![]() ![]() That much is evident from a first listen to the band’s new album. “We’ve been playing together since we were teenagers,” says a smiling Micky Waters, “so we know what we’re doing.” It sorta felt like we were writing our first record all over again, back when we didn’t have a record label and we didn’t have management in our ears or have any of the pressures that come with being a working band.” “In some ways,” says Neeson, “even though the process was weird because of lockdown, the lack of time-pressure meant we could let things develop organically. And looking back, Neeson, Mahon and Waters all recall the process being more “efficient” than the band’s traditional rehearsal-room jams. ![]() “Maybe better than ever.” Work resumed, sporadically, over Zoom calls. “It felt like the chemistry was really back,” says Mahon. Which meant that when the world shut down one month later, The Answer were in good shape, and Alexander-Erber had already been sent a clutch of work-in-progress demos he regarded as “bangers”. Perhaps understandably, the session was initially “pretty slow going”, as Mahon recalls – “We were at this for twenty years non-stop, and you quickly realise that after you take a long time out, momentum doesn’t build again overnight” – but there was excitement and energy in the room from day one.Īnother session was held in October 2019, and a third in February 2020. The Answer’s first studio jam in three years took place in August 2019, the same month as their new record deal with Golden Robot Records was formally announced. Their decision, however, was unanimous: let’s do this. But life changes, and obviously I would have understood had one of the others decided that, for whatever reason, they couldn’t commit as before.” I’m pretty sure that there was never a point where Ithought there wouldn’t be a seventh record from The Answer. The very deep friendships we’ve built up over the years weren’t ever going to go away. ![]() “But it wasn’t like we took a break because we were throwing beers at each other’s heads, it wasn’t a case of ‘I can’t stand the sight of you any more’. And it was kinda scary, because it was very much uncharted territory, insomuch as we had never really taken a break from when we were eighteen years of age, so it took a lot of readjustment, from a head-space point of view as much as anything. “Personally, to go from The Answer being such a massive part of my everyday life to it being put on the back burner was a really weird sensation. It doesn’t work unless all four members are fully committed,” says Neeson. “One of the reasons we needed to take a break was because The Answer has always needed to be ‘all in’. But Alexander-Erber is a long-time fan – the label boss talked of listening to their debut album Rise during his gym workouts a decade ago – and the offer prompted frank and open-hearted discussions among the band, completed by bassist Micky Waters and drummer James Heatley, who all now have children and independent businesses. "Mate, these fuckers are going to come back with an absolute bang!” It’s May 27, 2020, and Mark Alexander-Erber, president and founder of Golden Robot Records, home to Frank Carter And The Rattlesnakes, former Whitesnake/Thin Lizzy guitarist John Sykes, Rose Tattoo and more, is talking to Canadian music writer and podcast host Mitch Lafon about the label’s newest signing.īy their own admission, no one was more surprised by the Australian label reaching out to The Answer with the promise of a new worldwide deal than the band themselves.
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