Deep Dive on 5 tracks from SUNDOWNERS with The Answer:
COLD HEART
This track came together early on in the writing sessions for Sundowners, we had made music together for a few years and when Golden Robot approached us about possibly doing another record we met up in Ireland at the end of 2019 after a few rehearsals shaking the rust off this idea came up. It started with a slightly different groove, reminiscent of something of Presence era Led Zep and then it went in a slightly different direction when Micky and James started playing a 4-to-the-floor groove underneath the verse. Then it all came together. We tracked the entire album live to tape all in the same room so it took a little while to nail the groove on this but when we did we found a track that represented the Answer from the past and the future in 1 song.
2.NO SALVATION
When the first covid lockdown came, it took the momentum out of our writing process for the album. After a long break, we rediscovered the chemistry we had at the beginning of the band and in some ways, it was better. Then, like most people, our lives changed drastically because of covid. We live in different parts of the world so it became impossible to get together in the same room to write and record. For a moment it looked like the album would be put on ice. But we found ways to stay creative and keep the ball rolling. We would meet up on Zoom calls once a week and play through different ideas, work on them individually during the week and send ideas back and forth. We would get the ideas as close as possible to being finished in hope that we could fly again or a vaccine would arrive.No salvation was one of these ideas created in isolation and brought to life over Zoom calls. Sundowners was another. The original lyric was inspired by what seemed like the demise of the band only for us to be reunited again. It was originally much faster but when we had come to tracking it we had been listening to a Donnie Hathaway live bootleg and the tracks all had these slow behind-the-beat grooves that inspired us to change our approach to the song. The studio owner Peter Miles jumped in on Hammond organ and we nailed it in 3 takes.
3. CALIFORNIA RUST
California Rust was written in the last of our writing sessions just before Christmas 2021. We had been experimenting with some different time signatures and the main riff came together from those experiments. We had been listening to a lot of Traffic and Blind Faith and thought some Steve Winwood style Hammond organ could work on the chorus so we got Jonny Henderson in to sprinkle some magic on it and make it complete.
4. WANT YOU TO LOVE ME
This was one of the riffs that we jammed on in the first session back together after a break of a few years. The track came together almost telepathically between the 3 musicians in the band, it almost wrote itself and Cormac took an instant like to it, crafting his lyric from 2019 until the time of recording to get it just so! The producer Dan Weller brought something unique and different for us with the drum and guitar sound on this one, it’s completely savage! Initially when we came to record the album it wasn’t on my A list but when i heard the first playback It completely blew me away and I realised I had been foolish not to have it on my A list at first!! We live and learn.
5. LIVING ON THE LINE
This was one of the first ideas we worked on when we got back together. The verse went through some changes before it evolved into the call-and-response vocal part it now has. Lyrically inspired by those days on tour when the night before was a little too epic and you have to pay for it with interest the next day
After a long seven-year hiatus, Northern Irish rockers The Answer are set to make a spectacular and long-awaited return with a brand-new studio album scheduled for release on St. Patricks day, March 17, 2023.
Titled Sundowners, this latest album has been produced and mixed by rising British rock producer Dan Weller (Enter Shikari, Bury Tomorrow) and will be supported by a run of limited capacity 17 date UK and European album launch shows.
The album was recorded in April 2022 at Middlefarm studios, Devon and was the first time the band had been together in a studio since 2015.
Says lead singer Cormac Neeson, “We’ve been through a lot as a band, toured the world, made six great records we’re all proud of, and always done our best to make honest and timeless music that connects with rock and music fans in general. After six albums and a lot of road miles we felt we needed to step back from it all and reset. Whilst that wasn’t an easy decision, with retrospect it’s possibly the best decision we’ve ever made because after seven years away we all came back fired up and the end result is an album we’ve been waiting to make our whole lives…full of good time rock n roll and positive energy created by four brothers who quite frankly just really missed each other. We’re back and we’re ready to bring our best album ever to you!”
In 2019, long time super fan and international independent hard rock label Golden Robot Records founder, Mark Alexander-Erber, fulfilled a life-long ambition by signing The Answer to his label to secure a brand new 7th studio album, due for release in 2023; a record which, in the words of Alexander-Erber will be The Answer’s “greatest balls out straight ahead rock album ever’, eclipsing the debut of Rise for power, songs and sheer attitude. To say I am excited is an understatement, for me it’s a life-long ambition and privilege to work with these guys”
The album will be released by Golden Robot Records Pty and by licensee 7Hz Productions (ADA) in the UK & Europe. The release will come in several formats including a Cd Gatefold Digi sleeve, Gatefold 12” 180g black vinyl, 2 x 12” colour vinyl exclusives, a 12” fan collectible Picture Disk, Digital and various limited retail exclusive versions with HMV, Rough Trade, Crash and Assai Records.
The band’s first single from the album Blood Brother went straight on to the Planet Rock Radio A-List in the UK, and the following two singles Want You To Love Me and Livin’ On The Line offer an additional taste of what to expect from the album.
The Answer’s first comeback live show since 2017 will take place as “special guests” at this year’s Planet Rockstock festival, after which the band will promote their new album release with a run of limited capacity album launch shows, tour dates as follows:
TOUR DATES
UK March 2023
Mar 16th Blackpool, Waterloo Bar
Mar 17th Birmingham O2 Institute.
Mar 19th Bristol Thekla
Mar 20th London 100 Club
Mar 21st Leeds Key Club
Mar 23rd Belfast Limelight 2
EUROPE March & April 2023
Mar 25th Haarlem, Patronaat – Holland
Mar 26th Den Bosch, Willem Twee – Holland
Mar 28th Essen, Turock – Germany
Mar 29th Hamburg, Logo – Germany
Mar 30th Berlin, Franz Club – Germany
Mar 31st Munich, Strom – Germany
Apr 1st Dornbirn, Conrad-Sohm, Austria
Apr 2nd Zurich, Plaza – Switzerland
Apr 4th Strasbourg, La Laiterie – France
Apr 5th Savigny, L’Empreinte – France
Apr 6th. Vorselaar, De Dreef – Belgium
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