Dead First

It was definitely a natural thing for us. That started before the band even formed. There were three or four demos I was working on by myself that featured what would become Failure's signature dissonance. Very melodic, but harmonically teetering on the edge. Those demos became the jumping-off point for the band. The whole idea of that was fully realized on [the last album] Fantastic Planet. That record best represents what Greg and I came up with together.

You did some editing for the DVD in Golden, and I know you did some time in film school. Any plans to do more film work?

No, I'm sticking to music. I have a few new songs done for my solo project On, and also a few done for a potential Year of the Rabbit album. It's hard to say from year to year, but this year is going to be a much smaller percentage of working on my own music and a bigger percentage of producing and mixing other people's music.

I have to ask -- and I know a lot of people are wondering -- who or what is the song "Stuck on You" about?

It's about a song. It's not about a specific song, exactly, just any song that gets stuck in your head. When I was thinking about it, there were a couple of songs floating around in my head that were almost annoying me. I think the instrumental hook of that song is kind of trying to be one of those types of songs. You know....it's kind of annoying, but it sticks in your head. -- John Goddard