The Answer
Appeared at the Isle of Wight Festival in 2008
“F*@king stupendous,” wrote Kerrang! of an explosive live show by Northern Ireland based rock quartet The Answer.
“Sounds as fresh as any debut album in living memory,” was how they greeted the U.K. release of the group’s first full-length “Rise”, slated for U.S. shores in early ’08. Another reviewer for the magazine said, “Uplifting and authentic, classic rock is safe in the hands of this brilliant young Irish band.” Classic Rock voted The Answer 2005’s Best New UK Band at their prestigious annual awards. They also ranked Rise #3 out of 2006’s 50 Best Albums, calling it, “phenomenal. In short, a world class debut that goes a long way to reclaiming Britain’s blues-rock credibility.”
Not bad for four country lads from Downpatrick, County Down, about thirty miles outside Belfast who, according to star-powered lead singer Cormac Neeson, “spent three or four years playing every shit hole we could find” before being signed in the U.K. to esteemed Australian rock label Albert Productions in 2005, famed for the development of rock icons AC/DC Since then, while they continue to blow the roofs off of clubs across the continent, they’ve opened stadium and arena concerts for such heavy-weight acts as The Rolling Stones, The Who, Aerosmith, Deep Purple and Whitesnake. The Answer has also triumphantly headlined tours in Japan, Australia and various corners of Europe, East and West. They are the real deal, passionate about their music, devoid of pretense and, as Neeson has said, “just doing what we do: playing every gig like our lives depended on it.”
Prior to Rise’s U.S. release, The Answer’s sole Stateside sets were a pair of shows at Austin’s SXSW in 2006, one for an Irish music showcase, the other opening for Eagles Of Death Metal at an Irish pub. That’s certain to change when The Answer conquers America and a massive audience starving for a pure, original hard rock outfit that can live up to the legends of the genre –the faithful will surely feel this band’s bluesy, soul strutting, hip-shaking melodic thunder. Neeson and mates Paul Mahon (guitar) – who calls America “the blues’ spiritual home” – Micky Waters (bass) and James Heatley (drums) are just as hungry to rise to the challenge.
Comparisons to iconic predecessors already regularly trip off the tongues and pens of journalists and tastemakers familiar with The Answer’s music and epic stage might. These same commentators also make it equally clear that this is the new version of the gods’ musical hammer – “There’s no doubt that The Answer owe a lot to ’70s rock giants like Free and Led Zeppelin. But by endowing every riff and beat with the fulsome power of a 21st century rock band in full, speaker blowing flight,” Kerrang writes in a paean to Rise, “the likes of [album] opener “Under The Sky”…sound blissfully modern and vital.”
Flat out calling The Answer’s Rise “the best British rock debut of the decade,” Classic Rock concurs with, “sure, you can hear all of those influences throughout an album that never wavers from the highest standards. But this is a big album. As in taking the roots of the past and planting them firmly in ’06. This is a big album. As in having a sound that immerses you in the warm glow of a timeless style. This is a big album. As in, the performances are bloody enormous.” The second coming of this massive slab of classic-come-post-modern blues-rock swagger looms even larger in its enormity with its North American release.
The Answer really started out with a question. In 1999, Paul Mahon (whose father had blown trumpet & trombone for famed ’60s-era Irish show band The Freshmen) and Micky Waters were looking to form a rock ‘n roll band with a blues bent. A school chum had recently seen another group rehearse and roundly recommended the fellow who’d been singing with them as their man for vocals. They tracked Cormac down in America, where he was itinerantly spending the summer flipping pizza in Wildwood, NJ, playing bars in New York, and traveling around, and mailed him a letter asking if he’d like to join them.
The boys’ post found its way to Neeson, and while it roused mutual enthusiasm, the trans-Atlantic connection faltered and both sides gave up. Back at Queens University in Belfast that year, Paul was taking an ethnomusicology class, and saw Cormac’s name on the attendance board. The Answer’s pre-history pivoted on another crucial question: “After a few weeks, I still hadn’t met him, so I asked the guy sitting next to me in lecture hall, did he know who Cormac Neeson was,” recalls Paul. “I thought he was kidding,” says Neeson about the fateful moment. “I said, ‘it’s me,’ and then I learned he was one of the guys looking for me to join a band.”
Quite rightfully for a singer who cites Paul Rodgers – as well as Otis Redding, Chris Robinson, Robert Plant and Howlin’ Wolf – as favorite inspirations, the first song they ever played at practice was Free’s “All Right Now.” “From the opening chords,” says Cormac, “the band kicked in and we were all looking at each other with big grins, as if we’d known each other for years.” Mahon had the same breakthrough moment – “I’d played in cover bands for years, and that was always a great song to check out a singer with, test his range. Cormac was the first guy who could nail it.”
The addition of Heatley on drums rounded out the line-up, and the chemistry, and The Answer began building buzz with bravura shows. Partly due to geography, and in part because of the “the Troubles” of North Ireland – though in the past – the thriving music circuit in Belfast was off the beaten path, far removed from the pop limelight and hype crucible of London. It allowed The Answer to develop outside the peer pressure of passing trends. Beyond that, all four members lived in County Down’s outlying countryside, free to make as much noise as possible when practicing and recording. “We just played what we loved,” says Paul, “and evolved stylistically on our own, not getting stuck in any scene and ending up sounding like every other band.”
One of their demos journeyed to London in advance of them, though, and serendipity struck yet again when it crossed paths with famed BBC DJ Steve Lamacq while noted music manager Dave Bedford was crashing at his place. One late night as they listened to band submissions, The Answer cued up. “I thought it sounded great right away,” says Bedford, “like the new Free, and it turns out I wasn’t far off.” He’d been hoping to make a hard rock discovery, and headed to Belfast to find them. After catching a gig, Dave felt they were the best live band he’d seen in 15 years. Of managing them ever since, he says, “I can’t think of an instance when it hasn’t been brilliant. Their music is real, it’s heartfelt, it’s undeniable.”
Acclaim snowballed from then on as The Answer built a fan base and racked up heavy nominations and awards which, in addition to their Classic Rock newcomer trophy, include the Best Rock Band and Best Live Event honors at 2007’s Big Buzz Awards ceremony in Belfast. As the halo of fame surrounding them has radiated outward, The Answer has never strayed from their passion for the music they make, and from hitting it as hard as they can on every occasion. Arena shows notwithstanding, they still fancy the life-size gigs with true believers. Cormac Neeson’s recounting of two memorable dates vividly place into context the reality of life for The Answer and the soul of this authentic band:
“We played a homecoming gig in Belfast, just after Rise had been released,” he recalls. “We hadn’t played North Ireland since it came out. It was a 900-capacity venue, and our first-ever sell-out date. We taxied to the show, and there was a queue around the block. That had never happened before. In the big room inside, we saw everybody, all the people who’d been coming since our first gig. It was such a great feeling to see the pride in their faces. The evening really belonged to our fans, the ones who’d been there for the 20 person shows. It was a beautiful night, up there with any large show we’ve done.”
Of their biggest show to date, opening for the Stones in Belgrade in ’07 in front of some 80,000 people, Cormac says, “There was a jam at the end of our set, one that lent itself to audience participation. I was faced away from the crowd, and I wondered if they were into it. I brought my head up to look out, and every set of hands was clapping to our music. We’d won them over. The sun was glowing behind the trees, and I could have dropped my mic and just stayed with it. It was a real lift for the band, the confidence we needed to believe that someday these 80,000 people could be there to see The Answer.”
It’s all right now, America. The Answer is coming.