The Nadas playing Little Bear Saloon

The Nadas are performing in our own little hometown of Fort Collins, Colorado this coming week, Oct 22nd at Avogadro’s Number, and they’ll be in Denver at The Bluebird, Oct 21st and back at the Ghost Ranch Saloon in Steamboat Springs on Oct 24th.  Check out their complete tour schedule here. We’re thrilled they’re coming to town, and hope you’ll show up when they’re in your area as well!

The Nadas are Mike Butterworth (guitar and vocals) and Jason Walsmith (guitar and vocals) fronting the band, with drummer Scott Dawson, Jon Locker on bass. This evening in Little Bear, they were also joined by Nathan Peeples (a most excellent Colorado local) on saxophone.

Mike Butterworth hams it up at The Little Bear Saloon

June 26th, 2009, Little Bear, Evergreen, Colorado

Savvant Music: You guys have been together for 15+ years – to what do you attribute your ability to stay together, to persevere and to keep inventing new and interesting music?

Jason Walsmith: We attribute our longevity to stubbornness, and lack of options <laughs>.

Savvant: So you don’t have any other career options waiting in the wings?

Jason: Actually, I think we both have a lot of things that we could do, and it’s been because of this. So, we both dabble in other things, doors and opportunities that were opened up because of what we do here. So… that was kind of a fib, I guess!

Savvant: So what kind of opportunities are those?

Jason: Well, we have a record label. We manage bands, book bands. I do photography. Mike’s an interior decorator…

Mike Butterworth: No.

Jason: … of his own house!

Mike: I wanna some day hang out a shingle <smirks>. And you work for Templeton Rye Whiskey!…

Jason Walsmith serves up some Templeton Rye Whisky

Jason: And I work for Templeton Rye Whiskey!

Mike: … which started as a song – an anthropological look at an era.

Jason: Yeah, it was a song before it was a product and then because they liked the song I started talking to the guy who started the company. He was an MIT grad and had a lot of numbers ideas. He knew a lot about the history of it, but I just sort of brought a lot more of that to him. So he hired me.

Mike: You know what the bottom line reason why we can keep doing this — is because our fans are so loyal. And I don’t know why exactly. I don’t know why our fans are so loyal to us and like the bands that we’re trying to help can’t seem to get these loyal fans. So there’s something that happens between us, but that’s the bottom line. Because really, financially, that’s the reason we can keep doing things.

Mike Butterworth engages the crowd at Little Bear

Savvant: So you know you can get a crowd?

Jason: If they didn’t show up, we’d be playing in our living room.

Mike: We could go out of business in a month – and it’s always been that way for 16 years.

Jason: We spent many years really worried about whether people would show up. We still have to work hard to make that happen, but we’re pretty confident that people are gonna show up.

Savvant: Well, you guys do seem to work pretty darn hard!

Jason: … I look at it this way, we’ve always had, because of those loyal fans have always been important to us, and I think that we’ve maintained them because we have a relationship with almost all of them. It’s a community between us and our fans. And the Internet, and Twitter and Facebook and all of that just kind of break down those barriers and make it so easy, you know? So far it’s been great.

Mike: In the olden days where we had a physical mailing list where we’d mail out a news letter every month, it got to the point where it cost three grand a month, just in postage. So, the Internet has been our friend like it has to a lot of bands.

Savvant: So, I am really surprised to hear that you guys have never been signed to a major label…

Mike: I kinda am too.

Jason: Its been a series of weird events that have stopped that sort of progress for us. Probably to our advantage.

Mike: It saved our career.

Mike: Like the president of RCA was coming to Ames where we lived at the time to see a show with a record contract in hand.

Jason: To a venue which we had sold out consistently for about eight years.

Mike: … it was right after 9/11… so he didn’t come! Everything fell apart. Just little things like that throughout the years have kept us independent. And now I feel like we’re in a good spot because we sell our own music – we have the physical mail part of it, but we have our own download site, and we don’t split it with anybody.

Jason: We’ve had a lot of friends who have been on major labels, and only one band that we’ve ever associated with have had good things to say about their major deal and that’s because they were deep in something and had like a huge hit…

Savvant: You have your own label, Authentic Records, and you have some other artists on that label — are there any that are really outstanding ones that we ought to be looking at too?

Mike Butterworth, The Nadas

Mike: Absolutely. I’m excited! I’m working as the responsible manager for Bonne Finken who’s a woman from Des Moines. She was a single mother and an ovarian cancer survivor before she was 21. In order to have the money to make her record, she moved out of her apartment and lived homeless for a year so she could have that money to make the record. And it’s a powerful, passionate record – and she works hard – and she’s an amazing performer – and she’s got a great band behind her!

Jason: And Todd Pipes, who was the lead singer and the songwriter from the band Deep Blue Something, and he made two records with The Pipes Brothers, and we were fortunate enough that he released his solo record on our label.

Mike: It’s just cool! It’s a cool record.

Jason: It’s short, but it’s really great.

And then She Swings, She Sways is a band which – it’s funny because historically we’ve only signed people who are our friends. Like we’ll be out, and you know, we’ll run into an opening band and we’ll party. We’ll see them again six months later… and we’ll be come friends. Those are the bands that we put on the label. But these guys sent us a letter that said “This is why we should be on your label…”, and we were like … “Amazing!”

Jason Walsmith of The Nadas

They’re in it for all the right reasons and the record was great – it sounded good already. You know, we didn’t have to do anything to it, and they’re our hardest working band, and they really sell a lot of records because … just from their hard work. It’s awesome.

Savvant: What kinds of things are you doing to help and nurture and grow these bands along?

Jason: Everything from like the most basic, like, making sure that they have a good web presence to helping them pick the right van to tour in so they don’t… you know… we’ve done all this. We’ve made the mistakes. We’ve bought the wrong van, and it bit us in the ass. So, we help them at every level. We help them find musicians to play in the bands and then we help them with the promotion as far as … do you want to do an online thing, do you want to call up radio stations?

Mike: And then we try to open doors. I mean, we’ve beat down a lot of doors over the years, so most of the time those doors will just be open to us.

But it’s up to them to play and make fans.

Jason: Yeah, it’s like they get the opportunities that would take someone working on their own five or six years — they get them right away.

Savvant: You guys mentioned that you find people that you know, when you’re on the road… We’ve noticed that a lot of times experienced artists are the ones that really discover the new artists. I don’t know, you have the best view in, or something… Anyway, I was wondering – is there any other unknown talent out there that you guys have discovered?

Jason: Not yet!

Jason Walsmith of The Nadas

Mike: We’re working on our A&R now, actually. We’re just trying to find the bands that we want to work with, because we’ve got our artists and we’ve got them all up and running and they have their record and we’re working the records…

It’s about time for another record, but we don’t have anything to put out.

Savvant: We may have one we’ll send you.

Mike: Yeah! Absolutely.

Savvant: They’re still brand new, so they’re not ready to tour, but…

Jason: The thing that’s weird that especially artists don’t ever really understand is – its not so much, especially for our label that’s not very well funded, it’s not just do they have a great record? Or do they have a great sound?… It’s more like, how everything fits together and whether they want to work and how we get along and whether they like our philosophy. I’m sure there’s a lot of great music out there and some of it will never ever leave their garage, you know? So, for us it’s about whether or not they want to be part of our family, or we want them to be part of our family.

Savvant: You guys are like social media mavens! It’s impressive. What kind of impact does that have on you guys in terms of marketing, and also in terms of, like, distraction?

Jason: Distraction.. ok… I’ll answer the first one first because I’m not sure about the other one… I mean, I’m pretty distracted all the time…

Mike: It’s a massive distraction. It’s a distraction when driving, and when trying to have a conversation. I’m surprised you’re not twittering right now!

Jason videos Mike on stage with his new iPhone

Jason: I did right before I walked in and said I was about to sit down with her. And that’s what’s amazing. It ties all the people who listen to you to all the people who listen to us — all of a sudden they’re all listening to each other. I mean, I think it’s amazing.

Mike: It’s unbelievably powerful.

Jason: It’s really hard to quantify the impact it’s had, because I don’t think that life has really changed a lot for us, but I think it’s kept us relevant when we maybe would have just sort of gone away, even if we kept working as hard as we did. It’s like… we can keep people interested in this time where people are only interested for a second.

Mike: That’s what we’ve found. We found that the life of a record used to be about a year, and now it’s six months – at best. At best, it’s six months.

Savvant: Speaking of how long it takes to do a record… I’m really intrigued by your Almanac Project. It’s really bleeding edge and seriously cool. I’m wondering, how did you come to that idea, and how is it working for you?

Almanac, a yearlong recording project by The Nadas intends to capture the year of 2009, one month at a time in album form

Jason: We came to the idea… I mean, there are a lot of people that are doing a lot of those things involved with Almanac kind of individually. There are people who are recording and releasing songs all the time, and there are people who are blogging all the time, and there are people who are streaming all the time. But I think ours is unique in that how we put it together and what that package is that’s different from those individual things.

How’s it working for us? I don’t know. It’s definitely an experiment.

Nathan Peeples sat in with The Nadas

Mike: I thought that it would be huge. Because it is a new concept that no one’s really done. There’s been similar projects, but nothing where the fan can watch us – right? Watch us record, watch the mix, and then have it delivered to them via a download. But, it’s not… we have maybe 150 subscribers. Which is like crazy low.

Jason: We had an expectation based on who pre-ordered our last record – which was amazing – when all we did…

Mike: We pre-ordered over 500 albums for our last release.

Jason: And that was just where it came out… you got it a month before everyone else. That was it. But I think a lot of people are just waiting for the record. A lot of our hard core fans. And part of it is I think, that we’re asking people to pay for a blog, where everyone else is giving away a blog. And we also have other blog content, stuff we’re giving away all the time. So that a leap. We look at it as: These people are funding our record, and they’re really in on the ground floor, and they’re really allowing us to do it. But, that wasn’t as big as we had hoped.

Drummer Scott Dawson

Mike: You know it’s funny that there’s three subscribers that are kind of the most vocal on the chat – from Phoenix and Chicago and Steamboat – there’s a guy from Steamboat. They came here just to hang out for the weekend around this set of shows, which is pretty funny.

Jason: The best thing that came out of Almanac so far, besides the fact that we’re forced to write [several] good songs, is that we get more press about this than we have anything else because, finally after all these records  that we put out there’s something different and interesting to talk about. So we’ve hired publicists and we’ve had social media consultants and never really got anything placed. And then, all of a sudden, we do this on our own – we don’ t even talk about it – and people are wanting to do stories, and we’re on the radio. We’re getting radio play where we didn’t before, so…

Mike: It’s all about having a story.

Savvant: You guys are doing this webcasting in the middle of set ups and warm ups and what did I see you recently doing a minor league ball game some place. How do you think that’s going over?

Jason: We’ve had a few of those where we’ve had more people watching that than were at the actual show, so..

Mike: We stream every show that we can. We have this cellular Internet that we can bring with us, so it’s like very few shows that we can’t actually stream. And we have multiple cameras.

Jason: … I think it’s been amazing. You know, it’s just that there’s ten thousand ustreams going up at the same time so how do you stand out in that. So, we rely on our fans. Our biggest nights are like the weeknights that are early-ish shows, and then there’s a lot of people. But I think in Steamboat there were over 130 people over the course of the show that tuned in. It’s fun… it’s weird, but it’s fun… I streamed him driving the bus the other day!

Savvant: Was that while it was on fire or after that?

Mike / Jason: That was a couple of weeks ago, yeah… [We smoked the brakes on our bus] all the way down from Rabbit Ears Pass [outside Steamboat Springs, CO]. All the way down.

Jason: Man, I just got this new iPhone and I can post videos, and I posted a video while it was on fire, on YouTube and then posted it on Twitter.

Mike: It was unbelievable. He tweets this, and while it’s happening I’m getting texts saying, “Everything ok?” … like six or seven texts … I had to call my wife — “I’m fine!” because I know she’s looking at the same thing I am and.. “I’m fine. I’m not dying. Don’t worry about it.”

Savvant: So tell us more about your record label… What’s the mission of Authentic Records?

Jason: Our mission statement on our label is pretty simple… It just says that we are presenting artists who deserve to be heard and who you deserve to hear – authentic artists.

Savvant: No wonder we liked you guys all along! That’s exactly what Savvant Music is about too! That’s a challenging place to make money, especially if you don’t want to take money from the artist.

Mike: We haven’t made any money from our artists.

Jason: We pay … it doesn’t make a dime

Mike: There’s one band that sells some records… that’s us.

Jason: Yeah, that’s right. We’re the only band that really sells any records.

Mike: And there’s a couple others who, you know, have at least paid their way, which is awesome.

Savvant: What about goals? Where do you want to go? Where do you see yourself going?

Jason: We’d like to be able to…

Mike: I think we need to freshen up our bus a little… <laughs>

Jason: I’d like to maintain – I’d like to find some new markets. We’ve had some markets disappear. Things were really good for awhile. For awhile we started thinking it was us, you know. Earlier in our career we’d be really worried if a market would kind of dip, but now we realize that it’s … the market, you know? There’s either a live music fan base, or there isn’t – and we’re not going to have all those live music fans, but we’re going to have some of them. And, if it’s a good strong base, we’re going to have those fans.

Mike: We gave up fighting it years ago when it wasn’t working… Let’s stop throwing our time and our money at this… it’s not going to happen.

Bassist Jon Locker

Jason: So we need to find new ones. Phoenix is a pretty new market for us, and there’s two people from there here tonight. And we’ve only played there for a few years. Steamboat – we just played this trip for the first time, and that’s going to be a new market for us. But it’s hard to find new markets.

Savvant: You guys will be an awesome fit for Steamboat Springs – Summer time or ski season, you’ll be an awesome fit.

Mike: Yeah, we did a 150 people first time in [Steamboat Springs], which is way more than I thought. I thought there might be 30 or 40 people there, actually.

Jason: And they charged a decent ticket. You go into a town where they’re scared to charge a cover or even scared to charge over five bucks, it’s like – that doesn’t really work for us, because then you’ve got to come back ten times to build it to where it needs to be. We need to be able to go into a place, have 300 people and have them be willing to pay $10-15, you know? So this place did it right. They advertised, they had press – It was like all the pieces fit.

Mike: But, we need to figure out a way to find these new markets somehow.

Savvant: Which venue did you play?

Jason: It’s new – The Ghost Ranch Saloon.

Mike: You guys should check it out.

Our interview with The Nadas completed, we headed into The Little Bear Saloon to hear The Nadas perform live in front of this enthusiastic capacity Colorado crowd.

We’d heard The Nadas once before (the previous fall at The Gothic in Denver) and knew we were going to enjoy this show, and yet we were still impressed by both the caliber of the music and the overall entertainment value of the show, because these guys are just hilariously funny.

Mike has an amazingly versatile voice, ranging from a soaring, floating falsetto down to a deep baritone which blends smoothly with Jason’s emotive vocals with an ease indicative of their years of singing together. Terrific harmonies, exceptional instrumental support and awesome songwriting combine with superlative showmanship to complete a night of great music and entertainment.

The instrumental and vocal efforts of other members of The Nadas’ band are also note worthy. Drummer Scott Dawson lends additional great vocal harmonies, and bass player Jon Locker is simply amazing.

Make sure you catch The Nadas when they’re in your town!

You can follow The Nadas here -

The Nadas’ website:   thenadas.com

The Nadas on Facebook:  facebook.com/thenadas

The Nadas on Twitter:   twitter.com/thenadas

The Nadas on MySpace:   myspace.com/thenadas

The Nadas’ Almanac Project on Twitter:  twitter.com/nadaalmanac

Amy Morgan - Post Paradise at the Aggie

Sorry, but the free download period has expired.

But don’t despair! You can still download Post Paradise latest songs and album,  From Here to Anywhere on iTunes:  

Or you can purchase From Here to Anywhere at Amazon:

Either way, less than $7.00 — Great deal!

Quincy Jones keynote at SXSW 09

He probably doesn’t know it, because there were always 200-2000 other people there as well , but WE knew it and it was AWESOME. It was like spending the day in the presence of giants and their ghosts and their shadows as Mr. Jones walked us through the amazing history of music in his lifetime, so much of which bears his unmistakeably great music mark.

After the extended keynote, Bob and I went to a panel celebrating the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue album. And guess who showed up and was asked to join the panel… Mr. Quincy Jones.  And so continued our wonderful day with Mr. Jones. If time allows, I’ll post more at a later time detailing more of the amazing conversations with Quincy Jones and the Kind of Blue panel, but for now…

As wonderful and amazing as Mr. Jones conversations were, what he brought to us musically was even more amazing and fantastic.

Get ready for it, because Quincy Jones has a new protégé, Alfredo Rodriguez – a pianist so intense, so beautiful and so emotive you never, ever want the music to stop. Just two months ago Rodriguez, a tender 23 years old, defected from Cuba where he was not allowed to tour internationally.

Alfredo Rodriguez at the Elephant Room in Austin

Rodriguez played after Mr. Jones’ keynote address Thursday afternoon, and again later that night at a SXSW showcase in the Elephant Room, displaying his amazing improvisational skills and beautiful artistic soul. Part of Rodriguez’ genius is his ability to be so playful and simple interspersed with moments of exquisite emotional intensity.  He takes a melody and weaves it in and out of harmony and discord while maintaining the pure integrity of the melody and the feel of the song.

Part and parcel with the music are the expressive faces and body language that Rodriguez deploys to communicate even further the emotion of the music without need for spoken word.  Much of this you can hear in the music and see in the videos, but to really feel the full impact of Rodriguez’ music you must see him perform live.  If you ever get the chance to see him live, do not miss it! It’s an experience of a lifetime.  If you don’t believe me, just ask Quincy Jones.

Alfredo Rodriguez and "patron" Quincy Jones

After Rodriguez’ performance at the Elephant Room, Mr. Jones gave us a a few more words from his heart, saying about Rodriguez “this young man makes me even happier than I already am to be alive” and finally adding “This is what music is about.”

Like Mr. Jones, Rodriguez projects a sense of humility and gratitude for his talent, which makes him feel all the more genuine and authentic – truly deserving of his wonderful musical gift.

I’ll post links to purchase Rodriguez’ music as it becomes available.  Meanwhile, here are a few links where you might find new information on this newly emergent artist:

• Alfredo Rodriguez’ official (I think) web site:   
  www.alfredomusic.com
• Alfredo Rodriguez’ facebook page:
  www.facebook.com/pages/Alfredo-Rodriguez/71659295609
• Alfredo Rodriguez on MySpace:
  www.myspace.com/alfredorodriguezmusic
• Follow Alfredo Rodriguez on Twitter:
  twitter.com/alfredomusic
• Alfredo Rodriguez on YouTube (QuincyJonesProd channel) :
  http://www.youtube.com/user/QuincyJonesProds

While Alfredo Rodriguez obviously will soon be very well known (that is to say, he’s not exactly “under the radar”), I was so touched by his music and his talent that I wanted to share him with you right away, now, so you don’t miss any opportunity to hear him play.   I’ve included some of the best videos I found on YouTube below.  Enjoy! But don’t miss a chance to see him live!

My Favorite:

But this one was awesome too:

Last, but not least, here is a video of Alfredo Rodriguez playing the Elephant Room at SXSW – Bob and I were sitting about 7 feet behind Mr. Jones, next to the loud but well meaning drunk you’ll hear hollering in the video. I’m afraid the video doesn’t really do it justice.  This encore had me in tears.

See the Quincy Jones Production Channel (QuincyJonesProd) on YouTube.com for more.

Other photos:

Quincy Jones Keynote at SXSW 09

A standing ovation from The Elephant Room

Alfredo Rodriguez at the Elephant Room

Someday this photo will be the coolest thing on the block! Oh, wait! Already IS!

Thomas Marriott and Hadley Caliman play in perfect unison at Dazzle

Trumpeter Thomas Marriott put together a fantastic jazz quintet featuring the pure, clear and rich tenor sax tones of the amazing Hadley Caliman.  Marriott’s deep melodious flugelhorn and rich trumpet tones were perfectly entwined with Caliman’s when they played together, and yet they played nicely contrasting improvisational solos individually.

A little tired of standing venues with sticky floors, booming bass through earplugs and teenagers scrubbing off under-aged marks in the bathrooms, my partner Bob Carnahan and I took a night to enjoy some incredible grown-up jazz down in Denver, Colorado at one of our favorite listening rooms, Dazzle Restaurant and Lounge.

Phil Sparks on bass violin

Surrounded by room full of jazz lovers, we soaked up the vibes of this fantastic Seattle-based quintet.  In addition to Marriott and Caliman, the group included drummer Matt Jorgensen, bass violinist Phil Sparks and Denver-local guest pianist Jeff Jenkins. Sparks kept up a hot bass line most of the time, but one of my favorite bass moments was his initial solo stint when he picked up a bow and played a very rich melodic bass solo — still hot and jazzed, but very different from your typical jazz bass solo.

Jeff Jenkins on piano

From the start Denver jazz pianist Jeff Jenkins was just amazing, playing a seriously hip and engaging solo with a awesome and unusual rhythmic left hand chord composition against a lovely contrasting melodic element.  He’s definitely a local artist we’ll want to follow closely and hear more.

Another local guest, Boulder trumpeter Brad Goode, sat in with the quintet on several numbers.  Goode blew us away once before at a previous gig at Dazzle when he was a guest of local Denver group Table for 5, and his soaring, ripping melodies and his contrasting, unique style blew us away once again.  Where Marriott’s solos were rich and harmonious, Goode’s playing was edgy, screaming and flavored with bop, and while both were exceptionally good, it was difficult to realize they were playing the same instrument, so different are their style.

From Herbie Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage” to Miles Davis‘ “All Blues”, Marriott and Caliman played together with the ease of true professionals, their styles and tones well matched to each other.   Drummer Matt Jorgensen added hot rhythmic accents and kept things tight and moving.

If you get a chance to see any or all of these guys, jump at it.  In fact, Brad Goode will be performing at a CD release party in The Dazzle Showroom starting at 7pm on Wednesday, November 26th (that’s the day before Thanksgiving).  I can’t make it, but I hope you can go for me!

Hadley Caliman also has a new CD out, called “Gratitude” which Bob Carnahan purchased last night.  Hopefully we’ll get a review of some of the tracks from Bob later this month!

You can buy Gratitude from Amazon, or on .  Hadley Caliman, Brad Goode, Matt Jorgensen, Thomas Marriott, and Phil Sparks are all on Origin Records label.

Marriott, Sparks, Caliman and Jorgensen

Frontman Cormac Neeson of The Answer

Shortly after SXSW 2008, Anny Randel spoke to Cormac Neeson, the front man of The Answer, over the phone just outside their practice room back in Ireland. Here are a few excerpts from the interview! (I tried to leave in the traces of his really beautiful Irish accent, but to hear it for real you’ll have to catch them on tour.)

Savvant Music – Are you guys still in the US?

Cormac Neeson – No, we’re not. We’re actually back in rainy Ireland, cold rainy Ireland. We were back halfway through last week. We were in Austin then we went on to Los Angeles for a few gigs and also to meet some producers with our next album in mind. So, ah, yeah, we’ve had a bit of a comedown I’d say. Going from SXSW which was absolutely amazing and then that was our first time in LA, and that was, what a great time, so now were back to bread and water at home here trying to get some more new material right there. We’re going to do the next album hopefully at the end of April, start of May time so we’re just getting all the stuff together.

How did it go in LA, your shows and meetings with potential producers for the album?

It was amazin’, our heads were spinning, but we met like nine or ten producers ….so, it was a lot of information and it kinda took us a few days to get home and get our thoughts together and to really start to compute everything that went on, you know? But the gigs were great, and we played The Viper Room, and we played a venue called Spaceland. And we got a surprisingly good crowd at both the gigs, actually, we weren’t really expectin’ anybody to turn up except for the people that we had invited, but a few people had heard of us on the Internet and … that was a welcome surprise you know. We just enjoy the whole American vibe and have a good time when we’re there.

Are The Answer planning any additional U. S. touring?

The priority at the moment is to get the second album recorded, and we’re gonna be going out most likely to L.A. to do that, so we’re gonna be there most of May, June, July time, and then as soon as the album’s done and dusted I think we’re gonna have a September release date, touch wood, so we’ll do a few festivals in the summer time and then get straight into the touring… I would imagine that America will be pretty far up there priority wise, so … everybody should keep their ear to the ground.

What’s your dream or vision for The Answer? Where do you see yourselves taking this group?

Right now I would say what’s going through our head every moment of every day is this next album. You know we want this to be an important collection of music. Our first album wasn’t even released in the States. I think we’ve sold a hundred thousand plus records in the UK, Europe and Japan, so we really feel that we want to make the next step on this record. First of all, get a release in the States and move it from a hundred thousand to a couple of million all bein’ well. [Laughs]

We enjoy the life that we’ve got. We’re making music and we’re living off our music so want that to continue and to continue for quite some time, so it’s important that we deliver a really good second record, and I think we’ve definitely got the songs to do that.

Who writes your music?

We all do. All do together, and as opposed to, you know Lennon and McCartney partnerships where usually one guy wrote it and both of them put their name to it, we actually all do our fair share of the writing. And generally what happens is we’ll go into the practice room, all start to jam through different ideas that the boys have had, maybe one or two or whatever, and then we’ll get them all out into the open and we’ll all carve them into songs, make sure they’re nice an’ interestin’ and make sure that there are a couple of hooks in there and we’ll do it that way.

Alternatively, sometimes Paul will come out to the practice room with a verse, a chorus and a bridge – the bare bones of a song and he’ll give it to me first, and I’ll write some lyrics and stick a melody over it, then Mickey and James will jump into the equation and everybody will throw in their fifty cents worth, and by the end of it we normally have a pretty decent song … So, there’s usually two ways we do it, but both of which are quite democratic, I think, compared to the way a lot of other bands that we know do things.

What kind of places do you guys get your inspiration from? I thought it was kind of interesting that you have this really excellent song “Preachin’” that’s about a Baptist minister, right, and here you are these nice boys from Northern Ireland. What makes you write a song about a Baptist minister?

Well, you know, I mean, Northern Ireland has had it’s share of religious contention. … I don’t generally like to play that up too much. It is what it is, in our opinion. We’ve all lived through it, but it can’t help influence, I suppose, some of the things I’m gonna write about. But from a lyrical perspective, I always prefer people to ask… I mean, you don’t ask about individual songs because I’m really open minded, but it comes to inspiration, I could write lyrics from a story I’ve read in the paper, I could write lyrics about a person I’ve met, about an event I’ve witnessed on the news or first hand. Pretty much anything that turns my head I’ll kinda go and write a song about it.

So, what did get you to write this song about a Baptist minister?

It’s kind of take it’s leaves from a lot of the things that the old blues artists would sing about back in the day of delta blues music, you know Robert Johnson, Son House and all people like that. But I must say, I just kind of saw some comparisons between what they were singing about – obviously completely different context to our own – but I thought to myself, I suppose if we start singing about a Baptist church over in Ireland it could mean something completely different to what the old blues men were singing about, but I thought it was a really nice kind of duality there you know… And Paul came in with a nice specialty guitar one day, and we all took it from there.

We caught The Answer’s gig in the Kerrang! Showcase at Latitude 30 in Austin, Texas during SXSW 2008, where fans were jumping up on stage with the band. We thought you handled the crowd amazingly well. How did you feel about it?

It was a good crowd. As you know the SXSW gigs can sometimes be kind of overrun by industry, and they don’t generally create that nice an atmosphere for a rock and roll band, but that particular gig did catch the essence of a good rock and roll show. It was a fun gig.

Which of The Answer’s songs do you like the best?

I’m allowed to start plugging the new stuff, am I? We wrote a song that we actually played at the Latitude 30 … called “Comfort Zone.”

That’s a song that … starts off a bit more laid back than some of our songs, but builds all the way through it. It’s the first song that we’ve written in DADGAD, you know, which also I find very interesting because it’s actually a turning that a lot of Irish traditional guitar players, which I’m also interested in, are playing. So when ever Paul and I [started playing] around this kind of DADGAD idea, I think everybody just kind of jumped on it immediately and got really excited about it all, and it was one of these songs that came together, you know. We played through it a couple of times late in the day, and then I drove back to Belfast and actually stopped by the side of the road because I was, you know, humming it to myself the whole way home, and I got the bare bones of a lyric in my head. So I pulled over by the side of the road and scribbled down the lyrics! [We looked at it the next day to see how the lyrics fit] the music and in this case it really slotted down nicely and everyone got very excited. It was one of those nice moments in the creative process. You know, it wasn’t too much of a struggle, it all came together and at the end of the day we had this beautiful song … to use for the next record.

And I suppose off the first album, I really like “Come Follow Me” and “Under The Sky.” “Under The Sky” actually would probably be my favorite off the first album because it was one we actually completed in the studio on the day. You know, we weren’t going in with a complete song, and again, it was one of those moments whenever it just kind of came together. I think the type of music we write and play kind of lends itself to that type of organic, natural feel where we’re not kind of breaking each others back trying to make things work. You can play around ideas all day, all week and at the end of it you have nothing to show for it– it should come easier than that, and “Under The Sky” was one of those that did.

You’ve played with some amazing groups lately — The Rolling Stones, The Who, Paul Rodgers …

Yeah, yeah! Deep Purple as well. We’ve been lucky [in our support roles]…The biggest one of all was obviously The Stones. We played a gig with them at Belgrade in front of 80,000 people… in Belgrade, Serbia … Since the war, they’re still quite new to these big rock gigs – they had a lot of fun and everybody’s so crazy about the music and the fact that The Stones bothered to go there. It was a really nice atmosphere, and by far and away the largest crowd we’ve ever played in front of.

From a showman’s point of view, Mick Jagger’s definitely a … legend and that, you know. Paul Rodgers … he actually got up and played a couple of songs with us… and that was real highlight because he would be my favorite singer in the world… I would be heavily influenced by his type of singing. But from a front man just controlling a large group of people, there’s nobody better at it, I’m convinced, than Mick Jagger you know. I thought The Stones would be great and that I’d really enjoy it, but I was absolutely blown away by it! And most of that is Mick Jagger’s charisma – it’s just a sight to behold.

How long have The Answer been together as a group?

Seven years

And, if you don’t mind my asking, how old are the members of the band?

We’re all in our mid-twenties.

Well, seven years probably seems like a really long time to you guys, but from a rock and roll perspective these days, you’re still a pretty new group and yet, you guys have a really, really great presence on stage.

Thanks, thanks, I mean, It’s something that wasn’t always there, … I think we’ve spent more time together than [with] family, friends and strangers put together for the last seven years, so we got to the point where we know what each other’s going to do up there, and it’s nice because it means the boys can go off on a jam at some point and it doesn’t all fall apart like it maybe would have done in the early days, you know. … We’re all very comfortable with what we’re playing on stage and we just get up there and make sure that we enjoy it, relax and have a good time.

How long have you been with your label, Albert Productions, and how has the label impacted you as a group?

A good question… I think coming up to two and a half years, I’m gonna have to guess it.

[The relationship is] working pretty good, I have to say. They’re one of those labels that you know in this day and age that they’re a rarity in that they believe in giving bands time to develop and mature and reach their peak rather than demanding it from the very offset…

You know, we’re watching so many major labels fall into a whole world of trouble and going bust, and bands getting dropped or getting tied to their contracts and really having a horrible time of it. But we’re quietly working away in the background. We believe we’re quite secure in our position within the label, and we think we’re a large part of their plans which is all so a great feeling. Ourselves and the label are all kinda getting our heads together and really looking forward to making this next album, and hopefully as I say turning a few heads, and hopefully the label and ourselves will do well from it, you know.

Were you all in any bands prior to The Answer?

We were all in bands before this one, and where we live we’ve all been brought up … a couple of us were taken out of Belfast at an early age, and myself and James plus Paul … have lived in the countryside our whole lives. Where we were brought up there’s not much else to do but start a band, or develop a drinkin’ habit!

We’ve all been in bands from age 14 upwards, but none of the bands really we took even half as seriously, obviously, as we take The Answer. It wasn’t until the four of us stepped into a room together we realized exactly the kind of music we wanted to play, and how seriously we wanted to take it, and how much of our lives we wanted to dedicate to that thing, ya know? And, so it was great, I wouldn’t change it for the world … but I’m glad we all met each other.

How did you meet?

I was actually in New York, whenever I’d left school and went to New York to work, you know, … I got a letter from Paul and Mickey sayin’.. they’d heard of me from singin’ in another band and that they were starting a rock and roll group and that if I was coming back to Ireland any time soon to look them up and come round and try out for the band. As it turns out, I was goin’ back to go to the university in Belfast like a week later, and whenever I did this on the first word of my first lecture I ended up sitting beside Paul Mahon, who was doing the same thing in the same degree as me, which was completely bizarre! And on a strange, strange twist of fate, and we got talkin’ obviously, and we realized who we were and “Ah shit! You sent me a letter in America and, all right, you’re Paul!” And we arranged a practice the following Saturday, the boys picked me up… We played some… covers and … everything just felt right! So, we got James on board shortly after that on drums, and that was that, you know?

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As we signed off the phone, I’m thinking that Neeson’s final words to me were meant for all of The Answer fans. He said, “Thanks for your support, darlin’! We appreciate it.”

You can buy all of their current albums on iTunes, but as yet the physical albums are only available in the United States as imports (you can order them from TheSavvantStore.com, but as imports, they are pricey). The Answer’s new album is expected out this fall, and they are working on obtaining US distribution.

Download The Answer on iTunes

“Never Too Late-EP” is available on iTunes in the U.S.