For Failure, a band that once disappeared for 19 years between albums, a five-year gap should feel insignificant. But new album Location Lost arrives the hard way – shaped by frontman Ken Andrews’ serious back injury, a brush with death and a long road back to full health.
His punishing physical and mental recovery from the injury and subsequent surgery nixed plans to hit the studio in 2024. Upon his eventual return to action, Failure recorded a beautifully diverse album; driving one moment, spaced-out and atmospheric the next. Andrews fills us in on the journey.
How did your injury impact the recording of Location Lost?
I kept thinking we could just push it back a month and I’d be fine by then. It got pushed back until early 2025, and even then I still wasn’t really all there yet mentally. The whole experience really knocked me down a few pegs in realising my own mortality.
How bad did it get?
It was not good. I was hooked up to all the machines and my numbers were not good. At some point I had five doctors in the room trying to figure out what was going wrong. It was a dramatic situation. I don’t know how close I was to popping off. But I do remember, once they stabilised me they wanted to keep me at least one more night to watch me. Later, a nurse came in and said: “You should stay another night or two because you almost died yesterday.”
Did that experience feed into the record?
[The Air’s On Fire] was about waking up in the hospital after the surgery and hallucinating. I’m not talking about being a little fuzzy after you wake up from being under general anaesthesia; this was a form of psychosis. I was in a lot of pain and discomfort and my senses were completely off. I would go from shivering to sweating and feeling like the air was on fire.
Paramore lead singer Hayley Williams guests on the track The Rising Skyline. How did that come about?
It was really cool, and kind of full circle. She had been a fan of the band since she was quite young. I had a chance to work with her much later in Paramore’s career, as a mixer. I sent her three or four songs, and she replied that she was especially tripping out on The Rising Skyline because it was a different kind of ballad for us.
I said she’d be perfect to sing on that song, and she said if I wanted her to sing on it I’d better send it to her quick, because she was wrapping up her solo album, so she had time to take a crack at it. I sent it to her, she did her vocal and sent it right back to me, and that was it.
This summer marks thirty years since Failure’s landmark album Fantastic Planet. Location Lost shows that the band aren’t interested in trading in nostalgia.
We did a Fantastic Planet twenty-five-year tour, so we’re not above doing that stuff, but I think what’s more important to us is making new records that actually excite us artistically. That’s the fun of it for us. The whole goal of the reboot for us was to be able to make music that felt like we were trying to go somewhere new but still retain the band’s identity.
It’s actually not that hard to do something new. It’s easy to go completely off script and end up with a whole different sound. The challenge of trying to keep the band’s identity but actually push it forward is something that’s our main goal. When that’s not there is when the band will probably be done.
Location Lost is out now via Failure/ Arduous/Virgin Music Group.