Interview with Jill of Funerus

 FUNERUS INTERVIEW

Interviewed by: Chris Ureta answered by Jill


Chris: How and when did the band started out?
Funerus [Jill] - Funerus started back in the early 90's with Brad Heiple(guitars/vocals) and Jason Foust (drums). Brad and Jason were friends for a long time and had been jamming together for years. They originally called the band Creative Sickness, but once they got into heavier music, they changed the name to Funerus. I met them a few times at shows (they lived about 45 minutes away from me) and we became friends. Since they never had a proper bass player, and I had guitar playing experience, they asked me to join up with them. I had watched them at a practice once before and I thought what they were doing was really heavy, I liked it alot, so I was into doing the band. I joined the band sometime in 1993, and then shortly after we recorded the 1994 demo. We did a few shows with this line-up, and then Brad announced his departure from the band. So after that jason and I tried to hold things together, we kept things going with other guitarists, but nothing that ever worked out. Jason and I eventually lost touch and he moved to another state. I also tried to keep things going with the band at different times and with different members, but it just wasn't the same.

Did you guys knows each other before you all get to be involve in this?
Yes, the way things worked out goes like this....Kyle had seen Funerus play one of our very first shows back in 1994,and thought the band was good, and picked up the demo. He also turned John onto the demo. So John and Kyle were fans of the Funerus demo before I even knew them. I met John and we became friends and eventually got married a few years later. He always supported me in doing Funerus and thought it was great that I played in such a killer band. When Kyle and John were at the house to practice for Incantation, they would want me to jam the Funerus songs with them, but I never would. I just thought my days of playing in the band were over, I never thought it could happen again. Finally one day I broke down and we played the songs, and I couldn't believe how great it sounded and felt to be playing those songs again! I think the 3 of us knew right away it was something we were going to continue to do. We got ahold of Brad, the original Funerus guiatrist/vocalist and asked if he wanted to be a part of this, and he was into it.

Is drummer Kyle Svern will doing full time skin man to the band? Coz’ I know he’s been doing Acheron lately.
Kyle is absolutey our full time, one and only drummer. Yes he does also play for Acheron, and Incantation, but he juggles his schedule around however he needs to. In fact, just this past weekend, Funerus, Acheron and Incantation plaed a show together and Kyle played all 3 sets!

How’s the u.g metal scene in your area? Does many people attend your show?
In my immediate area underground metal doesn't exist except for a handful of people. John and I live in a small town, so there are not really any shows here. We travel a little over an hour to Pittsburgh to see shows, and we've played shows in Pittsburgh before to crowds of about 250, which is pretty good, but that was with Incantation, and also Commit Suicide, who does really good in Pittsburgh as well.

The riff are somehow downtuned, what was the inspiration in doing your music?
Our inspirations are Grave, Bolt Thrower, Rottrevore, Dismember, Carnage, old Entombed. We were heavily influenced by the old Swedish sound that was coming out in the early 90's.

What does each song deals about?
Our songs are about death and doom,suffering, pollution, waste and the earth rotting away, that good stuff. We are not a satanic band, or a gore band, nothing exclusive, so we have many topics we can write about.

Do you write most of the lyrics? I guess you all collaborate according to the sleeves on your cd.
Brad and I wrote the lyrics for the cd. John and Kyle have enough work to do with Incantation, and they did help out writing the music, so Brad and I split the lyric writing duties. Brad had already written the lyrics for the old demo songs that are on the cd, so we only needed lyrics to the new songs that were written.

How’s Incantation going? Any album release this year?
Incantation is doing great! They are totally on top of their game right now. They are now on Listenable and Olympic Records, which is killer for them. Yes they do have a new album coming out this year, in Europe it will be out at the end of August, in the U.S. it will be out in October. It's called Decimate Christendom and it fucking kills! Johns vocals fit perfect!

Do you Plan on continuing Funerus? Or this is just a mere side project band? Care to comment on this?
Hell yes, Funerus will continue! This was never meant to be a side project band. This is one thing that confuses people,I guess because John and Kyle are in the band, people think this is an "Incantation side project". I can understand, and it doesn't piss me off or anything. I think it's more that these people haven't taken the time to read up on Funerus, and realize that we were a band from the early 90's, and we didn't just start in 2001 or 2002. But anyway, yes we will continue!!

Anyway, besides doing live shows in your area and parts of America, any plans of European or Asian tours maybe?
Right now we have plans to play a show in Puerto Rico later this year. Other than that, no definite plans yet. Of course we are open to any tour possibilities that may come about. Be it Europe, Asia, South America or wherever, If there is someone willing to bring us there, we are willing to do it. We have already had some amazing shows in Australia, Italy and Mexico as well as many U.S. shows. We are looking forward to spreading our low-end sewage across the world!

This may sound weird, but who’s your favorite bands? And why? Are all the members of Funerus shares the same?
A few of my favorite bands are Twisted Sister, just because they've ruled my world since 1984 and they were THE BEST live band I've ever seen, Mercyful Fate because of the dark, evilness and Disembowelment is my favorite band ever. They are so fucking dark and heavy! I also love alot of bands like Dio, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Deep Purple. We all have the same tastes in music so it makes things easy!

Any last words? Thanx for answering this simple intie, good luck to your future plan guys,
Hail Metal!


For more info, MP3's, photos, etc, visit our website at www.funerus.com and thanks for the interview! Metal til death!

jill@funerus.com