End and new start for Funeral for a Friend at Caribana

The Welsh rockers, who won over the Caribana crowd, speak to the website.

Funeral for a Friend faced the toughest task of any band at Caribana, filling in at short notice for crowd favourites Sum 41 as the opening act on the main stage on Thursday night. But the Welsh rockers delivered in style. Fresh from winning over the festival crowd, Funeral for a Friend singer Matthew Davies-Kreye spoke to the Caribana festival website.

?Caribana: What was it like to play to a crowd which was largely unfamiliar with your music?
Matthew Davies-Kreye: It is always an interesting experience and you never really know what to expect so we went out there with no expectations and to just do what we do and just kind of play the songs that we play. We knew we had a coupe of kids out there who knew our stuff. So if we just played to them that would be fine but towards the end of the set everyone seemed to join in and feed off our energy and everyone had a great time.

Caribana: So you must have won over some new fans?
Matthew Davies-Kreye: “I’d like to think so. I’m confident that we have. I wish the drummer from Sum 41 a speedy recovery but thank you for having us at your festival.

Caribana: How is work progressing on your new album??
Matthew Davies-Kreye: “It is going really well. We are almost at the end of the process. We have got an album’s worth of material written. It is kind of weird because at the minute we are doing our last couple of shows with our guitarist Darren while we are also rehearsing and writing as a band with our new lineup in place . So it is a bit of a weird headfuck to get your head around. But we are hoping to get the record out in January next year.; we’ll be going into the studio in September. Before that we are doing a really special EP release towards the end of the summer which is only available to people who sign up to this website we have got called pledge Music. That's where we get the fans to really interact with the process and contribute. So it is almost like a special kind of pre-order  so we are doing a very, very limited EP, which will showcase the new direction that the band is heading in and that will hopefully be available at the end of the summer.

Caribana: And how have changes in technology, in particular in distribution, affected you?

Matthew Davies-Kreye: Being able to get the music out to the fans directly straight away is a great thing for us. So with this whole Pledge concept, the people who initially pledge, as soon as the music has been recorded, mixed and mastered, as soon as that process is done rather than wait six months to get it physically, it is sent to them straight away as mp3s. So the whole process of waiting for the music is cut down greatly. I have always felt that Funeral have always been at the forefront of technological advances within the music industry, moving on with the distribution of music and getting the kids and fans involved really early on and thats something we pride ourselves on. And I think that this new thing that we have got going on is going to take a hold in the music industry.

Caribana: Why are so many good rock groups emerging in Wales?
Matthew Davies-Kreye: That's like asking why the London punk rock scene had so many great bands, why did Manchester have so many great bands and why did New York have such an amazing scene. It was just the time and the place, the right time and the right place. I think the industry is always searching for the next thing and the music scene in Wales was always there, always happening but undiscovered.  I can’t say if it is a particular thing, whether its the water or the diet or the rolling green hills. It could also be a social thing in that music and being in bands was always a way to escape the pressures of everyday working life.  And then it is like a domino effect. When you come from such a small community to see someone from your community making it big will have an effect on you whether it is the Stereophonics or Lostprophets or whether it is Super Furry Animals.  It has a way of seeping into you consciousness and as an individual in these types of town making you believe and it gives you that impetus to say “I can do something.”

Caribana: Will there be a change of sound or direction with the new lineup?
Matthew Davies-Kreye: I think it will be a refined sound. When Gavin [Burrough bassist and now guitarist] joined the band he came from a viewpoint as a fan of ours looking in from outside and he wanted to write songs that would do the band justice. He felt that we had lost our way a little bit and I guess to some degree we can see that but we like experimenting. I guess the new stuff is going to strip down and expose the true heart of what Funeral for a Friend music is all about. And this record is going to be heart on your sleeve time - no bullshit, no layers upon layers of stuff. It will be just raw, heartfelt and passionate, what we do best.

?Caribana: And finally what did you think of Caribana??
Matthew Davies-Kreye: I think the festival is awesome. I like the fact that it is really compact - the thing that really puts me off festivals back home is the sprawl - but this is really quite boutique and it has got this close community and family vibe to it. And of course the location is stunning and the weather has been beautiful. So we are coming away from this with a real positive vibe and hopefully we will be invited back.