FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND PROPS TO BEATLES, PANTERA, RADIOHEAD

Funeral For A Friend’s new album Tales Don’t Tell Themselves is a diverse sounding album, and the band’s influences are a main reason.

Funeral For A Friend recently released Tales Don’t Tell Themselves, and stylistically, it’s a very schizophrenic album. The members of the band had very distinct influences as youngsters.

Bassist Gareth Davies, vocalist Matt Davies and guitarist Kris Coombs-Roberts talk about the influence Radiohead, The Beatles and Pantera had on them.

[Gareth] “I’d say Radiohead for me, personally. They’re a completely different band now to how they started out originally. They were a band that wasn’t afraid to push the boundaries of the music and try different things, experiment, and not be stagnant with the music.” [Matt] “Probably an absolute typical response would be The Beatles. It’s probably the first musical experience I had, properly, and they still maintain that kind of freshness every time I listen to them.” [Kris] “For me, even though it’s not really within my playing style, it’s Pantera. If it hadn’t been for “Mouth For War” I don’t think I would have really continued to play guitar, to push myself. I just enjoyed strumming a few chords until it took me, like, three months to learn that song. Then I was like, ‘Wow. I really want to play guitar,’ you know what I mean?

Funeral For A Friend is currently on the Warped Tour in the U.S. with bands such as Killswitch Engage, Bad Religion, New Found Glory and others. The highlight of their summer however will be appearances at the famed U.K. festivals Reading and Leeds in August.