The Answer on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads

“The four hard blues boys know their business well with an assault that was delivered with smart writing and true-believers swagger. It’s a robust calling card for their live vibe and for the second album,” wrote legendary rock critic David Fricke in his Rolling Stone review of The Answer’s 2008 SXSW performance.

There are moments in life when even the most hard-nosed music experts have to catch their breath with excitement. They have heard a lot, seen a lot - and probably forgotten most of it quickly. But somehow everything seems different about newcomer rock act, The Answer, from Northern Ireland: although you clearly feel their influences (mainly legends such as Free, Led Zeppelin, Black Crowes and Cream), you immediately sense this ambitioned band’s great independence and unconditional topicality. Nothing sounds stale or cribbed; which is a feat in itself, because the foundation of their compositions unmistakably lies in traditional hard rock, which has delighted the masses again and again over the years. The Answer’s songs sound so timeless and fresh that you could assume there’s some kind of secret recipe or hidden trick behind them. Yet the band’s recipe for success appears to be amazingly simple: “Everything we do is basically thoroughly honest,” guitarist Paul Mahon describes the band’s philosophy. “We’re a real team and draw our power from an indestructible inner strength. We jam together at the rehearsal room, combine the ideas of all band members, and the four of us stick together like glue.”

The Answer’s conquest of North America, which began at SXSW in early 2008 and roared through year’s end when they embarked on their first-ever tour of the continent as the opening act for AC/DC’s Black Ice juggernaut. They placed a track on Guitar Hero: World Tour and released their debut U.S. title, the EP/DVD Never Too Late. Topping it all off, the band’s first North American full-length album, Everyday Demons arrives in March 31st. A real red-letter day for all rock music fans!

Announcing The Answer’s Black Ice tour spot in Fall ’08, Rolling Stone wrote in a weekly “Hot List,” “No effing wonder AC/DC tapped these U.K. long-hairs to open…the singer howls like Paul Rodgers, the guitarist shreds like Jimmy Page and the lyrics are as awesomely stupid as ballin’ without a rubber.” Just two months later, in 2008’s annual late December “Hot Issue,” the publication hailed the band as “ Rock Gods In Training.” They wrote, “Lead singer Cormac Neeson has long, golden locks that make him look like a young Robert Plant. Guitarist Paul Mahon could have appeared on a vintage Creem cover.” Also in December, after their network television debut on The Late Show, David Letterman proclaimed, “The Answer, single handedly keeping rock and roll alive.”

But what exactly is it that makes this band’s sound? First of all, there’s vocalist Cormac Neeson. An exceptional talent with a smoky, expressive voice and sensational live performance. Once Neeson gets going, the term ‘vitality’ takes on a whole new meaning. This man has everything that makes a real rock shouter of the type the international music scene comes up with perhaps once or twice in a decade. Paul Mahon plays an impressive guitar, clearly inspired by blues and rhythm’n’blues. His slide solos are among the hottest since Paul Kossoff, his licks and hooks ooze pure energy. Bassist Micky Waters and drummer James Heatley support Cormac Neeson and Paul Mahon as an excellent rhythm group who give structure to The Answer’s material with their driving grooves. Impossible not to move every muscle when these four Irishmen start to rock.

Everyday Demons is The Answer’s second LP but the first to be released in the US, a masterpiece full of empathy and classic references. While the band is used to comparisons to rock icons such as Led Zeppelin, Free and Thin Lizzy, they’re looking to Everyday Demons to bring their own signature sound to the fore—a sound whose 21st century kick is as potent as its formidable 20th century influences. Neeson said “We’ve been stepping it up a gear in every area, and made an album that sounds distinctly like The Answer, rather than the bands we’re compared to. We particularly concentrated on the elements that make us unique, including lyrical content and how we write our songs. We’re looking forward to bringing that to America.” No matter how hard or dense the tracks, Neeson’s commanding vocals are clear and razor sharp, and the sense of immediacy captured during recording is palpable. Mahon is right on the mark when he says, “It sounds like the four of us playing live in a room and has a flair that only an Irish band could produce.”

The Answer got together in spring 2000, signed a contract with the legendary Australian rock label, Albert Productions, in 2005 and brought out their debut album, Rise, in 2006. “It took us three or four years to really get noticed,” Paul Mahon explains, “but then it all started to happen at once.” The band have performed with icons such as the Rolling Stones, The Who and Aerosmith, playing celebrated headlining tours in England, Japan and Australia. Their debut, Rise, was greeted enthusiastically by fans and media alike (the British music bible Kerrang! commented: “The Answer are superstars already” and has sold more than 100,000 copies to date.

The Answer will continue to tour America with AC/DC until the end of January and stay on tour throughout the European leg. “It’s simply amazing, a dream has come true for us,” Mahon enthuses. “Every night we go out, play in front of an audience, most of whom don’t know us and are generally very demanding. Every time we succeed in getting the audience on our side by the end of our show. It’s just brilliant!”

AC/DC Shows and More
26/6/09

GIG NEWS - So the band are just finishing the AC/DC European stadium tour, they got back on the road in Madrid and have not looked back since. James's hand seems to be doing just fine. They are looking forward to the shows in Nottingham and Glasgow next week, the Brighton show was great last week. Once those are done the band will get a short break, then it is Oxegen, then off to the states with AC/DC again!! We are delighted to announce that The Answer will be the support on the upcoming Black Ice tour in USA and Canada, see gigs page for full info. We have also confirmed 10 of our own shows to fill some of the days off so if you cant get to an AC/DC show check the gigs page, they may be playing a small club near you soon. There will be a short gap in September but then this tour continues thru October and November, news on shows very soon. Then as you may know, back to the UK to play the first proper headline tour since the album was released, more news on these shows soon.

NEW SINGLE - Tonight is out now, check out your favourite retailer to grab a copy. Hopefully some of you will have seen the new video, if not go to the band's Youtube page. Also check out www.everydaydemons.co.uk for some free music.

OTHER NEWS - So we are happy to announce that The Answer have been nominated in this year's Classic Rock Magazine hall of fame, they have been nominated in the Album of the year catagory, go to www.classicrockmagazine.com and cast your votes if you think it deserves it! Also it is that time of year at Kerrang! too, we would love you all to cast your votes for this year's Kerrang! Awards, go to www.awards.kerrang.com and get voting. Best british band and best album catagories are the main ones but feel free to vote any which way you like.

Lisbon + Other News
13/6/09

TOUR NEWS- So sadly the band will not be supporting AC/DC tonight in Lisbon. There has been a very sad death within the family so the band have had to spend the last few days back in Belfast. The guys will be back on stage on Friday in Madrid. Other tour news, we are busy booking shows in America to go along with the dates we will be doing on the AC/DC Black Ice tour there, more news very soon. For those of you in the states we will trying to cover as many towns and cities as we can while we are there. The tickets for the Everyday Demons UK tour are selling well, more news on special guests soon. For the rescheduled UK shows in Brighton, Belfast, Glasgow and Nottingham there will be limited edition poster given out to the first 100 through the doors each night, a little thank you to the hard corps fans for having to rearrange these shows. The same poster will be on sale at the shows for any one who arrives late. There are a few returns for the shows in Nottingham and Brighton so if you missed out first time round give the venues a call now to grab the last few tickets. As I said more news here soon.

ALBUM / SINGLE NEWS - The re-issue of Everyday Demons will be out in main land Europe next week, see previous news story. The next single is TONIGHT which is released in the UK on June 28th now. The digital bundle will include unreleased versions of Tonight and Dead Of The Night. The version of Tonight is a great acoustic version and the version of Dead Of The Night is a live electric version. For the completists out there these will appear on cd later this year so dont sweat it.

OTHER NEWS - Our good friends at Across The Line on BBC Radio in Nortern Ireland rather rashly offered to let the band take over the show for the night, the results will be aired on June 8th at 8 pm until 10 pm. The show was prerecorded so they could edit out all the swearing!! Check it out if you can. If you miss it or live else where then you should be able to hear it at www.bbc.co.uk/atl the following day.

If you check out the forum there will be links there to view the new video and also an exclusive bit of film from the tour, check it out.

Album + Gig News
18/1/09

NEW ALBUM- So we are reaching the final stages of getting the album ready, there are some of the new songs on MySpace already, they will be on this site this week too. The first single will be On + On which will be released on Feb 22nd. Full details of b-sides etc soon. The video to On + On is on our youtube channel so check it out. The good people at Planet Rock, Scuzz TV, Radio One, Kerrang TV + Radio, XFM and many others are already playing the single so have a look or listen out for it. As you know the album will be called 'Everyday Demons', it will be released in Japan late January, in the UK it will be released on March 2nd, in Europe some countries will release it the week before that and the others will be the same as the UK. In America it will be released on 31st March. There will be four formats in each country, a standard cd, a very special cd version, a deluxe vinyl version and a download version. Full details of each format in each country will be on this site very soon, I can tell you now though there is going to be plenty to get you all very excited. There should be pre-order links up already at HMV, Play.com, Amazon and Townsend so go and have a look and place an order or leave a comment even. More news on all this soon.

GIGS - The band are back in America with AC/DC, currently freezing their nuts off, check out the Royal Artist Club Blog on the news page. The Dingwalls show is sold out, but for any one who cant get to that show we will have some news for you, you may not miss out completely. We have confirmed our own shows in Paris, Cologne, Stuttgart, Amsterdam, Munich, Vienna, Lucerne and Belfast already, there will be more of our shows confirmed next week so watch the gig section for full info. We are also close to confirming some Japanese shows, again more news very soon. The gigs will be coming thick and fast over the next few weeks so hopefully we can see you all some where very soon. Any one with tickets for the AC/DC shows in Feb, March or April make sure you get there early!

WEBSITE - This site along with Myspace, Bebo etc will be getting a overhaul over the next few weeks, some of it will be done bit by bit so expect changes soon. All of the sites will have new songs on, there will also be other give aways etc over the next month or so, so keep em peeled. Still need content for the Vault especially anyone who has clips or photos from any of the AC/DC shows, send them on and we will post them for all the see.

Guitar Hero: World Tour

The newest release of Guitar Hero featuring The Answer's own "Never Too Late" is out now! For more info check out the Guitar Hero website.