“I don’t have a plan. None of this is planned,” states Boston-based musician, Tyler Kershaw, the mind behind Funeral Advantage. As he prepares to release his stunning new EP, ‘Please Help Me’, it’s this carefree attitude that makes is intricate music feel very natural. “If you have a plan you could fail, and I’ve failed enough as it is.”

If you trace back the lineage of Funeral Advantage, you start to understand Kershaw a bit more. “I taught myself how to play guitar and drums when I was about 16,” he says, reflecting on his formative years. “My friends and I would smoke weed and make these goofy funk songs and we had to record everything ourselves on this 4 track recorder. My friends and I would form bands and make songs throughout high school.”

Even though Kershaw has little to no agenda these days, it wasn’t always that way. “When I got to college I started trying to take it seriously, so I joined with a bigger hardcore band playing drums and another bigger indie band playing bass for a year or so,” he remembers. “About a year later, the indie band kicked me out, and the hardcore band dissolved. Every experience with a band I had been in just stopped without me having control over it so I wanted to form a band of my own where I could carry a vision myself without having to worry about other people ruining it.”

After a number of EPs and splits, Funeral Advantage released the stunning, dream-like debut album, ‘Body Is Dead’. Less than two years later, ‘Please Help Me’ is a continuation of the album, born once again from a dark time in Kershaw’s life. “The only difference between the two records is that I had the songs for [‘Body Is Dead’] laying around for about 2 years before I recorded them properly,” he explains. “The subject matter wasn’t as focused because it had spanned so widely. [‘Please Help Me’] was dreamt up and created within the terms of 3 or 4 very turbulent months in my life.”

While writing ‘Please Help Me’, Kershaw tells of how he was living with someone. After being asked to leave right as recording began, the EP had to be recorded in various other places in the end. While he “had studio time booked to mix the record for right after I was projected to finish,” and “having to leave my home ended up kind of throwing a wrench into the process,” he explains that on reflection, it added to the urgency and importance of the record.

“I had a total of about five days to record everything and not knowing where I was going to be able to do that made me feel like every second had to count,” says Kershaw of his determination. “When you’re recording about painful times this can take a toll after a while. Normally I’d be able to take a break. Both ‘Please Help Me’ and ‘Body Is Dead’ were recorded after traumatic experiences in my life and I think maybe under duress with a deadline is the only way I can consider a song ‘done’.”

While Kershaw played and recorded everything on ‘Please Help Me’, he enlisted the help of Providence-based artist Jillian Kay to contribute some vocal parts. Even though he confesses to being wary of “letting other people touch his work,” he is a fan of Kay. “We became friends through the process so I am happy to have let her in,” he says. “I’m normally very wary on letting anyone touch the recorded product. I do it this way because I have a very specific vision and normally I can’t collaborate very well on anything anyway. It’s not so much a freedom as much as I’m trapped into doing it this way.”

Rather than follow up ‘Body Is Dead’ with another full length, the cohesive songs on ‘Please Help Me’ were very specific, and lent itself better to an EP, as Kershaw explains. “I’m constantly writing and recording, and I had about 12 songs in a row written from the standpoint of where I was at that time,” he reflects. “I saw into the future and saw myself listening to and playing these songs and thought it might be too painful to relive some of these memories so I ended up scrapping most of the ideas.”

In terms of sound, there is a strange dichotomy between the lyrical content and the music. In contrast to the dark, personal, and hard-hitting tales that Kershaw delivers, the music is the opposite. Borrowing from brit-pop, dream pop, shoegaze and indie rock, ‘Please Help Me’ is very melodious, up-tempo, bright and ethereal.

“When I was recording the original demo I was listening to a lot of Another Sunny Day, The La’s, and Oasis,” says Kershaw, when asked about the subtle nods towards British bands in the music. “That wasn’t where I drew inspiration from really, I think where my sound came from is organic. I don’t see it as brit pop-esque really, but everyone else seems to. Maybe I’m the one who’s wrong. I don’t listen to much of that stuff though outside of what people show me.”

Although Funeral Advantage sounds happy on the surface, musically, Kershaw disagrees. To him, it is just upbeat and fast. “The context and subject matter of the lyrics need to be reflected in the art way more than the sound of music,” he says. “It honestly all makes sense to me and I feel crazy trying to explain it to people. I think the upbeat aspect of it comes from me trying to frame the songs into a pop/danceable landscape. The skeleton of these songs is always a lot bleaker than they end up coming out, and I think in these early stages where and when I end up forming my cemented ideas for the art. In the studio I always end up layering everything and arranging it in a way to fit into a more song-like structure.”

‘Please Help Me’ went through various stages according to Kershaw, and in it’s infancy, was much more in line with the darker imagery, narrative, and even the name of the project itself. “This record was a goth/dance album before I ended up recording it for real,” he explains. “I was driving to New York with one of my friends and I threw on a demo like ‘Hey check it out, I’m going in this new, bleaker direction with the new songs,’ and after the song was over my friend said something like “Maybe your songs aren’t what you think they are.”

It didn’t stop there. Even Kershaw’s label, The Native Sound, was surprised by the contrasting imagery and music. “I sent them the finished photo and [Julio Anta, label owner] was like “are you sure you want to move forward with this,” he says. “It didn’t seem right to him at first given the sound of the album and now we both agree that the cover art we chose ended up being the sensible and relatable choice once I explained the story and my feelings behind it.”

With ‘Please Help Me’ having a very specific subject matter, Kershaw says that songs made more sense as an EP as a full length on the same concept may feel boring. While still keeping the theme close to his chest, the narrative that runs through the title track, or the heart-wrenching ‘We Lost Our Home’ are about one person and the events surrounding the split.

“I don’t view it as break up record even though I ended up writing and recording it during while I was splitting up with someone,” concludes Kershaw. “It’s a lonely sounding record about feeling empty. That’s the main theme that permeates through every track.”

Please Help Me’ is available now via The Native Sound.