www.facebook.com/officialfaithinfailure
From: Columbus, OH
Sounds like: Hard Rock/Metal
1. What’s new with the band?
Well we just recently capped off a tremendous 2019 for us, and we are taking that momentum with us into 2020. We’ve had our newest single called “Sleepless” release along with a lyric video for it. We started getting our first artist endorsements with Dirtbag Clothing out of San Diego, CA and Rattlesnake Cables out of Missoula, MT. We were selected to be in the “Battle for Inkcarceration 2020” on February 15th for a shot to play the 2020 Inkcarceration Music & Tattoo Festival in July. We also started booking shows outside of Columbus, and outside of Ohio as well. We also have new merch coming for these first few shows in 2020. We are going to be starting the recording process in the spring for our EP releasing in the fall. There’s a lot of stuff new with us at the moment, and hope to keep that trend moving as we move into 2020.
2. What can you tell us about the new music?
We just released our newest single, and first single with our vocalist Chad, called “Sleepless” on February 1st 2020. This was a song we’ve had in the works for awhile that we were working on with our previous vocalist, but due to his move to school coming sooner than originally thought, we weren’t able to record it over the summer of 2019. In hindsight we are glad we did it now because it allows people to hear our new vocalist in case they haven’t been able to make it to a show. The song is on the darker side of things. It’s definitely our heaviest subject matter lyrically. The lyrics are about someone’s struggle to deal with depression, thoughts of suicide, and a bad relationship. All of which came from two real life situations, one of which someone unfortunately took their own life. This person reached out to one of our guitarists Aaron a few years back looking for help to finish lyrics to a song because they had been in bands before. Sadly it wasn’t able to get finished, but we had the lyrics, and we wanted to finish them. We feel the subject matter has something in it everyone can relate to in some way. No one’s life is perfect, and everyone goes through bad times. That’s the great thing about the hard rock/ metal scene people don’t have to feel like they’re alone or going through something alone. Mental health is a serious matter, and there’s a lot of people in scene that write about it. There’s a personal connection you can feel with artists because you can see things they’ve been through and realize that we all go through the same type of stuff in life. We are very proud of this song for numerous reasons, but we hope that someone hears it and relates to it on that personal level. Just remember you’re not alone.
3. Do you have any pre-show rituals? If so, what are they?
We tend to go off and do our own thing a little before we are getting ready to play, and then we meet up about 5 minutes or so before it’s time to go on just to get hyped to go out and perform. Doing it this way really seems to work for us quite well. Our guitarists Cole, and Aaron tend to warm up beforehand, our drummer Nick goes into hiding to clear his mind. Matt, our bassist will warm up somewhere and stick to himself. Chad kind of is the wild card. He might be back with some of us just passing time, he might be at the merch table talking to friends, and people at the show. We always get together towards the end to just get ready and hit the stage as a group to start the show. There’s definitely jokes going around, and just things to lighten the mood. It’s a lot of fun. Maybe someday we’ll get a set routine we all do together if it’s something we feel works well for us. Who knows?
4. What’s one highlight in the past year for the band?
2019 was a huge year for us. We released our biggest music, merch, we did podcasts, and we played a great amount of bigger shows opening for bands like Silent Planet, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Eyes Set to Kill, No Resolve, and LIMBS. We did our debut music video for our song “Vampire” as well. We did so much last year, but if I had to pick our biggest it would be a toss up between having our song “Hero” debut on 99.7 The Blitz radio station here in Columbus, or our first show being sold out opening for Silent Planet. It’s crazy to think that we we're new and totally unknown, but a promotional company, and people from an FM radio station decided to take chances on us Day 1. For stuff like that we are forever grateful.
5. What’s one thing you’d change about the local music scene?
Columbus, OH has a pretty great local scene if we’re being honest. There’s a lot of tremendously talented bands in the city who are all dedicated, and put out a great product. We feel like we are very fortunate to be located where we are, because that’s not the case for everybody in bands across the country. The one big thing is just universal honestly. We wish more people would be invested in their local music scene as fans. There are so many amazing bands all around the world who are putting in a lot of work and effort to do something that they enjoy. Unfortunately not everyone gets a good platform to do this on. It’s understandable that people are busy in life, but how many people will gloss over a band’s post on social media about an upcoming show, or a new song, but they don’t hesitate to share memes or like a bunch of selfies? Every band no matter how big at one point was an unknown local band somewhere. They got to were they were because people went and listened to them. They got an audience that supported them, and would be a pivotal part in their future success. It doesn’t seem uncommon to hear someone say something like “I wish there were new bands to listen to.” There are. They are more than likely right under your nose you just don’t know it yet. Supporting your local scene is huge, and it means so much to the bands. You can support bands being interacting with their social media accounts, streaming music, buying a ticket to a show, etc.
6. What are you currently listening to?
As individuals we have a pretty eclectic taste in music. Everyone jams their own stuff, but there’s definitely been some stuff getting a lot of play around here. We’ve been jamming a lot of Avenged Sevenfold, Ghost, Rush, Tool, Periphery, Atreyu, Korn, Rise Against, Bullet For My Valentine, Black Veil Brides, etc. We are always looking for new avenues of inspiration so we are constantly listening to a wide variety of things both old and new. There’s never a shortage of that which is nice.
7. What do you think about streaming services and how they pay out royalties to artists?
When it comes to streaming services it’s a little bit of a double edged sword it seems. On one hand they’re amazing because whether someone pays for the service or uses the free version they can access your music. You instantly get your music to a potential worldwide audience, and the value in that is unmatched. That was unheard of as an unknown local artist for decades. At the same time we understand the gripe bigger artists have with streaming services. Some of the complaints have even come from high profile people such as Taylor Swift. It just doesn’t seem like the streaming business model has been figured out quite yet, but we think it’ll eventually get there in time. The reality is people don’t buy music like they did before. As an artist you make your money through other means like playing shows, or selling merch. It would be nice if you could make more money from streaming especially if you’re an artist who isn’t signed to a label, or doesn’t have hundreds of thousands of fans or more. For someone like us streaming provides a small, yet steady income. By no means are we rich from it but it’s allowed us to put money towards recording more music, or creating new merch. For us personally we are looking to make our money from getting out there and playing shows, selling merch, and the money from streaming and digital sales end up being a nice boost. This is the world we’ve been living in for quite some time now and it’s not a big deal to us because the potential reach more than makes up for it.
8. What do you wish to accomplish in the next year?
We have some big goals for 2020. We will be releasing our first full EP in the fall which is a big goal for us. We’ve started booking shows out of the state, and hope to put together one or two 3 show runs in different areas this year. We just have a lot of goals set for this year and beyond. If we are being honest our biggest goal is to continue and grow our fanbase. Starting out as a local band is always an uphill climb. If you aren’t ready for that then you’re going to have a hard time with things. You just have to hope you get the right people in and around the band, make the best music you can, and hope that people enjoy it. It’s definitely a grind and so much stuff goes into making a band successful on any level. We love putting in the effort and the work to make our goals. We believe that if we continue to put our all into the music, shows, and the aspects of a band that people will see that and share our name with more people. A band is more than the members you see on the stage. The band is them plus their circle of people helping from a behind the scenes aspect, and the fans who listen to the music, come to the shows, and support the band in anyway possible. Without all of that we wouldn’t be were we are currently. We are so thankful for everyone who has and continues to support us. We look forward to growing that and meeting all kinds of new people.
