.jpg)
When Gigwise meets Funeral For A Friend at Manchester Academy, they are in high spirits. Their new album is done and dusted and is presently sat on the studio mixing decks. Amongst the protruding mass of healthy ‘rider’ food, and gentle strumming of other bands’ guitars backstage, we chat to lead singer Matt Davies and bassist Gareth Davies about their new forthcoming album, called ‘Memory and Humanity’.
According to the band’s rather vague analogy, the album holds more than 5 songs but less than twenty. It features previously released tracks such as ‘Waterfront Dance Club’ and ‘Beneath the Burning Tree’ as well as new track ‘Can’t See the Forrest For the Wolves’. We comment on how the titles are very ‘Casually Dressed’ but Matt tells us, “They are very Memory and Humanity titles actually. Or very Funeral For A Friend.” Gareth adds, “Everyone keeps asking us to go back to ‘Casually Dressed’; why would we want to take a step back?” We say there’s a rumour doing the rounds that the new album is a return to the sound as exemplified on ‘Casually Dressed’. Matt says “It’s more of a nod than a digression; it’s more about the energy and excitement of making the first record again that we’ve kind of tapped into. There’s rifts, there’s quieter moments.” Gareth adds, “It’s kind of like a best of Funeral For a Friend without anyone hearing the songs before.”
FFAF had a very strange start to their careers. After producing two successful EPs they found themselves in a position where they were on the front cover of Kerrang magazine, with no full length to call their own (they were in fact the first band in Kerrang’s history to be on the front cover with no album released). Matt laughs, “Imagine coming from South Wales and the first cover you ever have your loaf (on the front cover) with your mouth wide open. It was the weirdest thing ever. Most bands have ten years to write their first record, we had six weeks.”
Gareth adds, “I am grateful for what that record did for us but I find it difficult to listen back to it, without thinking of all the pressure and shit we were under during that period. That record felt really rushed. Because the hype was building so quickly, we had to maintain it and get the record out as soon as possible. It was a pressure we put ourselves under. We sat there with management and thought, we have to get this record out as soon as we can. We had to write at least six fresh songs in six weeks.” We speak to the band about the scene they came in on, when they first kicked off, “To an extent, we’ve always needed our fanbase and they’ve always been amazingly faithful to us,” says Gareth, “We need them now more than ever.”
FFAF are taking the same route as many other bands such as Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead and have decided to self-release their album, vehemently chopping Atlantic’s binding strings once and for all. We ask them why they have made this choice. “The state of the music industry at the moment is shocking.” Gareth says, “People at major labels are starting to just really not care about the music. It’s purely figures.” We talk about Atlantic who (IOHO) are one of the better major labels but FFAF are not impressed. “It’s not even just Atlantic. It’s just major labels across the board have signed so much shit to throw against the wall just to see if it sticks and then they wonder where all this money is being spent," says Gareth, "We thought we would be in a much better position if we were able to retain copyright and have complete control over our music.”
Matt adds, “I think we got really fed up with arguing stupid points of stupid things with people who had no idea of what music is really about. For example, one person at our record label came into our dressing room one day, after the Brixton Academy show, and said ‘Oh ‘Recovery’ sounded excellent tonight’ and we hadn’t even played it. We got so frustrated and it came to a head in the middle of writing ‘Tales’. The A&R dept from Atlantic were hounding us, and literally told me that my lyrics were too intelligent. They said, ‘We really like the chorus but the lyrics are just too intelligent; they’re not going to connect with people’. I felt personally offended by this.” Gareth chips in, “Well you felt personally offended but the rest of us were standing there thinking, ‘What do these people are record labels think about fans these days? They want it spoon fed to them so they don’t have to think anymore?’ Fuck off! To be honest, we thank Atlantic for the opportunity they gave us but we went as far as we could with it.”
The band had a three album deal with Atlantic with an option on 4, 5 and 6. The boys never intended to be on a major label and were signed to Infectious, who were then bought out by East West who were then bought out by Atlantic. “Before we knew it we were on a major,” says Gareth. “They wanted us to do a fourth album and we said, ‘No thank you’. All major labels are trying to claw back revenue from bands’ live and bands’ merchandise. That’s what keeps us alive on tour. So if we have people taking that kind of money away from us, we can’t play shows. If we can’t play shows, what’s the point?” Matt says, “Everyone thinks you sell 100,000 copies of a record and you’re a millionaire. You’ve got to be out of your fucking mind! Records become more like a promotional tool. Being in the media for 6 years, we’ve learned a lot; we’ve worked with different producers on our albums as well so we were very comfortable setting up our own label and doing it ourselves.”
We ask how their label actually works. FFAF’s self-owned label is called ‘Join Us’ and according to Music Week, £400,000 worth of funding has been put up by Ingenious Music. “We have five part owners in Funeral For A Friend, and we are signed to a record label that we are all five part owners in,” says Matt, “We as Join Us Records could not give Funeral For A Friend the best record deal in the world because Ingenious obviously want to see their return. As investors, Ingenious don’t have a say in our creative output so I can write the most ridiculously super intelligent lyrics I have ever written in my life! We’re hoping that more bands are going to follow suit now that the flood gates are open.”
The band have also taken the route of NOT getting a named ("celebrity") producer on board for the new record and have decided to keep the production of the new record ‘organic’, calling in the aid of long-term friend, Ramesh, who incidentally just produced the Kids in Glass Houses record. Gareth says, “We’ve known him for a long time. We kind of approached him about doing it as he’s mixed some stuff for us before, and he’s done such a good job. He knows his shit.” The album was recorded in Cardiff, which both Gareth and Matt say was a nice little drive from home. “It was a very easy process,” says Matt.
‘Memory and Humanity’ will be out in “Rock-tober time” which according to Matt “is around the time of my birthday”. It’s going to be released, "on an anniversary of a very big occasion", which is five years to the day of the release of 'Casually Dressed' (13th October 2008). A headlining tour will follow, with support from Cancer Bats and In Case of Fire.
