Page 11 - Black Velvet Rock Magazine Issue 111

BV111 pg 10-13 The Funeral Portrait Interview.qxp_BV111 pg 12 04/11/2024 22:33 Page 2

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The Voiceless

net. I had a MySpace and I was looking for Way of My Chemical Romance and Amy Lee of what, we’re going to be us. This is who we are.’
music. It was so centred around music, My- Evanescence. “I think those two were huge for It started working for us. I think that’s key, in
Space was. It was one of those moments of just me,” he says. “The reason why is because I felt everyday life, the more that you are just you, the
being like, ‘OK, let’s go to a show.’ I remember that both of them were truly themselves. I think more you will find people that are just like you,
discovering this one band and they were coming Amy Lee had such a unique, different voice for or that will understand you. Or maybe a job or
to Marietta, GA, and I was, ‘Wait, I’m in Marietta, rock music. I felt like she had something that no whatever it is that you’ve always wanted to do.
GA. That means there’s a venue here.’ I looked one else had. And I felt the same way for Ger- As soon as you do that thing, you can finally be
up the venue. I begged my mom to go. She sat ard. He was just a weird, nerdy kid that some- free and be happy.”
in the parking lot and me and my best friend, we how discovered to be in a rock band. He was a We ask if he thinks people into rock music
went to our first show. There were 15 people comic book writer and then turned into a rock are different to other people.
there and we had the time of our lives. I didn’t star. Sometimes, how I feel, I was just a nerdy “I think so,” he replies. “I think it’s one of
even know stuff like that existed, really. Before kid at high school and then discovered music. those things, I think it kind of depends on how
that, I had maybe been to two or three shows Took me a lot longer to get here, but now that you grew up. I know a lot of people, especially
that were bigger, but nothing crazy. So finally, I I’m here and I get to meet some of these people my age, we grew up with the emo culture, right?
dove in. That night I went up to the person who who are inspired by us as a band, it’s wild to And I think we were told that it was ok to feel a
was working the door and I said, ‘What is this?’ think about.” certain way, that it was OK not to be OK. I think
and I got told the whole story of it, and, next that’s so important, you know. And I think rock
thing I know, I was working at this venue, being n ‘Alien’, a song on ‘Welcome To Suffo- music, especially, had that message first. We
14 years old, booking my own shows there, run- Icate City’, Lee sings, ‘They say to be my- had the ‘emo culture’, and that was so important
ning the door, running sound, running security, self now, but they really don’t want me to. to my life and my friends’ lives. And, carrying
doing everything I could, being a 14-year-old. They’d rather me be like you,’ The singer says that forward, it’s something that we’ve really
So I was involved in the local scene from 14 to that being yourself is the key thing to The Fu- looked at, and are carrying that torch.”
probably when I started The Funeral Portrait. neral Portrait.
So, 14 to in my early 20s, I was booking shows “You have to be yourself. I think, as soon as uffocate City’ speaks to the listener’s
and doing everything I could to help our scene.” we, as a band, decided to just be us, which was ‘Ssense of fear. The fear of being stuck
He was inspired by people such as Gerard around three years ago, we decided, ‘You know in a dead-end job, a dead-end relationship, or a
THE FUNERAL PORTRAIT