New documentary Every Time You Lose Your Mind offers an unflinching look at Failure’s rise, fall, and rebirth.
Streaming June 28 on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+
The new documentary Every Time You Lose Your Mind charts the tumultuous history of alternative pioneers Failure. Directed by frontman and multi-instrumentalist Ken Andrews, the film is an immersive, layered portrait of a band that turned dissonance, emotional turbulence, and left-of-center songwriting into something enduring and singular.
More than just a rock doc, the film explores the volatile mix of creative chemistry, addiction, implosion and reinvention that defined the band’s career. Drawing from art and atmospheric sonic influences as diverse as Francis Bacon, The Cure, Joy Division and Bauhaus, Failure’s sound coalesced into something entirely its own—melodic yet jagged, harmonic yet heavy. Their lauded album Fantastic Planet (1996) exemplified this duality: expansive, strange, and emotionally raw.
The film features fans and collaborators like Tool’s Maynard James Keenan, comedian Margaret Cho, Paramore’s Hayley Williams, Stone Temple Pilots’ Dean Deleo, and the late producer Steve Albini. Even an unlikely fan like Motley Crue’s Tommy Lee praises the band’s songcraft.
One standout story comes from actor/musician Jason Schwartzman, who recalls that his band Phantom Planet couldn’t rehearse – their neighbors, Failure, were simply too loud to compete with.
Music educator Rick Beato observes how Failure’s songs “go in unexpected directions…but if your music is too interesting, it’s hard to become successful.” Nevertheless, their music spoke to discerning listeners: Stuck on You, their best-known single, remains a fan favorite; super producer Butch Vig recalls unsuccessfully trying to replicate that song’s sonic trickery.
The documentary doesn’t shy away from the darkness. Early drummer Robert Gauss quit under duress to become a park ranger. The dangerous seduction of heroin nearly killed replacement drummer Kellii Scott and lyricist/instrumentalist Greg Edwards.
Edwards’ addiction fueled tensions that fractured the band, including a notorious sex and drugs incident involving Scott Weiland that got them kicked off a tour with Stone Temple Pilots, recounted in eyebrow-raising detail by former member Troy Van Leeuwen (now of Queens Of The Stone Age).
Andrews ended the band hoping to jolt Greg into recovery. It backfired.
Yet Failure’s story didn’t end there. A legion of younger listeners discovered the band posthumously, which led to a 2014 reunion and tour. Their 2015 comeback album The Heart Is a Monster proved they hadn’t lost a step. Their more recent material sounds like a natural extension of their earlier work: proof of the creative trust that still binds the trio.
Even now, with recent personal trials including divorce and cancer, the band remains resilient. As one fan puts it in the film: “They take dissonance, pain, and dark elements…and make them beautiful.”
That could easily be Every Time You Lose Your Mind’s tagline: a film that captures both pain and beauty, two of the most vital and often opposing forces in the creation of art. It’s a balance that Failure continues to distill with haunting precision.