Still Stubborn, Still Not Giving A Shit

The days of being nervous are done.” Davies-Kreye begins when discussing the recent release of the band’s seventh full-length, Chapter And Verse. “We’ve never been a band that concerned ourselves with feeling fear or anything. It’s great to have it out and to have tours ready for it. It’s a weight off the shoulders, and people seem to be weirdly connecting with it already, which we never thought would be happening... I think I achieved every goal I wanted to do – tour with my friends, maybe write a record – I mean, the bucket list was done about 13-and-a-half years ago. For me, I feel very lucky that I’m in a band that tours and gets to visit places like Australia and stuff, and get to meet people on different continents – it just blows my mind, so for me, we take it day by day, and every day so far has been fucking awesome.”

"I love that people dig that first record, but it’s not above us."

There’s no denying the band’s first recorded developed something of a legacy over time, but they’ve never let that notion affect how they’ve gone about their business since – Davies-Kreye finds the whole thing a bit bizarre. “It’s hard to think about that record like that. None of us knew it was going to be considered the way it’s been considered, and none of us felt like it would be held like some sort of albatross. We’ve let it not get to us, I know a lot of bands succumb to that sort of thing, but we’ve been thankful that we are an incredibly stubborn band; we don’t give a shit what people think of us. We don’t want to belittle people into liking our band or anything, but we didn’t start a band to be a band that listened to people who bought our records – I love that people dig that first record, but it’s not above us.”

Chapter And Verse contains some pretty obvious religious themes, none more so than leading single You’ve Got A Bad Case Of The Religions, and while that has come naturally with getting older and broadening the mind, Davies-Kreye is adamant there’s very little reflection on how their previous albums have stood up when it comes to writing new material. “Looking back, a lot of the records are varied because of the musical differences by the individuals in the band, and growing up, you do develop different influences, and focuses change, and you want to try new things. On the other hand, a record like Chapter And Verse is almost like an acknowledgement of being comfortable where you came from, and the influences that made you want to be who you are. Hardcore and punk are massive in my life, and for Chapter And Verse to have that relationship to that music in terms of my own personal point of view, I have a lot of love towards it. Growing older, you realise that the good ol’ days are the good ol’ days for a reason... I don’t write specifically for records. For me, it’s just about the music developing and me finding that connection to the music. It just so happens that a couple of the ideas we had were perfect vehicles for what we wanted to say. Certain songs did reflect heavily on my relationship with establishment ideals such as organised religion and more political ideologies. As I’ve been getting older that’s been falling into my influence. And with the extremist issues going on, people have been suggesting, ‘Have you been writing about this, that and the other’ and it’s like, no, I’m not having a dig at religious extremists or fundamentalists, it’s just a personal look at my own personal relationship with these issues and how my thoughts have changed over the years. It’s nice to have a vehicle for them.”

"I mean if you’re in a band with five different guys who like different things musically then you’re going to have a shitstorm of a time trying to make a good record."

The band enlisted the help of Lewis Johns (Gnarwolves, Goodtime Boys) for the production side of things this time around – a somewhat surprising decision considering the band had worked with Romesh Dodangoda for the last three albums. The band were looking to head down a rougher path though, and were forced to accommodate for it. “We wanted to try something new. We were a bit antsy, we were edging towards a more raw, less polished, more organic and open sound. We felt that Romesh’s production strengths were kind of anti-that. I wanted to be able to run around the studio going batshit crazy, really recreate the same feelings I had on stage, really getting into the emotions of the songs and Romesh kind of struggled with that. Our previous records felt like they had a machine on them, not that that’s a bad thing, but with Lewis, he’s really tuned in to what it’s like to be a band, just four or five guys in a room playing together, and if you can’t make that sound good, if you have to put millions of guitar tracks over it to make it sound good, you’re doing something wrong. For us, it was the purity of it, and Lewis is a pure producer – he gets the band, gets the influences we have and comes from the same background, and it’s so much easier to work with someone like that.”

So how would they actually describe the record in comparison to their previous work, stylistically? “It’s emotionally heavy. It’s edgy, it’s not clean-cut, which is what I love about the record. It’s very much a product of spare of the moment gut feeling and instinct. It is a very instinctual record, and I think that’s what I love about it most, and why I rate it quite highly amongst the records we’ve written over the last 14 years, it’s pretty much in my top two. It’s got that kind of unashamed, bullish, kind of ‘this is my heart of my sleeve’ kind of thing, like, you can either love it or fuck off.”

With their seventh album in the bucket, 15 years of experience under the belt as a band, and his bucket list well and truly ticked off, the concept of identity has never really been an issue for Davies-Kreye and the band, despite it being something many groups find themselves grappling with. “I don’t think it really matters, I think it just depends on what you want to get out of this, what you’re in the band for. Identity is, well, you can do whatever the fuck you want with that. You have an empty canvas. It depends, I mean if you’re in a band with five different guys who like different things musically then you’re going to have a shitstorm of a time trying to make a good record, which we’ve had over the years. But at the end of the day, if your core values as individuals line up – what you stand for as a band in terms of ideology or anything you want to stand for is unified – then finding a connection comes from that, and that’s why punk and hardcore has always been a strong door for us and it’s always been about speaking your mind and not being afraid to confront ideas and speak with an open heart and mind. That’s why Funeral will always fit in that category.”