Cormac Neeson – The Answer – Interview Exclusive
Written by Rob Watkins
Saturday, 19 November 2011 05:00
When Irish rockers The Answer came to my town recently as part of their ‘Revival’ world tour, I just had to get some interview time with the band, it was my duty, nah, my calling to do so. This is a band in high demand right now with said album making impressive dents in album charts worldwide and when I think that the last time I managed to catch them live it was when they were playing support to AC/DC in front of around 10,000 people, I started to think it wasn’t going to be an easy task. But being the inquisitive type that I am I just had to get the story from the guys themselves regarding their impressive rise through the rock ‘n’ roll ranks, and what their hopes and aspirations are for ‘Revival’ and what lies ahead of them during the next year or so.
With the help of the band’s UK PR gurus Noise Cartel (“thank you Nina”) my cunning plan was finally in place, and with my trusty voice recorder and crib notes ensconced about my person my mission was a simple one – to get as much time with the band’s lead singer Cormac Neeson as was physically possible over a quick pint of Guinness, and have him back at the venue in time for soundcheck…Sounds easy right? Well here’s how it all panned out.
Uber Rock: Cormac, firstly many thanks from all of us at Uber Rock for doing this interview. We appreciate you are a very busy man right now.
(Cormac had actually broken away from the rest of the band to give his undivided attention – mid soundcheck!!!).
Cormac: Oh it’s a pleasure guys.
Right lets start with an easy one to warm you up. How have The Answer progressed as a band, as people, as musicians and as songwriters from the ‘Rise’ album through ‘Everyday Demons’ and now into 2011’s ‘Revival’?
I’m gonna need to be a bit more specific. I suppose as people first and foremost we’ve grown up into men, you know, I mean I was 18 when I joined The Answer, you can probably tell by the bags under my eyes I’m not 18 anymore. We’ve especially come through some different phases in our lives, you know, good times and bad, and as far as the band is concerned it’s been the one constant thing in the last ten years in my life and I’m sure the rest of the boys would agree with me there. It’s been the one force that’s remained focused and remains united for the one common goal. I think musically we’ve matured as a band – we’ve become better songwriters and become better as players. I think you can track the songwriting progression through the three albums. ‘Rise’ kinda set the tone, for ‘Everyday Demons’ I think the songwriting was a bit more crafted and a bit more thought through, I think ‘Revival’ combines the spirit of ‘Rise’ and ‘Everyday Demons’ but we’ve improved and got better. Ii think this is the album we’ve been waiting 7 years to make and where the band is right now it’s a place we’ve been striving to get to, but as is always the case we’re constantly looking forward and looking at how we can better our position, and how we can get better at what we do, and keep turning out the results. So it’s onward and upwards as always.
Did the studio location near El Paso close to the Mexican border where you recorded the ‘Revival’ album have any sort of inspirational impact on the overall recording project?
It was a peculiar atmosphere down there it was a stones throw away from Juarez, officially the most dangerous city in the world right now, so that’s kinda constantly in the back of your mind with all this madness going on just a few miles away from you.
Is that good or bad?
Well it’s just food for thought you know. It keeps the juices flowing with stuff like that so close to you. At the same time you got that studio vibe where you’re in this cocoon and the outside world doesn’t really matter. The studio was very much catered to musicians like ourselves who really like to lock ourselves away from the rest of the world for those weeks that we’re in there, and then we can focus on getting the songs down, because with every album we go into the studio with the songs that if their not entirely completed their pretty damn close so our focus is on getting a good performance. But yeah it was a unique experience and we’d hear these stories from all the old Mexican ladies who cooked our meals everyday of some of the stories about Juarez that make Belfast look like a play park, we go round the world and people have the notion that we’re hard, being from Belfast and we’re not hard you know at all.
Yeah i suppose Belfast does have a certain reputation?
Yeah, but Juarez shits all over it.
How are the early stages of the tour going so far up to this solitary Welsh date, sold out may I add well in advance here at The Ebbw Vale Steelhouse?
Really good mate. This is actually the half way point tonight on the UK/Ireland Tour and first of all it’s great to be back on the road. Second of all we had a specific notion of what we wanted to achieve on this tour and we intentionally scaled it right down to 400 capacity venues. We wanted to get up close and personal again, most of the ‘Everyday Demons’ campaign was conducted in Arenas and Stadiums during the AC/DC tour, so a lot of our fan base didn’t get to see us as often as they’d like, and as often as we’d have liked to have played in front of them, and the kind of venue that we’re doing right now – in the past we liked to jostle it between bigger and smaller shows but with this tour we wanted to get back to the grassroots. I mean the album is called ‘Revival’, the theme running through the album is “the Revival of Rock ‘n’ Roll from the grassroots up”, and it struck us as the best way to get the campaign up and running,. It’s something we’ve not done in a while playing a great run of venues like The Steelhouse. You know to be able to get down into the crowd and look people in the eye again, it’s so much less pressure on our shoulders because we’re so at ease doing these just concentrating on blasting out some new songs seeing how they go down, playing a few old songs people haven’t heard in a while, it’s just a nice vibe.
And is it difficult to acclimatise from a major stadium support slot gigging all over the world to headlining a more intimate show of your own?
You go in there with the same attitude obviously, get up there give it everything you’ve got, but the way you communicate with a stadium full of people is very different to communicating with people at the Ebbw Vale Steelhouse and gigs like these. You can have a little banter in-between songs, there’s a lot less pressure on our shoulders playing these types of shows than 80,000 people judging you in a support slot. You’re preaching to the converted in a sense and with these shows you can be the band you truly are.
What did you learn and take on board from spending such a large amount of time from AC/DC during the Black Ice Tour that can go into improving The Answer’s own musical style?
Yeah I think it did yeah. The biggest thing we picked up was how to tap into that efficiency of songwriting that AC/DC have nailed over the last 30 years, we played with those guys 118 times and we watched at least part of the show every evening, you’re watching those guys play 25 Rock ‘n’ Roll classics with the exception of ‘The Jack’ or one or two others, the songs are all 3 to 4 minutes long but they are instantly recognisable. “Holy shit here’s another classic” you know – and it’s because they don’t waste a single beat and they have that knack for writing hooky Rock ‘n’ Roll and that’s something we took on board for the whole songwriting process of ‘Revival’. Whoever hears the album it’s clear that we’re not trying to rip off AC/DC but it’s just us using the same songwriting principals and it’s really helpful in honing our craft, and on top of that you learn stuff everyday from listening to Brian Johnson just wax away the way he does, and just observing those guys onstage and offstage you just realise you gotta be in love with what you do to succeed and have any kind of longevity in the business.
Any tales from the road you’d care to share with all your friends out there in Uber Rock world from your time on that particular tour?
(Ha Ha) I’ll save that for my autobiography or ’till I at least have 7 or 8 pints in me you know, but believe me there’s plenty of them.
It must have been quite a surreal experience performing ‘Never Too Late’ on the David Letterman Show.
Yeah we had a crazy week in New York, we played Madison Square Garden twice and a Friday night prime time appearance on Letterman.
It can’t get any better than that surely.?
It was pretty damn good, it was proper pinch yourself time. “Single-handedly keeping Rock ‘n’ Roll alive” is what he said.
(Ian Bell) You should stick that on the packaging for the album.
It was so special us and Bill Cosby.
Did you go into fan mode with Bill Cosby?
No- it was pretty brief but he was a nice guy.
What are your biggest influences or inspirations and what albums are you guys currently spinning on the tour bus?
We’re listening to the new Chickenfoot album, listening to Swanee River who did the Irish leg of the tour. Inspiration wise I suppose Paul Rodgers, he’s a big influence. Does Paul Rodgers have Welsh heritage? As a singer and the way he holds himself- he surely must have. Rory Gallagher also, that kind of uninhabited passion that he had for the music he played he really connects with me, I can really buy into that, you really need to believe in what you do and the audience have to believe in what you do also, and of course a number of Irish bands too like Thin Lizzy and Therapy? a band that shows us the way. Themselves and Ash were both pretty successful when we were putting our band together, a couple of bands as local as that obviously prove it can be done, in fact we have a gig with Therapy? right after this tour at the Ulster Hall in Belfast as part of MTV Music Week.
What does the future hold for The Answer after this UK and Ireland tour concludes?
The immediate future a lot more touring, the show in Belfast on the 4th November then heading to Europe both sides of Christmas, then back to the UK and Ireland playing bigger venues in Feb/March 2012,we’re gonna release those dates really soon and then turn our attention to America and Japan after that and probably spend the guts of the rest of 2012 across the Atlantic and down to Japan and Australia.
A little bit of uber humour to round things off with then. The Answer are headlining a major festival, but with a subtle twist, you get to pick the line up. Which five other bands “Alive, Dead or Dysfunctional” would you put on the bill?
(Ha Ha) We’re headlining right, so first band up to ease people in a bit.
Mars Volta to open, they’d kick it in.
Rory Gallagher on next followed by Rage Against The Machine
Led Zeppelin and AC/DC before The Answer step up.
AC/DC can know what it’s like to go on after us for a change.
And what would be on the rider (M&M’S are banned)
On our rider right now we’ve got 48 beers,4 bottles of Wine and a bottle of Whiskey, throw in something to smoke and you’ve got a festival rider.
Thank you very much Cormac from all of us at Uber Rock- especially for breaking away mis soundcheck for this chat.
Cheers guys, its been a pleasure.
So with Cormac, Paul, Micky and James now half way across Europe touring the living daylights out of ‘Revival’ I guess you could say everything is fine and dandy in The Answer camp. What 2012 will bring them who knows? But one things for sure, and that is the guys will be having a bloody great time whilst delighting their many millions of fans worldwide by simply playing rock ‘n’ roll music.
Check out the band’s website here for all the up to date news on this never ending ‘Revival’ tour. Until the next time guys, thank you for being such great hosts, but one small thing before I do finally sign off. Next time you’re in town could you play this for me?