Founding Funeral For A Friend vocalist Matthew Davies-Kreye has quit the band. Davies-Kreye has been with the band since their foundation in 2001 and will be replaced by Holding Absence vocalist Lucas Woodland for their appearance at Slam Dunk Festival next May.
Davies-Kreye fronted Funeral For A Friend between 2001 and 2016, and then again from their reunion in 2019 to present day.
"It's with a heavy heart that we announce that after 20+ years, our singer and brother Matthew Davies-Kreye has decided to move on to pastures new going forward, and leaves with all our love, respect and gratitude.
"While Matt moves on, the rest of us have come out of our recent '20 Years Casually Dressed' anniversary tour with a renewed spark and desire to create new music together, for the first time in this lineup for many years. We'll keep you updated on that in due course, but suffice it to say that we wouldn't be entertaining new music if we didn't feel the material we're currently writing would hold up to the legacy of what we created back in the day. We hope you agree with us on that, and look forward to sharing with you next year.
"As far as Slam Dunk Festival next May, we're very pleased to share that we'll be joined on vocals for those shows by our excellent Welsh brother Lucas Woodland, of the wonderful Holding Absence. We're honoured that he's lending us his immense talents for the weekend, and know that he'll do Matty proud. We're stoked for what will be an incredibly exciting and unique couple of performances that weekend.
"We'll keep in touch with you all between now and then, but for now we'll sign off with a final word from Matt. Please join us in raising our fingers for one last salute."
As for why Davies-Kreye quit the band after over 20 years (including a reunion), he said his life has simply changed between Funeral For A Friend's reunion in 2019 and now. He said in his own statement: "I never thought, after we called it a day back in 2016, that I would get the chance to revisit Funeral For A Friend let alone the way we did with Darran and Ryan back onboard.
"Given the emotionally challenging circumstances around us coming back together to play the benefit show for Big Stu in 2019, I was so happy to see just how much love there still was for our music. Fast forward a few years and coming out the other side of a global pandemic, we have completed two of the bands largest UK tours ever (thanks in no small part to the sheer love of our fans) which is pretty mind blowing.
"After the joy, fun and success of the last two tours Kris, Darran, Ryan, Gavin and Rich are eager to play more shows and explore what the band can still do creatively and I'm sure with what they have in mind their endeavours will push the band to new highs.
"For me though, this is a road that I can't walk down. I absolutely love everyone in FFAF, I love our fans and I loved these last shows we played but my life has moved on in so many ways since we first said goodbye back in 2016 that I can't see myself being in an active band again.
"So here we are, I wish Kris, Darran, Ryan, Gav and Rich all the luck and success in the world and I know they'll be doing an incredible job and giving it everything they've got as always. To all of you, I can't thank you enough for your support over the years and I can't wait to hear you all singing along to the bands songs for many more years to come.
"Take care of each other and, as always, much love."
