Questioning your Rock? Jordan gives you THE ANSWER!
CD review and interview with The Answer guitarist Paul Mahon
Hello, it's me Jordan from Out Of The Cellar. Now if you've read my past stuff you'll know this isn't what I'm normally about but this is a special case, I can't let you people miss out on this. Fuck Wolfmother! prepare to realise what a real '70s influenced Rock band should sound like. (Editors note: The opinions expressed by our writers are not necessarily those of AnarchyMusic.net. However, fuck Wolfmother)
Right now the music world is experiencing a bunch of revivals we've got the overplayed, overcommercialised, overrated '60s style stuff here in Britain, y'know? Arctic Monkeys, The Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Babyshambles... and all that other crap. Then there's the '80s Sleaze and Glam style stuff such as Roadstar and Vains Of Jenna making waves. Which may I add I'm a big fan of. Anyway it seems only fair that there's some bands out there trying to keep the golden age of Classic Rock alive, the 1970s! Well I'm not sure about a bunch of them but there's at least one, then again when they're as good as The Answer one's all that's needed.
That's right, The Answer. Heard of them? You should. They truly are "the answer" to all your bitching about their not been any good music around anymore. If you like Free or early Led Zeppelin this is the band for you. The Answer hail from Northern Ireland but have been making waves much further than that and impressed Whitesnake frontman David Coverdale so much he allowed them to go out on tour with his legendary band.
Anyway here's a review of their debut album Rise (released in 2006) and an interview with guitarist Paul Mahon.
Rise is one of those rare albums that you can stick on and listen to all the way through, for me there's very few cds like that. Def Leppard's Hysteria being the only other one coming to mind at the moment. It's simply brilliant. Ranging from hard rockin' Led Zeppelinesque opener Under The Sky to the bass dominant No Questions asked which has a taste of Free, then there's the super-bluesy Memphis Water and Preachin', a cover of a Gospel/Blues song so old it makes you wonder where they dug it up from... well until you read my interview with Paul anyway! The solos are brilliant, the vocals are raw and quite frankly Rise will blow your mind. The new single Be What You Want is definetly one of the highlights on this masterpiece, it keeps a nice steady relaxing feel while keeping the potential to be a crowd anthem. Into The Gutter, Never To Late and Come Follow Me are like Under The Sky, think The Immigrant Song or Rock And Roll with a modern tint and you'll know what I'm talking about. I can't hype this cd enough, plus amongst their fans are Jimmy Page, and if it's good enough for him, well I'll let you make your own mind up.
Jordan: So, your debut album has been quite successful considering the current British music scene. Did you expect to be able to break through in the way you have?
Paul: We knew we had a made a great record and that with some support it would do quite well.We knew from our touring that we had a strong underground following and that there were a lot of people out there starved of good Classic Rock.We didn't expect to get reviews as good as we did in Kerrang (5Ks) and Classic Rock (9/10) which was a very welcome surprise.
Jordan: You've recently toured with Whitesnake, did the band themselves approach you about that?
Paul: Yes, David Coverdale heard some of our music and was impressed enough to invite us on the tour. It was a great tour and cool to receive recognition from D.C. whom we are fans of and have a lot of respect for.
Jordan: Can you tell us about your best and worst gigs?
Paul: We played in Belfast in September and it was the first time we had played our home town since the album was out, we sold out the venue in advance and everyone was goin' crazy, one of those nights when the crowd almost plays the gig for you.We just finished our current European tour in Amsterdam and it was one of those gigs where everything went right, even the party afterwards! The worst gigs, recently we played in Ireland and I had the flu, actually playing the gig was fine just waiting to play I spent most of the day shivering and throwing up and the same after the gig.
Jordan: Where was your first ever gig and how did that go?
Paul: My first gig was in a bar called the Front Page in Belfast.I was playing drums at the time, doing covers mostly, the gig went well apart from in the climax to Freebird when the beater of the bass drum fell off and we had to start the song again, no one seemed to mind, we were just kids havin' fun.
Jordan: While growing up a lot of the music around would not have been the kind of bands you state as your influences, how did you get into this sort of music and manage to find 3 other people willing to play it with you?
Paul: Well the first bands I got into were AC/DC, Motley Crue, Metallica, Aerosmith, Vain and Faster Pussycat. I would hear these bands mention Led Zeppelin, the Stones, Free, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and thought "oh I better check this out" and found I liked these older bands as much if not more than the stuff I'd previously listened to and just went and found every record by those bands. As for finding the other 3 it was just a matter of luck good and bad! Cormac had gotten into Free, Bad Company and the Blues from his parents record collection and the way I play and write matches perfectly with the way he sings. As for the rhythm section, well as long as they have the groove and a little technical skill you can get them to do whatever you want. It can take years to find the right people and chemistry for your band and that's if you're lucky, most never find it.
Jordan: How come the track that you released a video for Keep Believin' never appeared on your debut album but other tracks from the EP did?
Paul: The version of Keep Believein on the EP didn't fit in with the rest of the album tracks so we left it off, it may make an appearance in the future, who knows? But the EP is now quite collectable. The other tracks on there have been changed for their new recordings.
Jordan: Obviously you're going to be releasing a second album, has writing or recording for this started yet?
Paul: We have some stuff recorded for it but it will be a while before we really get into recording sessions for the next album. I recently got a laptop so have been writing while on the road and we would work on stuff during soundchecks.
Jordan: When I saw you support Whitesnake earlier in the year you mentioned that Preachin' is an ancient Blues song you modernised, are you into the really old Blues stuff and how did you decide on that particular track?
Paul: Preachin' is a Son House song, Cormac liked a Fleetwood Mac version of the song and suggested we try it.The original version just has guitar and voice and sounds like the first few bars of our version before the band comes in. We added a few chord changes, lyrics, middle 8, solo and outro, much in the same way as Zeppelin did with some old Blues songs.
Jordan: Do you have any musical goals you've set for yourself or do you just "go with the flow"?
Paul: You always want to write better songs, play better shows and become a better player.So yes I have set goals for the band and myself, you're only as good as your last hit so you have to have another one waiting.
Jordan: Thanks for the interview Paul, one last question, if you could support any band what-so-ever, regardless of whether they're still together or not who would it be and why?
Paul: I would like to support and tour with Van Halen when they were kings in the late 70's and early 80's.To get to watch Eddie every night would be amazing and you would learn a lot and to watch Roth in full flight would be cool. Not to mention the party before and after the gig. Not just your ordinary boozy affair with a few groupies, Roth brought a certain sophistication to the party that I would have loved to have been a part of and could have added to myself.
***Rise is out now on Albert Productions***