Marc cuaght up with Pat Lundy from Funeral For A Friend to talk about his time in the band, their new album 'Conduit', their current tour and much more.

You recently replaced Ryan Richards as drummer of Funeral for a Friend has the transition gone smoothly for you and the rest of the band?
Yeah it was quite a seamless transition seeing I knew them from previous tours. I think the personality aspect of things seems to fit like a glove, and musically we all click well when we started jamming. To join a band like Funeral it was surprisingly easy.

How have you found the experience of recording Conduit?
Mine was slightly different from the rest of the guys as it was a re-recording, so I was in and out in like two days. It was quick and easy if I'm honest.

Did you change much around?
Yeah I re-wrote all the drum tracks from scratch, but obviously because all the guitars and stuff had been done there was only a certain amount of leeway I was allowed. Sort of drum by numbers as it were.

For your audition didn't you learn almost all of their tracks in about a week?
Pretty much yeah. With the exception of Tales, I knew half of Tales anyway, Memory I didn't really touch apart from a couple of tracks like Beneath the Burning Tree, and the Wolfs. Casually Dressed and Hours I kinda got down in the best part of Monday to Friday and then on the weekend I learned Welcome Home and went for my auditions.

The album art was done by Mathew Evans the former vocalist, is it important for them and you to have control over the album art?
Yeah absolutely. Mevs was key for this record. Where the band found themselves when I stepped in was a place where they were when they were writing with Mevs. Mevs is Snowskull his artist sort of business is taking off and we decided to buy one of our favourite paintings off of him. We put it out for the record and it really meant something to all of us in different ways, and the title of the paintings really special too.

You recorded the video to "Best Friends and Hospital Beds" recently, what was that like?
That was Gorilla as. We were supposed to be recording in Wales at a venue that has bands recording at it some of the time and doing promo's and stuff like that. But when we got their the landlord was telling us to fuck off and stuff like that, so what we thought was completely legit organised video shoot turned out to be all of us driving around in a van looking for anywhere to get the backline out and just start shooting. We had all the production team with us and stuff and nowhere to shoot. So that was a bit of a wing, but we got it in the end. We found a pretty Armageddon esc place with a rundown vibe by Aberporth beach and we did it there in Wales.

Your playing a lot of smaller venues, like here and The White Rabbit down in Plymouth tomorrow. Do you find it easier feed of the energy of each other?
I think it's more to do with the fact that we took a year off and I think the way the direction of the music is going now, the dynamic, the line up of the band. It was fitting for all of us to start in wee rooms again and build it up. And to be fair man you ask most bands who tour, especially hardcore bands, they prefer a smaller room. I see faces, an 800 plus cap you rarely see anyone and that's the truth. The guys know as well, they've done stadium tours, we all have, it's not a personal experience there's no memories per say, it's just big shows big rooms wide eyes and nothing else really. I duno man I think I prefer this anyway, I don't want to change. If I could do this for the rest of my life I would, everyone else in the band feels the same.

How does that compare to festivals, like Slam Dunk last year?
It's good fun man. Festivals is a slightly different vibe, it's a slightly bigger party and what have you. Slam Dunk was a piece of piss man, kids are just loving it, and we got lucky with the weather as well.

Have you had any interesting tour stories since you joined, or know of any from before?
Erm. Do you know what, touring is surprisingly uneventful. The shows are always great, you get crazy things happening at your shows, but it's just a bunch of guys with Mac's with their headphones in just speaking to each other when you need something. That's about 90% of it. But yeah there's been a few things that have happened I suppose, but not in my experience so far in this band unfortunately. It's all been pretty boring, ha I'm joking. The album release day was yesterday so I guess that's an experience.

A few more people should know the tracks.
Yeah hopefully man. It leaked last week so, people have been singing it back to us in Ireland before the album came out so that was weird.

Which is your favourite track off the album?
Grey, It's track 7 or 8 but were playing that one tonight.

Have you got any plans to do anything where you get full control over the drums instead of just re-writing?
I can only hope. Just see how this goes.

Is there anywhere on the tour your really excited to play?
Tonight should be good. It sold out so that should be a party. Er Glasgow, London where I'm from. A couple of weird ones, Margate the band hasn't done before so it's interesting to go to a couple of wee towns and play those.

Have you got any advice for younger bands that are trying to make it?
Play play play. Get as many jobs as you can to feed your addiction to tour and make music because it's hard. It's a struggle. It takes the best part of 10 years before you do anything, so don't give up and just keep doing it if you love it enough.

If you could be a Giraffe of a Zebra which would you be and why?
That's a weird one. Zebra's are quite fast aren't they, but Giraffes aren't. Zebra's could get a pace on, you know what I mean? I'd probably be a Zebra because there black and white, don't really clash with anything. There jokers, you know what I mean? Plus the neck thing would get on my tit's a bit if I couldn't get to all areas. I'd probably hit my head a lot if I was a Giraffe because I'm clumsy. Yeah I'd be a zebra, like the crossing.

Have you got a message for any of your fans reading this?
I love you.

Interview by Marc Rich