as a band the opportunity to show British talent that shows that this country has to offer with these bands, it’s really important. I think it’s a really important move and a really important stance because I don’t think that many bands in our position take advantage of that really. I think we’ve always been a fan of showcasing homegrown talent, so... 

Having recently released ‘Your History is Mine: 2002-2009,’ would you say that the setlists for this tour will reflect the tracks that feature on the collection, like an overview of your career so far? Can we expect to see any of the new tracks that feature on it? 

Kris: Actually we put a voting system up on our Twitter was it? All of our social networking sites I think, so the set that we’re playing is like the top fifteen songs that people voted for, as opposed to sitting down as a group and saying ‘what are our best songs’ we asked people to vote. 

Matthew: It’s kind of a nice change of pace for us, and if people don’t like them then they’ve only got themselves to blame (laughs.) It’s a wide range of things really, and it reflects a lot of the songs that we’ve been playing in the set over the last couple of years anyway, with the exception of a couple of songs; plus we’re playing all four of the tracks that we recorded for the best of, so it’s a great, kind of wide ranging setlist, that reflects pretty much what we’re good at really. 

What would you say prompted you to release an ostensible greatest hits album at this point in your career? 

Matthew: Well I think the thing that prompted us to release one was the fact that our old label were going to do it (laughs) and whether we wanted to be involved I think, or not. But we chose to kind of step up and be actively involved. With everything that has our name on it we’d rather have input, and a lot of labels have released posthumous best ofs without their involvement, and sometimes they make a pig’s ear of it, so we wanted to make sure that that wasn’t the case with this, by adding lots of added content and extra material. Originally we were only going to put one or two new songs on it, but we were like ‘fuck it’ we’ll put four new tracks on it as well, you know. 

Kris: The thing is as well that we’ve progressed and our music has changed stylistically, so I think that the collection gives a good insight into the journey from where we were to where we are now. Matthew: It’s a strong jumping on point if anybody is familiar with the band, but haven’t necessarily heard us and might be a bit daunted by all the records that they could pick up, it’s a great place to start I think. 

Yeah, I did wonder if Atlantic’s involvement pushed it... 

Matthew: We were told of the idea that they were planning on releasing it and like I said we’d rather make it the best possible release that we could with our involvement. We chose all the artwork, the tracklisting was all our choices and all the tracklisting for the bonus content was totally of run by us really, so we wanted to make it worthwhile and cost-effective. We didn’t want to make our fans feel like they were being asked to buy something without there being any reason for it. 

The new tracks featured on the album are the first to be released since Gavin (Burrough) joined the band on bass... What would you say he brings to the table in terms of songwriting input and to the band in general? 

Kris: He’s a really good guitarist for one...

Matthew: That’s what he kind of is by trade.

Kris: Which makes it interesting having four of us who play guitar in the band, it means with ideas, they become quite varied as a result, do you know what I mean? Also the fact that he’s got a great singing voice, which in all fairness to G (Gareth Davies, former bass player) he wasn’t really comfortable singing. With Gav it’s nice to have someone who’s confident singing, to step up and do it. He brings a lot.

Matthew: It’s nice for me, because when I’m writing the vocal ideas and things, and harmonies, counter vocals and such, it’s nice to have somebody that can contribute to that, and pull off the ideas as well. Like Kris was Saying, Gav has that tone of voice that is very... I don’t know, it fits really well with the mix of things. Like with Gareth, unfortunately he wasn’t the strongest, and certain songs we didn’t play the full run of vocal options because we just couldn’t do them, but with Gavin we’re attempting things now...

Kris: It’s the first time that anything we’ve recorded really, apart from a couple of tracks on ‘Hours’ that G sang on, that we’ve done something where all of the harmonies are done by someone other than Matt. We can reproduce what we do live now. 

Matthew: He’s also very tall.

Kris: He’s got a hideous fashion sense.

Matthew: A hideous fashion sense and he likes to gurn at the fans (laughs.) 

(laughs) Nice. Considering the fact that you’ve released four studio albums along with a few EPs so far in your career, how did you find the process of selecting tracks for the new collection? Did you have a particular method in mind for picking out songs or was it a more natural, instinctive process? 

Matthew: I think that we just individually, when we were at home, sat down and put a list of the songs that we felt reflected us over the years; and by general coincidence we all relatively picked the same tracklisting which is kind of interesting (laughs.) We worked on the basis that we wanted it to be chronological; we wanted it to start off where we started and end up where we are now. A lot of people have said that it’s the singles, but I think that over the years, we chose the singles because they were the best of those records, they stand out the most, so it was relatively easy and painless to pick the tracks for the record. There were no real difficulties with them or any kind of fighting (laughs) and it was cool in the fact that all the four new songs went on there, so it’s awesome. 

When compiling material for the collection were there any surprises thrown up along the way, tracks that you used to love... there’s the rarities disk as well, so did you dig anything out of the vaults that surprised you? 

Kris: I think that the whole idea with the greatest hits initially was that we wanted to make it a three CD format, so we’d have the songs from the records, which if you look at them were mainly the singles, with a couple of tracks added... apart from Monsters. But anyway, most of the singles that we’d released were on the first CD, the second CD was mainly B-sides, and the third one was meant to be all the home recording type stuff, the alternate versions. For some reason, I’m not sure what it was, it became a logistical nightmare do actually do a three CD set, like a hard copy. Instead, we’ve done it so that it’s available online, it’s a download only release. 

Matthew: But its good hearing the alternate versions of certain songs, for me it’s just hearing them. When I hear a lot of the older stuff, especially from Casually Dressed, I sound like a twelve year old singing, it’s very weird. (laughs)

Kris: It’s a long time ago now...

Matthew: It is, it’s surprising how after seven years singing... you develop a different sensibility about the way that you perform, and that’s what I’ve noticed about the whole thing; that there has been a change, whether it’s been in songwriting or in our performances, and in my case the way my voice has developed. Or regressed, whatever it’s done, I’m not sure (laughs.) But it’s kind of interesting to see that from our perspective. From my perspective it’s less to do with the songs and more to do with those changes. It’s interesting to see all those different vocal takes, different lyrics in there... You can tell the kind of bands that we were influenced by at the time, certainly I can in some of the songs, there’s quite a few little, not embarrassing moments, but learning curves, in there, so it’s cool. We’re not ashamed of anything that we’ve recorded in any regard, you know, so we wanted to give our fans a look at the other side of the coin, what we live with, so that they feel a part of the whole deal. 

So would you say that you approach songwriting in a different manner now to when you wrote that old material, say, in a conscious way, or is it something that has just developed...? 

Matthew: Um, Probably the one factor that’s influenced our writing more or less is the point of having to write a record. Before, when we first started we didn’t really have to write, we just wrote and then recorded what we were doing so that we could listen back and be like, ‘oh this is cool.’ If you make a career out of doing music, it’s a necessity, you have to do it; you give yourself a timeframe and all of a sudden you have to work within certain confines. When we started we didn’t have those confines, we were free to write whatever the hell we wanted whenever we wanted to, and it’s a different kind of vibe to get your head in initially. I think we’ve managed reasonably well to work within those kinds of deadlines. 

Kris: Yeah I think that if anything now we’ve gone back more to how we used to write, in the sense that before, when we first started, we’d go out to Darren’s garage and knock out an idea, and people would come in one at a time and do what they wanted to do... then we’d get together and listen to the song, then pull it apart and put it back together. We went from doing that to writing in rehearsal rooms which was a completely different experience altogether. So now we’ve figured that rather than waste a shit-tonne of money going into a professional rehearsal space and trying to write songs, it’s just, if you’ve got an idea, call the person that’s nearest to you, pop round, knock it down with them and then pass it round. Everyone has a part to play, a little bit to add to it. 

Matthew: I prefer that to be honest. It allows you space to be creative, without having the pressures of having to do it and then add vocals the next day and so on. That’s kind of how we did ‘Memory and Humanity’ to a certain degree, we all got together for weeks on end, worked out the music... and then once that had been done I’d take it home, write something, and then come back and record my vocals the next day. It took us a couple of records to work out that the best way that we work is by giving each other space to come up with the best kind of thing.

Kris: Rather than the production line format.

Matthew: Yeah that’s not conducive to what we do best really.

Kris: Like Matt was saying about... writing to deadlines, sometimes you can feel pushed into things when you have so little time to finish off ideas properly...

Matthew: You settle for things a lot more than you would do if you had the time and space to do it properly you know? I know with me, with lyrics and things like that, there’s probably one or two lines on the last couple of records where I look back and say that I could have done better... I could have definitely done better there if I’d given myself a little more time to work on that a little bit. But at the end of the day, that’s what it is and you’ve got to live with it, to a certain degree. 

Is a follow up to ‘Memory and Humanity’ on the cards for any time in the near future? 

Matthew: Yeah, we’ve been writing since we recorded the four new tracks for the best of. We’re in the studio in January, after we’ve finished the touring for this record, and hopefully we’ll have a record out around June. We’re aiming for June next year in time for the summer to come bouncing around, so. We never really know what’s going to happen; sometimes we tell ourselves that we’ll go on a bit of a break but then we hit on a good creative nerve, and I just think that we’ll go with it as far it’ll take us, and end up with a record, or two records.

Kris: That’s one of those things I suppose, when you want to take a break away from it for a couple of months, but then you realise that music is your passion, and there’s part of you that you draw on to do it regardless anyway, so you can’t really take time off from it. So hopefully like Matt said, next June we’ll have a record. 

Any ideas of how it might shape up stylistically, or... 

Matthew: It’ll be, if not similar, close to the four songs, but maybe with a bit more technicality. It’s hard to say, I’m not really a fan of pigeonholing or putting down in words what our next record’s going to sound like when we’re just kind of touching the surface of the songs. It’ll just be what it’ll be, like all of our records there’s no kind of preconceived idea of what the record will be... They turned out well enough, and hopefully the next record will be the same. 

Rockpulse: Yeah. 

Matthew: Also, there’ll be some Daft Punk on it. (laughs)

Kris: Yeah we’ve got the Idaft application now so there’ll probably be a little bit of that on it... But I think that the one thing that we wanted to get back into those four songs was the sense of urgency for the songs that hasn’t been there for quite a while, on both Tales and Memory, so for me I’d like to keep that kind of element for it. 

Rockpulse: Cool. With all the widespread proclamations at the moment about the ‘death of the music industry’, how can you see yourselves reacting to the changing industry in the future? You have experience of both being on a major label and of a more DIY approach... do you think that you’ll continue with a more DIY approach for the immediate future? 

Kris: Well, to be honest with you, when people say about the music industry being dead, I don’t think that the music industry is dead because people don’t like music...

Matthew: Yeah, People like to complain about it, but they still go out and subscribe to the same old crap. People always say that the industry is fucked up, ‘I’m not going to buy all these records’, but they still buy the records so...

Kris: That’s the point though, my point is that they don’t buy the records; instead of buying the records people are taking the records. 

Matthew: There is that I think but more and more, I think, the idea of the physical album, the idea of physically having something there, is becoming less and less important to a new generation of kids. A lot of people buy stuff from ITunes... I fucking buy stuff from ITunes, I download music from ITunes, and films. It’s all becoming easier to access from your bedroom, you don’t have to go shopping, and you can be more selective, more picky; you can listen to things before you buy them, you can listen to snippets. It’s about trying to utilize those kinds of technologies to the best of its ability, and I don’t think that it’s ‘dead’ as such, I think it’s just going to evolve into something completely different. We don’t want to be seen as dinosaurs, holding onto the last vestiges of the format, stuff like that... which sadly I am, I’m one of those fuckers who still champions the idea of vinyl (laughs.) But you’ve just got to go with it, go with where your audience and the general public are going to want to get your music from.

Kris: It’s one of those weird things I think, the way that the internet has really affected the music industry; like the fact that it’s made it much easier for bands to promote themselves, to be heard, so as a result we’re getting a lot more bands coming through. But then on the other side, other people do take music, and it’s one of those things that if you like a band you buy the music, go to their shows, but if you think that they’re alright...

Matthew: The only reason that I would ever download music illegally would be if somebody’s back catalogue is not available, and somebody puts it up there to be heard. I think that music should be heard, the idea of having music deleted and not made available is a fucking crazy idea. There are lots of bands that I listened to growing up, you just can’t get the records anymore, you can’t get them at all. The only way to listen to them is if somebody’s got it, put it up online. A lot of these bands actually support that, they actually do that, they put their own songs up themselves for download, I know that if we had a couple of albums that had been deleted or something like that we’d be the same, we’d want people to hear them. You don’t want to go and waste them... I think that there are certain reasons why it does work, but generally the price of music is coming down so quickly; it’s just poor ethics for someone to just take it... Some of our records are now available for two pounds ninety nine, three quid for a fucking album.

Kris: There’s a preconceived notion about musicians that if you have a record out then you’re a millionaire, and people are not like that. People struggle when they write music, regardless of whether they’ve got records coming out, and generally the music buying public, the music downloading public, don’t realize that as a result of people downloading... People say that it’s taking from the label, but the way that the label gets it back is by taking it off the band, in the sense that labels are now tying up deals by taking half of a band’s live income, half of a band’s merch income. In order for a band to get their music out through a record label they’ve got to give up other sources of income. So the people who are suffering for it the most are actually musicians, not labels. 

Matthew: It’s how we make a living. Musicians aren’t people who just sit around and write music, we’ve got people around us who depend on what we do, on our livelihood as well; it’s the same as having an income from a job. If you got fired from your job, you were married and had a fucking mortgage, it’s going to affect you in similar ways. It is thievery, and it’s not nice when it’s that blatant. Returning to your question though, (laughs) with the independent aspect, it’s definitely nice to be control of what you’re doing, without having someone barking at you trying to tell you that what you’re doing is too intelligent or something. 

Kris: On the other side of it, sometimes you can work with a label, with people who are so passionate about what you do that they work tirelessly to help you. It’s a bit of a double edged one I suppose. I don’ t think that music will ever die, I just think that the way it’s slowly becoming is that where before being a musician was something that people used to look up to and aspire to be, it’s going to become like an ordinary everyday job. Like ‘what do you?’ ‘I’m a musician.’ ‘Oh ok then.’ 

So regarding the next few years of Funeral For a Friend, are there any particular ideas or ambitions that you’d like to realize? 

Matthew: We’d like to, ah, do an album with Jay Z. (laughs.) I think that for us the ambition for us has always been just to make music, to put records out, keep on touring and doing what we’re doing... And making a difference. People turn into this whole image over substance thing and I think it’s definitely rubbed me the wrong way a little bit, so I think trying to give a bit of substance back to the , you know, aggressive music. 

Kris: The thing that I find quite amusing about the so called ‘emo’ scene, is the fact that apparently, we’re considered to be one of the pioneering bands of the genre, and yet if you look at us, we have nothing related to that, how people dress, behave... It’s become like the new goth I think. 

So can we expect to see you around the UK in the near future? 

Matthew: Well the plan is now, because we’ve done quite a few tours over the last couple of years, to concentrate elsewhere and come back to the UK for the festivals next year, and then maybe do another tour towards the end of the year. Just to give us a bit of time, you know, we don’t have to be in everybody’s faces all the time. I think that it gives us the opportunity then to reflect on what’s been going on with the band, play other places; touring other countries is a lot of fun. But we will be back. 

That’s always good to hear. Finally then, is there any message that you’d like to give to Funeral For a Friend fans who might be reading this? 

Kris: ...Thank you for sticking with us for seven years.

Matthew: Loyalty is really appreciated, and highly regarded because people tend to be quite fickle with their bands, so we’ve got a very dedicated bunch of fans out there who really support what we do, and without them we wouldn’t be in the position that we’re in now; so we’d like to thank them very much for all that. For all the support love and loyalty, and for singing along. It’s awesome.