Rig Rundown - Failure's Ken Andrews

Article and photos: bit.ly/FailureRR
Premier Guitar (bit.ly/PGhomepage) met with producer, engineer, songwriter and founding Failure member Ken Andrews before the band's June 8th show at Nashville's Exit/In. After enjoying great success, breaking up and reforming, Failure is hitting it hard on the road. The band used to tour with fragile amps, tons of stompboxes, and miles of cable, but they now travel lightly with clean modeling technology.
Guitars and Bass:
Andrews' #1 guitar is a well-worn 1976 Les Paul Standard with a Seymour Duncan Custom pickup in the neck and Duncan '59 in the bridge. Andrews' second guitar is a shimmery LP-style axe made by Electrical Guitar Company, which arrived the day before this show. It features proprietary EGC humbuckers and a Travis Bean-influenced aluminum neck. When Andrews covers the bottom end, he uses a 2013 Fender Precision Bass with a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound pickup.
To read more about the setups behind Failure, visit: bit.ly/FailureRR
Special thanks to Joel Lauver and Dune Baydoun!

[@legochickenguy4938]

casually states that the first record he ever produced is fantastic planet, maybe one of the most immaculately produced records ive ever heard

[@salame462]

Ken Andrews is one smart dude.

[@jasonarmstrong5750]

not surprising, these guys are all musical geniuses in their own right

[@kallipolis5]

Ken is a super nice guy, took the time to chat with me for several minutes after playing Dallas two nights ago. He's been playing a 1968 jazzmaster in recent shows on the 20th anniversary tour. I knew it was a jazzmaster , but he told me himself it was an original 68. Very cool guy, they sound absolutely amazing live--definitely, definitely go see them if you can.

[@HARwinsOUTagain]

YES YES YES YES YES YES!!! Whoever scheduled this interview, give that person a RAISE. This band was such a huge part of my high school years

[@connorwilder8419]

it was my idea!

[@Jacksmusicshack]

Clearly FANTASTIC taste in music! :P

[@851852093114208513]

Hell mine too, and my high school years very well may have been 10 years behind yours. I got all of my friends into Failure and we went to see them live together during the reunion tour

[@drumtravelfun]

Please please please do a live album. Thank you-Failure fans.

[@emcmw]

drumtravelfun they have a live album of their Fantastic Planet album out.

[@lessthanpinochet]

Easily one of my favorite bands of all time. So stoked for this.

[@emcmw]

Ken Andrews is one of my favorite musicians/artists ever. He seems like such a humble fella also.

[@jasonanderson8102]

Fantastic Planet is maybe one if the best 5 Rock albums of the 90’s IMO.

[@Ar41e]

Finally! Ken is such a mastodon of the sound!

[@nskingman]

Love this interviewer! He seems really into the bands and gear and really excited. Please keep him on the rig rundowns!

[@Dream-Academy]

Nah way to much BS suck up right on talk. Get someone that is ACTUALLY cool and feels no need to do that to stroke eGos. The guy is over the top. We don't need him to try and be entertaining and act like a star. I reckon Kenny was looking at him a few times like "are you for real?" and said nothing after some of his little sycophantic raves. All you need is an occasional pertinent question. Who needs to know what the interviewer sometimes does too?... I am not watching for him! Think about it!

[@miked3168]

He is horrible cause he is fumbling nervous fanboy demeanor. I would rather listen to Ken than this amped up ferret trying to interview

[@TheGorillafoot]

Would be awesome to see them interviewed in the 90s to see all the pedals and stuff they have running.

[@veerchasm1]

Great to see a musician who also understands his gear and hasn’t handed it over to a tech

[@isaacg6967]

That's really the ethos of the band, given that they (primarily Ken) took over production of their music with Fantastic Planet.

[@jnh73]

I saw Failure at the Paradise in Boston earlier this year. Best show I have ever seen - bar none.

[@GregsGuitarLessons]

This made my year. Thanks for doing this!

[@jamesonjeffery4069]

Ken is incredibly musically intelligent.

[@User-jk8wq]

Jameson Jeffery Definitely. After all, the guy engineers and mixes their records!

[@isaacg6967]

@@CosmicConnection968 bruh wat

[@GuitarGuy5000000000]

I agree that this interviewer is very down to earth and has a cool personality, and Failure is amazing; just saw them live.

[@billybutcher4995]

Fantastic Planet top 10 groundbreaking albums of the 90’s.

[@rob1996ization]

Such a cool band! This was awesome!

[@MyReturningNightmare]

Great setup, really organized ...no wonder they sound amazing live. Nice video!

[@realmcbass]

PG, thank you very much!

[@PharoesBand]

This is just amazing. Thank you for doing this!!!

[@mgreene95]

super awesome. saw them in brooklyn and was blown away by the array of tones and how closely they matched the records. super dialed-in!

[@C-Stanz]

Failure & Year of the Rabbit are great. I also loved his contributions to Blinker the Star in the 90s. He produced & sings backup on 'Below the Sliding Doors' & it's an incredible song, as is the rest of that album.

[@aviolentpurple9925]

Right on bro. That first Blinker The Star album was so beautiful. Slipped under the radar like Failure did, but has some really timeless tracks. So unique. Not to put labels on stuff but it had this kind of Shoegazer aspect that was really neat. I wonder how many other people got into that album. It's tough being timeless fans of this small circle of bands; so innovative but hard to find a friend that appreciates them. They filled in so many dark holes in my life as the soundtrack.

[@jasonmoriparty]

Failure RULES

[@adsensedd]

Ken knows his stuff, they sound incredible live.

[@isaacg6967]

@@CosmicConnection968 and?

[@PMTluke]

Fantastic planet such a great album

[@PMTluke]

Great band glad to see them making new music

[@TheSoulcraft]

can u imagine say having Ken Andrews.Danny Lohner,Trent Flood,Jason Lowenstein-maybe say Josh Freese or Charilie Clouser on drums-that sht would be beyond human! Ive been talking em up on it for awhile,& they seem open to the concept,but all so busy doing other things!

[@ajk1989]

This is a great rundown! I'd never heard of Failure before, definitely going to check them out now!

[@mil182]

thank you for this!!!

[@groovyhippie1165]

Very cool interview! I really dig the rig and stage setup.

[@rjcbh23]

Love this!

[@theycallmejpj]

thought i was watching an episode of star trek for a second there

[@Streamingfriendlyunitshifter]

yessss! great RR!

[@zacharyyoung2961]

I just saw these guys live and they’re sound was so pure and good. My next rig may very well be a Fractal.

[@jeremiahseip3677]

I just saw them in Detroit and it was the best live sound I’ve ever heard. Ever.

[@mackenziegreen1215]

Perry with the signature rolled up sleeves. guys low key a style icon lmao

[@kevinstarofficial]

The interviewer is AMAZING! Make him do all rigdowns! He's so polite and wasted all the time! He strikes a nice balance. He's clearly chosen coke over weed in this one! He's so cool and enthusiastic. Love him

[@keysersoze3977]

Yes!!!!!!!! Awesome!!!!

[@weakbrainthrombosis]

Shoutout to phone memo recordings! My friend used to voice memo record when we jammed. I thought it was silly, and I had a “low opinion” of most jam sessions. He just recently sent me some clips of those old jams, and i was like “what was that?, was that us? We sounded f’n awesome, we need to get “garage rocking” again. Totally inspired me to bring my guitar out of retirement.

[@gatherstudio5219]

Man them speakers remind me of a set of hyle loudspeakers my band had back in the day Nice rig Bro!!

[@g3o5d]

We had a pair of these Sunn Model 15s for FOH powered by a Sunn Coliseum Slave Amplifier. Ahh Good times.

[@bummerbee123]

Great vid.

[@thombrady420]

I hope one day for an Autolux rig rundown.

[@sethprops4404]

I get to see Failure tonight!

[@darthlazlo]

I was at this show at they were incredible.

[@DarkestofTimes]

21:34 lol oh my god yes. That's me in a nutshell, desperately recording riffs on my phone so I don't forget them lol.

[@danieldemayo6209]

And then never doing anything with them? Lol then you lose the phone or SD card won't read the files on your new phone and you lose everything hahah

[@DarkestofTimes]

Daniel DeMayo actually that happened once yeah, lol.

[@DarkestofTimes]

***** I'm in a similar position as you.

[@danieldemayo6209]

Check my sound cloud...not much on there but a few phone recorded ideas lol soundcloud.com/daniel-demayo

[@danieldemayo6209]

Lol sure. Saw you like tool so thats a start. Interesting i wanted my project is called theater of noise...so much in common haha

[@ast-og-losta]

tight band.....love them!

[@pgdantas]

Thank you so much for this Rig Rundown! I couldn't believe when i saw you did it. I'm really psyched by this band right now, and the video totally meet my expectations regarding Ken explaining their gear in this tour. It would have been cooler if Greg dropped by to say something about it. And I really like this interviewer, always spot on when talking with the musicians in the Rig Rundowns videos.

[@theofarnum8706]

From that little clip at the beginning, I can tell that Failure is not my kind of music. However, this band has an awesome rig that I am extremely jealous of. That and the conversational tone of the interview makes this one of my favorite Rig Rundowns.

[@GuitarP0RN]

I'm hella late but you should listen to more of Failure's music. I guarantee you'll find one(or many) that you'll absolutely fall in love with.

[@theofarnum8706]

@@GuitarP0RN 8 years later maybe i’m more down

[@RaveEpic]

Ken is using that custom guitar now on a few songs. So bad ass.

[@TheZooropaBaby]

+RaveEpic and he has jaguar/jazzmaster looking guitar from EGC as well in addition to LP-style one.

[@LuxeXx]

They're both nervous, which is kind of funny... :)

[@incubrian]

i dont know why, but when i listen to failure, i want to hear ken and page hamilton from helmet do a collab!

[@___IG]

That's a hell of a tapdance.

[@mikereseigh]

Wow this is an education.

[@LuxeXx]

I like the old guy mods.

[@christmeister]

2:41 It’s the Rocktron Intellifex LTD white ver

[@TriangleWaveRecords]

What is that Samson in-ear transmitter/receiver thing? I can't read the model name

[@saintlotus93]

I was at that show, it was awesome.

[@jscurley]

Does anyone know what brand and gauge strings they use for guitar and bass?

[@zerozipper4299]

Old Bass Setup circa 97' was a Wal MkII strung with Rotosound Swing 66 Strings(45-105) into a few effects (Tremolo and Chorus) then into a Ampeg SVT-2 (Non-Pro) into a SVT-8x10 limited edition cab with Eden Speakers. Now for the new album and all future material its a P-bass into a AXE-FX to monitors. Same Strings or whatever brand Ken is using.

[@tonygabashvili8357]

He has Gordon Freeman's face lol

[@AlexGordonMusic]

Tony Gabashvili HAHAHA he totally does!

[@yatindawra9315]

what's the song that they are playing during the opening sound check

[@krisreilly1969]

It's called "Frogs" and it's from the album Magnified. Great stuff.

[@wearemollywearemolly]

WE WANT TAME IMPALA!!

[@xDooksx]

Jmp-1 rocks you

[@michaelbartholomew8155]

HUM please???!!

[@serjeick]

13:52 eyes wide open...

[@OrchestralOrg]

ken andrews is his name, huh. interesting. does he know he and jonathan davis could be doppelgangers of one another? he has a really strong "jonathan davis" look and sound (his speaking voice, i'm referring to). it could just be me though because i always see look-a-likes in people. can hardly ever look at anyone without thinking of who they look like or remind me of. all the strangers look like family all the family look so strange ~ peter gabriel (p.s. nobody looks like gabriel that i've ever seen)

[@joeyrogerson83]

Ken you're breaking my heart with the axe-fx.

[@jnh73]

joeyrogerson83 See them live. I thought I would miss the real amps too, and I have never been sonically assaulted (in a good way) as the two Failure shows I've seen (last year at the Paradise in Boston and a few weeks ago at the Asylum in Portland, Maine). Absolutely CRUSHING tones. Didn't miss the amps at all, and I'm sure Ken and Greg don't miss having to lug around all that gear.

[@achece1996]

i miss Rebecca Dirks u,u

[@zachiswayposi1]

I had to stop because, as much as I love Ken and Failure, the dude trying to conduct the interview is weapons grade cringe.

[@pattonPwr]

no bass gear ...

[@Bukowskithedog]

Unfortunate no time was given to discussing bass and bass tone.

[@mockstarr]

way too many Yamaha plugs.

[@justinrulesass]

this interviewer has moved from coke to weed, which is nice, but i still wish he wouldn't reach for guitars before asking.

[@pandaoneproductionsd9765]

those shoes were terrible.

[@EtcEtcAndEtc]

chewing gum and offering far too many opinions. I don't like this presenter at all, sorry

[@JeffreyOmen]

agreed

[@ajk1989]

This is a great rundown! I'd never heard of Failure before, definitely going to check them out now!

[@revolutionday1]

Troy Van Leeuwen (of A Perfect Circle, Queens of the Stone Age, etc.) used to play in Failure.

[@ajk1989]

Well that clinches it, practically ready buy some albums without any further research.

[@fullmetalfunk]

Listen to Fantastic Planet. It's a beautiful and heavy soundscape.

[@duhlike]

my favorite is Magnified