It’s true: parents just don’t understand

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/09/2009 (6172 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MUSIC was practically a crime in Care Failure’s house.

When the Die Mannequin vocalist-guitarist was 13, she was banned from listening to music by her parents and the police following a failed suicide attempt by a friend, who wrote Failure — known to her mom as Caroline Kawa — a suicide note. Her parents discovered she had secretly been playing guitar in a band and she was ordered to stop having anything to do with music.

“It was after Columbine and it was all about blaming music,” says the tattooed 23-year-old Torontonian. “They said things like, ‘Nirvana is a hate band.’ They kept lists of kids on message boards. They ordered me under house arrest. I had to take down all my band posters and they burned my journals for extra effect.”

Eventually her parents decided their daughter needed professional help and admitted her to a mental hospital,from which she repeatedly tried to escape.

She left home for good at 16, got another guitar and started making music again, eventually forming the rock band Die Mannequin with her bassist boyfriend Anthony Bleed. After two EPs, the group just released their debut full-length, Fino + Bleed, a semi-biographical concept album about a girl who gets sent to a mental institution.

“It’s real life, fantasy and the history channel. I was reading Nostradamus and Orson Welles when I was writing, so those are some underlying influences,” she says.

Failure decided to write a concept album to tell a story that would keep listeners interested over the course of a whole album, she says.

“I always want to take someone on a trip with the record. A lot of stuff was cut from the record that was deemed too crazy, so maybe one day I’ll release the naked Fino + Bleed,” Failure says with a laugh.

The deluxe edition of the album features a 55-minute documentary by Bruce MacDonald (Hard Core Logo) about the band and Failure’s life.

On Fino + Bleed, Failure and Bleed were joined by former Red Hot Chili Peppers/Pearl Jam drummer Jack Irons, who will be with the group when they open for Marilyn Manson at the MTS Centre tonight. They will also have an additional guitarist, Stacy Stray, handling rhythm duties.

Die Mannequin was handpicked to open for Manson on his Canadian tour.Care believes this makes things come full circle in a way, since the shock rocker took heat following the Columbine High School shootings in 1999 around the same time she was getting in trouble for listening to music.

“It’s like the Antichrist has warmed to my heart,” she says. “It’s really cool. We can tour with Manson and also tour with Hedley for eight-year-olds; it says something about our music.”

rob.williams@freepress.mb.ca

CONCERT PREVIEW

Die Mannequin

Tonight, MTS Centre, 8 p.m.

With Marilyn Manson

Tickets: $39.50, $55 at Ticketmaster.