The Dark Ages

DARK masters of melodic uplifting hardcore, Funeral for a Friend burst out of industrial South Wales with the force of a runaway coal train.

Taking their name from a song by Florida post-hardcore freaks Planes Mistaken For Stars, the studious screamo five-piece spliced chunky rock riffs with pop melodies and thought-provoking, intelligent lyrics.

It’s a winning combination, and one which has established them as darlings of the emo movement – though the lads studiously avoid using the ‘E’-word themselves, describing themselves, quite reasonably, as simply “rock”.

With a huge and devoted fanbase they have come a long way since they began, hammering out demos in guitarist Darren Smith’s Bridgend garage seven years ago.

So far in fact that they’re doing something very unusual for a band of their ilk – and bringing out a greatest hits album.

Called Your History Is Mine: 2002-2009, it eloquently charts the history of the band from the early EPs, through debut album Casually Dressed And Deep In Conversation, and follow-ups Hours, Tales Don’t Tell Themselves and Memory And Humanity.

But Darren is at pains to explain that the appearance of an anthology does not signal the end of the band. It is, he stresses, a snapshot of who they are and where they’ve come – band and fans alike.

“It’s signifies the end of a chapter, but not the end,” he explains. And how many chapters are there still to come. “An indefinite number,” he laughs. “There will be no end!

“We’ll do it until we don’t want to do it any longer. You’ve got to enjoy it to keep it going – and I do, honestly! We’ve attempted writing different ways and attempting new things. It’s all about keeping it interesting for ourselves.

“There are bands out there – and I’ll name no names – who have found a formula and stuck with it. And while that may be cool for them, it’s a bit monotonous.”

Darren is talking to us in between “doing a bit of writing and relaxing,” before the band’s gig at Oxford’s O2 Academy tonight.

“I do have to try and get an angle on what I need to do, and I need to force myself to write,” he says, before reconsidering. “Other times I’ll just pick up a guitar and an idea will come to me,” he concedes.

Honest and considered, FFAF’s Darren, Matthew Davies-Kreye, Kris Coombs-Roberts, bassist Gavin Burrough (replacing original member Gareth Ellis-Davies) and drummer Ryan Richards are far from most people’s impression of the arrogant cocksure rock band – even one which has been reluctantly lumped into the self-harming ‘emo’ scene.

“We have a lot of respect for people who like what we do,” Darren goes on. “And the name of the new album – Your History is Mine – sums that up. Their history is ours, and vice versa. We’ve had fans who got into us at the age of 13 or 14, and have grown up with our songs.

“We’ve only had four full-length albums and a couple of EPs. It’s usually bands who’ve been around for 20 years who decide to put out a hits albums.

“We are saying thank you to people who like what we are doing. But we are also moving forward. The early tracks are a lot more aggressive. As we’ve progressed you can see some maturity in our songwriting.

“Looking back you can see how innocent some of our songs were then. But we haven’t lost our aggression. In fact we’ve started going full-circle. The last song is definitely more aggressive.”

But how does a band that’s a little older, a lot wiser, and which is clearly doing quite nicely, thank you, actually stay angry?

He laughs. “Well, our anger is more controlled. We are able to do that whole ‘writing and recording for a living’ thing, which is what I always dreamed of, but none of us are wealthy. And we’ve still got the stresses and strains of life. There’s also a lot that makes me angry. But I guess songs come out the way they come out.”

In many ways FFAF broke the punk/post-hardcore mould by doing things differently.

“There’s still an element that what we do isn’t accepted, but the mainstream is warming to aggressive music,” Darren explains. “They can’t ignore it anymore.”

Is he surprised the band, who rose from such unpromising circumstances in industrial South Wales, have become not just icons, but spokesmen for their army of fans. “There is no one in more shock than us!” a bemused sounding Darren admits.

“For the first few years we didn’t get a chance to think about it, we were so busy between tours. Now we are totally dumbstruck that we have ended up where we are.

“Our fans are passionate,” he says, perhaps modestly, as anyone who has witnessed the crowd at one of their gigs will attest. “Our music is very honest, anthemic and uplifting. It’s a celebration of life, and they like that.”

Funeral for a Friend play the Oxford O2 Academy tonight. Tickets are £15.

Your History Is Mine: 2002-2009, is out on Atlantic.