Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Fail.
Chris, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Born and raised in Gwinnett County, I grew up with my single mother and two sisters.
For the vast majority of my life, I was between eighty to one hundred pounds overweight. I was made fun of and ridiculed by bullies and it gave me a great deal of anxiety for a large portion of my childhood.
I began playing the bass when I was 13, however, we couldn’t afford lessons, so I had to teach myself by learning my favorite punk songs. Punk rock became my outlet and my one way to express myself. Finding music at a young age gave me an outlet and something to be proud of. Shortly after that in high school, I found acting and learned that performing for people was one of the greatest feelings ever.
I toured the country playing punk and ska music for a little bit but eventually got into the corporate world with a steady job in the forklift maintenance industry which I have now been in the for the last eleven years. I am now a salesman in that industry and do fairly well at it, but, music has been the greatest passion in my life.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
This band has already had a few bumps along the road but in comparison to many other aspects of my life, I would say it has been pretty smooth. Music and acting on stage made me perform all over the city of Atlanta, then the state of Georgia, and eventually up and down the east coast. However, that kind of life didn’t help my health and weight issues and even lead me to become an alcoholic. So, I hung up the bass guitar for a while after I met my wife Hannah. She taught me how to eat properly and we both started working out together, began rock climbing, lost eighty pounds, and before I knew it I was training to try to get on American Ninja Warrior! I submitted my video, told my story about losing weight and my life motto, which is “Can Not Fail” that was given to me by my oldest friend Daniel, and what living a healthy lifestyle can do for the soul. By some miracle, I got to compete on the course in Daytona, where I fell on the second obstacle and then proposed to Hannah. Thanks to that portion of my journey and the support of my wife I found an entirely new level of self-confidence and a new drive for life. Now that my health was on track, I remembered the feeling I had when playing music and realized how much I missed it. I saw that my old buddy Tim was looking for a bass player for a project, so I asked if I could come jam with him and his friend Ashton, and Another Year Unknown was born.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Another Year Unknown story. Tell us more about it.
I love working with these two guys and we have already come pretty far in a short amount of time due to our dedication and desire to do anything other than just our normal lives. All three of us grew up in the glory days of pop punk music and while it can definitely be a little childish at times, it can also be one of the most emotional and passionate genres at the same time. We take our life lessons, current situations, and our hopes and dreams to create our messages to the world. Essentially, what we believe is life is what you make it and it’s never too late to rewrite your own story. We certainly get compared to Blink 182 and all the other pop punk groups of th’90s’s and 2000s, so I guess you could say we are known for that, but, we don’t take it as an insult or even as criticism. It’s what has influenced us and made us who we are! Embracing our influences and sharing it with the world makes us so happy and we will do it for as long as we can.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I feel that life is made up of constant good and bad luck moments. It is how we deal or interpret those moments that make life what it is. With a name like Fail, I have had more than my fair share of bad luck moments, but, as long as you learn from them, were they really that bad?
Music and acting on stage made me perform all over the city of Atlanta, then the state of Georgia, and eventually up and down the east coast. However, that kind of life didn’t help my health and weight issues. So, I hung up the bass guitar for a while after I met my wife Hannah. She taught me how to eat properly and we both started working out together, began rock climbing, lost eighty pounds, and before I knew it I was training to try to get on American Ninja Warrior! I submitted my video, told my story about losing weight and my life motto, which is “Can Not Fail” that was given to me by my oldest friend Daniel, and what living a healthy lifestyle can do for the soul. By some miracle, I got to compete on the course in Daytona, where I fell on the second obstacle and then proposed to Hannah. Thanks to that portion of my journey and the support of my wife I found an entirely new level of self-confidence and a new drive for life.
Changing my life around brought me back to music and now, I have even more determination to do something wonderful with it. What I considered to be a lot of “bad” luck in my past made me who I am and brought me to this part of my life. Then, good luck brought these two amazing guys into my life that want to play the kind of music I have always wanted to play, and their knowledge and skills are taking this project to its full potential. It’s funny to look back now at all the moments that I thought were simply awful and drove me away from what I wanted to do or what I wanted to be. Thankfully, I learned how to use those life lessons and now, my life is right where I want it to be.
Contact Info:
- Website: anotheryearunknown.com
- Email: booking@anotheryearunknown.com
- Instagram: @anotheryearunknown
- Facebook: @anotheryearunknown
Image Credit:
John Schultz
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