Greg Edwards Discusses Failure’s New Album — Interview

“The most important thing about it, for me, is going out playing the songs and playing to people who want to hear it.”

On Wednesday (June 10), Failure‘s Greg Edwards joined Loudwire Nights to dive into the band’s latest album, Location Lost. Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article.

“I think we’ve released so many records now, I’ve learned to kind of turn down the expectation level,” Edwards admitted to Loudwire Nights‘ Chuck Armstrong. For him, playing Failure’s new songs onstage is where he is able to truly celebrate Location Lost.

“You’re so insulated when you’re working on stuff and then when you actually go out and you’re onstage and you’re playing the music, it’s sometimes startling how people respond to it.”

Edwards shared that this has been true, basically, since the beginning of Failure.

“Our first few tours, it’s hard to know if anybody, more than maybe three or four people had even heard our records — three or four people and the guys in Tool,” he said.

“It really wasn’t until after we broke up, during the hiatus, that I started to hear things from people. People would sometimes come up to me and [say] my uncle’s cousin’s sister is a Failure fan, things like that. It wouldn’t make sense because I figured after we broke up, I figured that was it, it would fade into total obscurity.”

As he shared, he was surprised to learn about a growing interest in Failure during their break between 1997 and 2013.

“When we reformed and did that first show at the El Rey [Theatre in Los Angeles], it was shocking,” Edwards expressed.

“And it’s still kind of shocking. And great. I think for all three of us, the most satisfying part of it is that we have young fans, that we have so many young fans that have discovered it in there teens and early 20s and they’ve just discovered it on their own through coming across it on a playlist or on YouTube or something. It’s pretty cool.”

As cool as it is for fans to discover Failure in this way, Edwards did note that for him personally, finding new music is tough.

“At the top, it’s really not that different, the biggest selling artists and the stuff that gets the most money put behind it is still kind of jammed down people’s throats in the same way it always has been,” he said.

“There’s just too many bands. It’s great, but it’s also just too easy to now record your own record and put it out. It’s hard to suss out what is worthwhile and what’s not, so you just sort of give up. For me, it’s hard, it’s hard to discover new stuff. There’s an overwhelming amount to choose from.”

All of that being said, though, Edwards didn’t want to sound completely frustrated or disillusioned by things like algorithms and AI.

“I mean, when the algorithm is operating in a really kind of stupid way and it thinks it knows what you want and the way that it thinks it knows what you want is actually giving you exactly what you don’t want or need, that seems to be the more unsophisticated part of the evolution of AI,” he said.

“But I suspect that AI is just going to get better and better at really understanding us and really understanding what each one of us as individuals wants and needs. And I don’t know what the ultimate implications of that are, but in terms of music, it may be helpful for finding the stuff you really like.”

What Else Did Failure’s Greg Edwards Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

Working with Paramore‘s Hayley Williams on Failure’s song, “The Rising Skyline”: “I’m trying to think if she’s the only other voice that’s ever been on a Failure record other than me and Ken [Andrews] … Hayley’s been a long-time fan, I think Failure was one of the inspirations for Paramore and when they came together as a band, they all shared a love for Failure. We’ve been in touch with her over the years and Ken’s worked with her…and she’s come to shows and he just gave her the record when it was finished and she responded to that song, ‘The Rising Skyline.’ And I think somewhat spontaneously, he just said, ‘You want to sing on it?’ And she said, ‘Yes,’ and we just sent her the tracks and let her do whatever she wanted, which was essentially singing an octave above Ken throughout the song. And that worked as a double, it worked as a texture and you hear that at some parts in the song, but it also worked as a solo in the second verse. There’s such a subtle emotion and fragility to the way she sang that verse that it really, it doesn’t sound like a performance. It sounds like those emotions are actually there in her voice singing it. Every time I hear it again, I’m surprised by it.”
Failure’s documentary, Every Time You Lose Your Mind: A Film About Failure: “That’s a whole different animal … For me personally, I was never super excited about the whole project. And I have a lot of ambivalence about its existence in general. I guess the way that I frame it for myself is, I understand it may be of great interest to longtime fans and that’s cool. I remember being a fan of bands and when you could see something, some behind the scenes, some perspective, that was always a rich thing to absorb into your love of the music. From that perspective, I can get behind it. And because of the subject matter, if there’s any chance that it could help anybody or bring comfort to anybody — and which it seems like it has — then I’m absolutely behind that.”
Other bands covering Failure songs: “I’d love to hear more of it. I’d love to hear like a country artist cover a Failure song or a folk artist or a kind of an old-school ballad singer cover. I think there’s a few Failure songs that could handle that treatment. I shouldn’t even admit this, but it was years before I heard [A Perfect Circle‘s] ‘The Nurse Who Loved Me’ cover. I heard about it, I knew it existed — sorry, Billy [Howerdel] and Maynard [James Keenan]. But for whatever reason, I never got around to actually hearing it for years after that album was released. And then when I finally heard it, I was really surprised because it wasn’t what I expected at all. And it’s such a unique interpretation of the song.”