Funeral for a Friend
Funeral for a Friend is a Welsh post-hardcore band from Bridgend, formed in 2001. The band's members are Kris Roberts, Gavin Burrough, Darran Smith, Richard Boucher, and Ryan Richards.
Funeral for a Friend's popularity rose in the United Kingdom with the release of their debut album, Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation. Achieving both a gold certification and three top-twenty singles in their home country, Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation is often acclaimed as one of the landmark emo records of the 2000s. Hours featured a similar musical style to their debut, but also showcased more melodic sensibilities, and Tales Don't Tell Themselves showed an evolution in Funeral for a Friend's musical style from that which defined their debut, as the group began to diverge from their use of screaming vocals and post-hardcore-influenced guitars, favoring a more melodic rock influence. These albums achieved gold and silver sales certificates respectively in the UK.
Funeral for a Friend self-released their fourth album, Memory and Humanity through their short-lived record label Join Us, the album arguably being their most eclectic to date. Following this the band tied themselves to other independent labels for Welcome Home Armageddon Conduit, and Chapter and Verse, which showed the band returning to the heavier style of their earlier work. In September 2015, they announced their break-up and final tour in 2016. On 21 May 2016, they played their last performance to a sold-out Forum in London.
In October 2019, Funeral for a Friend reunited as a live band, initially for three benefit shows - two in Cardiff at the Cardiff University Student Union followed by one in London at Shepherd's Bush Empire. Following a planned performance at the canceled 2020 Download Festival, they announced a headline UK tour for April 2021 playing songs from their first three albums. In December 2023 the band announced they would be returning to recording music, but without founding vocalist Matthew Davies-Kreye.
History
Formation and early years (2001–2003)
When Michael Davies, one of January Thirst's original vocalists, quit in December 2001, Matthew Evans and Johnny Phillips invited Matt Davies to try out for the vacated singer position. Soon afterward, the band reformed as Funeral for a Friend; the name is derived from a song by Planes Mistaken for Stars, one of Davies' favourite bands at the time.During the start of the New Year they parted ways with second guitarist Kerry Roberts and found a suitable replacement in Darran Smith. The band recorded four tracks at Mighty Atom Studios for a proposed self-financed EP with another Welsh band From This Moment On. Upon hearing the tracks, Mighty Atom Records approached the band and offered a two-album deal, resulting in their debut EP, Between Order and Model. Before the EP's release, Andi Morris quit to join death metal band Amputated, with Phillips and Evans also leaving. The band then recruited Gareth Davies on bass and Ryan Richards on drums. Matt Davies became the band's only primary vocalist, with Gareth Davies performing backing melodies and Richards taking over Evans' screaming role.
In 2003, Funeral for a Friend recorded their second EP, Four Ways to Scream Your Name, produced and mixed by Colin Richardson. In mid-2003, the band secured their first Kerrang! award, winning the award for "Best UK Newcomer", beating The Darkness, who won in all other nominated categories. Funeral for a Friend's win was largely attributed to their fervent fan base, as the awards winner was decided by public vote online at the official Kerrang! Web site. In August 2003, Funeral for a Friend opened the Concrete Jungle stage at the Reading and Leeds Festivals.
Major record label years and international success (2003–2009)
''Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation''
On 21 August 2003, Funeral for a Friend were awarded a Kerrang! Award for "Best British Newcomer". On 20 October 2003, after recording for the duration of the summer, Funeral for a Friend's full-length debut album was released. Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation, produced and mixed by Colin Richardson, was released to critical acclaim in the UK. The album did not see a concurrent release in the US ; instead, a seven-track "mini-album", entitled Seven Ways to Scream Your Name, was released, and featured songs from the band's Between Order & Model and Four Ways to Scream Your Name EPs plus Juneau B Side "The Getaway Plan". In the United Kingdom the album received a Gold certification a year after its release on 29 October 2004, which was achieved with a sales figure of over 100,000.Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation saw three top-twenty singles including "Juneau", "She Drove Me to Daytime Television" and "Escape Artists Never Die". Funeral for a Friend toured extensively to promote Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation, including a series of European dates in which they opened for Iron Maiden. This was met with a mixed reception, as their style and fan base bore little resemblance to the heavy metal background of Iron Maiden.
The band joined Avenged Sevenfold, My Chemical Romance and Moments in Grace for an American tour spanning 17-23 April 2004. Coinciding with their shows together, Funeral for a Friend and Moments in Grace teamed up for a split 7-inch vinyl, co-released through Atlantic Records, Salad Days Records, Mighty Atom Records and Infectious Records, on 20 April 2004. Funeral for a Friend contributed the song "Bullet Theory". In promotion of the split 7-inch vinyl, webzine Ultimate Guitar held a giveaway contest for five winners to receive a record and a signed poster. Also in 2004, Funeral for a Friend supported Linkin Park throughout America and headlined the second stage of the Reading and Leeds Festivals.
''Hours''
In May 2005, the first single from the upcoming second album "Streetcar" acted as the band's fourth consecutive top 20 single in the United Kingdom by debuting at number 15. On 14 June 2005, the band released their second album Hours through Atlantic Records. Produced by Terry Date, the album was recorded in two Seattle studios owned by the grunge band Pearl Jam and featured unusual methods of recording, for example Matt Davies' vocals were recorded whilst in a moving car and on a crowded Seattle street, for the song "Drive". Just two weeks after its release the album was certified a Silver over 60,000 sales and was awarded a Gold for over 100,000 sales on 23 December 2005. In August of the same year, the band won a Kerrang! Award for "Best British Band".Funeral for a Friend performed several low-profile shows in Wales, including Bangor University and Bridgend Recreation Centre, prior to the release of Hours. In the United States, they played alongside bands such as Atreyu, Saosin, Hawthorne Heights and Thrice on the Maurice Stage of the 2005 Vans Warped Tour. The band headlined the British leg of Taste of Chaos across November with support from The Used, Killswitch Engage, Rise Against and Story of the Year. Funeral for a Friend released the third and last single from Hours, "History", which music video depicts the events of the miner strikes of the mid-1980s in South Wales.
Funeral For a Friend closed the promotional activity for Hours in the Summer of 2006, with a series of UK shows rescheduled from February. Most of the original dates had been cancelled because Matt Davies had suffered from a bout of laryngitis. Several other shows were scheduled in the UK to complement these rescheduled dates, and the tour culminated in a slot below headliners Guns N' Roses at the Download Festival at Donington Park. The rest of 2006 was spent writing and recording the band's third album.
''Tales Don't Tell Themselves''
Funeral for a Friend mentioned the writing of this album during their UK shows in summer 2006 and they started writing and recording at the end of the tour. Tales Don't Tell Themselves was released on 14 May 2007 in the UK, having been leaked to the internet on 10 May 2007. The band released video diary updates of the recording on their MySpace page. On 19 March 2007, "Into Oblivion ", the first single from the album, premiered on the Zane Lowe Show on Radio One. It was given a 7 May physical release, and the video can be seen and the song heard on their MySpace. It reached number 39 in its first week of release on downloads and reached number 16 in the Official UK chart on 13 May 2007.A selection of intimate shows to promote the album were played on 12, 13 and 14 April 2007 in intimate coastal venues in the south of England. Only 200 tickets were available for each show and these had to be applied for via an e-mail sent to members of the FFAF mailing list. Names were then picked out of a hat and the selected people were offered the opportunity to buy a pair of tickets to the gig, exclusive T-shirts were given to anyone paying using PayPal mobile. On 8 May 2007 the band released Tales Don't Tell Themselves in its entirety for fans to preview via their MySpace page. This album is the first on which Matt plays guitar. On 10 May 2007 the band played another intimate gig for Kerrang! 105.2 at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall Bar, in which they played "Walk Away" for the very first time. This is one of the tracks which Matt plays guitar on live, alongside "Raise The Sail" and "The Sweetest Wave", which were debuted on the full tour in May 2007. The album was their highest charting yet, reaching Number 3 in the UK Album Charts.
On 16 July 2007, "Walk Away", was released as the second single from Tales Don't Tell Themselves and reached number 40 in the UK singles charts. It was announced in a newsletters that "The Great Wide Open" would be the next single and would be released as an EP. The EP, The Great Wide Open was released on 15 October 2007 through Atlantic Records, negating the release of the single itself.