Savvant Music - finding the best music never heard

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.

“Preachin’” is available on iTunes

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.

“Come Follow Me” is available on iTunes

“Under The Sky” is available on iTunes

“Rise” (the first album) is available on iTunes

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 albums on iTunes

On Friday night, Savvant Music CFO, Bob Carnahan, and I took advantage of our Austin locale and attended a non-SXSW show performed by lovely Nashville singer/songwriter Tori Sparks. Sparks’ bluesy vocals and intensely rhythmic groove paints a sexy and sultry sound that’s a joy to hear in any venue. Sparks followed a highly amplified four piece rock band in a very loud, smoky and raucous venue (Touche’ on 6th street in Austin - not a venue I’d generally recommend for artists looking for a place to play, by the way), and despite those challenges, this 24 year old songstress rocked the room, drew listeners from tables in the back to the stage front and pulled people in from off the street (yes, during SXSW) to hear her acoustic rock and blues.

Sparks started off her set with Cold War, the lead track off her latest album, Under This Yellow Sun. This song starts out with a nice guitar hook that immediately grabs you, and follows through with gripping lyrics that bring home a cold but personal story of failing relationships.

According to the buzz in the bar, Chris Kirkpatrick from N’Sync was somewhere in the back of the bar and the staff was entertaining said celebrity by setting off alcohol fueled pyrotechnics (where is the Austin fire department when you need them), which must have been disconcerting for Sparks as she pounded out her set on an acoustic guitar, but if that was the case then she hid it well!

I met Tori Sparks almost four years ago at a Future of Music Policy Summit where we were introduced by songwriter’s advocate Fred Cannon (Sr. VP, Government Relations at BMI) of who told me she was going to be a star. Sparks is still young and polishing her style, but it’s clear that Cannon knows his stuff. Sparks is a “Do-It-Yourself” artist with her own record label Glass Mountain Records. Search for Sparks on YouTube and you’ll see her recording “Under This Yellow Sun” in the studio and spending 9 hours screening tee-shirts, along with videos of interviews and performances. You’ll also find Tori Sparks on the cover of the April/May 2008 issue of City at Night Magazine.

That Friday night in Austin, Sparks set covered range of songs from her new CD (Under This Yellow Sun) which is a real gem. Bob Carnahan has already lost his copy of the album to his wife who confiscated it for her commute to work! We also saw Sparks perform at the Colorado Music Summit last year in Denver, Colorado, where she put on an exciting and passionate performance to a house of about 15 people, undaunted by the size of the audience, and engaging every single one.

You can also check out Tori Sparks on MySpace and Facebook. I’d recommend catching her act the next time she’s in your town.

I managed to catch an acoustic set by the up and coming rock band The Answer, an awesome group from Northern Ireland, earlier in the week, and I was really impressed, so Friday night (or early Saturday morning) found us back at Latitude 30 to check out how this group sounds live. The answer is - Fantastic, amazing, electrifying and more!

Cormac Neeson the front man and lead vocals for The Answer, gives incredibly soulful, bluesy life to this band’s repertoire of really awesome rock songs. He is sexy, mesmerizing and he sings with an intensity and grace that just leaves the crowd yearning for more, song after song. Neeson engages the crowd in a personal and entrancing fashion, making each fan feel like the gig is only for him or her.

But this band is a lot more than a great front man! Read the rest of this entry »

Entertaining repartee delivered with scintillating irony was the form of the day as rock icon Lou Reed was interviewed by good friend and music producer Hal Willner. Willner introduced Reed as the man who is to rock and roll what Miles Davis is to jazz, as Lou has literally changed the face of rock and roll two or three times. By way of demonstration, the two discussed the SXSW screening of Julian Schnabel’s film “Lou Reed’s ‘Berlin,’” which documents a recent performance of the landmark 1973 album. An excerpt from this film, the song “Men of Good Fortune,” aptly demonstrated at least some of why Lou Reed has had such an influence on the world of rock music

Reed’s music carries such an emotional impact that you cannot help but go along for the ride as he lulls you into introspection with intensely quiet emotional vocals then drives you to awareness breaking into compelling rock rhythms and sound that bring you to a peak of empathy with his message. Reeds guitar solo yearns for your understanding of the bitterness and hopelessness reflected in the lyrics of the song, but also counters melodically with shreds of desperate hope and understanding gently woven into the music.

“It’s emotional music. One of the things I love about rock.” said Reed, “It’s so emotional.” Read the rest of this entry »

Our musical adventures today started a little after three pm at the SXSW British Music Embassy Party at Latidude 30 celebrating the sister cities relationship between Nashville and Belfast. I went there to see Beth Nielsen-Chapman, who is slated to play in Colorado this fall at Women Rock the Rialto, a fund-raiser for the Women’s Resource Center that I’m helping to plan.  Nielsen-Chapman (who is from Nashville) was wonderful, as always, with energetic rock and her georgeous vocals.

Irishman Foy Vance followed Neilsen-Chapman with his one-man show in which Vance filled the room with a full band’s worth of music through the magic of looping. While the looping gimic has been around for a long time, Vance is a master of putting a song together such a way that you don’t even notice how it’s done. Vance layers harmonies and rhythms during interludes that bring increasingly complex melodies, harmonies and groove. As he builds the background harmony, Vance goes from deep baritone to a beautiful high falsetto climbing another interval after each verse. The result is an ever increasing tension and structure that ends with him down on his knees pleading “please don’t go”. It’s great breakup music. I was so carried away in the emotion of the song that I didn’t even notice that while he was down on his knees, he was shutting down the loops (on the floor) to fade the out the song.

Vance showed he could fill the room with music even without the loop machine with his new song asking “How can you break a heart that’s already broken?” This song absolutely gave me goosebumps. A beautiful melody, wonderful chords and rhythms had me asking to buy a CD with this song on it after the gig (no such luck - it’s a brand new song, so you’ll just have to catch him live, but I still got a CD!).

Finally, Belfast rock band The Answer, just blew the place away in a fantastic acoustic guitar set. The incredibly georgeous Cormac Neeson fronts this band with searing, highly emotive vocals with harmonies and a classic rock groove and smoother melodic acoustic riffs from guitarist Paul Mahon and bassist Michael Waters. Drummer James Heatley was on the sidelines for this acoustic gig, but they’ll be in full force at their showcase this Friday. I loved Neeson’s smooth voice in the earlier songs, then with a rocking gospel sound in “Preachin’”. Late in the set they apologize for their lack of experience doing an acoustic set! Huh? The Answer was awesome, and I can’t wait to see them again and in full-rock mode. You’ll hear a lot from this group in the near future! Be glad!

You can catch these last two bands during SXSW at these showcases:

The Answer plays at Latitude 30 this Friday, March 14 at 12:45am (well, technically it’s Saturday, but really it’s a Friday night gig…).

Foy Vance plays that same night at Buffalo Billiards at midnight.

Wow! Everything’s happening so fast I’m finding it awfully difficult to find time to write about it all! I’ll get caught up soon, I promise. Meanwhile, just a quick update on an amazing Monday night.

Bob and I were walking down 6th Street here in Austin on our way to a SXSW party, and as we walked past Nuno’s we heard some awesome blues guitar coming out the door, and decided we’d stop in after attending some sxsw “official” parties. Best idea we had ALL night, maybe all week! We stopped in a few hours later and the blues coming out the door were so incredibly soulful, rocking and pure we couldn’t believe it –then we recognized the pianist, whom we’d seen with Kenny Wayne Shepard last year - the legendary, grammy award winning Pinetop Perkins!

No wonder the blues were so deep and rich, because this man knows how to lay it down, and does it effortlessly. As he rolled through these amazing blues you don’t really realize the man is in his mid-nineties, because he’s as young and vibrant in his music as the young guys he’s playing with only with that incredibly old soul that only a true blues man can have.

According to local Austin songwriter, Lee Duffy, Pine Top was displaced during Katrina, and has settled down here in Austin where he’s been taken in as one of their own by the Austin music community. And I couldn’t resist getting my picture taken with the amazing Pinetop Perkins. He’s certainly still got his mojo workin’!

Since my Bob Carnahan, my erstwhile business partner, was busy last Friday, I took my husband Dave with me to Hodi’s Half Note in Fort Collins, Colorado to see The Jimi Austin, a band my business partner Bob and I had been impressed with at the Bohemian Nights festival as part of Fort Collins New West Fest. Sadly, The Jimi Austin didn’t live up to my recollections of summer evenings, but more on that later…

Our evening started with an apparently young band called Black Apples While this band was overall not especially impressive, the drummer (Campbell, according to their merch guy) sang lead vocals and had a really impressive voice. I’d like to hear more from this kid, but their MySpace page (http://myspace.com/blackapplesband is basically blank, so we’ll see…

(BTW… how can you have merch, but a blank MySpace page???)

The next band up was Dualistics out of Denver. This group started with an unsteady ungroove, which got better as they settled into their set, and they ended every song with a weird uncertain I-don’t-know-how-to-stop sort of ending. (Do you think they do that on purpose, or do they just need to work on stopping?) However, their songwriting and arrangement was very good, and their vocal harmonies were very good. They mixed up their instrumentation with some nice keyboard work, and switched the lead vocals around which kept us engaged.  Their stage presence and show needs a lot of work, but that seemed to be the theme of the evening…

Checkout their MySpace page (http://myspace.com/dualistics) where you’ll find that their recorded music is excellent.  It’s great to see such high quality recording from a local unsigned band.

Also, you can read a review on the Dualistics from Westword at: http://blogs.westword.com/backbeat/2007/11/this_weekend_widowers_astropha.php

Savvant Music CFO/money-man Bob Carnahan and I caught just the very end of The Jimi Austin gig at Bohemian Nights this summer, and we really wanted to see more.  Four songs into their act on Friday, and Dave and I were pretty much done.   .What I’m not sure is if this was just an off night for The Jimi Austin, or if Bob and I had too much beer and sun this summer…. It was obvious that the sound guy at Hodi’s had too much beer, because lead vocalist Chris Anderson was waving at the wind through the whole set trying to get more volume on his vox mic with no success at all.  Apparently the sound guy wasn’t listening either, because Anderson had pretty much lost his voice and was scratchy hoarse by the fourth number. This is why we left, in fact… it was obvious that Anderson was either sick or was struggling so much with the sound (or both) that we weren’t going to see this group’s best stuff, or even their usual stuff.

At least The Jimi Austin gave us some interesting showmanship tonight… not necessarily good as bass player Simon Lee fell on his ass and later knocked over a mic stand attempting not to be a shoegazer bass player – not really good, but definitely not boring! Lee could improve his show by paying more attention to his intonation, as well as his foot work, but the rest of the band played well within their areas of strength.

The drummer, in fact, was really terrific.  He plays with an energy that reminds me of Kevin Figuerido of DramaGods, and plays what’s the song needs without throwing a in a lot of unneeded clutter.

We’ll have to give The Jimi Austin band another look when they have decent sound and everybody is healthy.  Our initial impression this summer was very good, but we couldn’t find that spark last Friday with the poor sound and Andersons’ failing voice.

Savvant Music blogs are NOT reviews. They are notes from gigs researching possible artists for Savvant Music. As such, they may contain apparently critical elements indicating that they aren’t what Savvant is looking for at this time. Please realize that these bands may be awesome, but just not a good fit for us, and that comments here are not meant to steer listeners in any specific direction, just a reminder for us of what we saw relative to what we’re looking for…

And if you’re the artist, don’t take it personally… you’re amazing just for putting it out there!!! Keep it up!

Meanwhile, we’ll include links to reviews of these bands wherever possible, and we’ve usually added them to our friends list if you’re interested. They are notes from gigs researching possible artists for Savvant Music. As such, they may contain apparently critical elements indicating that they aren’t what Savvant is looking for at this time.