[International] Funeral Lakes: Interview + New EP 'Redeemer'

24 Aug

KATIE BROWN - 24 AUG 2021

“I cannot pray for rain if it won’t fall / I cannot ask for forgiveness if I don’t want it all”

Hovering somewhere on the cusp of folk and indie-rock, new EP Redeemer by Canadian duo Funeral Lakes is an immersive and thought-provoking offering dealing with issues like faith, redemption and hope. Following on from last year’s Golden Season EP and 2019’s self-titled debut album Funeral Lakes, the tight collection of four tracks comes across as something of a catharsis in the way the pair courageously turn to face those deeper existential struggles and anxieties that so often lurk subconsciously. As Chris Hemer and Sam Mishos of Funeral Lakes say, “Redeemer asks the questions: Who gets to grant forgiveness? And what does it mean to be irredeemable?”

Sonically, Redeemer moves from brooding folk to driving and expansive Arcade Fire-esque climactic moments, Hemer’s vocals driving home his plaintive lines of contemplation with the purity of Mishos’s voice acting as the perfect complement to envelop the whole vocal delivery in a lush and multi-faceted richness. Guitars swirl while natural drums hold the heartbeat of the EP doggedly steady, and the effect of the whole is to create a space for processing mental turmoil within a safe boundary of considered beauty and honesty. Like gazing from a living room sofa into the rage of a crackling fire confined to its fireplace, Redeemer prompts reflection on the power wound up in our human struggles and interactions, the blurred line between light and darkness, what forgiveness is and where redemption really lies. It’s a turning back to gaze at the past while being impelled to let go and move forward, despite the horizon ahead being shrouded from view.

Growing from winter months spent recording from Hemer and Mishos’s home, Redeemer was mixed and mastered by Colin Spratt, with Andrew McLeod (Sunnsetter) providing remote drumming on the tracks ‘Solstice’ and ‘Place I Stay’. The pair began their music-making journey together in 2018, recording their debut album Funeral Lakes from their Vancouver apartment, picking up and fine-tuning production and recording skills as they went along. Garnering positive reviews and critical acclaim, Funeral Lakes was followed by 2020’s charged and energetic Golden Season, an EP recorded live off the floor during two days spent in a North Vancouver studio.

Focusing strongly on lyrical content and meaning, the pair write songs that paint a picture of what they are dealing with in their lives at the time, and these songs are appealing, relatable and real in their resulting sincerity. This is exactly how Redeemer translates: it’s an EP that doesn’t shy away from the struggles of life, but instead addresses them with grit and determination.

Listen to the EP and read our interview with Funeral Lakes below.

KATIE: YOU FIRST BEGAN MAKING MUSIC TOGETHER IN 2018. HOW DOES IT FEEL NOW AS OPPOSED TO BACK THEN? HAVE YOU FOUND THAT YOUR SOUND HAS TAKEN ON ITS OWN LIFE, SO TO SPEAK?

FL: We started this project at a time when we were both feeling pretty lost. It offered us a place to put the emotions we were feeling and a way to process what was happening in our lives. We wanted to do everything ourselves at home, so learning the recording process presented a big learning curve when we got started. We’re continuously learning and improving our skills, so that hasn’t totally gone away, but we feel like we’ve started to come into our own a bit more. Our sound is always evolving which means that each release has a somewhat different feel, but there are commonalities too - especially in lyrical content.

‘FUNERAL LAKES’ IS A PRETTY EMOTIVE NAME FOR A BAND! WHAT’S BEHIND IT?

Haha yeah we certainly chose the name with the intention of eliciting an emotional response. We live by a lake, so that imagery is prominent in our minds and has a lot of personal meaning for us. When we came up with the name we thought about it as a sort of eulogy to nature, but it could also be more general than that, like a sign of the times.

HOW DO YOU DESCRIBE YOUR SOUND?

In terms of lyrics and melody, we draw quite a bit from folk traditions, which have always been grounded in good storytelling. Sonically, we situate stories/narratives within big, dreamy, emotive atmospheres, which are inspired by the sounds of shoegaze and dream pop. That said, we try not to limit our sound to a single genre and make an effort to experiment with different ideas and approaches.

WHAT ACTS HAVE BEEN SIGNIFICANT TO YOU AS INSPIRATIONS?

Three bands that we both admire a great deal are Arcade Fire, Typhoon, and Saintseneca. They’ve all achieved super expansive sounds that we strive to emulate in our own work.

WHAT INSPIRES BOTH OF YOU IN GENERAL?

We’re both huge fans of music and film, and we’re constantly looking for new things to watch or listen to, so that’s probably where we get our love for emotional, cinematic sounds. More generally, we’re inspired by what’s going on around us, our environments, nature, and history. They all find their way into our music in one way or another.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR SONGWRITING DYNAMIC?

It depends on the song, but we embrace collaboration and flexibility in our approach to songwriting. We’re excited to share and bounce ideas off each other, and really value one another’s opinions. Some of our songs have existed for a long time in various iterations and may change up until the moment they’re recorded. The end result is something we’ve both put a great deal of thought into.

‘PLACE I STAY’ COMES ACROSS TO ME AS BEING ABOUT FACING THE DARKNESS OF THE WORLD, AND SIMULTANEOUSLY WANTING TO FIND SOME RESPITE FROM IT. THERE’S ANGER IN THERE TOO – HOW DID THIS TRACK COME ABOUT?

Definitely, everyone can relate to the feeling of needing to get away. We had spent some time reflecting on events from our past, some of which are still playing out today. We fixated on the notion of justice, and honestly felt quite disturbed by the hypocrisy of certain individuals that we’d witnessed. It began as a more acoustic song, but took on quite a different life during the recording process.

IN ‘SOLSTICE’ YOU SING “I CANNOT PRAY FOR RAIN IF IT WON’T FALL / I CANNOT ASK FORGIVENESS IF I DON’T WANT IT ALL” – THIS IS SUCH A RELATABLE LYRIC! IT’S SO HARD TO HOLD OUT FOR SOMETHING THAT DOESN’T SEEM GUARANTEED. HOW DO YOU SEE HOPE – AND I GUESS CONSEQUENTLY, WHAT IS FAITH TO YOU (BIG QUESTIONS, I KNOW!)?

It can be really difficult to maintain a sense of hope every day, but we’ve realized that giving into despair isn’t how we want to live our lives. Solutions to some of the biggest issues we’re facing do exist, and that’s something we try to hold onto despite the lack of political will. As we get older, our understanding of faith is continuously changing. With that particular lyric, we were grappling with what it means to put your trust in something without any concrete basis or evidence for that belief. This could be about a religious institution, or an economic system, or something else that holds a great deal of power/influence over our lives.

“TRUDGING FORWARD LORD, I CURSE YOUR NAME” – POWERFUL LYRICS FROM ‘SAINT DYMPHNA’! WHAT’S IT LIKE TO KEEP MOVING FORWARD WHEN SO MUCH SEEMS TO CONSPIRE TO HOLD YOU BACK? WHAT MAKES YOU TAKE ANOTHER STEP?

Continuing to move forward can be a defiant act, especially when it feels like there are forces deliberately holding you back. What has helped us is finding ways to support ourselves, and supporting each other. We feel a responsibility to our larger community and to future generations, so that’s something we try not to lose sight of.

“WHO WILL BREAK MY HEART?” IS THE FINAL LYRIC OF THE FINAL TRACK, ‘THERE’S GOT TO BE SOMETHING BETTER SOON’. I LOVE THE TENSION BETWEEN THIS LINE AND THE SONG’S TITLE: ONE IS HOPEFUL, THE OTHER SEEMS RESIGNED TO WHAT COULD GO WRONG. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS BEHIND THIS ONE, AND HOW DOES IT RELATE TO THE TITLE OF THE EP?

This song came about at a time when we were feeling quite helpless and constantly worrying whether our loved ones were okay. That’s set against the feeling of seeing people all going through the same thing in a world that can feel incredibly unforgiving. So there’s personal loss in there, but also an expression of empathy. It doesn’t necessarily relate to the EP title, but more so reflects the internal conflict between hope and despair.

Funeral Lakes Redeemer — *COVER ARTWORK FOR ‘REDEEMER’*

YOU’VE NAMED THE EP ‘REDEEMER’: DID YOU FIND ANY PARTICULAR REDEMPTION IN MAKING IT, IN WRESTLING WITH THE ISSUES IT ADDRESSES? WHO OR WHAT IS A REDEEMER TO YOU?

When we’re making music, there’s always an element of catharsis. We’re often working through very personal emotions or experiences, so we have to confront things that can feel uncomfortable. This can be difficult, but also healing in many ways. We don’t necessarily have an answer to who/what is a redeemer, but this uncertainty is what we wanted to explore throughout this collection of songs. Ultimately, the concept of a redeemer can take on different forms - it is perhaps something that is unique or personal to every individual.

2020 AND 2021 HAVE BEEN PRETTY HEAVY TIMES TO BE ALIVE. HOW HAVE YOU BEEN COPING WITH ALL THAT’S GOING ON? WAS WRITING THE EP ONE OF YOUR METHODS?

For sure, music can offer a healthy escape when you need it. It allows us to process what we’re feeling, and also to imagine something different from what currently exists. We also feel very lucky to have one another - it has helped a lot during these times to support and motivate each other in our music, but also just in everyday life.

WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT TAKEOUT FOR BOTH OF YOU FROM THE JOURNEY OF THE EP?

Recording this EP was a very insular process, so it reminded us of how rewarding it can be to work with friends in a larger, more collaborative process. We spent a lot of time with these songs on our own, so finally being able to share them with others is really meaningful.

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