Funeral Suits talk Stephen Street, songwriting, and summer festivals

Irish alt-rock three piece Funeral Suits are the latest band to be taken under the wing of legendary producer Stephen Street. Skiddle's Jasmine Phull caught up with them as they embark on a summer of festivals.

Music producer Stephen Street is one veteran who needs no introduction. Mention the man, and one hundred more men (and women) will come to mind.

Whether this hypothesis is exaggerated is up for debate but what’s as concrete as the ground that lies beneath me is the well-deserved status of the UK’s S. Street. In the 1980s it was The Smiths and Blur, then came The Cranberries, the Kaiser Chiefs and now… Funeral Suits.

Not long after sending off their ‘Dear Stephen Street’ email, Funeral Suits were “sitting in the Arrivals Hall at Dublin Airport waiting to take him to Windmill Lane". In May 2011 Colour Fade was born out of a willingness to wear their hearts on their sleeves and then some.

Colour Fade was released in May of this year.  A lot of bands say
their first album is a pseudo biography of their life up until the point the record is pressed. Would you agree?
Well we were writing together for a long time before we got to record our debut album. We went through a lot of songs in that time until we got to a point where we were in a position to record an album the way we wanted to do it. It was definitely a culmination of blood, sweat and tears from all of us. We're the type of guys that wear our hearts on our sleeves; a lot of our heart and soul went into making this record.

How important was location when creating the record?
I think it was pretty important. We have a rehearsal room in an office building outside Dublin. It hasn't been used as an office in quite some time and its pretty run down. We're always trashing it and cleaning it up and starting all over again. We're always moving things around so it never really stays the same for too long either. We use one big room for writing and rehearsing in. It’s really nice having a space that’s away from everything else where we can dim the lights and make some music.

Stephen Street was onboard to produce the album. How does a 'Dear Stephen Street' email start?
Brian got in touch with Stephen about recording with us originally. I guess it just involved us being ourselves and, again, wearing our hearts on our sleeves. That’s all you should ever do, really. I think things work out that way. Stephen liked our demos and we ended up working with him for a year on-and-off on the record. He's a lovely chap to have in the studio. Calm and collected and he likes to keep things fresh which is what we like to do.

Explain the writing process. Was it a shared one?
We wrote the album together. There were loads and loads of stages of writing and rewriting and demo-ing and rejecting songs and writing new songs and starting again. Since recording the album we've got more into writing on laptops. It’s nice to have different avenues of creation to keep your imagination flowing nicely.

You've been touring quite a bit. Do you have a preference between touring and staying put? Do you find
being on the road stagnates your creative output, or inspires it?
I think there’s a fine balance. It’s really great to be out on the road playing at different places. Seeing new places and meeting new people is always inspiring. A lot of touring is time spent in transit though and when you’re in a cramped van there’s not a whole lot of room to play guitar, but you'll always find time to do a little writing. When you’re at home you have a lot more freedom to write. Its great being on tour but sometimes you need time to get new songs right before you can go back out again.

One thing that has changed about the band since you formed in 2008?
We started playing live as a four piece after we recorded the album. We really needed another person to be able to do what we do on record. It wasn't really a ground shattering change. We all knew Darragh for years and he fits into our little circus quite nicely.

You've also started a blog. How prevalent was the Internet and
 technology when the band first started out?
When we were a young band the Internet was only on for three hours a day and it was in black and white. When it was finished we all had to stand up and sing the national anthem. So it was pretty important.

First album you bought?
U2 pop. I love U2. Achtung Baby, Zooropa and Pop all have great songs on them. It’s become so clichéd to hate them today. They've not been on top form for a long time but some of the things they did were special.

Last song you listened to?
The Knife - 'We Share our Mother’s Health'. The Knife is so insanely good. We're listening to so many different bands at any point in time but The Knife and Radiohead are never far off our playlists.

How important is the live aspect of the Funeral Suits shows? Are
there certain elements you put a lot of emphasis on?
Playing live is so important to us. We try and structure our set in such a way that the crowd might feel like they've been on a bit of an emotional journey. It needs to be an experience otherwise it would start to get boring for us.

At festivals the crowd is always divided between those who know you
and those who don't; do you ever feel pressured to prove yourself or to 
deliver?
Definitely for a new band, you want to make an impression on more and more people. You want to get your message out there. You just got to stick to the plan and put on a killer show.
 
Interview by: Jasmine Phull
Twitter.com/j_fool

Funeral Suits perform on the Sunday of Wireless 2011, in support of Pulp. Tickets are available below.

Tickets are no longer available for this event