Latest / Classic Hitz with Hitman / Hitman Talks to Lee Jennings The Funeral Portrait
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hey, what's going on?
- 0:00Speaker 2: It is Hitman with you and I have Lee Jennings
- 0:03Speaker 2: from the Funeral Portrait in the studios with me.
- 0:05Speaker 1: Hey, dude, how you doing?
- 0:06Speaker 3: How do you? Thanks for having me?
- 0:08Speaker 4: Well?
- 0:08Speaker 2: First off, I want to tell you congratulations for Suffocate
- 0:11Speaker 2: City becoming a number one song on the rock chart.
- 0:14Speaker 2: How is that feeling? Insane?
- 0:17Speaker 3: Wait? Could you say that one more time?
- 0:18Speaker 1: Number one on the rock chart?
- 0:21Speaker 3: Wow?
- 0:21Speaker 1: Suffocate City number one on the rock chart.
- 0:24Speaker 3: That's you?
- 0:25Speaker 1: Actually even better? You beat Lincoln Park.
- 0:28Speaker 3: We did. We become number one. We dethroned them, actually
- 0:32Speaker 3: throned Lincoln Park. I think they were up there for
- 0:34Speaker 3: like six weeks.
- 0:35Speaker 1: Yeah, and you guys were the ones that dethroned them.
- 0:37Speaker 3: Insane. How is that insane? I mean I could literally
- 0:41Speaker 3: say insane. Well, it's kind of crazy because we this
- 0:45Speaker 3: is our first time ever going to radio too, right,
- 0:47Speaker 3: So and we're like, okay, if we get like top twenty, right,
- 0:53Speaker 3: we're in. We're in top twenty. I'm in, right, kept climbing,
- 0:58Speaker 3: kept climbing, kept climbing. Ten Okay, celebrate, yay. We all
- 1:01Speaker 3: went out to Olive Garden, right, Yeah, it was great
- 1:04Speaker 3: because we're on tour and that's one of our go
- 1:05Speaker 3: to spots, Olive Garden, Oh, yes, family Meal. And then
- 1:11Speaker 3: it went up to five. We're like, oh, this is
- 1:14Speaker 3: like a thing, and I remember I remember just hitting
- 1:16Speaker 3: up our whole team and being like, oh my god,
- 1:18Speaker 3: like this is real, celebration, good, you know. And then
- 1:22Speaker 3: it went up to two. And it sat at two
- 1:24Speaker 3: for like four weeks. Well Lincoln Park, I know, and
- 1:29Speaker 3: I kept seeing them and they just kept gaming speed
- 1:32Speaker 3: like so there was so much more in front of us,
- 1:34Speaker 3: and I was like, okay. I was like, listen, guys,
- 1:38Speaker 3: you know, it was great. We had a great run.
- 1:41Speaker 3: Number two. It was sick, you know. And then I
- 1:45Speaker 3: met I met sound check in Pennsylvania, and all of
- 1:50Speaker 3: a sudden, I get texted a Billboard article and it
- 1:55Speaker 3: said literally says, Funeral Portrait earned number one, you know,
- 1:59Speaker 3: firstnumber one at rock radio or whatever. And I'm like,
- 2:02Speaker 3: this is this is fake. This is fake.
- 2:03Speaker 1: This is not real.
- 2:04Speaker 3: And I literally I'm screaming in my mic telling everybody
- 2:07Speaker 3: you know, and our front of house guy he's like, wait,
- 2:10Speaker 3: what what's going on? And he stopped. We all stop,
- 2:12Speaker 3: you know, and we're like, guys, look at this I
- 2:15Speaker 3: like texted it to our group chat and everybody's like
- 2:17Speaker 3: freaking out, like calling everybody. We're like, oh, you know,
- 2:20Speaker 3: because we didn't. I don't know. It's cool to know that,
- 2:24Speaker 3: you know what, I use the word devotion or in
- 2:27Speaker 3: our lore, the power of devotion, what it can do,
- 2:30Speaker 3: and it can bring down Lincoln Park, you know.
- 2:32Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it was. It was when I got word
- 2:35Speaker 2: from your record label that you guys went number one.
- 2:37Speaker 2: I was actually very happy for you guys.
- 2:38Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you.
- 2:39Speaker 2: So first off, tell us a little bit about how
- 2:41Speaker 2: did how did you get Spencer from Eisneine Kills involved
- 2:45Speaker 2: with Suffocate City.
- 2:48Speaker 3: I promised that he could can I say this word?
- 2:53Speaker 3: Can I say the word murder?
- 2:55Speaker 1: Yes?
- 2:55Speaker 3: I promised that he could murder a few uh bars
- 3:00Speaker 3: because he's he likes the murder as we all know.
- 3:03Speaker 3: And he was like, I'm in no for real. So
- 3:05Speaker 3: love story short. He about two years ago, yeah, a
- 3:11Speaker 3: year and a half ago. He let us. He invited
- 3:14Speaker 3: us out to open his silver Screen con this whole
- 3:17Speaker 3: thing up in Boston, Massachusetts. It's a horror convention, slash
- 3:21Speaker 3: music convention. It was crazy and we went up there.
- 3:24Speaker 3: We played he watched us, he fell in love with us.
- 3:27Speaker 3: He was like, Yo, this is cool. What in the world, Like,
- 3:30Speaker 3: where have you been? Yeah, you know, and we just
- 3:32Speaker 3: stayed in touch, one thing after the next, and you know,
- 3:36Speaker 3: I sent him the song and he was like, Yo,
- 3:38Speaker 3: this is sick. I want to be on it. And
- 3:41Speaker 3: then he listened again, like with the lyrics in front
- 3:44Speaker 3: of him. He's like, wait a second, did you like
- 3:45Speaker 3: change the second verse to be about what I would
- 3:48Speaker 3: sing about it. I was like, no, that's just what
- 3:49Speaker 3: it was. He was like, okay, this is meant to be.
- 3:51Speaker 3: He did it, and then next thing I know, I'm
- 3:54Speaker 3: in La filming the second half of the music video
- 3:56Speaker 3: because we filmed the second half before the first half.
- 3:59Speaker 3: We had to work around schedule, so which was weird
- 4:01Speaker 3: to think about, Like I had a bigger picture then,
- 4:04Speaker 3: and so I was like okay. So we did that
- 4:06Speaker 3: and then came back to Atlanta filmed the rest, and
- 4:08Speaker 3: the next day I know, it's it's out. And then
- 4:11Speaker 3: we were like, oh, this is great. And then all
- 4:13Speaker 3: of a sudden we get you know, it just starts
- 4:16Speaker 3: scanning momentum and momentum and then it's just now it's.
- 4:20Speaker 4: You know, it's huge, you I guess, yeah, yeah, it's crazy,
- 4:23Speaker 4: it's weird, you know, it's it's it's Spencer's actually getting
- 4:26Speaker 4: around a lot letty because when I was interviewing Maria
- 4:28Speaker 4: brink from in this moment, he's actually did a track
- 4:31Speaker 4: with her too.
- 4:33Speaker 1: Yes, so he's going to be out and about everywhere.
- 4:36Speaker 3: Yes, very very e likes to do that. Yeah, yeah,
- 4:38Speaker 3: he he. But I think the thing is is I'm
- 4:42Speaker 3: all for stuff like that nowadays. I think what it
- 4:45Speaker 3: does is there's two things. I think. One it helps
- 4:47Speaker 3: pass the torch, especially for younger artists right us is
- 4:51Speaker 3: it's introduced his fan base to us. And I've seen
- 4:55Speaker 3: it literally on this tour that we just got done doing.
- 4:58Speaker 3: We did some like Headlin and we did some dates
- 5:01Speaker 3: with that, the Mongolian band The Who as well, and
- 5:05Speaker 3: on all the shows there was in the crowd a
- 5:09Speaker 3: bunch of kids with I sent Kill shirts on and
- 5:12Speaker 3: I'm like, ah, they must have discovered us from that,
- 5:14Speaker 3: you know. And and it has opened this whole world
- 5:17Speaker 3: up to the funeral portrait and that's from those features,
- 5:21Speaker 3: you know. And it's it's that's how this works, you know.
- 5:24Speaker 3: And and it's cool because what that does is at
- 5:27Speaker 3: the end of the day, he's helping the future of
- 5:29Speaker 3: rock music, of course, and that's so important because again,
- 5:34Speaker 3: I wouldn't be here talking to you if we didn't
- 5:36Speaker 3: have rock music right right, new bands to play or
- 5:39Speaker 3: whatever it is. And that's that's a big thing too,
- 5:41Speaker 3: is rock music needs new, young bands, right and I
- 5:46Speaker 3: guess we're one of them.
- 5:47Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 5:47Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, let's talk about the history of the Funeral
- 5:50Speaker 2: Portrait because I did some research.
- 5:52Speaker 3: Fun you need to.
- 5:53Speaker 2: Tell me about Cosmoscope. Oh lord, you got a right
- 5:57Speaker 2: and and how you redid its Gonna be Me by
- 6:01Speaker 2: by InSync.
- 6:02Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's so funny. So that was over ten
- 6:05Speaker 3: years ago. I was so basically long story. Sure, I
- 6:08Speaker 3: was in a bangled Cosmoscope and we did insincts It's
- 6:12Speaker 3: Gonna be Me. It was just a funny little thing.
- 6:15Speaker 3: And then we got interest from a very tiny record
- 6:18Speaker 3: label and they were like, so we like the band,
- 6:20Speaker 3: but we hate the name. So we all same members
- 6:24Speaker 3: just changed the name to the Funeral Portrait. Oh and
- 6:27Speaker 3: we start hit the ground running, start touring in our
- 6:31Speaker 3: van that we had for ten years, just recently upgraded
- 6:34Speaker 3: to an RV, going from go. If you go number one,
- 6:39Speaker 3: you might have to start getting a plane. Hey, hey, listen,
- 6:44Speaker 3: let's call the label. Okay, yeah, we'll talk to Jackie. Yes, Jackie,
- 6:47Speaker 3: we need a plane. There we go, There we go.
- 6:49Speaker 3: But yees. So I think the thing is is I
- 6:53Speaker 3: think after grinding for so long, we eventually were like,
- 6:57Speaker 3: all right, I So it's kind of why about about
- 7:02Speaker 3: three years into us being a band, I lost all
- 7:07Speaker 3: the original members of my band all at the same time,
- 7:10Speaker 3: weird reverse kickout moment, right, And most of it was
- 7:13Speaker 3: because they just wanted to go do real life stuff.
- 7:16Speaker 3: They were tired of touring in a van, playing to
- 7:18Speaker 3: fifteen kids and I or whatever, right, and they just
- 7:21Speaker 3: didn't see the bigger picture. And I was like, well,
- 7:24Speaker 3: I believe in this band, and I love and I
- 7:26Speaker 3: spent so much time on the branding and the ideas
- 7:28Speaker 3: and what this band could have been. I was like,
- 7:30Speaker 3: all right, well, I'll just go find the right people then,
- 7:32Speaker 3: And that's what I did, is I eventually found all
- 7:34Speaker 3: the right people, and then we released a song called
- 7:37Speaker 3: holy Water twenty nineteen, and that's where we found better Noise.
- 7:42Speaker 3: And that's when they were like, yo, there's something here signed,
- 7:46Speaker 3: and then the world shut down, and that is one
- 7:51Speaker 3: of the It's weird because I'm going to be honest,
- 7:55Speaker 3: at the time, I was like, oh my god, my
- 7:56Speaker 3: life's over. It's done. We're cooked, you know, put us
- 7:59Speaker 3: off and done. But it's probably one of the best
- 8:03Speaker 3: things that ever happened because I think that time away
- 8:07Speaker 3: one I was able to focus on my life and
- 8:15Speaker 3: focus on so many things, not just outside of music,
- 8:19Speaker 3: but to evolve what our music is. We took five
- 8:23Speaker 3: years to basically do this record, and we rewrote these songs,
- 8:27Speaker 3: re recorded them, rewrote these songs, re recorded them through
- 8:30Speaker 3: in new songs, and that took like five years, right,
- 8:32Speaker 3: four years kind of, I guess. And if we would
- 8:35Speaker 3: have released the first version of this record, I mean,
- 8:39Speaker 3: Suffo Ka City wouldn't be what it is. The original
- 8:41Speaker 3: version of suffakay City, like the demo, it's like a
- 8:43Speaker 3: pop punk song from like straight from like Warp Tour,
- 8:46Speaker 3: like two thousand and four, which is like fine, but
- 8:48Speaker 3: it's not what it is, and it wasn't as good
- 8:51Speaker 3: as it could be, right, And that's for almost all
- 8:53Speaker 3: the songs on the record, and a lot of that
- 8:56Speaker 3: came from testing it out or going and playing shows
- 8:59Speaker 3: to fifteen kids again, you know, once COVID was over,
- 9:03Speaker 3: you know, or once it you know, was safe to
- 9:05Speaker 3: go on tour, whatever it was. And we started doing that,
- 9:07Speaker 3: and we started testing these songs, and then we developed
- 9:11Speaker 3: our brand as well. We started wearing the suits, you know,
- 9:14Speaker 3: we started bringing out these icons, and it was just
- 9:17Speaker 3: one thing after the next, after the next. And again,
- 9:20Speaker 3: I at first was so mad that it took so long,
- 9:24Speaker 3: but I think it's a blessing in disguise for for sure.
- 9:28Speaker 1: Well that's that's everything happens for a reason.
- 9:31Speaker 3: Yeah. Well again, if we would have released Suffca City
- 9:34Speaker 3: four years ago, we wouldn't have taken down Lincoln Park.
- 9:36Speaker 1: Yeah, that is true.
- 9:37Speaker 3: We were put on this earth to be the band
- 9:39Speaker 3: to take down the return of Lincoln Park.
- 9:41Speaker 2: I think he's gonna start bragging about that more often.
- 9:44Speaker 2: But where Oh you're the band that brought down Lincoln Park.
- 9:47Speaker 3: Oh my gosh.
- 9:48Speaker 2: So okay, I got two things I'll still talk to
- 9:50Speaker 2: you about. Okay, tell me about last night, the devotion
- 9:54Speaker 2: ceremony that you guys had celebrating ten years twenty fourteen
- 9:58Speaker 2: to twenty twenty four Yeah, ten years, ten years and
- 10:02Speaker 2: this is the first but Suffocate City, this is the
- 10:05Speaker 2: first single.
- 10:06Speaker 1: It's been on the radio, hasn't it?
- 10:07Speaker 3: Yeah?
- 10:08Speaker 1: Isn't that crazy?
- 10:09Speaker 3: It took us ten years and again, you know, some
- 10:12Speaker 3: of those years were spent, you know, wondering if this
- 10:15Speaker 3: band was even going to be a band anymore. Right,
- 10:18Speaker 3: many of those years, right, doing crappy tour after crappy
- 10:22Speaker 3: tour after crappy tour. Right, But all those were, like,
- 10:26Speaker 3: I don't know, we developed our character, you know, character
- 10:29Speaker 3: development years, you know, And it's one of those things
- 10:32Speaker 3: that I just think after ten years though, Like last night, right,
- 10:37Speaker 3: we sold out a six hundred and fifty cap club, right,
- 10:39Speaker 3: which I originally when our agent brought us the club,
- 10:43Speaker 3: that's like the middle size room. So there's three rooms
- 10:46Speaker 3: at this place called the Masquade in Atlanta. There's they
- 10:48Speaker 3: have it. It's Purgatory, Hell, and Heaven. Right, So each room,
- 10:54Speaker 3: So Purgatory is a two hundred cap room, Hell is
- 10:56Speaker 3: a six hundred and fifty cap room, in Heaven is
- 10:59Speaker 3: like fifteen hundred. And I was like he brought us
- 11:04Speaker 3: Hell because I was the only room available for the night.
- 11:06Speaker 3: And I was like, oh man, we're gonna sell two
- 11:09Speaker 3: hundred tickets. Like, I was like, I'd much rather be
- 11:12Speaker 3: in purgatory because I know I could sell that out right.
- 11:14Speaker 3: I was like, that would sell out. They'll be fun.
- 11:17Speaker 3: First day tickets going sell. We get the numbers and
- 11:21Speaker 3: it's two hundred and fifty tickets in twenty four hours.
- 11:23Speaker 3: I'm like, uh oh, this is a thing. Yeah, okay,
- 11:26Speaker 3: So we like doubled down then and we were like, okay,
- 11:28Speaker 3: well let's film it, let's record it. And then ticket
- 11:31Speaker 3: sales go up again, up again, up again, and then
- 11:33Speaker 3: it sells out in advance, and then people are like
- 11:37Speaker 3: I learned flying it. There was there was a couple
- 11:40Speaker 3: that flew in from Germany really yesterday, yes, and this
- 11:44Speaker 3: girl flew in from Quebec, like and you know, and
- 11:47Speaker 3: then again talking about ten years, looking out into the crowd,
- 11:51Speaker 3: I could probably name half of the crowd by name
- 11:54Speaker 3: because of the last ten years so important. There's people
- 11:58Speaker 3: from Pennsylvania that I've known for ten years. There was
- 12:01Speaker 3: people from California that I've known for five years or whatever.
- 12:03Speaker 3: You know. When we started tooring get in twenty twenty two,
- 12:06Speaker 3: you know, I we and it's a lot of that
- 12:08Speaker 3: is there. Our connection with our fans. We have a
- 12:11Speaker 3: very deep connection with them. It's one of those things
- 12:14Speaker 3: that I get to a merch table every night. I
- 12:16Speaker 3: hang out as long as I can until they kick
- 12:18Speaker 3: us out. Literally last night, we're there way past. We
- 12:21Speaker 3: had to pay extra to be there longer last night,
- 12:23Speaker 3: wo because they wanted to go home, Like, we're going
- 12:25Speaker 3: to charge you an extra hundred bucks. I was like,
- 12:26Speaker 3: I don't care which I want to meet these people.
- 12:28Speaker 3: So I did it. And it's one of those things
- 12:30Speaker 3: that like, that's way more important to us, and I
- 12:33Speaker 3: think that is how we have been successful, like on
- 12:37Speaker 3: radio and stuff like that. Yeah, the label I'm sure
- 12:39Speaker 3: pushes and all that kind of stuff. Right, there's magic
- 12:41Speaker 3: that happens behind the current. But radio especially wouldn't play
- 12:46Speaker 3: it if people didn't like it, right, So work requests exactly,
- 12:50Speaker 3: you know. So it's one of those things that we
- 12:51Speaker 3: know that there's people out there that likes this this
- 12:54Speaker 3: song or likes this band, and it's cool that that
- 12:58Speaker 3: is because of us going out shaking the hands and
- 13:01Speaker 3: meeting these people.
- 13:03Speaker 1: It's crazy.
- 13:03Speaker 2: We're talking with Lee Jennings, the lead singer of the
- 13:06Speaker 2: Funeral Portrait. Now I got one last question to talk
- 13:08Speaker 2: about now that Suffocate City is out in radio and
- 13:11Speaker 2: it's probably gonna be on the radio forever now because
- 13:14Speaker 2: everybody's gonna If it goes number one, it's usually on
- 13:16Speaker 2: the radio for a long time. So you're gonna hear
- 13:19Speaker 2: it out there. But what's next, I tell me is Okay,
- 13:23Speaker 2: I'm just gonna ask you, Casanova. That's not That's not
- 13:27Speaker 2: the next single, Okay, that was So that song was
- 13:30Speaker 2: the very first song we ever released years ago. Okay,
- 13:33Speaker 2: we decided for funsies and kind of as a thank
- 13:38Speaker 2: you to og fans, we decided that we wanted to
- 13:42Speaker 2: do something for them, right, and we wanted to re
- 13:46Speaker 2: record our first song that we ever did and do
- 13:49Speaker 2: it our way, you know, almost like Taylor's version Funeral
- 13:53Speaker 2: Portraits first, right, and we call it from Beyond the
- 13:56Speaker 2: Abyss because we have this whole lore and beyond the abyss,
- 14:00Speaker 2: this fake TV show in the world of Suffocate City.
- 14:03Speaker 2: So it's from beyond the Abyss, right right, right, it's
- 14:07Speaker 2: the whole thing.
- 14:08Speaker 3: It's a whole thing. But so, nope, Casanova's not the
- 14:10Speaker 3: next one. But there is a there is a few
- 14:12Speaker 3: songs on that on that record, that. Uh, I think
- 14:16Speaker 3: would sound great on the radio.
- 14:18Speaker 1: So we should be hearing something from you knew soon?
- 14:21Speaker 2: Yes, yes, definitely, Okay, I hope so because you want
- 14:25Speaker 2: to keep that ball rolling.
- 14:26Speaker 3: Oh we know. Yeah, so hey listen, I got I
- 14:31Speaker 3: got tracks for days.
- 14:33Speaker 1: Oh, there you go. That's what we need, that's what
- 14:35Speaker 1: we need.
- 14:35Speaker 3: Well.
- 14:36Speaker 2: I want to thank you for coming by today and
- 14:38Speaker 2: looking forward to hearing your new music soon and seeing
- 14:40Speaker 2: you out on tour. Yes, hopefully you'll be coming to
- 14:43Speaker 2: Corpus Christy to play. Yes, and hopefully we'll see you
- 14:47Speaker 2: here very very soon. You never know. So if there's
- 14:50Speaker 2: anything you want to pass on to your fans in
- 14:52Speaker 2: the in the South Texas area, is there anything you'd
- 14:54Speaker 2: like to pass on?
- 14:56Speaker 3: Thank you? I don't know. It's crazy. One of the
- 14:58Speaker 3: very first tours we ever did came through Corpus Christie
- 15:00Speaker 3: really like ten years ago. Yep. And I'm trying to
- 15:05Speaker 3: think of the venue, smaller venue. Why do I get
- 15:08Speaker 3: the feeling you're going to say, the House of Rock.
- 15:10Speaker 3: That's exactly what it's I knew it had rock in
- 15:12Speaker 3: the name.
- 15:12Speaker 2: House of Rock, House of Rock, that is a that
- 15:15Speaker 2: is our legendary rock venue.
- 15:17Speaker 1: Yep, that everybody goes to.
- 15:20Speaker 2: Coming up in December, Tommy Vex is coming in to
- 15:22Speaker 2: play there, so yeah, it's it's and a lot of
- 15:25Speaker 2: other ill Nino's been through there, and a lot of
- 15:27Speaker 2: other bands have been there. Nita Strauss has performed there.
- 15:30Speaker 3: It's a cool spot. I remember it ten years ago.
- 15:32Speaker 3: But I also believe we played there last year because
- 15:34Speaker 3: I remember their food being really good.
- 15:36Speaker 2: Oh they're known for their pizza. Yeah, their pieces, like
- 15:39Speaker 2: their pizzas like phenomenal.
- 15:41Speaker 3: Yes.
- 15:41Speaker 2: Yeah, So well, hopefully we'll get to see again, if
- 15:44Speaker 2: not at House of Rock, maybe at the Concrete Street Amphitheater, okay,
- 15:48Speaker 2: or even bigger yet We're Jelly Rolls playing tonight the
- 15:51Speaker 2: American Bank Center. Oh yeah, so that'd be kind of cool,
- 15:53Speaker 2: that would be saying so. But thanks a lot for
- 15:55Speaker 2: coming in. Hey, thank you for having me, and yeah,
- 15:58Speaker 2: appreciate it and once you do me a favor or
- 16:00Speaker 2: why don't you say, uh, hey, it's Lee Jennings. See
- 16:02Speaker 2: one one rocks.
- 16:03Speaker 3: Hey, this is Lee Jennings from the Funeral portrait and
- 16:05Speaker 3: see one on one Rocks.