Hailing from Northern Ireland and recently breaking through the music scene over in the UK, The Answer began their first ever Australian this month.
Having grown up in a generation of classic rock, the general influence of the band is ruled by the likes of AC/DC, Kiss, Free, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and The Who to name but a few, so it is no surprise that the band were to be strongly influenced by classic rock. But it seems that not only do the Answer appeal to age-old fans of old school rock, but they have the ability to bridge the gap between the modern rock and early classic rock fans.
It’s 2pm and I sit by the phone in anticipation of this interview with The Answer’s guitarist Paul Mahon. I pick up and am greeted almost instantaneously with a cheery Irish “Hello, how are you?”. Knowing the amount of interviews that The Answer, (mainly Cormac Neeson and Paul Mahon) have been doing recently, it is a shock to hear the freshness in Mahon’s voice. He comes across as an intelligent, friendly and humorous man.
This tour for the band, is all about getting their name out there and building upon their already fast expanding fan base. The Answer have spent the last few years making a name for themselves in the UK, which is a difficult yet crucial objective for emerging artists, The Answer’s rise to fame has not been easy or swift as it rarely is, the band have been together for over five years with numerous realeases to date, including an EP, several 7”’s and one album. They got their first big break in 2004 when after doing an open air festival in Belfast, Northen Ireland, The Answer were asked to tour with The Darkness and Alterbridge. Then in 2005, Classic Rock Magazine dubbed The Answer ‘Best New Band of 2005’ ” just after the release of their debut EP Keep Believing. This was followed up by winning ‘Best British Newcomers’ in the 2006 Kerrang! Awards.
2006 was a busy year for the band, ensuring that their audiences felt that they were worth their titles by doing capacious touring across not only the UK, but also more than eight other European countries including Germany, Austria and Italy. “Until January 2006 I hadn’t even been out of the UK”, Mahon tells me still with a slight hint of pride in his voice towards the extensive list of countries the band has toured which he recited beforehand.
2007 is proving already to be a busy year for The Answer; touring almost continuously until at least the end of April (confirmed so far). Whilst on tour, the guys are “always writing stuff” for their follow up to 2006’s album, Rise. “We recorded 22 songs for the first album, only 11 made it, and we have two or three new songs so far.”, explains Mahon. The band is planning to continue to concentrate on their tour and hopefully begin properly working on the new record in October of this year, ready for release in February 2008.
Touring has formed an integral part of the last year for The Answer. I was shocked by a few of the places that The Answer had toured to, and I was even more surprised when Mahon began telling me about their trip to Athens, Greece last year. “We’d only done about one interview and there were about 800 people, and the album had only been released about a week”. I asked Mahon if he believed that myspace had anything to do with this, “Perhaps” he replied. Any band business through myspace is controlled by their manager, but all personal emails and comments are checked regularly, mostly by Mahon.
Touring with world famous bands is nothing new to The Answer. Yet from the tone of Mahon’s voice as he tells me about the upcoming shows it is evident he himself is excited. When asked about his thoughts about touring with Eagles Of Death Metal, he replied with, “I think we are all quite excited about playing with The Eagles, we played with them in Texas, at the South by South West festival last year. They are all characters and the tunes are good. I think while we are a slightly different band to them we both have strong roots in rock’n’roll with a little blues”. It’s not often that an opportunity like this comes up so how do you get a tour like this? “I think the tour came about because we are on the same label and we got on well in Texas.”
The Answer are to support all three of the Eagles Of Death Metal’s shows, before jetting off to Tokyo, Japan to play on the 27th of March. It seems that everyone is looking forward to the upcoming shows “Its great to be doing it in Australia too as the Aussie audiences are really up for it.” Mahon tells me.
So what does the future hold for The Answer? When you thought that there was no one bigger or better that the band could support, you were wrong!
The Answer was scheduled to play on a side stage at Hyde Park Calling, to be held in Hyde Park, England on Saturday 23rd June and Sunday 24th June 2007. But when Aerosmith heard the answer’s cover of “Sweet Emotion”, Aerosmith requested that The Answer play on the main stage. Knowing that Aerosmith are one of Mahon’s personal favourite bands alongside AC/DC, Motley Crue and Metallica, I am sure that the entire band awaits these shows with great anticipation.
Along with this, The Answer will also be playing with The Who and Velvet Revolver in Dublin, Ireland.
Be sure to check out the Answer on their Australian tour, although they are destined to return and play a larger, lengthier tour in the future.
The Answer play support act to the Eagles of Death Metal on their current Australian tour – they will also be playing a couple of sideshow of their own:
Thursday March 15 @ the Evelyn, Melbourne
Tuesday March 20 at the Annandale Sydney
