After a 17-year break, alt-rockers, Failure are back with a new album, The Heart is a Monster, and tour, stopping at The Catalyst Club on Saturday, October 24 with Local H.
One of the most inventive bands of the 1990s, Los Angeles based, Failure distinguished themselves from bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden with their creative use of synth, guitar effects and cutting edge production techniques. Their fourth full-length studio album and first since 1996’s Fantastic Planet, The Heart is a Monster was partly funded through a crowd-funding campaign on PledgeMusic, a direct-to-fan music platform.
Formed in 1990 at the start of the alternative rock revolution, the group recorded fan-favorite, Comfort, two years later with top producer, Steve Albini on Slash Records, home of notable 90s artists such as Faith No More and Violent Femmes. After Comfort and a national tour opening for Tool, the band would go on to record ten more albums with band members, Ken Andrews and Greg Edwards pushing the boundaries of alternative rock until the band’s eventual breakup in 1997.
We caught up with Ken to discuss getting the band back together and the changing music industry ahead of Friday’s show.
When did Failure decide to get back together?
KEN: Greg [Edwards] and I rekindled our friendship about nine years ago. When we had our first children within six months of each other, we really bonded on being new fathers and started spending more time together. This ultimately led us to hanging out together in my studio and writing new material. Once we had agreed that we thought the material had merit, the whole idea of rebooting Failure began.
The band played their first gig together in fifteen years at The El Rey Theatre in LA late last year. How did it feel to be back on stage with the guys?
KEN: It was a little strange, yet familiar. It was fun to see everyone again after such a long break.
Just like in the 1990s, you started touring with Tool almost immediately after reforming, how was that experience?
KEN: Well, everything has changed for Tool as they have become a full-fledged arena band, but we still like to joke around with each other. A lot of us have kids now, so the debauchery is generally pretty muted now.
In the years since the band’s 1997 breakup, you have been insanely active in the music industry, working behind the scenes as an engineer/producer on albums for Pete Yorn, Paramore, Tenacious D, and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club just to name a few. How have you seen the industry change over the years?
KEN: Obviously the Internet has completely turned everything upside down. I’m ambivalent. On the one hand, it is great for listeners to be able to find, enjoy, and share any kind or type of music they want, whenever they want. I think Failure has directly benefitted from the sharing of Fantastic Planet in the years between its release and now. It’s part of the reason we can come back now and enjoy a greater awareness and appreciation of the band than we had in the 90s. On the other hand, as someone who has invested a huge amount creativity, time and effort on recordings, it’s a real bummer that there has been such a catastrophic loss in revenue from recorded music.
How have these changes influenced Failure’s reunion?
KEN: Rather than try to rebuild our rigs of the past I embraced where the technology is right now. Of course its all digital, but digital is no longer a term of inferior sound quality. The guitar sounds we get now have just as much depth and presence as they did in the analog rigs, except there is much more flexibility and scope in the palettes we are working with, and the reliability is much higher. [We also get more] efficiencies in logistics with the massively reduced weight and size of the gear that we now carry.
How did you approach the recording of The Heart is a Monster and what would you say are the major differences between this latest recording and your previous records?
KEN: Being back in the studio together confirmed what I have always thought – when Greg and I sit down to write and record together, the results are always unique and rewarding. The combination of our sensibilities make the Failure sound. And those sensibilities are always changing and growing, so what we both did and experienced during the break – musically speaking – is what we brought to bear on the making of this latest album. I think of it as an evolution. The core identity remains, but the actually content moves on.
Info: Failure with Local H, The Catalyst Club. 9 p.m. Tickets: $20/$22.
