Funeral For A Friend

Tales Don’t Tell Themselves

[3.5/5] After writing most of 2005’s middling Hours on the road, South Wales’ Funeral For A Friend returned home both intent on shaking the contrivances that’d emerged in their sound and determined not to deliver a pedestrian post-hardcore effort. The result? How about a concept album about a shipwrecked fisherman who survives a perfect storm, only to lose his crew and dry up on a deserted island far away from home, family and, presumably, his iPod. Frontman Matt Davies (who also contributes guitar parts for the first time in the band’s history) sinks himself into this poignant tale of loss and displacement, striking absolutely soaring melodies on “Into Oblivion” and “The Diary.” Later, “Out Of Reach” flexes what’s perhaps the most rousing rock muscle FFAF have ever exercised, riding its clean metal lead into a chorus that’s destined for arenas-on either side of the Atlantic. All told, it’s a dramatic departure from the band’s name-making discography; one that suggests they’re ready to not only rock the boat, but eardrums and expectations, too. Funny that it took a record about drowning for Funeral For A Friend to find their lungs. (ATLANTIC) Tristan Staddon

ROCKS LIKE:

Roses Are Red’s What Became Of Me

Finch’s What It Is To Burn

Boys Night Out’s Trainwreck

In-Store Session with vocalist Matt Davies

The album’s theme stems from your own fears of the ocean. When did that all start?

It’s hard to pinpoint, but I’ve never been comfortable with water in general. It took me until I was 15 to be able to put my head under the shower. I don’t know why. With the ocean, I like looking at it-I think it’s beautiful-but it terrifies me. It might have to do with watching Jaws when I was very young. I don’t even know if it’s that I’m afraid of drowning or what’s in the ocean, but it’s something I’m trying to figure out myself. So when I was looking for something to write about on this record, that [topic] was very close to me. I thought, rather than delve into the whole relationship nonsense-like we and other bands have done before-I’d look at something that was more personal in an elemental kind of way: A subconscious fear.

The story is also about the fears and anxieties of separation as the protagonist, David, drifts apart from his loves. You’ve gotten married since the last record came out. Was that easy to tap into?

I think it plays a part in everything we do. We’re constantly leaving the people we love behind to do the job that provides for our lives. So I can relate to the main character who has to go out and support his family. It’s a double-edged sword at the end of the day because you want to be there for them when they need you the most and sometimes you feel like you’re almost letting them down. It definitely has that thread running through it because of the way our lives have changed the past two years.

Is David a composite of people you know and your imagination, or is his story emotionally autobiographical?

I think when you write a character like that you include some semblance of the strengths and weaknesses you think you have as a person to see how it would play out. What would you do in that situation? If I went through that would my reactions be the same as I’ve written the character’s to be? I’ll never know unless I’m hit by a massive storm and all my friends get killed around me and I wash up on some shore on some rocks and then try to get back to the things [I] love.

It’s a good thing you guys tour on a bus and not on a boat.

[Laughs.] I’m glad I’m not afraid to fly so they don’t ship me off two months’ ahead of tour on an ocean liner, that’s for sure. -Tristan Staddon