The first time I saw Funeral Diner was by complete accident back in 2001. I was on a road trip to Berkeley to see Capitalist Casualties at Gilman (yes, this was what I affectionately call my “crust days”) and my friend and I stopped in Santa Cruz for the night. There was a show that night at the old Laurel House and the locals were excited because Funeral Diner was playing. I had no idea who they were at the time, and I remember being bummed on the first two bands that played kind of the whole 90’s Ebullition style hardcore (that consequently I grew to love once I traded patches for jeans that fit). Anyways FD came on and everyone went absolutely nuts. I was blown away by how powerful the music was, emotional both through the Seth’s voice and the instruments. The next day in San Francisco I bought every Funeral Diner record I could find, and had my first of many awkward conversations with the shy singer. Ever since that first show I saw them every chance I got and was never disappointed. This interview was conducted via email with Matt, who played drums. As far as I know, this is the last interview with the band post-breakup. If you haven’t heard them, please give a listen. This band was too good to drop off into obscurity.
My name is Matthew Bajda and i played the drums.
Dan Bajda is my brother and one of the guitar players.
Dave played guitar as well.
Seth Robert Babb sang and screamed
Then Ben Steidel was Bass. there were a string of other bass players in the band. Sean O'shea, Rob Beckstrom, and Andy Radin. There was another person that sang for a bit before Seth named Phil Benson.
How did Funeral Diner come about?
Dave, Dan and I were all in the same bands together
since we started learning our instruments. we are all related as well. dan and i are brothers, and we are step-cousins with dave. We had been in a band called Nexus 6 before that. It just seemed natural to keep on
the same track as we had been since we all got along
and still wanted to play music together. that was back in 1998 in Half Moon Bay, California where we grew up. Later on as the band went on Seth and Ben got on the team and we continued with what we were doing.
What were some of your early influences?
we tended to draw from a lot of different things. we all liked hardcore (now termed emo, screamo, etc.) and had a solid basis with that, but there were also other genres that we tended to get bits and pieces from. at the time i remember i was listening to a lot of goth and industrial stuff and dan was listening more indie pop.
How was the "hardcore" scene in Half Moon Bay at that time?
half moon bay was sort of small, but it grew over the years. Before us were only a handful of bands, Portraits of Past being one of them. During the same time as Funeral Diner and after we had been around a while a lot of bands started to show up. Under a Dying Sun, Staircase, and Walken were some bands that came up around the same time that are really good. There were shows that started to happen at the Round Table Pizza, The Community Center, and at houses here and there, but like every scene things ebb and flow. things will slow down or pick up depending on the time of year or what people have going on. The scene there still holds on though.
How did having multiple influences and/or listening to lots of different genres help shape Funeral Diner's ultimate sound?
I think it gave us ideas that were not the pigeon hole or text book pieces of a hardcore band. i think every band out there experiences something of that nature at some point in time. of course there are bands in the scene that draw from other bands within, but there are other bands that draw from things outside that genre. maybe that is where the feel of layered or blended songs came together for our band.
What were the circumstances with the other singer leaving? How/when did Seth join?
Phil left after only being with us a while. it was after a short weekend tour in southern california that
he decided. it was also at the same time that Rob left the band as well. for Rob, it was a bit hectic for him to drive the distance to practice as well as keep up with his daily life, of which involved raising a child. Phil was a really awesome screamer/singer, but wanted to start something from scratch with some people he was really tight with. I think seth got on the team in 2000 or 2001. He used to sing in a band called Walken, but had parted ways with them around the same time that Phil left Funeral Diner. Seth and I went to San Francisco State University together and knew a lot of the same people, so when i saw him at a show at Kimo's in San Francisco i asked him if he wanted to maybe come play with us. he was all for it.
I've always noticed that Funeral Diner has always had a certain element that was atypical with what the current hardcore bands were doing, especially in the later releases. Do you think that being a band for 10 years has helped you be able to experiement and explore your sound more without necessarily isolating or disappointing your fanbase?
Being a group for 10 years does help with people
sticking by your side when you break away from the
pigeon hole. i would also like to think that people enjoy the refreshing little changes that we put in the songs. if we played the same thing over and over, then it would get to monotonous and boring. you have to change it up a little bit so that you add a new twist that people can get into. in the later releases Dan had been listening to a lot of older americana rock like Lynyrd Skynyrd, so that made it's way into some of the songs. i think that also got us a little bit excited on what we were doing. of course there are going to be people that get bummed out, but that is the chance everyone takes when they make up music. we like to make up music that is primarily emotional to us. we want to share that experience with others but we accept that not everyone will like it.
How did the split lps with nexus 6, the shivering,
> and staircase come about?
We had asked around on the nexus 6 split, and i think No Idea Records told us to try Todd at Old Glory. he wanted to be the first to do an old band/new band split, so we went with him. the shivering was done through spencer (shivering) mostly since he had it lined up with all the labels. he asked us to be part of it and since we are friends we thought it would be good. Marianne from Ape Must Not Kill Ape got referred to us by Kent at Ebullition since he was booked solid with stuff for the year. Marianne was interested in the idea. The guys in staircase and us almost all went to the same highschool, so doing a "Half Moon Bay"related release seemed bound to happen at some point.
I also wanted to ask a question about the artwork
> and theme for "the underdark." We have a mutual friend who told me that you guys all love D&D and mythological type creatures and that is where the inspiration came for the artwork. He also told me that there is a slight D&D theme in the lyrics and songs. What can you tell me about the process of writing and recording "the underdark" and what themes, if any. did you touch on? I would also like to prompt you to mention about the change of sound, because to me atleast that album is when the change was most obvious.
not all of us love D&D, though there are 3 out of 5 of us that are deep into the whole dungeons and dragons world, and 4 out of 5 of us that are into fantasy in general. i got the inspiration to use the Dore woodcuts from Dante's Inferno after reading the book. i really like old artwork, line art, wood cuts, catholic iconography, and renaissance artwork in general. a lot o fo us in the band are into mythological beasts and what have you, so that has a part to play in the whole scheme of things i am sure. when we wanted to record "the underdark" we talked about a D&D theme, but as it went on it got refined to what we would like to consider "a society in decline". of course the lyrics are vague on purpose; that way you can make your own judgement. in terms of the music; if you are make a complete theme album, then you have to make sure the music fits the theme for each song, or coincides with the lyrics that you are writing about. we talked over the ideas about how we wanted the general flow of the album to go and what we wanted the feel of each song to be, then we sort of took it from there. we broke away from the whole idea of writing a song and slapping on a record as a release and tried to actually think on a broader level.
As Funeral Diner grew more mature in sound, what influences were you all drawing on?
that is a tough one. as before, we all listen to a diverse music set, which played a major roll. the addition of Ben into the band had a big part in things. he was good for fresh ideas. There was also the fact that we wanted to make something a little different, a little more structured, as the underdark album was.
Can we expect post-mortem releases from Funeral Diner, or was the split with Ampere, and the "Doors Open" e.p. the final legacy?
Doors Open and the Split with Ampere are the last that you are going to see out of Funeral Diner from what i can tell. there may be some compilations that have some already released songs on them, but there won't be anything new.
What new projects are you all working on now that Funeral Diner is over?
Seth is in a band called, "Sterling Says," which is a bit like Dinosaur Jr. Ben is playing in a group called, "Lemonade," that is very dance orientd. Dave and I (matthew) are in a new project called,"...Who Calls So Loud," which could be said to be picking up where Funeral Diner left off.
How do you feel about the status of punk and d.i.y. in the Bay Area now compared with when you were all younger and Funeral Diner was just starting out?
The scene here is up and down. it got a bit dead from time to time, but it seems that there are some new spaces doing shows now. The Bike Kitchen is a place that started doing shows in the last year, which has sort of, in my eyes, taken place of the Tehama Street house. There are also places in Santa Cruz, Redwood City, and Oakland that are doing shows, so i think we are on the upswing currently.
No comments:
Post a Comment