Mood Board: Funeral Shakes

By Penny Bennett

Feb 2, 2018 9:01

Continuing our Mood Board feature we spoke to Calvin and Simon from Funeral Shakes about some of the moods, themes, and a few of the concepts for their self titled debut album.

1. Watford

Simon: In our short time together, we’ve been frequently cited as being a Watford band, although none of us are actually from there. However, we did record the album at Titan Studios in Watford, and whenever I think about the recording process I think of the characters, the great bands, and the Watford sense of humour, that made it such a fun experience.

2. Mrs Magician – Strange Heaven

Calvin: San Diego’s Mrs Magician ‘Strange Heaven’ was a big influence when writing this album. Combining a bunch of surf influences but with a fairly miserable outlook on life, Simon turned me on to this band, and we would reference this record often, particularly when demoing, their use of delays and fuzzes on guitar parts in particular. If you’re not aware of them, I’d definitely recommend giving this record a spin.

3. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

Simon: Dealing with the fallout of a breakup… But with a sci-fi twist! I love how this movie tells the story of something very commonplace, but in a completely unique way. I definitely draw inspiration from this film in my song writing.

4. New Beginnings

Calvin: For me at least, this album was as much about saying goodbye to things of the past as it was about starting something new. There’re a lot of nods to our past lives, be it musical ventures, romantic endeavours, even parts of ourselves that have changed. Saying goodbye to the old and celebrating the new, having a blank canvas to work with and being able to do what we want with it from scratch.

5. Roy Orbison

Simon: I’ve always been in awe of how he could write songs so heart-wrenchingly sad they make you want to cry, without compromising on hooks and pop sensibilities. When writing for our album, I didn’t have many positives to draw upon, but knew I wanted the songs to be big and catchy and memorable. So ‘The Big O’ was a big inspiration for me.

Funeral Shakes self titled album is released on Silent Cult Records on Feb 16th and you can catch them at one of the dates below

FEBRUARY
14 LONDON The Old Blue Last w/ Lirr + Wild Cat Strike
15 WATFORD LP Cafe w/ Bogans + Storm Harbor
23 HUDDERSFIELD Parish w/ Mr. Shiraz
24 STAFFORD Red Rum w/ Sonic Boom Six
25 NORTHWICH Salty Dog
MARCH
02 CORBY The White Hart w/ Loose Tooth + Ex-Pets
APRIL
04 BRIDGEWATER Cobblestones
05 NOTTINGHAM Red Room
06 DARWEN Sunbird Records
07 GLASGOW Broadcast
08 DONCASTER Woolpack
09 MANCHESTER Night People
10 LONDON Thousand Island
11 BRISTOL The Louisiana
24 LONDON The Underworld*
25 LONDON The Underworld*
26 LONDON The Underworld*
27 LONDON The Underworld*

* w/ Cancer Bats + Death by Stereo