Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.

Eemeli Bodde, Lead guitar and backing vocals
Teemu Halmetoja, Vocals
Aleksi Statsevich, Bass
Niko Väärälä, Drums
Juho Näppä, Guitar

For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to Funeral For The Masses? How long has the band been around?

Before Funeral For The Masses a lot of the guys didn't actually have any prior projects. Juho and Niko had never played live with a band before joining FFTM and Teemu and Aleksi had only some minor experience from former small projects.
Eemeli was, and still is, the lead vocalist for a Finnish metal band Mors Subita. 

The band has been around since 2014, so for a couple of years now.

What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?

I remember trying to come up with a name with Teemu back in 2014 and suddenly we ended up with Funeral For The Masses. It had a good ring to it right from the start and it fits the bands theme and atmosphere so we decided to just go with it.

Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?

Eemeli writes all of the songs and Teemu and Eemeli do all the lyrics. We draw inspiration from a lot of topics. Movies, Dreams and even cover some political issues.
For every release we have done the themes have changed a little, so I think they will change in the future too. We'll just have to wait and see what comes up from the darkest depths of our imagination. 

What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?

Well... There's a lot of bands and genres that I draw inspiration from but I think groups worth mentioning here are Lorna Shore (especially their new stuff), Black Tongue, Hacktivist and Thy Art Is Murder.

Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?

Back in the days I remember Suicide Silence, Thy Art Is Murder and Whitechapel being huge influences for us and our early material.
I was listening to their songs all day every day and then decided to ask Teemu if we should form a band and we just went on from there. 

What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, ect …

We all have our own individual routines before the shows. Personally I get bad hand cramps if I don't warm up so I stretch my arms, put on my gig clothes, let out a few growls to open my voice,
check that all the equipment is good to go and drink a beer or two. 

What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?

Releasing our new EP "Pitch Black" and doing a small release tour here in Finland. The tour was great and we had so much fun playing the new songs live and meeting new people. 

If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?

This is a hard one. There are so many great bands out there that we would love to tour with.  I'd say Thy Art Is Murder would be my nr. 1 pick just because their music is awesome and we already met the guys last summer at a festival called Nummirock.
We finished our own set, went to see their gig from the side of the stage and had a chat with them after. Super cool guys. 

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Be sure to listen to our new EP "Pitch Black" on spotify and buy it from Amazon or iTunes if you enjoy the songs! Support smaller bands and never forget to keep it brutal!