Funeral for a Friend Interview

**For the record, please state your name and your role in the band.**

My name is Ryan, I play drums and vocals in the band.

**_Welcome Home Armageddon_ – your incredible new album – what has been the reaction since its release?**

Great. Both from press and fans, which I guess is the most important thing. The people that actually come to your show and buy your records, and enable us to do what we do, they like it, and that’s the best thing really. Seeing the reaction to the new songs live has been great as well.

**Have you had fans singing the new songs already?**

Yeah, there’s been quite a lot of people who have. From the first date of the tour, when the record had just been released, people were knowing the words to most of the new songs and really getting into them straight away. That was great for us.

**The album was finished in October, was it frustrating to have to wait until March to see it released?**

A little bit, yeah. It probably would have been more frustrating if it weren’t for that fact that we were filtering out songs slowly, for example, we put a couple of songs on the _Young and Defenceless EP_ and shot the video for the ‘Front Seats to the End of the World’. So it didn’t feel quite so frustrating, it was getting out there, just in its own time.

**You shot the video in Brazil, and it was your first time in South America, how was that?**

It was great actually. It’s always difficult to imagine what places are gonna’ be like when they’re so far away and the reception you may have. We’ve had a lot of dedicated fans from Brazil who’ve kept in contact with us through social networking sights and they’ve been asking us for a long time to go over and play. It was a while in the waiting, but you could really feel our anticipation when we were there.

**With the importance of social networking nowadays, do you check your pages personally or do you have someone to check them for you?**

Yeah [I check them personally]. Probably me more so than anyone else, cos’ I’m always online doing stuff anyway. We’ve always been that type of band, that keeps a close relationship with our fans. I mean, if we don’t care about what fans think, what our fans want, what our fans say, what’s the point? That’s the whole ethos of the band really.

**Rocksound said “Welcome Home Armageddon is an extremely satisfying album, for fans old and new. Ferocious and beautiful – Funeral for a Friend sound more like themselves than they have done in years.” – Do you feel that _Armageddon_ is a return to your old sound?**

It’s more a return to our old thinking, than our old sound, I think. By that I mean, when we did our first record, everything was very new to us. I guess we had that youthful enthusiasm, that sometimes, when you’re on a major label and touring everyday of your life, things start to get, I wouldn’t say boring, but it becomes a little bit more routine. If you’re not careful, that can work its way into your song writing, your music, and just your whole outlook on the touring life. Somewhere along the line, I guess that did creep in there and there’s no real way to avoid that, it just happens.

**So when you guys tour for long periods of time, do you get tired of it?**

Yeah, I think that’s what it was. But when we got to this record after Gav [Burroughs, Guitar] joined the band, we started seeing things through his eyes, everywhere he was going was new, and we started thinking “yeah, this is pretty cool, that we’re here, doing this” again. Obviously when Darran [Smith, ex-guitar] left, and Rich [Boucher, Bass] joined and Gav started playing guitar, it was like what it was before; that wide-eyed wonderment of everything about being in a band.

**With Darran leaving before the new album, how has the new lineup affected the writing process? Has it invigorated the music?**

Yeah, absolutely. It’s had a huge affect. When you write with certain people for so long, I think we got, as the five of us that were _Funeral for a Friend_, with Darran and Gareth[Ellis-Davies, ex-bass] in the band, I think we just got too used to each other. We could predict what each of us was gonna’ do and it became a bit formulaic.

**Did that have any influence on his [Darran Smith’s] decision to leave the band?**

Maybe Darran felt he’d done all that he can do with the band and could see it going in a different direction. Although Gav was playing bass in the band when we start writing this record, when Darran was still in the band, Gav’s naturally a guitarist, and he was putting forth a lot of ideas, and he was quite prolific. I think when Darran saw that, I think he felt, probably quite selflessly, that the band would benefit going in that direction. The stuff that Gav was working on with Kris [Coombs-Roberts, Guitar] or myself was great.

**So it was almost as if Gav was assuming his natural role in the band?**

Yeah, exactly. He wasn’t trying to muscle anyone out. It was just “these are some songs I’ve done” and they were great. Maybe Darran felt it was time to let someone else step into the fold.

**Did you personally have more of an influence on the writing process with this record, with your vocals being a main feature on the new album?**

It’s always been that way for me. It’s always been me, Kris and Matt [Davies-Kreye, Vocals] that have done most of the writing. But a big theme of this record was to give each other a lot of freedom with our individual parts. It would be a lot of someone would record a riff on their laptop, send it off by email, and we’d sent it round. I’ve got my electronic drum kit at home, I’d record some beats, and matt would put some vocals on it. That’s quite different to the past; when we’ve done our past records, for example on ‘This Year’s Most Open Heartbreak’, when it was Matt’s turn to do the vocals, he kinda’ mock did my parts, and I’d say “can you do that bit there”.
This time it was different, it was a case of, for example in ‘Front Row Seats to the End of the World’, he had something he really liked for the chorus, but for the verses he came to me and said “I can’t really think of anything that I’m happy with”, so I came up with something.
I think you get more of my personality in the vocals, a lot people have come up to me and said “your vocals sound quite different on that track”, and I say “well, it’s because I actually wrote them”. **_Laughs_**

**Would you say FFAF has got less heavy as time has progressed? How has this affected the fan base? Do you still see a mix of people at your gigs?**

Yeah I’d say so. I think for a while we [lost the heavier-music fans], but after hearing a few songs off of the new record, it seems to have bought people back into it. That’s fair enough you know. That’s the sound they fell in love with, it would probably be quite arrogant of us to think we can do something else and that they would stick with that. If that’s not what they like and that’s not the type of music they like, then they shouldn’t have to stick with us.

**So it’s finding the balance between what you want and what the fans want?**

Yeah, absolutely. For a time, certainly when we did _Tales_ [_Don’t Tell Themselves_, FFAF’s 3rd Album], it was about not giving people what they want or expect. It was just where we we’re at at the time really. We didn’t really have anything to be frustrated about, but we just thought “we don’t wanna be like that band”, we just wanted to break away I think.

**Do you have a favourite [FFAF] album?**

It’s weird really, because I can be in a certain mood and [_Tales Don’t Tell Themselves_] might be the only record of ours that I want to listen to. If I’m not into listening to something really heavy, I can really enjoy that record. For me, it’s something really different to the rest of our catalogue, and I can enjoy it more when I listen to it by itself. [But my favourite] was always _Hours_ [FFAF’s 2nd studio Album]. When we wrote this record [_Welcome Home Armageddon_], we wanted to take everything we liked about _Hours_ and progress that, and I’d like to think we’ve done that, so it’s the one I most enjoy at the moment.

**What influences FFAF? What bands are you listening to on your IPod at the moment?**

Usually the bands we take on tour to be honest. Which is true in this case with _Rise to Remain_ and _Tiger Please_ on the bill. Two really young and exciting British bands. It’s great to be able to take out such great young British bands on tour, because we had that when we were coming through, you know? We had Iron Maiden take us out on tour and we learnt a lot. Hopefully with taking these younger bands out on tour we can put them in the spotlight and give them the platform to move to the level that they deserve.

**You’ve just returned from South Africa – how was it? You played with _Alkaline Trio_, are you a fan?**

It was incredible. We’re all really big fans of _Alkaline Trio_, so when we found out that they’d be playing the shows with us we we’re stoked. We get on really well with the guys; we’ve toured with them in Australia, and on Warped Tour too. It’s always great to have bands on tour that you’ve grown up being into and have been an influence on you. Although I’m in a band, I’m still a music fan, like anyone else who comes to our show. I’d buy a ticket to see _Alkaline Trio_. I go to a lot of shows; I’m a live music fan.

**The Welsh Rock music scene is one of the best, and FFAF are one of the biggest bands on that scene. Do you find that you have comradery with other Welsh bands – such as _Kids in Glass Houses_ & _Lost Prophets_?**

Certainly. Speaking from our point of view, when _Lostprophets_ came out, maybe not so much the music influencing us, but more the fact that “Oh wow, we know those guys, and they’re on the cover of Kerrang”. They were touring, signing to a record label and we thought “we can do that if we’re good enough”. Once you get that sort of belief, that you really can achieve that, then I think that’s the first step in achieving something.

**You’ve been touring the UK for the last couple of weeks, how has the tour been so far? **

It’s been great. We wanted to do something really extensive, and we wanted to take the record out to as many places as possible and we’ve been to a lot of places we’ve never been before.

**You’ve been playing more intimate shows on this tour – was this is a decision that the band made?**

Yeah, we spoke it through with management, and book agent etc. But we just wanted to go everywhere really. It’s one of the longest UK tours we’ve ever done, if not the longest. It’s been a lot of fun, when you’re going to places you’ve never played before, it’s in your mind that it’s really fresh, and that you’re playing to a crowd that might be seeing you for the first time.

**You’ve got 3 nights left, and then you’re off to Europe – are you excited?**

It should be great. We’ve got a strong bill out there; we’re taking the _Blackout_ and _We Are the Ocean_.

**Do you have any festivals lined up for the summer?**

We’re playing Download Festival on the Saturday, there’s Hub Festival in Liverpool, and Hevy Fest [in Kent].

**How about Reading and Leeds?**

Quite honestly, I don’t know. Certainly we’d like to. It’s a huge festival and one that we’ve played many times. If the offer is forthcoming we’d play. I’d play it every year.

**You played Warwick Summer Party in 2010, did you enjoy it? As a rock band was it strange to play on such an eclectic bill?**

It was quite weird. It was one of those things, just keeping busy during the summer I think. It’s not the ideal place to do shows, but on the other side of the coin you’ve got an opportunity to play to people that would have never checked you out before.

**Thank you very much; do you have any last words for Warwick Uni students?**

Check out the new record and see you guys at the end of the year, hopefully!