The Answer getting personal

The Answer getting personal

26 October 2016

THE Answer are back and baring souls in their most personal album to date.

The Downpatrick rockers, who have toured with the likes of Aerosmith and AC/DC, have announced the release of Solas. A decade into their career, it marks a significant turning point for The Answer and in particular lead singer Cormac Neeson. 

After their 2015 US Raise A Little Hell tour, the band returned to a scene they describe as “utter emotional and financial chaos”. Burnt-out and unsure of what direction to go into next, things escalated further for Cormac, when his newly born son, Dabhog, arrived into the world three months premature with multiple health issues. 

Dabhog spent four months of fighting for his life in a nightmarish world of ventilators and blood transfusions. For Cormac, he had to come to terms with “an enveloping fear of the unknown”.

“I look back at that time of my life as a darkness I didn’t know existed,” he said. “It felt like all the lights in the world had been dimmed and weren’t ever coming back up again. I emerged from that whole experience a different man. The world was never going to look the same again but at least I could start to think about stuff I hadn’t thought about in a while. Solas arrived at just the right time for me because I felt strongly that I had a lot to say and to get off my chest.”

Cormac added: “By the time we started for the most part it looked like Dabhog’s struggles had resolved. I felt like I had something important to say. This is a very personal record for the whole band. We are riding with the shackles off. There is an honesty to it.”

After their ‘Dark Night of the Soul’, The Answer came out the other end — clearly changed but with a newfound strength.

What helped, they say, was turning inwards to a deep-rooted sense of ‘Irishness’, which is reflected in the album’s title (Solas being the Gaelic word for ‘light’).

To create the new album the band bunkered down in their home rehearsal room, converting it into a self-contained recording set up and shut themselves away from the world.

Guitarist Paul Mahon became the default engineer, arranger and guiding light that would help navigate the newfound freedom, delivering updates and files from the bunker over to London-based producers Andy Bradfield and Avril Mackintosh.

 “We initially sat there looking blankly at each other,” said Paul. “It became apparent that we would have to approach writing in a completely different way; It was certainly disconcerting to move away from our traditional approach but we had to embrace a new process.

“We didn’t want to limit ourselves and as well as exploring our Celtic roots wanted to explore roots music in a broader sense. There may have been some conscious resistance at first but it felt we were being guided down a much more atmospheric, surreal and cinematic path and I think that is reflected in the final album.”

The varied body of work that emerged could be seen as a musical departure, but they haven’t turned their backs on their blues-filled rock anthems.

Solas is dark, occasionally menacing and at certain moments, joyous and uplifting. ‘Demon Driven Man’ would be considered perfect rock’n’roll fare, grounded as ever by drummer James Heatley’s remorseless beat, but it is the epic ‘Battle Cry (Seo An La Mo Laoch Mo Ghra)’, a six-minute call to arms featuring elements of Celtic music, a Gaelic vocal chant, windswept rock and even thunderous Samba rhythms, which best epitomises the old and new of The Answer.

The band are pleased with the final result and although nervous of the reaction Cormac said so far it had been “very positive”.

“We got a high quality result,” he said. “It was the right time for a change. It is certainly important to keep current and evolve in order to survive and hold on to the passion.

“We are lucky to have a great core of support across Europe and Japan. It is that core support that makes everything possible.

“The first part of developing a band is doing everything you can to develop your core, that base. Then you doing everything in your power to hold on to it.”

The first track to be taken from the new album is the melancholic ‘Beautiful World’, which is available now online along with pre-orders of the album. 

• Solas is released via Napalm Records on October 28.