The Artist Interrogations Podcast.
All right, it's Peaches here, sittin' down with Lee and the rest of the guys from The Funeral Portrait. Sorry, I was, I'm so sorry. I just s- I should've said, "It's the guys from The Funeral Portrait," not Lee and The Funeral Portrait. I hate when radio DJs do the whole, like-
Lee and The Funeral Portrait.
Right, yeah.
No.
I hate when radio DJs do, like, the whole, like, m- their name and the rest of The Morning Show, so, you know.
Oh, there we go.
Yeah. [laughs]
I do miss when bands were, like, so-and-so and his so-and-sos. Like, that was fun. Like, like, the, like, the '50s thing.
Yeah.
You know what I mean? It'd be like, "John Cratchit and His Cactuses" or whatever. You know what I mean? They don't, like, behind-
Yeah. But what if it was opposite? What if it named all of you guys-
Yeah
... and then I was the funeral portrait?
And the guy. [laughs]
Yeah, and the funeral portrait.
Yeah, yeah.
So-
Cody, Caleb, Homer, Rob, and the guy.
And-
And the funeral portrait
... the funeral portrait. Yeah. [laughs]
How about, "And the tall dude"?
Yes.
Something like that.
[laughs]
'Cause ev- every tall guy hates that, right?
Yeah, of course.
Yeah. 'Cause I, we, we, we related the last time we were chatting on the-
Yep
... on Zoom talkin' about how there are no ... How you can sleep on-
[laughs]
... the, the bunk in the, in the bus.
Yeah.
Just because that, that's, that seems like the least, um, the most claustrophobic thing.
Yeah. I'm very lucky that I have ... So we have an RV still, right? So on top of the driver, uh, is that, like, bunk, you know? So I'm up there. So I kinda have my own space. It's also kind of a junk bunk for when people bring us gifts or whatever it is, you know, and stuff. And so it comes out ... It, it's, it's fine for now, you know? But the people that I really feel for are Cody, especially Cody over here. I don't think Cody has had a really good night's sleep in a year.
No.
Um, [laughs] uh, because the way that we built out our, our RV is the last bit, instead of the queen bed, you know, we took that out, and we put in bunks. And the way that I had it designed is they were supposed to get rid of everything in that area, but they couldn't get rid of some of it because it's, like, attached the way it is to, like, the structure. And we were like, "Oh, great." So the way that we had to build it was there's three taller bunks, what, six feet long probably.
I don't know.
I think they're six feet long.
Yeah, maybe.
And then there's two that are like-
Some- I'm a little too long for it
... yeah, there's two that are-
Like five feet long.
Five feet long.
Yeah.
Well-
I'm 5'7" for context. Which is perfect for Danny-
Is you-
Our, uh, merch girl-
Yeah, Danny
... who travels with us-
Y-
... 'cause she's 4'11". And so-
[laughs]
... uh, you know, she's got plenty of extra room. But yeah, Cody's-
Really off the edge a little bit
But Cody's through, and unfortunately ... And I, and I feel so bad. So hopefully this is one of the last tours that we do in an RV, and then everybody will have their own space.
It all, it all comes out in the wash, though, because for like four, four or five years before that, he had like an eight-foot-long bunk. [laughs]
This is very true.
[laughs] So, you know-
I miss that so much.
He did.
And I had, and I had a three-foot-long bunk [laughs], and I, and I'm the other tall guy. So, like-
I do-
... I was going to bed in the fetal position every night.
Yeah. [laughs]
And he was like, "Ugh," straight up straight-
[laughs]
... stretching out. So, you know, now it's a little switched. It's like I obviously don't want my buddy to not get any sleep, but I'm like, "Oh, you live with it for a year, you'll be all right." [laughs]
[laughs] Oh, yeah. Oh, geez. How many, how many days have you guys been on the road now?
Uh, it'll be-
Uh-
... 290 by the end of the year.
290?
Yeah.
Not, not currently two- we're probably like, whatever, 230-
Something, yeah
... or something now-
I don't know
... or 220 or something.
Yep.
'Cause we have the rest of this tour, and then we have Europe still.
Yep.
Wow.
So and this tour ends on the 26th, 27th?
26th.
Um, of October. And then we're home for about 10 days, 11 days, something like that.
Mm-hmm.
And then we fly over to Europe-
Oh, wow
... for a month and a half, and then, uh, we're-
We're back December 9th
... back December 9th, and then off for the holidays, kind of.
Oh, good.
But we gotta, we gotta do some writing and stuff like that too. You know, there's-
Yeah, there's always work to be done
... it's never ending, you know?
Yeah, yeah.
But, but at least on the road-road, you know, we'll be done for a while.
That's interesting to do, like, writing during the Christmastime. Like, just the-
[laughs]
... the holiday season, everyone's kind of extra cheerful-
[laughs]
... and I can only imagine trying to write a song as deep as, like, "Hearse For Two" or something like that-
Yeah
... during that time. Like, "I gotta be sad, okay? I gotta go to my room."
"I gotta be sad," yeah.
"Turn the lights off," you know, "put on some black light."
Exactly.
No, and I think the holidays are the saddest part of the year for a lot of people, so it's not ... [laughs]
Right. Yeah.
Well, it's true though, right?
Crying out hard.
I think so. And I ... And I think ... I, I know what you're meaning, especially for us being on tour for so long and then having this time off, um, we don't have time to n- not, you know, write.
Mm-hmm.
You know, for us-
Oh, yeah
... we need to start working, working on the next record. So the only way to do that is by,
you know, doing it when we can. So, you know, 'cause we're gonna be doing, like, our, uh, like, big hometown show in January as well, and then, uh, with, like, full production and all these things. And then we're gonna be doing Shiprocked as well in January, which is great. It's super fun. It's our first time doing it. We- it ... Well, it should be fun. Let's put it that way.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It should be, yes.
Um, should be. Um, and-
My intention is for it to be fun
... and then after that, it sounds like, you know, we'll be back on the road more. So it's just a little take your time with it and see where it goes.
Right before you guys go on Shiprocked, make sure to watch that Poop Cruise documentary-
[laughs]
... just to get yourself ready for the whole-
I've s-
... "whatever can happen, happens"
... I haven't seen that movie, like the documentary, but I, I did watch the movie last year, maybe two years ago called The Triangle of Sadness, which, uh, features a, a, a scene heavily influenced by that. Um, and that's pretty, pretty gnarly too. So I'm-
What is this-
... I'm already familiar.
[laughs]
What is this movie?
Uh, so there's this movie called The Triangle of Sadness, and it's like kinda like an artsy house film thing. But there's like three segments of it, but one of the big seg- segments of the movie is the ... all these characters are on a ship-
Okay
... and the sewage backs up.
Oh, okay.
And there's this, like, whole slapstick sequence of, like, people sliding all over.
Okay.
And it's, it's ... I'm not talking about it on here-
Oh, that sounds great
... 'cause it gets kind of gross.
[laughs]
But it's, it's ... I've-
Could you imagine that happening on Shiprocked-
I found it really funny
... in the middle of you playing and then just-
Well, that's what, that's what he's talking about is that did ... that happened on the cruise.
Yeah.
That happened on a real cruise.
Yeah.
And there's a whole documentary about it. It's crazy. Um, I would be very, uh, unhappy with that.
Me too, personally.
M- my favorite part of the whole thing is that the, the whole boat is just failing. The whole cruise ship's-
Mm-hmm
... o- out of power, everything. And another ship goes by, and everyone's screaming for help, waving their hands. And the other ship that's going by is like, "Oh, they're saying hello," and they just wave back and go-
[laughs]
... go amongst their vacation. [laughs]
Terrible.
I don't know how tempted I would be to swim to the other ship.
Well yeah, because if their powers out, like, if they couldn't, like, radio over to, like, tell them-
No. Right
... "Oh, everything's messed up." Dang.
That's crazy.
And that's ... deep water's s- scary, so that's a-
Yeah.
I can't swim.
Not to prep you guys for Shiprocked like that.
Really? [laughs]
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for all that, yeah.
Sorry about that [laughs].
Is that right?
Yeah. Cody can't swim. No, you don't remem-
I didn't know that.
Oh, you weren't there. When we went on a ... So I used to have ... Uh, my grandparents had a boat.
Oh my gosh, I have heard this story 19-
My grandparents had a boat, right? And I took it out. They, they said, "Hey, you can go take it out," 'cause I wanted to bring the whole band with us, right? And this was before Caleb was coming down, uh, or wa- well, was really involved.
I think I wasn't even in the band yet. Yeah.
Yeah, I don't think you were in the band, really. And, and-
This was, this was a while ago.
Yeah. Uh, and I remember us going out e-
... you know, swim in and stuff. We stopped for swimming, and Cody's like, "Yeah, I can't swim." But he put on a life vest, right?
[laughs]
And just floated. [laughs] But he got-
[laughs]
He got sick. He's like this, you know, like this, like, crunched up.
[laughs]
And he gets sick and throws up all over himself.
Oh, no!
In the life vest. [laughs]
Cody, are you getting abused over there? 'Cause you can't sleep on the tour. You, you....
It's, it was the algae that got me.
[laughs]
Yeah.
From the hatch. [laughs]
That is true 'cause, uh, so Lake Altoona where, where I... Close to where I live-
You mean, Lake Murrah?
Um, does have a lot of, like, algae, right?
Oh, yeah. That'll do it.
Gotcha.
It's fine to swim in.
Yeah.
It's just a little gross looking, right?
[laughs]
So, so it kinda got into his stuff, you know what I mean?
Your face. Like, "Ugh."
That's literally what it was.
[laughs]
That's literally what it was. [laughs] I think I have a Polaroid picture at home of this incident as well-
No, no. God
... 'cause we were taking lots of Polaroids out there.
You, you were that guy that was like-
Oh
... "Oh, my friend's in trouble. Let me take a Polaroid real quick."
Oh, 1,000%.
Oh. Yeah, I just had a story like that happen, or something like that happen to me where, uh, we were kayaking. I forgot. It's in Buhl, Idaho. It's the middle of nowhere.
Okay.
And there's, like, this place called Blue Springs. My friend Matt, he's from Florida, typical Florida man, wants to do all the dangerous hikes, and I'm the guy that's like, "Okay, can we just do, like, a nice little trail and go see some things?"
[laughs]
And so we, he ha- he had his kayak, and I didn't think I'd be able to fit in the kayak. And I think it was so inside, like, under-
[laughs]
Like, so deep into the water it's sort of filling up with water. So, luckily, we were at a spot where we could swim, but-
Mm-hmm
... the r- the rest of the river was, like, if you started swimming you just get su- uh, what's it called? Dragged down by the current.
Yeah.
But I'm, like, the, the big fat dude in the lifejacket, and I'm in the kayak, and it's like toppling and I'm trying my best to balance it. Sure enough, it to- it tips over.
[laughs]
I fall in the water, and some old dude on his, like, $20,000 motorboat or whatever just jumps in the water. He's, like, 60. He has to come rescue me like I'm some sort of, like-
[laughs].
[laughs] Some sort of, like, person in des-... Uh, like, you know, I'm-
Yeah
... screaming help because I, I stupidly, when I swim, I have my mouth open.
Oh.
For whatever reason. I'm choking on water.
You're thirsty from all the-
Yeah. Yeah
[laughs] Right.
... like, yeah, your muscles moving and stuff.
Yeah. Just take, take a big gulp, but I'm glad you guys... Glad the tour's going well for you guys, and I'm super excited for the whole performance tonight. Really, it was like, I, I... Unfortunately, this whole week I've been dealing with this horrible, like, back injury.
Oh, wow.
And I was contemplating just, like, either going to the doctor this morning or wait until, like, you guys got here, then afterwards potentially going. She's been telling me, Maddie over there, to go this whole time.
Take care of yourself.
Yeah.
<< In case you're wondering >>
Right. I know. I know. But, uh, also, you guys are gonna do this little acoustic set too.
Yeah.
So appreciate you guys doing that.
Of course, of course.
So let's get to that while I, uh, try my best to get out of this small little couch here.
[gentle music]
Can't drink, can't drug, can't drown them away. Can't sleep, can't think, can't find an escape. From these dark, dark thoughts in my mind. Can't drink, can't drug, can't drown them away. Can't sleep, can't think, can't find an escape. From these dark, dark thoughts in my mind. [gentle music] There's a heavy on this mind. There's weight behind these eyes. What if I. What if I can't stop the rising tide. Above the undertow. Do you see me down below. A sinking stone. Wondering how much deeper I can go. Can't drink, can't drug, can't drown them away. Can't sleep, can't think, can't find an escape. From these dark, dark thoughts in my mind. Oh.
Oh, my head, my head. My head is a prison. No one ever visits. It's just you and me till the end, the end. Waiting at my city's edge. If I find an exit. Will you still follow me? [gentle music] A hundred stories high. What would it be like. To be free from this parasite inside of me. And at my funeral. Would anybody show. Pour the beer. Just a coffin sitting all alone. Can't drink, can't drug, can't drown them away. Can't sleep, can't think, can't find an escape. From these dark, dark thoughts in my mind. Oh. My head, my head. My head is a prison. No one ever visits. It's just you and me till the end, the end. Waiting at my city's edge. If I find an exit. Will you still follow me? [gentle music] To kill what I create. To keep the wolves at bay. Oh, try to save me. [gentle music]
[It's A Small World by Shaggy plays] [snapping fingers]
Can't drink, can't drug, can't drown them away. Can't sleep, can't think, can't find an escape. From these dark, dark thoughts. These dark, dark thoughts. Oh, my head, my head, my head is a prison. No one ever visits. It's just you and me till the end, the end. Waiting at my sentence. If I find an exit, will you still follow me? I don't actually, sorry. [laughs]
[Instrumental music]
Hmm.
I traded my name to indulge the snakes. So I ran free and broke a leg. But I felt free enough to rule the world. One time. But I sleep in a bag of bones. So mama don't think I'll be coming home. 'Cause I woke up so I could rule the world. One time. Bow down to the church and the sinner with the songs stuck in your head. They're holding your holy water now. I'm a priest in the prayer. I'm like a savior. Dressed like I'm holy. Holy, your holy water. Holding your holy water. Holding your holy water. Holding your holy water.
Traded my soul to a wealthy man. So I don't have to work again. He said, "What's my price to rule the world?" "One time." Bow down to the church and the sinner with the songs stuck in your head.
They're holding your holy water. Now
I'm a priest and a prayer. I'm like a savior. Dressed like I'm holy. Holy, your holy water. Consume the newest news. We roll the dice for sacrifice tonight. You, them, now, and the truth. We roll the dice for sacrifice tonight. Holding your holy water. Holding your holy water. Holding your holy water.
I traded my name to indulge a snake. So I ran free and broke a leg. But I felt free enough to rule the world. One time.
Bow down to the church and the sinner with the songs stuck in your head. They're holding your holy water. Now
I'm a priest and a prayer. I'm like a savior. Just like I'm holy. Holy, your holy water.
Yay. Woo!
[clapping]
[Instrumental music]
We graduated with a fever. So full of confidence and ready to achieve. But it's all just a fallacy. At seven years a true believer.
You wake up choking with a pillow on your face. Every playmate erases. And we're getting out. Never getting out of here. They say, "Just settle down. You're never getting out of this place. Welcome to Suffocate City." We're never getting out. Never getting out of here. They say, "Just settle down. You're never getting out of this place. Welcome to Suffocate City. Think you've had enough. But boy, there's just half of it. That's when they pull the plug. You're never getting out of this place. Welcome to Suffocate City.
Negotiated like a crisis. You come out swinging with a list of your demands. But they're already making plans. Don't get too high and mighty for your britches or you might end up in stitches. They'll have their pound of flesh. Feel the hands round your neck. And we're never getting out. Never getting out of here. They say, "Just settle down. You're never getting out of this place. Welcome to Suffocate City. Think you've had enough. But boy, there's just half of it. That's when they pull the plug. You're never getting out of this place. Welcome to Suffocate City.
Never thought it would end this way. Told myself I could finally break. Break the cycle of this cage. But there's no escape.
And you're never getting out. Never getting out of here. They say, "Just settle down. You're never getting out of this place. Welcome to Suffocate City. Think you've had enough. But boy, there's just half of it. That's when they pull the plug. You're never getting out of this place. Welcome to Suffocate City. My fingers.
No, you're lying.
Can't snap. Can't snap.
Yeah, guys. You, you act like you're the first people that ever do this to me right now.
It's your middle finger. It's your middle finger.
Yeah.
This one. The- Many of us will recognize it.
Like you gotta... [snaps fingers]
Oh, your ring finger. No, that's the one you broke.
Oh.
The sound of the snap is not your fingers clacking.
Yeah. It's your hitting your palm.
It's your finger hitting your palm. That's where the snap actually comes from. How do you get that momentum, dude? I'm left-handed, so I'm showing you left-handed, but... [snaps fingers] Oh. There you go.
Oh. Did you just learn how to snap?
That's... [snaps fingers]
Do it again, do it again.
Keep practicing.
[laughs]
Once you learn how to snap, it's over.