{"id":600943,"date":"2026-04-23T04:43:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T04:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/600943\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T04:43:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T04:43:14","slug":"90s-alt-rockers-dissect-their-7th-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/600943\/","title":{"rendered":"’90s Alt-Rockers Dissect Their 7th Record"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tI distinctly remember the day in 1996 when KROQ DJ Carson Daly first introduced me to Failure<\/a>. I recall just as clearly the moment the following year when Daly, as MTV\u2019s newest VJ, reported their demise.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt didn\u2019t make sense that an emerging genre-bending rock band could call it quits after tapping into something otherworldly on their third studio record, Fantastic Planet (1996). The Los Angeles-based group consisting primarily of vocalist\/multi-instrumentalist Ken Andrews<\/a>, multi-instrumentalist Greg Edwards<\/a> and drummer Kellii Scott<\/a> may have had their champions in the mainstream, but they were still a word-of-mouth band for the most part, so I had no way of knowing in the days of dial-up internet that heroin had wreaked havoc on yet another one of my favorite bands.<\/p>\n

\n\tI would still be reminded of Failure in the subsequent years. My own musical pursuits led me to a week of sessions at L.A.\u2019s Paramount Recording Studios in 2003. That\u2019s when A Perfect Circle\u2019s cover<\/a> of Failure\u2019s hypnotic ballad, \u201cThe Nurse Who Loved Me,\u201d<\/a> played in the musician-filled front lobby, kick-starting a whole what-could-have-been conversation in regard to the short-lived, influential band. Two or three years later, a friend insisted that I track down a buzzy new female-led band called Paramore, specifically for their cover<\/a> of \u201cStuck on You,\u201d<\/a> Failure\u2019s most commercial song during Fantastic Planet\u2019s album cycle.<\/p>\n

\n\tThen, in late 2013, when good news still existed, Failure reunited. Andrews and Edwards had already been testing the waters to see if they could recapture their friendship and unique songwriting alchemy. Once they were convinced, they booked a February 2014 show at the El Rey Theatre. It sold out in less than two minutes, confirming to the band that a whole new generation of fans had discovered their back catalog and were ready for more.<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom there, Failure made up for lost time in prolific fashion. They released three self-produced studio albums \u2014\u00a02015\u2019s The Heart Is a Monster, 2018\u2019s In the Future \u2026 and 2021\u2019s Wild Type Droid \u2014\u00a0as well as a 2023 concert film, We Are Hallucinations, and 2025\u2019s Hulu-released documentary, Every Time You Lose Your Mind<\/a>. They played approximately 220 live shows in between it all, and they are now on the verge of putting out their seventh LP, Location Lost<\/a>, on April 24. With their newest release, the second phase of the band will officially have more output than their 1990-1997 tenure.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe third single off the \u201880s-infused new record, \u201cThe Rising Skyline,\u201d<\/a> features a rare yet fitting collaboration. Hayley Williams<\/a>, the frontwoman from the aforementioned Paramore, joins Andrews for the emotional acoustic break-up song that builds to a dramatic finish. Her unwavering support for the band through covers and generous sound bytes is one of the key reasons why Failure was able to grow its audience in absentia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShe digested [four songs] for a while [before picking the ballad], and she texted me a few times, going, \u2018This feels like a different kind of Failure record to me. Good on you guys for doing that,\u2019\u201d Andrews tells The Hollywood Reporter.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe making of Location Lost had its challenges, a trademark of Failure\u2019s entire career. Andrews was still recovering from debilitating back surgery, and Edwards felt adrift for the time since the band\u2019s reunion. His creative North Star had disappeared, hence the album title of Location Lost.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere was a lot of turmoil and life changes. Going through the process of this record, I wouldn\u2019t say that we were the most cohesive, interpersonally, with each other. It felt like things were ripping apart a bit,\u201d Edwards admits. \u201cI lost the entry point of how to approach it. The documentary had a strange effect on me, and I think I withdrew. If I had been close to the center of Failure for a while, it took me more into the outskirts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the February 2026 press release for Location Lost, Edwards weighed the band\u2019s future by asking a big question: \u201cIs Location Lost the last Failure record, or could it be the transition to yet another new phase? We\u2019ll see where it goes from here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen I followed up on behalf of paranoid Failure fans everywhere, Edwards expanded on his current thought process without completely eliminating the less desirable option. \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that we could make another record. We already have enough material to cull another album, easily,\u201d Edwards says. \u201cIt\u2019s not that we don\u2019t have the creative force anymore, and it\u2019s not that we don\u2019t have the ability to communicate through it. I just don\u2019t take it for granted that we will continue from here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIf Location Lost does mark the end of Failure once and for all, it would be a devastating blow considering the band is still writing compelling, forward-thinking music<\/a> that doesn\u2019t rest on their laurels. Andrews\u2019 voice has also held up remarkably well unlike several of his \u201890s contemporaries. His vocal performance on the newest LP, particularly \u201cMoonlight Understands,\u201d is his finest yet. Moreover, there\u2019s still a healthy market for \u201890s bands like Failure, and it\u2019d be a shame if they didn\u2019t continue to enjoy the fruits of their labor, both past and present.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the same time, it\u2019s hard to be upset when they\u2019ve already crafted a comeback story for the ages. Hypothetical questions no longer have to be asked about what the band could have done because they\u2019ve now done it. They picked up right where they left off with Fantastic Planet, and the quality of their four LPs since then has set the new bar for any band that attempts a second act.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, during a wide-ranging conversation with THR, Failure\u2019s Andrews, Edwards and Scott discuss the ins and outs of Location Lost, as well as the deep cut that has become their most popular tune in the streaming era.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tKen, when the four of us spoke for the Failure documentary<\/a> last June, were you still quietly recovering from your heavy-duty back surgery?<\/p>\n

\n\tKEN ANDREWS (Frontman, Multi-instrumentalist) Yeah, physically and mentally, it was a long road. It was definitely a long road. The funny thing is, I just met someone who had almost the exact same surgery, and they were fine four weeks later, both physically and mentally. I was like, \u201cThere\u2019s no way you had that surgery.\u201d We then showed each other our scars, and they were the same. I was like, \u201cDamn.\u201d But he\u2019s a lot younger than me, so it definitely made me feel my mortality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHow did the injury happen?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS I was actually just trying to get in shape. I basically had this incline sit-up device and bench. So I put it at an incline and hooked my feet in to go way back, and that was a mistake. When I started to feel a little bit better, I was so angry at the equipment that I kicked the shit out of it in my backyard. (Laughs.) Then I used a dolly to put it in the back of my car, and I drove it to the dump.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tFailure\u2019s Greg Edwards, Kellii Scott and Ken Andrews<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLindsey Byrnes<\/p>\n

\n\tI desperately want you guys to have a dull moment for a change, but in between every record, there\u2019s always some amount of upheaval that likely sparks the music that I love. Is that collective torture what makes Failure, Failure?<\/p>\n

\n\tKELLI SCOTT (Drummer) I don\u2019t think we experience more torture than anyone else. I think we\u2019re just willing to talk about it.<\/p>\n

\n\tEvery record has been surrounded by something: breakups, health scares, addiction, label collapse, vendor fraud, a global pandemic, a producer and drummer exit \u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS Yeah, it\u2019s kind of true. Even the first two records [1992\u2019s Comfort and 1994\u2019s Magnified] had drama.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tGREG EDWARDS (Multi-instrumentalist) Well, my perspective on it is that there\u2019s always stuff going on in the exterior. But the interior self-inflicted suffering is ceaseless and constant \u2014\u00a0and that\u2019s the source of inspiration. Sometimes, the exterior narrative of your life can season that internal suffering, but we\u2019re all just on our way towards death. (Laughs.) I kind of get off on being in touch with that on a pretty constant basis. It actually has the opposite effect of making me depressed, but a lot of the lyrics I\u2019ve written in this band have come right out of that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tKen, your health informed Failure\u2019s new record, Location Lost, in a lot of ways, as did the 1980s. That decade was a formative time for you guys as teenage musicians, so it\u2019s always there, somewhere. But how intentional or unintentional was the \u201880s vibe?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS Well, that\u2019s interesting. You\u2019re the first person to say that about the \u201980s vibe. I hear it. I definitely hear it. But it definitely wasn\u2019t intentional. I didn\u2019t say, \u201cOh, I want to go more into the \u201980s sound.\u201d Maybe it was because we let go of trying to make a cohesive album and just focused more on each individual song. Also, my internal editor was less active once we took the music back to my studio. I was just following my bliss more than trying to make the next Failure record. And when I do that, I go back to that late \u201980s sound.<\/p>\n

\n\tI believe Location Lost ties Magnified (1994) with four fade-outs, and that practice reached its peak in the \u201880s. So I assumed, wrongly, that it was meant to be another \u201880s touchstone.<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS I rarely think fade-outs are an intentional creative decision. It\u2019s just ,\u201dHow do we end this fucking thing that goes on forever? How do we get it under 3:30 for radio?\u201d On the Beatles\u2019 White Album, \u201cHelter Skelter\u201d<\/a> has the great fade out and fade back in. We did something like that on \u201cSmall Crimes.\u201d<\/a> We used it creatively. So it can be nice, but a lot of times, it\u2019s just that there is no actual ending because the end of the song was jammed out for whatever period of time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS I also feel like the outros of certain songs lend themselves to a fade-out. I actually really like fade-outs because they stimulate your imagination. What are they still doing that I\u2019m not hearing?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS Yeah, I love fade-outs where some really cool stuff happens almost below where you can hear it. Whether it\u2019s a really great fill or a bass note, you\u2019ll actually wish it would come back up so you can hear what happened from there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSCOTT And we\u2019ve done that<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS Yeah, you don\u2019t want it to end, but it has to end. So it\u2019s just going to subtly fade out, but it still continues somewhere way down in your subconscious. It never really ends.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tInstead of self-releasing like the last couple LPs, you\u2019re doing a more formal release for Location Lost. What prompted the change?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS We just got tired of doing everything ourselves. I wanted to keep going musically, but I didn\u2019t want to keep handling the business side of it. So we reached out to a manager named Blaze James who was interested in managing us in 2015, but we decided not to go with him back then. And to our surprise, he was still interested in working with us. So I\u2019ve really enjoyed letting him do his thing and sinking back into more of a band member role.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBlaze\u2019s company, The Fellowship, set you up within Virgin Music Group, and while that has the appearance of a major, I believe it\u2019s Universal\u2019s (UMG) imprint for indie artists. Thus, you still have your independence?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS I don\u2019t really know. The funny thing is we\u2019ve actually had very little contact with Virgin. Again, it\u2019s nice to just let someone else handle it. So Blaze is our interface to Virgin, and he brought them into the picture around the time the documentary came out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFailure\u2019s catalog is back on Spotify after four years. Their royalty structure was one of several reasons why you removed your body of work. Did your new manager convince you to give it another go?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS Yeah, pretty much. I don\u2019t think it was even a consideration for Virgin. It was something that they basically required. Again, I just let go of that side of things and focused on playing, writing and recording.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tGreg, during the release of Wild Type Droid, I heard you mention that you were flirting with the idea of killing off Failure\u2019s mascot, the spaceman, once and for all. If you were going to do it, Droid\u2019s cover art<\/a> would\u2019ve been the perfect send-off. But he\u2019s back on the cover of Location Lost, so is he just too synonymous with the band at this point?<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS Apparently, he does okay with head reattachment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSCOTT He just won\u2019t die. It\u2019s like a recurring comic.<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS Yeah, [killing him off] was a dream I had at one point, but he\u2019s probably here to stay in one form or another.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe cover art for Failure\u2019s Seventh LP Location Lost<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy<\/p>\n

\n\tYou guys really pride yourself on sequencing. Which tracks were the hardest to find consensus?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS There was some debate about the sequence. We released In the Future in batches of four songs before putting them all together. But on all the other past records, I had a fairly strong sense of the narrative of the sequence. We\u2019d go back and forth and discuss it in those terms. But on this record, I didn\u2019t feel that. There were some debates about where a song should go and everything, but it didn\u2019t seem to me like there was some immaculate, perfect sequence just waiting to be uncovered. So I was fairly open to compromise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tKen has previously described you as his lyrical editor because you\u2019ve done the lion\u2019s share of lyric writing since the reunion. But Ken\u2019s injury inspired him to write a lot more on this record, so did you serve that editorial role in a grander fashion this time?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS Not so much. On some of the songs where he wrote almost all the lyrics, there would be a line or two where I would suggest something or change something. There may have been a word that wasn\u2019t quite working, and we would brainstorm together. So we\u2019d sit together in the room and go through each song to make sure that it was all working.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tKellii, Ken also said that, due to his recovery, he wasn\u2019t processing the music as sharply as he normally does, and that he leaned on both you and Greg to edit and identify good ideas when you were jamming for the record.<\/p>\n

\n\tSCOTT Well, the beauty of the jams is that there really is no editorial. You just plug in and start playing until you\u2019re left with no more ideas. Then you pack up and come back the next day. We did that for several weeks back to back. The daunting part is editing down that plethora of material, but Ken was left to that, mostly. Even on previous records, if we had 20 hours of material, we would get cut-downs to three hours\u2019 worth of material. Then we would each go through everything and give timecodes for what parts we liked. So Ken went through the whole thing, meticulously, and really narrowed it down to a few concise ideas as a really great starting point.<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS I wasn\u2019t actually there for probably a third of the jams. It was more like I wasn\u2019t participating as much in the jams, so my time to add my input came later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSomeday Soon\u201d is my favorite song on the new record.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSCOTT Really!?<\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, I was bewildered by it at first, but by the second verse, I became smitten. Would you categorize the verse as funk?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSCOTT I don\u2019t think that drumbeat is funk. There\u2019s something very disjointing about it. It always shakes you back and forth. It never really lets you settle into a hypnotic state. It\u2019s always resetting you at the end of every bar.<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS But it is a funky thing that we\u2019re doing with the EBow. From when we were jamming it, that may be one of the only songs that was sketched up similar to what it ended up as.<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS Yeah, when Greg started making that sound with the Ebow across the strings, I was like, \u201cI\u2019ve never heard that. It doesn\u2019t even sound like a guitar.\u201d So that was an exciting moment, actually. I remember being in the studio for that and thinking that this album is going to feel like a step forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI know \u201cDistorted Fields\u201d<\/a> is a beefier song, but is \u201cSomeday Soon\u201d in the same neighborhood, rhythmically?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSCOTT No, \u201cDistorted Fields\u201d is probably the most complex rhythm on any of our records. That song is fucking nuts to play.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBoth hang on the same note before shifting at the end of each phrase, so that\u2019s where I drew the comparison.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS Yeah, the bassline is somewhat similar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSCOTT The bassline could be similar, but the drums are not even in the same ballpark. \u201cSomeday Soon\u201d is actually really simple and repetitive. \u201cDistorted Fields\u201d is, even to this day, challenging to play. It requires a lot of focus. There\u2019s so many counterpoints going on in the drum beat, but it\u2019s ridiculously cool.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tKen, you performed \u201cDaylight\u201d<\/a> with Hayley Willams at a benefit show following last year\u2019s L.A. wildfires, and Location Lost came up during that time. What songs did you provide her before she selected \u201cThe Rising Skyline\u201d<\/a> for her guest appearance?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS I gave her four songs: \u201cCrash Test Delay,\u201d \u201cThe Air\u2019s on Fire,\u201d<\/a> \u201cThe Rising Skyline\u201d and \u201cA Way Down.\u201d<\/a> So she digested those for a while, and then she texted me a few times, going, \u201cThis is really cool. This feels like a different kind of Failure record to me. Good on you guys for doing that.\u201d Then I asked her which song she was really gravitating towards, and she picked the ballad out of those four. And I was like, \u201cOh, interesting,\u201d because I could hear her voice on the song, an octave hire. So she just happened to be winding up her solo record in the studio at the time, and she spent an afternoon recording her vocals with her producer in Nashville.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow much direction did you give her?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS I didn\u2019t give her any direction. I just sent her the lyrics and said, \u201cYou don\u2019t have to sing the first verse because I think I want that to just be me, but sing everywhere else.\u201d I pretty much knew she was going to sing it an octave higher because it\u2019s pretty low. So I was expecting that, but I didn\u2019t even tell her to do that. It was just naturally in her range to be an octave higher in the second verse.<\/p>\n

\n\tDid you try to book her for the video<\/a>?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS Yeah, it just didn\u2019t work out with her schedule.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe breath at the beginning of \u201cCrash Test Delay,\u201d did you pull that from a sound library? Or did someone track that?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSCOTT Isn\u2019t it Sammy?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS (Laughs.) It could have been your dog. I actually have a library from the Fantastic Planet days, so it\u2019s probably from that. I ripped it onto my hard drive, and I still use it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tKellii, what\u2019s going on during the verses of \u201cA Way Down\u201d<\/a>? Is there a shaker of some sort layered on top of your primary drum part?<\/p>\n

\n\tSCOTT Well, there\u2019s a hi-hat doing the counterpoint from the kick drum. But I think there is a shaker overdub in there. Is that right, Ken? (Andrews and Scott both pull out their phones to play the song and confirm.) Actually, no, that\u2019s just me playing the counterpoint on my hi-hat. There\u2019s no shaker. That\u2019s just the drums.<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS Yeah, there\u2019s no shaker. It\u2019s a crazy beat.<\/p>\n

\n\tSCOTT To play it, I literally have to hit the first beat by crossing over. The song is nuts. It sounds super simple, but it\u2019s actually pretty weird.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS It doesn\u2019t sound super simple.<\/p>\n

\n\tSCOTT It doesn\u2019t?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS No, it\u2019s immediately a unique beat.<\/p>\n

\n\tSCOTT I remember when I played it during the jams, and I was like, \u201cWhat the fuck!?\u201d It\u2019s a really cool beat.<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS Yeah, as soon as you played that, I was shocked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSCOTT I liked it so much that I played it for an extremely long time, which I don\u2019t usually do. I usually change beats every couple bars to try and settle into something.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tKellii, once you track your drums, do you bow out for the most part? Or do you provide emotional support while Ken and Greg track everything else?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSCOTT I definitely fade to the background and become more of the peanut gallery. Everything goes through text messages and emails. But when it comes specifically to the drums, I kind of stay out of it. I make sure to do my due diligence before we actually come back [to the studio]. I think we re-recorded six of the songs\u2019 drums, and the rest of them came directly from jams. So I know what it is that I want to play for the most part, and then I have a lot of confidence that Ken is going to turn whatever slop I do into something that sounds super cool.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tGreg, we don\u2019t hear much of you on this record. You don\u2019t have a \u201cMulholland Drive\u201d<\/a> or a \u201cThe Pineal Electorate\u201d<\/a> or a \u201cHalf Moon.\u201d<\/a> Did you not want to force the issue, vocally?<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS It was just the group of songs that were worked up from the jams. There was one song that may appear later or somewhere. I don\u2019t feel like it\u2019s a necessity that I sing a song on a Failure record. I have such a conflicted relationship with singing anyway, so it\u2019s easy for me to let that go.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSCOTT Is that the \u201cribcages in the moonlight\u201d song?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS No, it\u2019s about going out to look at the night and slipping on the ice. You break through a frozen river and are trapped underneath the ice. Then the river takes you downstream until your body is found in the spring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSCOTT It made me think of our trip to Montana.<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS Yeah, it\u2019s actually based on a \u201890s news story in Montana. Someone was on acid when they fell into a freezing river. So maybe that will make its way onto a record at some point.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFor clarity, that song was designated for your lead vocals?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS Well, I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s possible that Ken would take a swipe at it and make it sound better \u2014\u00a0and the song would overall come across better. When I sing on a song, it\u2019s more because it just seems to work. We\u2019ll all feel like the emotion of a song is transmitted adequately with my voice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSolid State\u201d will likely receive some \u201cStuck on You\u201d<\/a> comparisons due to the wall of sound and music box-type melody over it. Songs like \u201cA.M. Amnesia\u201d<\/a> and \u201cHeadstand\u201d<\/a> have similar ingredients, but they\u2019re delivered in a more off-kilter way. Sometimes, bands will run away from anything that resembles their most popular song, so did you guys ever consciously avoid interplay that was similar to \u201cStuck on You\u201d?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS Maybe a little bit. Those ingredients do appear in a number of songs; they\u2019re just not as explicitly obvious as they are in \u201cSolid State.\u201d I\u2019ve actually been trying to name a song \u201cSolid State\u201d for decades. So the comparison [to \u201cStuck on You\u201d] was definitely somewhat conscious. I like when bands are eclectic within their own style, and they keep moving forward without repeating themselves. But I also completely respect and love the Rolling Stones \u2014\u00a0and bands that are so formulaic that they just keep slightly reinterpreting what they\u2019ve already done. So having that conversation with your older material is okay.<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS \u201cStuck on You\u201d is no longer our most popular song. It\u2019s our second most popular song on Spotify by half the amount of plays. We were just looking at the amount of plays, and \u201cAnother Space Song\u201d<\/a> is our most listened-to song on streaming. It\u2019s almost double of what \u201cStuck on You\u201d is.<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS I get a lot of gratification from that.<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS It\u2019s very strange because \u201cAnother Space Song\u201d never had a video. It was a deep cut.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS Yeah, it was. When we were working on Fantastic Planet, we had an early version with no vocals yet and just the music. I would listen to a cassette of it while driving around the neighborhood of Lita Ford\u2019s house in Tujunga. And I just remember having an epiphany about the musical arrangement of that song. I was like, \u201cThis is what I want.\u201d I did have a sense that it would be a really cool album cut, but I never thought it\u2019d be a single or anything. So I just love the fact that, after all this time, that\u2019s the song that has resonated with people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS It has so clearly resonated with people.<\/p>\n

\n\tSCOTT It\u2019s the people\u2019s choice.<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS Yeah, it\u2019s the people\u2019s choice, and that feels really cool. \u201cStuck On You,\u201d if it didn\u2019t have the video, I feel like it would be down the ladder a few spots, to be honest. I love it. I\u2019m proud of that song, and we play it all the time. But it\u2019s just interesting to me that the song that was least likely to be picked as a single back in the \u201990s when we made Fantastic Planet is now the most played song.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe cream rises to the top. I also can\u2019t believe that Ken Andrews just quoted Spotify data. How things have changed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFAILURE (Laugh.)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tFailure with former guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen in a 1996 press photo<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Grandstand Media & Management<\/p>\n

\n\tHollywood is having a tough time generating younger movie stars. The loss of the mid-budget studio movie has had a role in it, along with IP overload, social media and streaming. As a result, movie stars from the \u201880s and \u201890s are still ruling the day in their 50s and 60s, and I feel like that\u2019s the case for \u201890s rockstars as well. Bands that were around during the height of rock radio and MTV and a more rock-oriented culture still have an audience today. I can\u2019t even identify who the modern-day rockstars are, unless the definition is broadened. Do you think you have a longer shelf life now due to the lack of an ecosystem that can generate younger rockstars?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS Yeah, the curation and gatekeeping of the major record labels \u2014\u00a0and the things they pushed when radio was king and MTV was king \u2014\u00a0it was often complained about and cast in a negative light. But if you had a hit or two back then, before all of that died, then it\u2019s very likely you\u2019re still playing shows now. You still have an audience because your music got to so many people. I\u2019m always amazed to see one-hit or two-hit wonders still touring today just based on the fact that they existed in that terrestrial radio era. Now you don\u2019t have anything like that, and the focused curation from the labels doesn\u2019t exist. So you have all these options and choices, which is theoretically wonderful, but it\u2019s just a completely different world.<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS I have a different outlook on it. I\u2019m going to go back to Spotify because Blaze, our manager, sent us a graph showing the age groups that listen to us the most and the least. And our age group, 45 to 60, is the lowest group that we have. It\u2019s 1 percent. The highest group is 18 to 35. So how did those people find out about Failure? It wasn\u2019t because we were on MTV; they\u2019re too young for that. It\u2019s because of the discovery process that we have now, which is people sharing stuff and going, \u201cHave you heard of this band? They\u2019re from the \u201990s.\u201d Maybe the \u201990s has a little bit of cachet because of the important bands that came out during that time. But we\u2019ve shifted completely away from the age of our original audience in the \u201990s. So it\u2019s a tough one. I obviously don\u2019t like Spotify. I don\u2019t like the fact that they don\u2019t pay artists. But at the same time, we wouldn\u2019t have this new audience that we have now without the current discovery process that exists.<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS That\u2019s true. For us, it may have been positive. Something has been gained with just the variety and diversity and access to so many acts. But something does get lost when you have less curation and gatekeeping from the top. There\u2019s no longer a focused cultural moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS The monoculture.<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS Yeah, that\u2019s been lost, which is strange. You don\u2019t even know what a rockstar is now, which is fine. I guess Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar are rockstars now. There are incredibly successful acts that stick out and make shitloads of money. But then there\u2019s this whole middle world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS Yeah, the middle world is bigger now.<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS It\u2019s totally different. Again, I just find it interesting that bands that had a moment with a song or two somewhere in the \u201990s fill venues still. The people that heard those songs on the radio still go to see those bands because the nostalgia is there.<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS We\u2019re not a nostalgia band anymore.<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS No, but when you discover music from 13 to 18, the nostalgic valence of those experiences can never be replaced by anything after that. There\u2019s just something about your mental energy as you\u2019re absorbing things at that age. That\u2019s why nostalgia is so strong from your youth. When I used to listen to KROQ or watch MTV, there were just eight or nine songs. You\u2019d hear the same song again and again, and that really ingrained it in you. So the access to a thousand different bands is great, and no one telling you what to listen to is great. But there\u2019s something I miss about the [curation] in the \u201980s, the \u201990s\u00a0 and maybe the first few years of the 2000s. Right around 2005, it just started to die quickly.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tKen Andrews positions the camera while directing Failure\u2019s 2025 documentary, Every Time You Lose Your Mind.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGrandstand Media & Management<\/p>\n

\n\tMovies were a big part of Failure in the \u201890s. Fantastic Planet was an homage to the 1973 French film, and the \u201cStuck on You\u201d video was James Bond-themed. Ken\u2019s original career path was filmmaking. Do you still take inspiration from film?<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS Big time. The Dune<\/a> series is a major inspiration for me. I watch it all the time. The sound, the score, the world building aspect of it, I love that side of filmmaking. I\u2019ve always felt that world building is what we\u2019ve tried to do. We\u2019ve tried to create our own little universe of sonics and lyrical references.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS There\u2019s some lyrical references to [Michelangelo] Antonioni on this record, specifically Blowup. Anything but other musical acts and music itself is the best place to get inspired. I\u2019ve always loved \u201cBeing for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!\u201d from Sgt. Pepper\u2019s. John Lennon basically saw a poster for a circus event with Henry the Horse, so that essentially became the lyrics to that song. It\u2019s always great, especially when you\u2019re stuck, to just pick something from somewhere else that seems completely irrelevant. Then it\u2019ll somehow weave its way into the song or the greater album at large, and it\u2019ll make sense.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t Failure performing live in 2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Grandstand Media & Management<\/p>\n

\n\tGreg, you said something in the Location Lost press release that has caused me a lot of sleepless nights the last couple months. You asked, \u201cIs Location Lost the last Failure record, or could it be the transition to yet another new phase? We\u2019ll see where it goes from here.\u201d What\u2019s behind this ominous question?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS I just wanted to artificially pump up record sales and ticket sales for the shows. (Laughs.) No, there was a lot of turmoil and life changes. Going through the process of this record, I wouldn\u2019t say that we were the most cohesive, interpersonally, with each other. It felt like things were ripping apart a bit.<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREWS The album title. When you said, \u201cLet\u2019s pull the title from the song \u2018Location Lost,\u2019\u201d it all made sense to me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS Yeah, my location was pretty centered through the last bunch of records, but through the process of this record, I definitely felt like I lost the entry point of how to approach it. I felt a little lost in it for a variety of reasons, both personal for myself and also for what Ken was going through at the time. And the documentary, in a way, was cathartic. I suppose it was nice to get the story out there in that way. But I also have a lot of ambivalence about a document like that even existing. It\u2019s just the fact that it\u2019s one way of looking at it. So the documentary had a strange effect on me, and I think I withdrew. If I had been close to the center of Failure for a while, it took me more into the outskirts.<\/p>\n

\n\tI appreciate your candor, of course, but if it looks like I\u2019m panicking on the inside, I definitely am.<\/p>\n

\n\tEDWARDS I\u2019m just being honest with how I was feeling as I was going through that process. There\u2019s no doubt that we could make another record. Through jams and things, we already have enough material to cull another album, easily. I also have no doubt that we could start from scratch and make another record. So it\u2019s not that we don\u2019t have the creative force anymore, and it\u2019s not that we don\u2019t have the ability to communicate through it. I just don\u2019t take it for granted that we will continue from here.<\/p>\n

\n\t***
Location Lost by Failure releases on April 24. Visit their official web site<\/a> for upcoming tour dates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I distinctly remember the day in 1996 when KROQ DJ Carson Daly first introduced me to Failure. I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,3303,261422,124095,261423,261424,261425,216],"class_list":["post-600943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-failure","tag-greg-edwards","tag-hayley-williams","tag-kellii-scott","tag-ken-andrews","tag-location-lost","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}