Failure - Grunge is coming back in 2015!!!

May 19th 2015

London, Highbury, UK

One of the best Alternative Grunge acts of the 90's Failure are back!

Music Trespass talk with one of the people that has influenced all your musical heroes Ken Andrews of the 90's Alternative Grunge act Failure. The day after the band played the London, Garage. We talk about why Failure thought it was the time to come back eighteen years on and what the new songs are all about and the bands plans for the future.

Music Trespass: What do you think the difference is between the music industry now and when you started back in 1990?

Ken: The internet has just changed everything these days, for the good and for the bad. I personally struggle with how the internet has changed music, I love back when we first started playing. How everything was more mysterious and you could just make up your own mind about a band, and have your own vision of how they look. Now you see everything pop up on your screen and it takes some of the magic away, and something's are not how you thought they would be and you get disappointed. I think it was so much better when your imagination made up the images to go with the music.

Ken: But then again the fact that everything is just a touch away has brought a new audience to the music of Failure. A younger audience which we discovered when we played our reunion shows in America. They knew every word to our record 'Fantastic Planet', and actually didn't realise we had been away and that this was a reunion for a band from the 90's. This was because they had only discovered the record themselves a couple of years ago, so kids only in their twenties are enjoying the music. This really shows that the songs and music have stood the test of time.

Music Trespass: Why did you think that now was the perfect time to come back?

Ken: Two reasons really... One - Greg and I became friends again and Two - Friends had been pushing us to get back together musically, to see where it would go. So we got back in the studio together and it was really nice and enjoyable and we just started writing the record you can hear now 'The Heart is a Monster'. We realised while recording this record that it was taking up so much of our time, so we had to go a play live again to make enough money to be able to do it. Because everything these days cost so much and you still need to make a living to survive.

Photo by Mark N. Kartarik

Music Trespass: What have you been doing in the eighteen year absence of Failure?

Ken: Well non stop producing, I have mixed over twenty to thirty albums and I have also done three different music projects. The first was on Epic Records an Electronic project under the moniker On, This has less emphasis on guitars and the Heavy Rock / Grunge sound. The second was a band on Electra Records called Year of the Rabbit. And for the third after the other two I didn't want to sign to another label, I just wanted to do something for myself and explore music as me. So I self produced and released a record myself under my own name. It was very low key and a great experience, it was so nice to do something on a smaller scale. Then two to three years later, it was time to work on Failure again.

Music Trespass: I really like the artwork for the new album 'The Heart is a Monster' who came up with that and why do you decide to go with it?

Ken: We looked at a lot of images to actually pick that one, I am really into microscopic photography. I really like like to see all the minute small stuff you could not see with the human eye, you know In Vitro Fertilization. We have kind of changed over the year with the images from vast spaces and the outer World, to the inner World and what is inside you or hidden. I think this has really worked well for us on the new imaginary.

Music Trespass: You came back with the track 'Come Crashing', which I think does emulates earlier material but with stronger production. Have you ever thought about re-recording any older material to hear what it would sound like if you had done it now?

Ken: Yes we have and actually done that on the new record on two different tracks. The first we recorded back in 1991 'Petting the Carpet' a song that was meant to be on the first record the 1992 album 'Comfort', but we were unhappy with it and it just got trashed. Then we were making a DVD of the history of the band and heard it and thought actually this is a great song that we can do something with. We changed a few parts but in a new bridge and then you have the version that you hear on 'The Heart is a Monster'. The other track that ended up on the new album is one fans will be very happy with the fact it has seen the light of day. I think you can only hear a live version on a rare bootleg, I know that is the only copy that we have and I we actually never recorded it properly. It's the last actual song on the album and it makes a great end to the record. It's called 'I can see Houses' and it was originally done back in 1989, and I am so glad that it actually ended up on an album and has been laid to rest.

Music Trespass: I also like the lyrics to this song, and it sounds like it came from a hard time in your life. Do you think 'The Heart is a Monster' was a hard record to write?

Ken: Yes and No, Greg was going through personal stuff and on recent material he has been writing more of the lyrics so I think this is why this comes across on the album. Talking about another song on the album which I think is the one that really sums up the album for me 'A.M. Amnesia', this song is when your in a dream like state you know when you feel like a different person. The place where you are you but also feel like someone else and you have not yet come back into your true identity. In this place you can be anyone and you feel like your a stranger in your own body, maybe some kind of inner self that you have not come across yet.

Music Trespass: You played a show last night at the London Garage how did that go?

Ken: Awesome we really didn't know what to expect, since we only came over to the UK once in the 90's and we only did thirty to fourty shows in the whole of Europe and that was supporting Tool. I think the records were only available in a few cities so we really didn't know how that would go. And as I was saying earlier with the internet the kids seemed to know the material, especially the 1996 album 'Fantastic Planet' where they where singing all the songs. Their was also a few die hard's their who seemed to know the lyrics to all the songs which was really impressive.

Music Trespass: Are you going to play any of the UK festivals?

Ken: We have none booked at the moment, we just did this trip to plant the seed that we are doing new music. We did a BBC session and that went well and we want to come back, we just have to sort out who is going to put out the record over here.

Music Trespass: What music are you listening to at the moment?

Ken: I am still listening to old stuff, but because I work mixing and producing all day long. I don't really have the time or want to listen to more music when I have finished. I feel a little bit guilty about that, and would like to listen to more and see what new bands around that I might like. I think when I am also writing music I don't want to listen to anything, in case it distracts me from what I want to be doing with Failure and our sound. But saying that I think you can hear our original influences in our music still and in a way I think we must think about them.

Music Trespass: What is next for Failure?

Ken: We head back in a couple of days, and when we get back we have most of June off and then we head off around the US on tour in July and August and then the tour will continue you in September and October. So we will tour a lot on the current album and then see where it takes us.

Interview and Questions by Dan Devour