Failsafe Journal

Failsafe in KERRANG!

2008-08-20T04:31:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, check out our full page in Kerrang!

New Album, New Labels, New Tours

2008-08-20T04:05:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

OK so we can finally announce some news we've been keeping under wraps for a little while...

It's been a long time coming, but we can now officially announce that our new album 'The Truth Is' will be released on Small Town Records (UK) and Fond Of Life Records (Europe) in November this year!! We're so happy to be working with these guys. We can't wait to get this record out, and to tour the hell out of it and see you all again!

Watch 'this' and 'my' space for all upcoming news and tour dates!

Thanks for your patience,

Failsafe x

Album done, when is it out?

2008-03-04T13:47:00.000-08:00

The Truth Is....We don't know yet, hahaha (see what I did there, im so sodding funny)

Anyway crap puns aside we sort of left this Blog unfinished for a while as we had to get the album finished, dash off to go on tour with A Wilhelm Scream and then begin working on getting the Album released and whatnot. I'll start with what happened after we recorded the guitars.

Finishing Recording

As you might have picked up on from the Eat The Rich Video, the Vocals were already being laid down as we were doing everything else, but by the time all the Drums, Bass and Guitars were finished there was still a few whole songs worth of vocals to do and a lot of songs needed re-doing and finishing off vocal wise as well. At this point we were going really mental, I moved on to playing Tekken 4. Rob was punishing Pro Evo on the PSP, I cant really remember what Andy was doing, probably drinking lots of tea, while Jim and Matt cracked on with the vocals and Andy occasionally chipped in to do the odd 3 part harmony. As ever, Pete had plenty of ideas for vocal Harmony's and 3rd part Harmony's and ideas which we mostly utilised. I think out of all the things that Pete helps us out with as a producer, rather than an engineer, its definatly with ideas for vocal Harmony's. So we did all that, mixed it a few times, mastered it a few times, listened to it loads and then went on tour....

A Wilhelm Scream/Failsafe/All Idols Fall

It's definatly weird going on tour straight after recording for that amount of time, they're like the complete opposite thing. But what can be said about the tour apart from its great to play with a band like Wilhelm who you not only respect and enjoy their music but most of all they play like they mean it, of course the same goes for All Idols Fall and it was great to meet both bands and get on with them too, as it always is when you go on tour with other bands. So yeh.. we toured, played to lots of people, some who probably hadn't seen us before, had some good party times, (Swindon MILF's.....uber lol's) and felt a little bit gutted when we had to stop. Here we all are in Cardiff, just before we all went home..

Album Release

Ok so now we have an album recorded and lots of people are asking when its coming out and in all seriousness, we don't know yet. We're in the middle of talking to labels and sorting this, that and the other out and its pretty fustrating because we really just wanna get it out so we can start playing the new songs live and really caining it, but we also realised that in order to carry on doing what we do, we need to play the game a little bit. Not in a bad way but do we want to really get the album pushed when its released and we've also done a bit of a video and we have ideas for a possible single and things like that, we're also thinking about festivals in the summer too. So unfortunatly things are taking a bit of time but of course we will be letting you know what the crack is when its all falling into place.

For now heres the tracklisting for the album:

1. Only If We Learn
2. A Common Goal
3. Without Warning
4. Cities & Headlights
5. Hope
6. Mirror, Mirror
7. Deadwood
8. Guilt on Dirty Hands
9. When Words Run Out
10. Help Yourself
11. Too Much To Ask

bye bye x

The Guitars

2008-01-12T13:05:00.000-08:00

Hello

Its my turn to be a geek about Guitars, so here we go. Guitar-wise things have been going well, we've tracked all the main guitars and we just have little bits to touch up. Me and Matt have done one main guitar track each, no guitar overdubs or anything apart from on a couple of songs just to thicken the sound up slightly but most of the time the songs haven't needed it.

We've both managed to get a great sound from the start. I've used a two channel Marshall JCM 800 from the 1980's which is the studio's, into a knackered Marshall cab with some special speakers that sound amazing (Pete informs me that they're Celestion heritage 20 watt greenback reissue speakers, just in case any guitar nerds wanted to know, haha!) Matt's been playing through his Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier from the 1990's, (Older amps always sound better) through the same cab. Matt's also used Pete's Diezel VH4 on a couple of songs too.

In a bid to keep it sounding consistent we've stuck to using only these amps and not gone crazy using loads of different amps for different songs. Instead we've used a few different guitars to suit different songs. I've used mostly my own guitar, my trusty Fender Cyclone which ive used practically my whole gigging life and Matt used his recently purchased Fender Telecaster. We also used Pete's Fender Stratocaster and Gibson Les Paul Custom.

We also used this box which is a magic box and you'll hear it all over the album...

...and heres some sexy pics of us playing through all this sexy gear

Rock!

The Bass..

2008-01-11T08:03:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

This is me, Andy...

So for the Bass, we got off to a great start. Even better than we could have hoped, as soon as I plugged in and played, it sounded great! I've been using all my own gear, and got the exact sound I was aiming for. I've been using my Ampeg 8x10 and Ampeg Classic Series Head. The Cabinet has had a Mic in front of one speaker, and we've been mixing that signal with one taken from a Sansamp. I've also been using my American Fender Jazz which has been awesome, here's some photos of my stuff...

Me and Rob have been recording Drums and Bass together which is giving the album a great vibe, because we feel the energy and live sound, mixed with the great overall instrument sound is being captured perfectly, and is laying down the perfect foundations for the guitars and vocals to record onto.

So the feel of the songs is perfect for me, as the bass sound is just like I'm used to, so the songs are sounding the same to me as when we wrote them so it's all feeling natural. Me and Rob have only one song left to record, and are so happy with what we've done so far!

So for now, thanks for reading and keep coming back!

Andy

Rob Speaks

2008-01-09T06:59:00.001-08:00

Alright team, I've never done this before, but i thought id relieve Si from his duties for once. I guess this post will be mainly about the drums because thats all i know really, so i hope it doesn't bore you non drummers too much.

We've been here a week now and we still have 10 days left, but we are quite ahead of schedule. Theres only 2 more songs for drums and bass too do, we've already punished 10. Me and Andy are recording the drums and bass together and its sounding amazing, it means we can both just go for it without the restriction of headphones and feeling a bit stiff. Its giving the record a great Vibe, an energy that was possibly missing from 'What We Are Today'. The Kit is sounding awesome, although the bass drum and cymbals are the only things of mine that I'm using. Pete (Miles) is a wizard on eBay so he now has a selection of beautiful DW toms which he got for stupidly cheap, so I'm using them, they sound huge. Non of the toms are from the same kit though, thats why the kit might look a bit weird on the photos. The snare I'm using is a Mapex, its solid bronze and weighs heavier than me, it sounds so phat, its got the exact sound i was after so im a happy bunny!

Thats about all for now i think, so I'm off to get a little stir crazy and play more Pro Evo than my eyes can handle

take it easy, catch you on the A Wilhelm Scream tour hopefully

Rob x

Recording Part 1

2008-01-05T17:13:00.001-08:00

Hello, so its been at least two months since the last post which is longer than usual but there really didn't seem like anything worth writing really. We played in Europe for a while which was fun although it felt a little more like we were playing to no one, but you cant win 'em all. Anyway we got to do some fun stuff like go sledging in a mountain village in Austria so all in all it was another good experience. Then we came back home and finished one last song, spent our Christmas and New Year working and seeing Family before arriving at Sandhill Studios in Liverpool to finally begin recording our second album....

Now its the end of day 4 and its late but we said that we'd do a sort of recording diary thing but its proving a bit difficult without internet access at the studio so my entries will probably be a bit sparrodic. We drive there every morning, set off at 10 get there by 11, then work until 11 or 12 at night and then come back home. So usually by the time we get home all we wanna do is go to bed! Even though all we're doing is sitting around and picking up our instruments every so often it can get quite intense and exhausting just being in one room for the whole day. Add to that the feeling of cabin fever as well (the studio is based sort of underground with no natural light). However things are going really well, you can see this by the look on Jims face

The way we're recording so far is by recording the Drums and Bass together live, making a solid and natural foundation for everything else to build on top of. Then recording the guitars and vocals after that, we've been managing about a song a day doing this. On the last album Rob recorded all the Drums parts for the songs one after the other in a block of about 4 days and then we added all the bass to the songs and then the guitars and then vocals. This meant that one person would be busy all the time for a few days and then not really have anything to do for the rest of the time recording and it meant Jim and Matt had to sing for days on end which really strained their voices. This time we've done all the parts to one song each day for 4 days, so that we'll all have something to do every day and also Jim and Matt and now Andy can rest their vocals for a little while between each song.

The other difference to this recording which is a slight change from the first album is the way in which we've decided to go with Drums and Bass playing live first. For the first album, we recorded everything completely separately but this time we really wanted to achieve more in the way of our live dynamic and get it sounding more live. We thought about recording totally live in a room together but for a few reasons we didnt do that. For one we knew that with some of the albums we've heard that are recorded live, they had an amazing feel but sounded a bit thin and weak and we wanted ours to still sound powerful but more 'live'. So we went for the inbetween option really, and its so far sounding exactly like we wanted it to. We've not gone over the top with using different amps and equipment but so far we've made selective choices about using amps and instruments that arent our own and its makes a subtle but great difference to the songs and enhances them while still sounding like us and the sound you hear live.

Anyway, that all I'll write for now. I'll see if I can get Jim to write out anything about the lyrical side of things and we'll get some more photos and possibly some videos of us too, and a few more points about how things are going as time goes on. We're making good progress so we might have some time to dick around in the studio and come up with some surprises (even surprises for us)

Till next time

Ciao x

November

2007-11-16T12:00:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends

It's just occurred to me that I only write these things once a month, that doesn't really seem a lot but it doesn't really seem like theres too much to tell you apart from that we're writing our album, blah blah blah. When it comes to January we'll try to update every day or at least every couple of days with pictures and videos and things because then at least new things will be happening all the time. We've literally just got to the first venue in Germany for the first date of our tour but before that we were working on another new song which takes our tally up to 12 songs. We'll be able to use the boring time in the van to carry on working on vocals, when we get back we might have time to write another song but it will be mostly tidying up everything, sorting out a tracklisting, i guess you could call it pre pre production or something because im sure we'll go over everything again after that.

We've also decided on a name for the new album, its going to be called 'The Truth is...' and we've actually been talking about artwork ideas today in the van and we have some good ideas knocking about so we can sort that out once we get back. Not much more to say really so i wont bore you with unnecessary waffle but ill write another one of these maybe half way through the tour and let you know how its going. Last time we came to Europe it was fantastic and so im sure this time will be the same, just much colder, haha.

Tchuß!

Simon

Pressure

2007-10-16T18:22:00.001-07:00

Yo

It's been a while since i last posted, even though for me it doesn't seem like too much has happened but I guess things are happening all the time and time is getting on. First things first, The final half of the tour was really cool, again a belated thanks to everyone that watched us/helped us out with lending us gear/gave us a floor to sleep on. We were all a bit weary about the final date in London as it was our first time playing a headline gig in the capital but we needn't have worried, the gig was great! We had a great crowd, played well and had good bands supporting us, what more could you ask for. There is a diary of the whole tour written by our merch guy/good mate Ben at the following url:

(http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=2649955&blogID=319587363)

During the tour we managed to have a good chat with Pete Miles about the album, we talked about how we want to record, where we're going to record and lots of other geeky conversations. We toyed with the idea of recording the main backline (twoguitarsbassdrums) live as opposed to our first album where everything was recorded separately, but with us being perfectionists to a certain degree and wanting sort of a middle ground between the two extremes we decided it would be best to track the drums and bass live. Then after that we are most likely going to record everything on top of that, which is what we did when we recorded some recent demos with Pete, such as 'Help Yourself'. This way the album will have a very 'live' feel but won't lose some of the power and clarity of the songs which can sometimes happen on albums recorded live. We'll also most likely be recording in a big house in Devon, probably in the middle of nowhere so we'll be in beautiful surroundings to inspire us as we record. However it's not like we'll see any of it though because we'll be recording, haha. Nah we'll have some days off during recording so it will hopefully help us to relax if nothing else.

Since then, we've had a few practices and suported Idlewild at Preston Uni which was a big shock, seen as we found out we were playing two days before by chance. It was great to play with a band I think we've all liked and had a lot of respect for since we were all at school. The gig itself for us was a bit of a nightmare and technical problems aside, there were a few small reasons why we didnt play better but, for me personally I know I let the fact that we were playing to a crowd and with a band much different than we're used to get to me a bit. But you live and learn and all that stuff.

Practice-wise we've been over most of the songs lyrically, although they're done, we've just been practicing through them and ironing out any problems (guitar parts clashing, vocals etc). We also began writing another new song (is it 'We also began or We have also begun? I don't know), anyway I think we're on the begining of song number 13 but its slowly dawning on us that we have about 10 or 11 weeks till January and we might not get to write as many songs as we wanted to. It's a been a hard time being creative but having to be quick about it with a deadline looming, it definatly takes us a while to write a tune with three main songwriters pushing and pulling in certain directions and its been so much more difficult this time around because our expectations of ourselves, each other and what the new album is going to be has been so much higher. Also by the time our second album is released it will have been two and a half years since we released 'What We Are Today' so even though we had our own expectation musically, and even though we didn't need to set a deadline, we wanted to also bear in mind other commerical expectations too, no matter how small they might be. Maybe if we'd carried on putting it back, everyone that knows us would probably get bored of waiting. You know that Axel Rose is up shit creek without a paddle at the moment because of that very fact, haha. Maybe we've thought about it all too much but I think we care too much not to think about it all the time.

Thats all for now, its stupid o clock and I need to go to bed. Im going to say thanks to Andrew (for leaving the comments) and also Joe and Al for being the only people I know that are actually reading this, and all other possible voyeristic readers of this blog. x

Compose

2007-09-21T03:32:00.000-07:00

Hello

We're sort of half way though our tour now, its been a good time although I've been putting up with a bit of a knee injury but nothing too bad. We've also had problems with our equipment too which also puts a bit of a downer on things. I've had to borrow guitar amps on two occasions now so a big thanks to Tripdash and Drive Like I Do for helping me out. While we're also on the subject on thanking people we'd also like to thank Josie for putting us up in Newcastle and Charlie for being a legend and looking after us in Scotland.

It's been an interesting tour purely because of the fact that we're playing off our own backs and not supporting anyone else, which we havent really done so much before. We've had some great gigs and some gigs where i think we expected maybe a few more people to turn up because we've played those places a few times before. No matter how many people have been there though, its been really nice to know that the majority of people who have seen us on this tour have been there to see us, and so a big thanks to everyone who took the time to come and see us play.

As you'd expect, there hasnt been much progress musically on the Album from the last time I posted although Jim is writing lyrics and coming up with ideas for the songs that are unfinished all the time. We'll be meeting up with Pete (Miles, Producer) in the next few days to talk about how we want everything to sound and where we're going to record. I take it you've heard the new demo we put on our myspace page, if not, go and listen to it now, haha. Out of all the songs we've written, Without Warning is probably one of the simplest and most accessible. The way the album is shaping, parts of it are probably going to be as aggressive as the last one but theres going to be a coherence and a certain amount of control that was maybe missing on the last one but that we've been keen to explore. I guess it would be a massive cliche to say its been a "natural progression", that the heavy bits sound heavier and the chilled out bits sound more chilled out, so im not going to say that. All I'll say is that to me if feels like we're writing with more intelligence than we were two years ago. Its up to you to decide what it sounds like when it eventually comes out.

Tour Dates

2007-09-11T09:39:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

We're heading out on tour this month around the UK and then in Europe in November. Here are the dates so please check them out! Thanks. Love Failsafe

SEPTEMBER UK TOUR

12 RHYL - Bar Blu
13 DUNDEE - Fats Sams
15 ARBROATH - Viewfield Hotel
16 ABERDEEN - Kef
17 GLASGOW - Bar Bloc
18 NEWCASTLE - Krash
19 MANCHESTER - The Phoenix *PBR! Launch Party*
21 KEIGHLEY - Vanilla Lounge
23 PRESTON - THE MARKET (FREE SHOW)
25 BRIGHTON - Free Butt
26 SOUTHAMPTON - Unit 22
27 EXETER - Cavern
28 LONDON - THE UNDERWORLD

NOVEMBER - GERMANY, AUSTRIA and NETHERLANDS TOUR:

16 Phoenix - Moormerland
17 Musikbox - Minden
19 TBC TBC
20 Schlachthaus - Dornbirn
21 Torwart - Weissenburg
22 Irreal - Aulendorf
23 B-Hof - Wuerzburg
24 Kuckucksnest - Berchtesgaden
27 Sonic Ballroom - Koln
29 MS Stubnitz (show on a ship) - Amsterdam
30 B58 - Braunschweig
1 Groene Engel - OSS
2 De Bliksem - Den Helder

Suspended Animation

2007-08-20T15:36:00.000-07:00

Ok

So a little bit has happened since I last posted but not too much really. We jammed some ideas a few weeks ago and wrote some more music so we now have another song minus the vocals nearly finished. However we've relaxed a little bit for a few reasons. One is that Jim got offered the chance to act in a production which was part of the Edinburgh Fringe and so he's been there this past week. Also Rob started his stint driving Sonic Boom Six around for a few gigs including their slots at Reading and Leeds Festival this weekend. Next week ill also be away in Cyprus for a week.

So to fill the time we started recording some demos last week with Matt, getting some of the music recorded. Matt started buying microphones and getting interested in Recording and Production maybe 12-18 months ago. Since then he's bought a mac running Logic (a music program) and some other pre-amps/interfaces/shiny things with buttons that i cant remember the names of after that. So now we have the option of recording what we've done and listening back to it ourselves which is really handy. For us writing the music, and hearing it played back without us having to play our instruments, noticing what parts sound nicer together than others, for Jim and Matt to work with at home and think of melodies and lyrics and also for sending to Pete (Miles, Producer) when the vocals are finished and recorded so he has an idea of what our songs are going to sound like before we record the Album proper and also gives him ideas on how best to record us......

....Speaking of which, Me, Rob, Andy and Matt went to Sandhill Studios (http://www.shstudios.co.uk) in Liverpool the other day to see Sonic Boom Six and Pete putting the finishing touches to their new Album 'Arcade Perfect'. It's sounding really really good, and for being stuck in an underground studio for 2 weeks suprisingly there were actually no signs of cabin fever, i think if there were, then its been taken over by excitement from it all coming together and their record being so close to being finished. We did some group shouts on one of the songs and after looking round we are now seriously considering the studio as the place we'll record our album too.

Writing our second album - The story so far

2007-07-31T03:09:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone

As most of you know, we've been quite busy writing trying to write songs for a new album, however its only recently that we've been able to feel like a band writing for a new album. We moved into a permanent practice space in Preston about 3 weeks ago which you can see from the pictures and we have begun practicing 3 times a week. Hopefully you've got an idea of our surroundings as we write. Before that we were doing the odd practice here and there in Bolton and before that we practiced in an old community building between Leyland and Croston. That lasted until we were told to leave for being too loud (according to the elderly residents nearby, they wouldn't have minded but its not even good music).

It was at that community building that we wrote Help Yourself (the demo on our myspace page) in a record 2 months, haha. Although it was in between touring our first album, it still felt like a hell of a long time to write one song. The next few songs managed to come together a lot easier than that one, but we had still only started writing new songs a fair few months after we started touring 'What We Are Today'. That meant that it was really hard to get back into the writing process and explains why Help Yourself took 2 months to write.

Fast Forward to this point in time and we now have 10 songs in various stages of completion, about 5 are completely finished with all music and vocals written, 3 are finished musically with some vocals written, and 2 are only finished musically with no vocals. Our plan is to write maybe 5 or 6 more songs and pick the best 11 or 12 to go on the album. Things like album artwork and a name for the album have been discussed, but at the moment we've been concentrating on writing the songs so much that we haven't really knuckled down to sorting any of those ideas out, however they will be revealed in due course.

That's all for now

Si x