TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Eclectic Sounds Result As Friend Joins Funeral

Photo from Victory Records

Welsh alternative rock band Funeral For a Friend plays the State Theater in St. Petersburg on Wednesday.

ADVERTISEMENT

By CURTIS ROSS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 12, 2009

ST. PETERSBURG - Funeral For a Friend bassist Gavin Burrough doesn't much care what you call his band's music – metal, emo, screamo, whatever.

"It's easy for people to bang around genres and things. It makes it easier to identify bands in the media," Burrough says by telephone from Wales, relaxing at the new house into which he's just moved.

As for Funeral's music, "there are a lot of different rock and metal parts, with screaming parts and mellow parts and acoustic parts. It's a very kind of eclectic sound," Burrough says.

Until about six months ago, Burrough was a fan and friend of the band. But when bassist Gareth Ellis-Davies announced he was leaving at the end of recording sessions for last year's "Memories and Humanity," Burrough, formerly of Hondo McLean and then The Future, got the call.

"We all knew each other from the past," says Burrough, who also was playing with Funeral drummer Ryan Richards in a side project called Ghostlines. Coming into the band was "quite easy for me, since I knew everyone so well."

The band, which also features singer Matt Davies and guitarists Kris Roberts and Darran Smith, formed in Bridgend, Wales, in 2001. The quintet created a buzz with a series of EPs which landed it in the pages of English metal journal Kerrang.

Debut album "Casually Dressed and Deep in Conversation" led to a contract with major label Atlantic, which issued "Hours" in 2005 and "Tales Don't Tell Themselves" in 2007.

"Stories" led to the band leaving Atlantic, charging that the label had made creative decisions that left the band out of the process.

The band now heads its own label, Join Us, licensing "Memories and Humanity" to Victory Records in the U.S., home to like-minded bands such as Between the Buried and Me and Funeral's current tour mates The Sleeping.

"With a major label you're kind of restricted, with other people to please," Burrough says. "We've only got ourselves to please now."

Funeral for a Friend performs Wednesday at State Theatre, 687 Central Ave. in St. Petersburg. The Sleeping, Emarosa and This is Hell also are on the bill. Show time is 8 p.m. Tickets are $14 advance, $16 day of show. Call (727) 895-3045 for more details.

Curtis Ross can be reached at (813) 259-7568.

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT