Failure on Location Lost: '90s Alt-Rockers Dissect Their 7th Record
Failure (Band) - Kellii Scott, Greg Edwards, Ken Andrews
Lindsey Byrnes
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I distinctly remember the day in 1996 when KROQ DJ Carson Daly first introduced me to Failure. I recall just as clearly the moment the following year when Daly, as MTV’s newest VJ, reported their demise.
It didn’t 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, multi-instrumentalist Greg Edwards and drummer Kellii Scott 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.
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I would still be reminded of Failure in the subsequent years. My own musical pursuits led me to a week of sessions at L.A.’s Paramount Recording Studios in 2003. That’s when A Perfect Circle’s cover of Failure’s hypnotic ballad, “The Nurse Who Loved Me,” 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 of “Stuck on You,” Failure’s most commercial song during Fantastic Planet’s album cycle.
Then, 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.
From there, Failure made up for lost time in prolific fashion. They released three self-produced studio albums — 2015’s The Heart Is a Monster, 2018’s In the Future … and 2021’s Wild Type Droid — as well as a 2023 concert film, We Are Hallucinations, and 2025’s Hulu-released documentary, Every Time You Lose Your Mind. 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, on April 24. With their newest release, the second phase of the band will officially have more output than their 1990-1997 tenure.
The third single off the ‘80s-infused new record, “The Rising Skyline,” features a rare yet fitting collaboration. Hayley Williams, 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.
“She digested [four songs] for a while [before picking the ballad], and she texted me a few times, going, ‘This feels like a different kind of Failure record to me. Good on you guys for doing that,’” Andrews tells The Hollywood Reporter.
The making of Location Lost had its challenges, a trademark of Failure’s entire career. Andrews was still recovering from debilitating back surgery, and Edwards felt adrift for the time since the band’s reunion. His creative North Star had disappeared, hence the album title of Location Lost.
“There was a lot of turmoil and life changes. Going through the process of this record, I wouldn’t say that we were the most cohesive, interpersonally, with each other. It felt like things were ripping apart a bit,” Edwards admits. “I 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.”
In the February 2026 press release for Location Lost, Edwards weighed the band’s future by asking a big question: “Is Location Lost the last Failure record, or could it be the transition to yet another new phase? We’ll see where it goes from here.”
When I followed up on behalf of paranoid Failure fans everywhere, Edwards expanded on his curren