What kind of set have you got in store for Knebworth?
Ryan Richards: Sonisphere will be the very last show with Darran our guitarist so it will be celebrating the best of his time in the band. I guess mostly the first couple of albums and the favourites from the other albums thus far.

No new material then?
Gavin Burrough: There won’t be and the reason being is Darran hasn’t been a part of the new material, so we can’t really play it because he doesn’t know it. Probably hasn’t heard most of it [laughs]. At the moment we are doing an EP [The Young And Defenceless] which is linked to a pledge campaign. It’s four tracks which are going onto Pledge . Two tracks which are going to be on the forthcoming album out next year, then two exclusive tracks.

RR: We have steamed on pretty far ahead and got enough for about three or four EPs at the moment. We are going to start recording the new album properly in September, ready for February or March next year.

How different is the new album sound-wise?
GB: Pretty different. It’s heavier than probably anything we have ever done before a lot of it.

RR: People have been asking is it going to be as heavy as your early stuff. It’s far heavier. We haven’t changed into a different band. We haven’t lost our identity. We are still doing the things that make us Funeral for a Friend. We are just trying to take them a little bit further. When we did ‘Tales Don’t Tell Themselves’ we pushed the melodic side of the band as far as they could go. With this record we’re taking it to the other extreme and exploring the more technical heavy metal elements of the band, whilst retaining the melody of what we do and the memorable parts of our songs.

Why exactly is Darran leaving the band?
RR: The best way to put it is he probably felt that natural time when something has run its course. A lot of bands when someone leaves they spin it in such a way as ‘oh yeah musical differences’ when people have actually fallen out. When quite obviously we are all on great terms, we are all still mates and totally amicable. The genuine answer to that – not sugar coated or any sort of bullshit to it – is he just wants to do something else with his life at the moment. He has joined another band now and he’s going to be doing some music.

GB: It’s Accident Music. He wants to get into managing and promoting shows and things like that. There’s always been a bit of an age gap between Darran and the rest of the band. It really isn’t an issue to us, but I suppose to him you know he’s getting older. We love him.

RR: Yeah, we are giving him a good send-off with Sonisphere. What can be better than that? Speaking for Darran I think he would honestly say there would be no other band he would want to finish his career with Funeral off with than Iron Maiden. He’s the biggest Iron Maiden fan. I know it particularly touched him when we toured with Iron Maiden back in 2003 after our first album. The generosity they extended and the way they welcomed us on their tour and made us feel a part of it that was something that he always talks about and will never forget. I think it will mean a lot to him to do his last show with a band that he respects so highly.

Any surprises in store for the last-ever show?
GB: We’re going to try and make it special because it’s his last show, but we haven’t really planned anything as such, like what set we were going to play. We’re umming and aahhing about what we want to do. I think we are just going to ask Darran what he wants and if he wants particular people to come up and play. Charlie from Fightstar could come up and do a song with us, and make it not just about Funeral For A Friend, but more about his whole experience with the band and all the people he’s met as well. Gallows are there and there’re a lot of bands we know really well.

Are you going to ask for an especially big rider with it being a special show?
RR: You know, we probably will. Our management are going to be there all weekend and I think they’ll probably be taking care of the refreshments.

Maiden aside, who else are you looking forward to seeing play Sonisphere?
RR: On the subject of Maiden I have been enjoying the Rise to Remain EP. It’s really cool what they are doing. Taking the Americans on at there own game and in my opinion doing it better. It’s good to see Bruce’s son doing something very different to Maiden and very modern. Not just trying to be Bruce number two. He has his own vocal style.

There are some cool bands on our stage over the weekend. It would be good to see Gallows and Fightstar before they go on hiatus. Converge is playing on there too. We are following Henry Rollins. He’s doing spoken word, which will be really cool to watch. I find him a really entertaining speaker, so I’ll go along to watch that. That will be something different. But there are so many good bands at Sonisphere, as a fan I’m looking forward to going and checking out bands on that day.

GB: It’s great the way they stagger it the bill so you have got that chance if you want to watch every single band.

What’s your favourite festival moment as a punter?
GB: As a punter probably singing ‘Boy Sets Fire’ drunk in a field with him when we were about 18,19 around the tent.

RR: Yeah. Me and Gav used to go up to Reading. We had one year where it was myself, Gaz and Moose and Pag from Bullet For My Valentine all sleeping around the floor outside their car and we were saying, ‘One day we are going to play the main stage at Reading’. I remember going around being hammered the whole weekend and telling people this and people just absolutely ripping the piss out of us and calling us wankers. Well, yes, we were those wankers with the ridiculous notions of playing the main stage at Reading. But luckily we can say it did materialise.”

The new series of ‘Liverpool Ink’ featuring Dan Gold and the other great artists at Thirteen Ink begins later this year so look out for that.

For more info visit http://www.myspace.com/13inktattoo
See more pics here.

The band, who were performing on the main stage, suddenly stopped during a rendition of ‘All The Rage’, as the speakers blew.

The sound wasn’t restored for a full five minutes, during which, drummer Ryan Richards tried to rouse support by playing the beat to ‘We Will Rock You’ by Queen.

When the speakers did finally come back on, frontman Matthew Davies-Kreye said it best declaring, “it happens all the time – rain stops play.”

The band were greeted by a heavy downpour during their set which lead to Davies-Kreye saying, “only at a British festival can you have rain and sunshine at the same time.”

The band also played a storming rendition of ‘She Drove Me To Daytime Television’ before huge circle pit opened for ‘The Art Of American Football’.

Source: VirtualFestivals.com

‘It’ll be quite a nice change to go out on tour and not have to concentrate on representing our latest album, instead putting together a set that represents all our best material from day one until now’, says drummer/vocalist Ryan Richards. ‘The most exciting thing for us though, is getting out and playing brand new stuff for the first time. Especially since it’s the first material we’ve written with Gav in the band. It’ll be a nice trip down memory lane, as well as a peek into the future of the FFAF.’

Early today our dear idols posted a note on myspace blog. They talk about the new cd and the new era of FFAF.
Here it is:

‘Your History Is Mine: 2002-2009′ – a collection of classic FFAF songs plus an EPs worth of new material!

On September 28 2009 Funeral For A Friend open another chapter in their career with the release of ‘Your History Is Mine: 2002-2009′ – a retrospective look at some of the band’s finest moments on record from their early days in South Wales right bang up to date with the inclusion of 4 brand new tracks.

The album is notable for being the first involving Gavin Burrough fully in the writing and recording process. ‘It’s made a huge difference having [Gav] come into the band as a fan, and almost like a spokesman for all the fans out there who’ve been wanting to hear elements of the band they fell in love with that maybe have been missing for a while,’ says drummer/vocalist Ryan Richards. ‘We’ve always said we never wanted to go backwards, but now we’ve been able to re-explore a lot of the old elements of what we did and make it sound brand new by having Gav’s musical and vocal input in there. It’s very exciting

And to prove to you guys, two videos from myspace of New Device. Enjoy.

Ryan really kick ass.
See you soon!

FFAF BR: We know that you are independent again, and will release a new album in september. How you guys made the decision of leaving the Atlantic Records? We know that notice at all, but how it was decidades? Did everyone dealed with that in a good way?

Ryan: We had a great relationship in the UK with Atlantic and definitely left on good terms. A lot of the people who were at the label when we signed had moved on and it just didn’t feel the same anymore so we shook hands and went our seperate ways. We’re grateful for all Atlantic did for us but we’re equally excited about having complete control and doing things ourselves.

FFAF BR: What are the current influences of the band that could be on the new album?

Ryan: I don’t know if our influences have changed on this album, but it definitely has a different vibe to the last record. With the last album we took a lot of influence from classic bands we grew up listening to like Queen, Boston, Journey… stuff like that; whereas this time it’s probably influenced more by the stuff we were listening to when we first started Funeral for a Friend.

FFAF BR: There is something special or different in this next album?

Ryan: We like to think that every album we do is different to the one before it and obviously we consider every album of ours to be special. When we play a live show we have lots of different types of songs next to each other, like playing ‘This Years Most Open Heartbreak’ next to ‘History’ or playing ‘The Art of American Football’ next to ‘Juneau’. We just wanted to write a record that had that kind of variety and variation.

FFAF BR: What the new album is about?

Ryan: It’s not really about anything, in particular. Whereas the last record was a concept record based on one theme, this record is much more like the earlier albums lyrically. Just talking about real life situations rather than fictional ones.

FFAF BR: The video from the new single ‘Waterfront Danceclube’, will be filmed in somewhere special here in Brazil?

Ryan: I believe it’s going to be filmed in Sao Paulo, but it’s not confirmed yet. We thought that seeing as we’re going to be in such an amazing place as Brazil that we should take advantage of the surroundings. The idea for the video looks pretty exciting so we’re really looking forward to it.

FFAF BR: About Matt and Ryan’s projects, how are they going?

Ryan: My other project (Ghostlines) is going really good actually. We’ve got a myspace page up at www.myspace.com/ghostlinesband with a few songs up there. The way we’re doing things is that we’re just going to record a song at a time, rather than ever recording an album just so that fans can make an album depending on what they think are our best songs. It’s a pretty interesting way to do things I think. I think a lot of people were quite surprised with the music though and probably expected it to be quite heavy when actually it’s really mellow and calm. As for ‘The Secret Show’, I’m not really sure what’s happening with that but I’ve heard a few new songs at their live show and it’s definitely cool stuff.

FFAF BR: And about Brazil? What are you guys excited to know? Somewhere special, like tasting some brazillian’s food? You don’t have to mention the girls!!! [lol]

Ryan: I’m definitely excited about seeing Brazil. One of the best things about being in a band is getting see different places and experiencing different cultures. I’m pretty open minded about trying different food and drinks, and I definitely want to experience some Brazilian history and I think we get a day off in Brazil too so I’m definitely planning to make the most of that.

FFAF BR: What you expect from the shows in Brazil? And what Brazil can expect from you?

Ryan: I’ve heard such great stories about the fans in Brazil and how much energy they have. We definitely hope to see that at our shows The show from us is going to also be full of energy and we plan to play songs from every record since it’s our first time to Brazil.

FFAF BR: You know some brazillian’s music? Something of Brazil’s rock? If know, what do you know and what you think of it?

Ryan: I was a big fan of Sepultura growing up. I remember when I was learning drums I always used to practice to their songs when I bought a double kick pedal. Igor Cavalera was a big influence on me for sure. I remember watching the last-but-one show Sepultura did with Max and Igor in the UK and it was definitely one of the best gigs I ever went to. I’ve heard a couple of songs from the Cavalera Conspiracy and it sounded cool so I’m looking forward to hearing that record.

FFAF BR: Rufio is going to open your shows. Do you know them before? What do you think about them?

Ryan: It’s really good to have Rufio playing with us. I remember when I was in my old band we were pretty heavy and Rufio was the only melodic punk band we all really liked. ‘Perhaps, I suppose’ is a great album so I’ll be enjoying watching Rufio’s show for sure.

FFAF BR: FFAF is in your third album and is going to release a new one in september, but some brazillian’s fans still like the old songs. We are talking about a lot of people that will see the band for the first time… You are thinking in something different, special? Maybe a setlist with older songs or a longer show?

Ryan: Yeah as I said earlier, we’ll be playing songs from all our records and we’ll play for as long as we possibly can I think for every FFAF fan, no matter what record is your favourite, I think you’ll enjoy the set list.

FFAF BR: Do you guys want to leave some message to the fans? ;D

Ryan: We’d just like to say thank you for support and your patience waiting for us to come to Brazil. We’ll definitely make it worth the wait!

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Lot more soon! .o/