Newcastle rock star’s intimate solo album

Newcastle rock star’s intimate solo album

1 May 2019

THE discovery of a random white feather gave The Answer’s frontman Cormac Neeson a sign of hope at the most desperate time in his life — and the inspiration for his first solo album.

The Newcastle rocker has just released a searingly intimate and personal album called White Feather with ten tracks which deal with his eldest son Dabhóg’s fight to be born and for life itself.

Launching at Belfast venue The Black Box on May 24, the 38 year-old will give his most stripped back performance as an artist as he tours with the album over the coming months. 

His old friends, The Unholy Gospel Band, with bass guitarist, Downpatrick’s own Eamon Hanlon, will be joining him for the big night.

Cormac also has a new single out from the album, Broken Wing, a country-inspired track with blues backing choir that will resonate with people whether they are a parent or not.

His rock vocals have given way to a deeper, introspective sound that is still etched with emotion.

The 38 year-old singer, who once toured with rock legends AD/DC, says he the experience of nearly losing his son from being born prematurely at 27 weeks has changed him.

Dabhóg, who has Down’s Syndrome, weighed only 1lb 12oz when he was born. After spending his first four months in a hospital neo-natal unit and undergoing heart surgery on his first birthday, he is now four. Thankfully, Dabhóg has turned the corner despite overcoming serious medical obstacles in his short life.

Dabhóg and his 10 month-old brother, Conall, mean everything to Cormac and his wife Louise, who now live in Belfast.

“Whenever you have a sick child and you go through an ordeal like that with your family, it does definitely alter your perception and you come out the other side of it changed,” said Cormac.

“You just look at life in a different way. You appreciate stuff that you never appreciated because you’re not sitting in an intensive care unit in the Royal [Victoria Hospital]. Anything is better than that.”

The couple only had a few weeks to privately celebrate getting pregnant with their first child when Louise had to be rushed into hospital.

They initially were advised that pregnancy was lost as it was so early but were told to come back to hospital in a  few weeks time.

“It was the longest two weeks in my life,” recalls Cormac. “The night before we were due to go the hospital I went out for a walk in the Mournes. I was a bit raging at the world and screaming up to the heavens asking to be give a sign that everything was going to be ok. 

“I was literally stopped dead in my tracks with this little splash of white high in a tree. I climbed up into the tree to see what it was and  it was a white feather.

“I had always been brought up to believe that white feathers symbolised new life. I couldn’t believe that I spotted it at that time and brought it back down. I had a feeling then that everything was ok. The next day we went to hospital and sure enough there was this tiny mustard seed on the scan with the most giant heartbeat you ever saw in your life. It was the beginning of what was to be a most tumultuous journey and the beginning of where we are now, having an amazing four-year-old and a baby.

“Dabhóg really is a warrior. He’s been through more than me and most people ever will in their lives.”

Long-term fans of The Answer may be surprised at one of their leaders heading to Nashville to write and record the album. 

But as Cormac tells it, it’s just the way it was meant to be.

He went to the home of country music in 2016 on a songwriting course to help write songs for other artists but ended up literally pouring his heart and pain out in the songs — in time-honoured country music fashion.

“It’s not a country record but you can tell it is recorded in Nashville,” said Cormac.

“There is an awful lot of soul to it and a bit of subtley to it as well as it allowed me to express myself in the way that I needed to at this point in my life. I needed to make a record that reflected that switch in the way I see life.”

The Nashville approach to writing songs was a more reflective experience for Cormac that what he is used to with bandmates Paul Mahon, Mickey Waters and James Heatley.

“It was just a completely different approach to songwriting that I had been used to doing for 15 years with The Answer,” said Cormac. “It’s a hard rocking blues band and a lot of our songs are written with the volume pedal turned up riffing away, having a good time and letting songs organically develop.

“In Nashville, you sit in a room with two other people and an accustic guitar and you have a long conversation about your life and what you might want to write about. I found once we were locked into the message we wanted to put across in the song everything else fell into place. We basically wrote songs in the morning and recorded in the afternoon as that’s what the studio expected.

“A lot of what I’m singing about on this record just would not work on a record from The Answer because it wouldn’t be appropriate. Rock and roll is loud and life-affirming. While a lot of these songs are life-affirming, they are in a completely different way.”

Cormac assures the band’s devoted following that they have stockpiled a supply of new songs and will be coming out with a new album.

Addressing his own personal hiatus, Cormac added: “I’m still the same guy I was in The Answer and will be again when The Answer makes our next record. I just needed to get into the right room with the right writers making the right music.”

White Feather album will be released on April 26 before a tour kicks off in the UK on May 7 for a run of seven support shows followed by six Irish headline dates. For show dates visit http://www.cormacneeson.co.uk or https://www.facebook.com/cormacneesonsolo/.