30th April 2022

Exclusive Interview: My Latest Failure talk documentary series A-Z of Failures!

They say that good things must come to an end; but f*** what they say. One more song? An Encore? How’s about it? So as the end of the #26 episode series documenting the history of Hardcore injected Punk trio My Latest Failure has reached a tragic ending (tragic as in, it’s finished, not tragic as in someone got hurt), we spoke to the master of their catchy as f*** ear worm riffs and lyrics, Chris Underhill about how it all happened for this exclusive interview. It’s like an after party, without the booze, chicks or fire trucks. Which makes perfect sense.

How did the concept for the award winning Facebook and YouTube documentary series “A-Z of Failures” come about? “Love how you’ve put award winning, sounds all proper. Haha. I genuinely have a load of mad ideas. There is always something in the works, a “next” project and a lot of them come to nothing. But, when it came to the A-Z of Failures series, I am so glad I did it.

The series was about interacting with our fan base. Not just about the music but about getting to know us as a band and as individuals. I wanted to talk about subjects that wouldn’t ever come up in conversation. Who would have known that we recorded two choruses for Disappointment, or that we were named noisy cunts by a bunch of old boys at Airplay Studios? Some subjects highlight the fame, others the failures

I saw a load of bands online that were documenting their day to day, Weaponry’s No Lasting Memories is a brilliant example, really enjoyed watching them but knew it wouldn’t work for us. This is why I decided to do a it as a “modern family” styled format where we would talk to the camera about the subject.

Believe it or not, at the beginning I hated filming myself talking. I did a couple of Skype interviews over the lockdown period and felt so uncomfortable, I get all hot and sweaty for no reason. Seriously, get myself in a right mess. This is why I decided to do them as a short “TikTok” styled episode with a bunch of seen and unseen content”

Before you started, did you have all 26 ideas listed out or was it more 6 ideas and the rest “on the fly”? “50/50, some were always on the list, for example, A is for Airplay Studios, L is for Lies and P is for Pete Drake Project but others were added as and when. Z is for Zen of Screaming came to me 2 weeks before hand, it was genuinely going to be called Z-end, and wasn’t about Zombies but a “thank you” styled episode. What a cop out that would have been.

When I started I had a general idea of the subjects but had no pre-written material. So for example, V for Voices, I knew what the subject was (Voices, obviously) but had no idea what I was going to say about it until I came around to it. This was the same for all the letters, I just focus on the next episode as they came along. I felt it kept the material fresh”

We’ve loved the way that it’s all come together, especially with the extended YouTube versions and the incorporation of those live snippets in glorious Black & White. Where did the idea for the Black, White and Red colour palette come from and just how much archive footage are you sitting on? “The YouTube version was never going to be a thing. It was always going to be a 1 minute episode but as the episodes went on I had more to talk about and I found that I was leaving out a load of content that should be part of it all. We had a couple of special extended episodes but generally wanted to keep it 1 minute long.

I’ve always loved black and white theme, right back to when I was doing photography in high school. There’s something just cool about it and with the red works so well. On Instagram we do try and keep it in theme for that same reason. For the series, we were using a lot of different footage, with different quality and felt black, white and red theme would tie it all together nicely.

How much footage in the archive? Well that would be telling. Haha”

We’re torn between the My Latest Failure and Friends video for “Voices” and the Cross gag with We Punch Tigers but looking back on the whole series, which moments have stood out for you as the most fun? “I was over the moon that so many people were up for the Voices collaboration. Again was a spare of the moment crazy idea I had the week before I recorded the episode and was so surprised with the response. Dal’s video for X was genius, he’s such a funny guy and I couldn’t just leave it for a YouTube cameo, I had to share it.

For me, the Q&A episode was fun. To get both Andy and Jamie on the FaceTime for a Q&A was brilliant. Some of the responses were so funny, none of which where rehearsed or looked at before we answered them. When the three of us get together it’s a barrel of laughs. The Q&A was a taster of what goes down in the studio, we’re three completely different personalities”

We’ve also loved the warts and all approach you’ve taken to it, a bit of gallows humour and the way you’ve laughed at yourselves (guitar throwing!). If you could have changed one thing about it, is there anything that you would? “Don’t think I would change anything. What I like about the series is that it isn’t perfect but it works. That’s all I could’ve hoped for”

If another band wanted to do a series similar and came to you for advice, what nuggets of knowledge would you have to share? “Just go for it, don’t be afraid to open up and talk about your experiences. Don’t just talk about the successful moments, own the failures and be proud of them”

What’s next for My Latest Failure? Have Netflix contacted you yet with a £256k offer to make it bigger, bolder and badder and put it on their platform? “I hear Disney are sniffing around, word on the grapevine is Chris Hemsworth plays me. Haha. Next for us, there’s loads in the pipe line. New single “Bad Dreams” will be released at the end of the summer, a split EP with our pals We Punch Tigers is also in the works and of course Failures Vol: 3. In the meantime we’ll back to doing shows, looking to have a busy summer”

Find both EPs from My Latest Failure and some cool merch over at bandcamp.