The Funeral Portrait Talk Tour Highlights, Ultimate Gigs, and Their “Alien” Video

Since their inception, Atlanta’s modern rock quartet, The Funeral Portrait, has toured relentlessly, opening for acts such as Shinedown, Underoath, Skillet, and Pvris.

Preparing for their debut album later this year via Better Noise Music, the band recently dropped their new single, “Alien,” a song which sums up their ethos and outlook in five powerful minutes, as they explain:

“The Funeral Portrait stands to represent the outcasts from all walks of life. The misunderstood, the different, the neurodivergent, LGBT+, marginalized, and many others were given an unfair hand in life. To offer a sense of community, a place to belong, a space where they can feel safe and accepted for their differences. We all grew up “the weird kid” who was saved by music & the alternative culture, so we feel obligated to return this to the younger generation.”

Recently, vocalist Lee Jennings sat down with us to talk about the single, who they would most like to tour with, and the albums that changed his life. Check out what Lee told us below, but not before you’ve checked out their recent single “Alien.”

How would you describe your own music?

“Our music is a mix of most things we all grew up listening to. Mid-2000s emo rock and active rock to even more recent indie rock bands like Nothing But Thieves and Badflower. We also listened to a lot of Queen in the studio while working on this record.”

Tell us about your most recent release: what was your experience of making it? What went on behind the scenes? Any notable moments that stand out?

“We started working on our newest single ‘Alien’ back in 2020, right before the pandemic began. We were co-writing with one of our producers in New Orleans at the time, and we really felt like we wanted a heavy, heartfelt ballad for the record, so we started working on what it would feel like to be not part of this world. When we sat down to talk about huge moments in our life, I brought up the time I was at my lowest of lows in 2017, trying to keep my band together and getting out of a very difficult relationship, and that’s what sparked the idea of not wanting to be on this earth anymore.”

Which act would you want to tour with?

“I’m sure if you asked all of us, it would be different, but I would say we would die to tour with any of the bands we grew up listening to, like My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Avenged Sevenfold, just to name a few but maybe even newer bands like Creeper or Badflower would be an honor!”

The Funeral Portrait’s Lee Jennings and Friend

What do you like most about playing music?

“I love that we get to connect with people all around the world and spill our heart out to everyone that feels the same way as we do. I think about all the time I grew up listening to my favorite bands and meeting them and how life-changing that was for me, and the idea that I get to do that now makes me so glad to be here.”

What’s your favourite city or venue to play in?

“Honestly, we love playing in St. Louis, Missouri; it’s like a second home for us, but also, it’s the city we played in 2017 that I realized I wanted to do this forever. It’s the place that saved my life.”

What was the highlight of the last tour you went on?

“I think for us, it was playing in the middle of nowhere Montana, having so many people sing along, especially for it being the first time we’ve ever been there.”

The Funeral Portrait’s Lee Jennings

What’s the most dangerous thing that’s ever happened at one of your shows?

“Definitely the time someone punched me in the face because I told him to mosh in the back of the room. We’re not a heavy band, and I was upset this guy was hardcore dancing on top of our fans. I told him to do that in the back, and he got pissed and punched me in the face. What a wild time that was.”

What is your writing process like?

“Basically I’m always writing down ideas on my phone, whatever inspires me. I then bring those ideas to the guys and our co-producers and we all sit down and just think of what the song is about and the feeling of the song before we ever think of a riff or full-on lyrics. Once we know the feeling, we can then explore the top line and the riffs. Then once we have the demo flushed out, we can go back and re-record all the parts for real on top of them and put the feeling back into the song.”

Do you receive a lot of support from your local scene and fans in general?

“We are super lucky and have four hometowns. We have Atlanta, where I’m from, and then Rochester, NY, where Rob (our bass player) and Cody (one of our guitar players) are from then. Homer (our drummer) is from a small town in Illinois called Hoopeston, then Caleb (our other guitar player) is from St. Louis, so we kinda have the support of four different places around the country it’s nice to call so many different places home.”

If you were stranded on a deserted island and could only take 3 CDs with you for eternity (assuming there was a solar-powered CD player), what would they be?

“My Chemical Romance’s – Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge
AFI’s – Sing The Sorrow
Say Anything’s – Say Anything

These three records changed who I am and made me feel things I never thought I could with just music.”

How did you link up with the label for this release, and what about them was attractive enough to make you sign?

“I don’t think this story has ever been shared before, but in 2019 we released a song called ‘Holy Water,’ and it started to do extremely well right out of the gate while we were on tour with From Ashes To New all of a sudden it started getting national radio play on SiriusXM Octane and got put into full rotation, and then the calls started to come in from labels and the ones who believed in our project the most was Better Noise they understood what we wanted to do.”