It has been seven long years since The Answer provided us with an album, so it was safe to say their return was greeted with great acclaim.
Sundowners was produced and mixed by rising British rock producer Dan Weller (Enter Shikari, Bury Tomorrow). The album isn’t just a rehash of their old sound with a revised focus towards a driving, grungy and raw sound.
Guitarist Paul Mahon kindly took time out of their busy UK & European tour to take us on a whistle stop tour of the album.
Sundowners
The title track of the album. Paul plays amazing slide guitar on this one and the lads create a kind of psychedelic dirty blues feel that rumbles through the whole track. We recorded this one completely live as well which I think adds to the intensity and all round weirdness in the best possible way.
Blood Brother
The first single release from the album; we wanted to announce our return with a bang and I think this song does that. When we finished writing this one and had tracked the original demo it felt very much like we’d got our swagger back.
In a rock n roll band swagger is important. The rhythm is swung in this one too so it naturally invites you to lose yourself in the groove.
California Rust
There’s an amazing moment in this song when it breaks down after the guitar solo and you hear these amazing gospel style backing vocals fading in. That whole section was recorded live around the one mic with Cormac and three amazing female vocalists; all just going for it and loving it.
A lot of the songs we brought into the studio still had that extra five percent left to go in relation to the composition and magic dust within each track.
Want You To Love Me
The first Riff we wrote for this album. Think it was early 2019, I sent it to the lads. I remember Cormac texting straight back saying that’s exactly the kinda shit we want this album to be! Dirty fuzzy bluesy Zep.
This one for me is all about that outro Jam, that’s a real Answer moment there, in the rehearsal room it just happened. No thought just great energy.. will be a big moment live for us.
Oh Cherry
Lockdown! I had the riff, during lockdown when the pandemic stopped the world and closed all the shops, we had a veg & fruit delivery every week. There was a box Cherries in there, my daughter and I started singing ‘oh Cherry you’re sweeter than’ … became our little lock down track.
I recorded it in my studio & the lads were into it. They did their thing in making it an alt rock epic! Kinda got that mod rock thing going on, James really captured a super energetic groove.
No Salvation
No Salvation actually sounded totally different when we brought it to the studio. It was much more straight-up rock song. Paul recorded a demo for it, sent to us, when writing the songs we would do this so that when we all meet up in Ireland to record demos we aren’t just going in cold.
At middle farm studio in the morning, we decided to record that track we were all sitting around having coffee with the doors open, it was an amazing spring morning and we were just listening to old vinyl in the kitchen. Someone had the idea to take a different approach to it.
If it had been the old Answer panic would have taken over and we would have been stressed and trying to keep it the same. But we all just kinda walked in and picked up our instruments and started jamming it in a totally different way.
Cold Heart
One of the first tracks on the board. Paul sent it as a demo, and we first jammed out a full band demo in mid-2019. This was a key track for us as it got our management Jaba and Golden Robot excited about it. Kinda gave us the confidence that we were on the right vibe free rein to just do what we do best..
All Together
“Things are better all together!” We started writing the album just before the first lockdown and then continued as the world stopped. It was a different way of working for us, meeting up on zoom once a week and working on ideas and getting them ready for when we could all get into the same room together.
I think this way of working allowed an idea like all together to develop and have the different sections which are quite specific in their detail. And of course the lyrics are inspired by the hope that the world would open up again.
Get back on it
At first we weren’t sure if this was going to be on the album. But as we started piecing the album together it became apparent we needed a track like this just to jump in at the end of the album and take you to another place.
David Bowie’s “Young Americans “ band was a big influence stylistically for our approach rather than straight up funk band.
Living on the Line
This was one of the first ideas we worked on when we got back together. The verse went through some changes before it evolved into the call and response vocal part it now has. Lyrically inspired by those days on tour when the night before was a little too epic and you have to pay for it with interest the next day !
Always Alright
Always alright closes the album. We wanted something poignant but triumphant to end the journey. It began as a little acoustic number Micky and Cormac worked on during lockdown and while quite different from other tracks on the album it is cut from the same answer cloth!
Getting the final section was tricky at first so we went out to lunch, had a few bottles of wine and came back to the studio relaxed and ready to capture the perfect take live to tape which we did eventually late into an April Saturday night!
