![\"Funeral](\"https:\/\/cardiffstudentmedia.co.uk\/quench\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2013\/10\/tumblr_mbe440wy3h1riqis2o1_500.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWelcome back to Cardiff! Obviously, you’re quite local boys \u00d4\u00c7\u00f4 what does the Cardiff scene mean to you? Is it nice to return? Have you got any other fond memories of Cardiff gigs \u00d4\u00c7\u00f4 whether your own or other bands’? Many of your early shows were dictated by the \u00d4\u00c7\u00ffBetween Order & Model’ EP, which you’re now repressing on vinyl. What sparked the decision to return to that EP? Are any of the band vinyl collectors themselves?<\/b> So like you say, you’re taking the opportunity to go back and play through your first EPs on this tour. As newer members of the band [Gav joined in 2008, Rich in 2010] how do you guys feel about looking back to the early days? Were you fans before you joined? You’ve experimented quite a lot with your sound across the twelve years you’ve been a band. Do you feel you’ve found it now, or will you keep experimenting? Gav: Yeah, it probably stems from everyone being a little bit different in the band. Matt’s musical tastes are probably a lot different to, say, Kris’ musical tastes, and that’s where that kind of friction comes from. We never really tried to do anything, it just sort of happened, so sometimes we wouldn’t get it right. But it feels right at the time. The next album might be a rockabilly fuckin’ thing!<\/p>\n Rich: I’ll dust off the double-bass\u00d4\u00c7\u00aa<\/p>\n Gav: I think the softer material is not really Funeral For A Friend. I think that’s probably something that we will stay away from.<\/p>\n Not particularly fond of Tales Don’t Tell Themselves [2007 album] anymore then? You say you all feel it’s a good album – would you ever like the opportunity to explore that sound under a different moniker?<\/b> One thing I always find interesting about Funeral is your transparency when you’re evolving. With things like The Young & Defenceless [2010 EP, available to online \u00d4\u00c7\u00ffpledgers’] and the Your History Is Mine [2009 \u00d4\u00c7\u00ffgreatest hits’ compilation] you’re always very clear about where you’re going next. Is this something that’s important to you \u00d4\u00c7\u00f4 rather than jumping from album to album, trying to keep a constant flow of evolution in the sound? As well as trying out different sounds, throughout your career you’ve also utilised different label structures. You’ve self-released things in the past, and worked with both independents and majors \u00d4\u00c7\u00f4 is there a method you prefer? What does each offer to a band of your level? Conduit [latest album] has been really well received, with a lot of people saying it’s a step back in the right direction. What is that direction? What’s next for Funeral For A Friend? Check out our review of the show here<\/a>. Big thanks to the band and to Orchard Entertainment’<\/a>s Gregory Barton.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When one talks about the modern Welsh music scene, you’d be hard pressed to avoid mention of Funeral For A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":285,"featured_media":3458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3,557,852,701,851,850,853,854,802,2368],"class_list":["post-3457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-cardiff","tag-cardiff-university","tag-cardiff-university-students-union","tag-featured","tag-ffaf","tag-funeral-for-a-friend","tag-great-hall","tag-great-hall-2","tag-interview","tag-music"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\n<\/b>Gav: Yeah! It’s where we were all brought up, listening to music. I lived in Bridgend and we used to catch the train up, or cram into peoples’ cars and go and watch bands ever since I was allowed \u00d4\u00c7\u00f4 ever since my mam would let me!
\n<\/span>And this venue in particular, I’ve watched a bunch of bands here. I think the first band I watched here was Deftones, when they were doing \u00d4\u00c7\u00ffAround The Fur’ [1997 sophomore album]. So it’s always quite nice and nostalgic.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Rich: Clwb Ifor Bach, I saw Circa Survive in there, which was a fantastic show. Must have been a couple of years ago now. I’m not normally much of a singalong kinda guy, but I sang along with every word and found myself just being lost in it. And that’s not usually like me!<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Gav: It was actually the idea of the guy who mixed it. He brought it to us and was like “I’ve remixed the tracks”, and basically the intention of the record label who released that first release was to re-release it as their final release, cause they’re about to throw in the towel or whatever. So we decided that would be a brilliant idea, and also with this tour we can commemorate it by playing the EP in full, which I don’t think has been done, especially in order, since the band started.<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Gav: I don’t, but Matt [Davies-Kreye, vocals] loves vinyl \u00d4\u00c7\u00f4 you’ll find a plethora of vinyl at his house. I haven’t got the room sadly, but it’s all on the iPod now!<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Gav: It always feels like I was part of it, because Kris [Coombs-Roberts, guitar] and Ryan [Richards, former drummer] are very good friends of mine. Me and Kris grew up playing guitar together, and Ryan was in my old band Hondo Maclean. I remember them showing me the ideas for the songs, when they were first recording and listening back. So I always felt almost part of it \u00d4\u00c7\u00f4 very connected to it. So when we were rehearsing the songs to play them live, it didn’t feel we were trying to replicate anything, you just feel like you’re part of it.<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Rich: It’s hard to say, that.<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Gav: The way Matt and Kris feel about it, and it’s probably the way I feel about it as well listening to it as an outsider is that it doesn’t really sound like a Funeral For A Friend album – it sounds like another band. We all think it’s a really good album, but it definitely didn’t represent what the band had done before that, and with Conduit (the last album) and Welcome Home Armageddon, we’ve tried to take what we think our band’s good at and stick them back in so it’s more similar to the earlier stuff.<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Gav: I think maybe at the time that’s probably what should have happened! [laughs] But yeah, we don’t play any songs at all off it any more.<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Gav: You don’t know where you’re really going to go with things, so people bring ideas and then when something connects it’s like “oh yeah, that’s where we’re going!”, so that’s what happened with the two EPs you mentioned.
\nThe last album, it was High Castles [single, first seen on 2011’s \u00d4\u00c7\u00ffSee You All In Hell’ EP and later featured on 2013’s Conduit] that was the first song we wrote for it, and that set the wheels in motion then of writing a heavier album.<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Gav: We’ve always had complete control over everything, even when the boys were signed to Warner. It wasn’t the case \u00d4\u00c7\u00f4 like some people think \u00d4\u00c7\u00f4 that they tinker with things. We were allowed to do what we wanted to do musically.
\nBut I suppose with an independent, it’s a lot closer. There’s less people working in the company; you know everyone’s face. Whereas in a bigger company, where there’s a lot more people involved, the control of everything else is taken out of your hands.
\nNow, particularly, we’re really happy with how we’re doing things with Distiller Records, because every decision that’s to do with the band, we make it.<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Rich: It’s hard to say really \u00d4\u00c7\u00f4 we’ve just started writing for the new record, but who knows! We’re all about just playing to our strengths, and that’s writing big, catchy songs, that are heavy but have a great sense of melody. That’s what Funeral For A Friend is, and that’s what it should be.<\/p>\n