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Writer's pictureKaiya Vandemark

Interview With Lee Jennings From The Funeral Portrait


The Funeral Portrait
Lee Jennings - The Funeral Portrait | Photo Credit: Heather Vandemark

So this is a pretty exciting week for you guys because you're releasing your latest album, “Greetings from Suffocate City”, this Friday the 13th! I know the major themes on this album are about love and loss, and I don't want to dive too deep into personal territory here, but if you wanted to elaborate on that and how the album title ties into that.


“yeah so basically I think for us, when we were starting to write this record it was about 2019 when we kind of started sitting down being like ok let's write a record and you know, so much, just recently changed for me. I just lost my grandmother who was a big force in my life, basically raised me. I lived with her my whole life and I think we kind of wanted to talk about the idea of not just losing a loved one but like someone that has been there your whole life from the beginning and not being ready for it. I think diving more into like a place where you can join your family or your friends or your partners or whoever is in the afterlife but still be in the present world was something that we kind of wanted to dive into and that's kind of Suffocate City. It kind of runs both ways so it's kind of a different take on a concept record, where it's a constant theme but the songs don’t really all have to go together” 


You guys have some pretty sick features on the album including Spencer Charnas (Ice Nine Kills), Danny Worsnop (Asking Alexandria), Bert McCracken (The Used), and Eva Under Fire, how did you decide who you wanted to work with on this album?


“It’s kind of wild, we had all the songs kind of done and it was like ok well who's some like dream people that we want to work with, so we kind of wrote down a lot of them and we were like ok who do you think would be best for this song and this song. One of the coolest was Spencer and you know we played The Silver Scream Con last year and that was like really fun and he was like oh I like your songs. Then I sent him Suffocate City and he was just like yo like let me be on that like we should do this together and he did his parts, he like prerecorded some of the vocals that I did and then sent back and then all literally within two more weeks I've been to Los Angeles like literally filming the music video with him, and it was just like ok this is happening. Then with Bert, it was weird because like on the top of my list was Bert from the Used and I was like that's never gonna happen you know what I mean, like it's Bert, you know literally an emo icon. So somehow it just one thing after the next he heard the song and he was like yo this sounds great like I’d love to be on it. Literally within like a week he like sent me him his vocal parts and everything and it was done and I was like what is my life so that was kind of a wild moment”


What is your personal favorite off the album and then which one do you think Coffin Crew is going to love the most? 


L: “That’s hard oh my goodness, it’s like tell me your favorite child. I of course love “Suffocate City” just because I think it's the song that like really sparked the idea for the record so that one was like a big deal but I think “Staying Weird” is going to be really fun and I think a lot of people are gonna really connect with. It's like it was kind of this anthem to my younger self and I think it's cool that I can still write to myself and at the present tense so I was just kind of like I grew up kind of like not doing so well in school and stuff just because I got made fun of for being different or tall or big or liking musical theater or liking emo music or whatever it is and I just wanted to kind of write something to 14-year-old me being like hey just be you, stay you, and look what you could do. I have a really good feeling that people are gonna really connect with that one 


K: “I connect with it already” 


L: “I love that” 


So you guys are also currently on this huge tour with Five Finger Death Punch, Marilyn Manson, and Slaughter to Prevail, I was just there last night and it was fucking awesome! What is it like to be on a bill with the iconic Marilyn Manson and to play stadiums, amphitheaters, and arenas every night?


L: “It's been insane! You know one of the very first shows I ever went to was to see Marilyn Manson and that was like back in 2004. It's wild and it was at one of the venues that we're about to play in Atlanta, so it's like a really big full-circle moment for me. I think it's cool just to be like how much has changed especially so rapidly for us. I think it sounds like it's rapidly because, to us, it's just like we go for one small stage to like this huge arena tour but I think we’ve been grinding for a long time and we've been pouring our hearts out on stage and into these songs for such a long time so it's cool that it's kind of finally taking its level to the next for the next stage. Just thinking about like where we're going next and hopefully, we can just continue on these steps and processes to make sure that our message gets heard to the masses” 


Alright so I got some silly little questions, just in honor of Spooky Season and y'all being kind of a spooky band I just thought it'd be kind of fun, so out of The Funeral Portrait, who do you think would be the first to die in a horror film and who would be the final girl 


“oh wow, so I think Homer, our drummer, would be the final girl just because he's just like that survival man kind, and he's like kind of got the brute force so he’ll just like slash through everybody. If it's like zombie apocalypse style, definitely Homer. The first to die would be either Caleb or I for sure, just because we’re just silly I just don't think we would last long, it's just we kind of have that little silliness going on.”


Would you rather spend a night in the Bates Motel or the Overlook Hotel 


L: “Ooh Overlook, duh.” 


K: “Oh yeah I'm the same” 


Ok and last one, would you rather go ghost hunting or be the ghost 


L: oh ghost hunting! We went ghost hunting just recently so that was super fun. We did this thing where in Michigan we had like a bunch of fans and we kind of like rented out an old insane asylum and we that chance and to get tickets and stuff we did like 40 of them. We honestly thought only like two or three people would show up and we sold out super fast. We had a great time ghost-hunting. We heard some crazy ghost, like someone got Hatman, oh yeah it was weird, it was wild 


K: Where did you guys go again, like what was the actual location? 


L: The Eloise, I think it was, the insane asylum in like Detroit. We did like a whole thing you could look at it if you go to our Instagram there are like a few posts back maybe like 2 or 3 weeks back you'll see it, it's really cool, it's was a really fun experience.


K:  it's funny I'm actively recording this call with one of my digital recorder for ghost hunting so that's so funny 


L: I love that that's so sick yeah


Listen to "Greeting From Suffocate City" here:


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