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Funeral For A Friend

We caught up with Gav, Chris, Ryan and Darren from post-hardcore jokers, FFAF

So what's the new album and single called and when are they out?
Chris: The new single is out on September 29th, 'Kicking and Screaming', available from all good CD shops... and some bad ones too. The album which is called 'Memory and Humanity', is out on October 13th.

What's your favourite song on the album and why?
Gav: 'Maybe I Am' because it sounds different from anything we've done before but it still has that element of a Funeral song. It's just a great song, awesome melody, awesome lyrics!

What's the best gig you've ever been to?
Chris: I'd probably say the Foo Fighters. No, it's not actually, that wasn't the best gig I've ever been to. Probably the best one I've ever been to Donington Park, which was a rock festival, back in 1995. There was Metallica, Skid Row, Therapy?, Machinehead, Slayer, White Zombie, it was an amazing line-up. I think I was 14 or 15 at the time.

What was the first gig you ever went to?
Ryan: The first gig I ever went to was the Four Tops. I was on holiday with my parents in Spain and it was one of those organised trips from the hotel with the holiday company so I went to see the Four Tops and I remember eating a hollowed-out frozen peach watching the Four Tops.
Laughs from all the band
Ryan: It was a fantastic show and the peach was very nice too.

Have you ever lied to a journalist in an interview?
The room explodes with laughter
Darren: Yes.
The band laughs even harder
Darren: Or should I say I haven't...?

Do you ever Google yourself?
Gav: Yes, all the time.

Really?
Gav: Yeah.

Honestly?
Gav: Yeah!

Have you ever altered your Wikipedia page?
Chris: I'd try but I wouldn't even know where to start. We definitely should though because apparently there's loads of ex-members on there who've never been in the band. Matt 'The Rat' Davis apparently performed in a jazz band in the late '70s even though, although he was alive, I think he was about 1. There's definitely some wrong information on there. I used to credited as drums and tenor sax and I've never wet a reed in my life.
The band burst out laughing again.
Ryan: And you would pick the tenor sax too, wouldn't you?
Chris: That would be my sax of choice, yes.

Do you have a Facebook profile?
Ryan: No.

What was the first piece of music you ever bought?
Darren: First piece of music I ever bought? I think it was the Police. Oh no, ACDC actually, 'Let There Be Rock'. They were the first rock bands I was into.

What's the biggest thing you've ever broken or destroyed?
Gav: Ohh... I've broken quite a few things. Biggest thing? I don't know, I break phones all the time. I go through a lot of phones.
Chris: What about the guitars?
Gav: Oh I've broken a few guitars.
Chris: They're bigger than phones, aren't they?
Gav: And amps, I've broken a few of those too.

What's the worst thing you've ever lost?
Chris: Umm, my mind? I don't know, the worst thing I've ever lost...
Ryan: Your wooly coat?
Chris: No I didn't, I've still got it.
Ryan: Yeah afterwards but for a while there, it was lost.
Chris: Oh yeah, well to really appreciate this story you have to know our tour manager. He was very finicky, picky, everything had to be clean. You'd walk on the bus, put something down, go to the toilet, come back and it'd be gone. I put my coat down, went to do an interview, got cold and came back for it. I asked him where it was and he had no idea and I love my coat - it's like a big hairy dog. I was very upset.

What genre would you put yourselves in?
Ryan: Rap.
Band falls about laughing

Well on your MySpace your down as 'post-hardcore'. Is that a joke or that actually how you'd describe yourselves?
Ryan: Post-hardcore? That's probably some moron from our record label. Well actually no, we're the label... Guess that's our own fault really.

What's the biggest lie you've ever told your parents?
Darren: Biggest lie? Umm... Probably something like, 'no of course I'm not going drinking' when I was younger and going camping.

Who did you meet first in the band and what was your first impression of them?
Gav: Think it was you (Ryan). Or Chris. I remember seeing Chris and he used to go to all the gigs I used to go to when I was 14 or 15.
Chris: He thought I was cool as hell then!
Gav: He used to have really long hair, plaited. I did think he was quite cool.
Chris: He wishes he was me.
Gav: Yeah.
Chris: They were dreads, not plaits. They did look like plaits though.

What's on your rider?
Chris: It's not as bad as you'd think. Lot of fruit, fresh food like salad and that'd be about it. Oh and a bottle of vodka for Darren. Not much chocolate or crisps.

You never feel to put something on there that's really hard to find just to give the runner a little extra work?
Ryan: Yeah for a long time we had on there a plastic paper cup.
Chris: In a band Gav and I used to be in, we had Marigolds on there.
Ryan: We learnt about riders pretty quickly because at first you take the Mickey with riders, you take advantage with it and get everything. You know, stuff you're never going to use or have and then you find out that you're paying for it.
Darren: Yeah you think some promoter guy is taking on all this stuff for you but you're paying for it out of your own pocket. It's coming out of your fee.
Chris: Yeah. just give us some bread.

What was your earliest vivid memory?
Darren: Oh. Probably going down a slide when I was about three. It had been raining and my mother was telling me not to do it, I was in the park. I slid down this big metal slide where a big puddle of water had collected at the bottom and I soaked myself right through. Being a kid and your parents having no shame about walking you around naked, I had to go home with just my coat tied around my waist.

If you hadn't been a musician, what do you think your would've been?
Gav: A rapper.
Ryan: ...that is a musician.
Gav: Sort of but it's not really. It's a person who talks over music. Can't argue with that.

What makes a gig awesome to play? Is it the crowd, the crew, the feeling on the night or the venue?
Chris: God-like worship. People bowing. No definitely the crowd. They create the vibe we feed on and which we give back. If they're an exciting sort of crowd, that always kind of spurs us on to play a better show.

Do you have any pre-gig rituals?
Ryan: Not yet because I haven't actually played a gig with these lot yet.
Chris: Use the toilet room! That's pretty much the only one I do, go to the toilet. There's nothing worse I can think of then needing a poo on stage. That'd be pretty horrific.

Have you ever received any gifts from any fans?
Chris: Not many in the UK or anywhere else but in Japan I think it's customary to give you gifts for some reason. We've had loads of cool things; I've had random things from like little toy Japanese garbage trucks and action figures and fridge magnets. Somebody did pictures for all of us of all our names in Japanese. When we were in Thailand somebody gave us little tiny elephant stickers. Gav usually gets the best ones. Somebody once bought him a £180 boxset of 'Gundam'. Someone just came along with this animated series, that's dedication.

What was the last thing you got for free?
Ryan: A bottle of cider! Cornish cider.

Funeral For A Friend's new album 'Memory and Humanity' is out October 13th and their new single 'Kicking and Screaming' is available to buy now. For more information go to www.ffaf.co.uk.