The Answer - Episode 1 (Formation to 2009)

Rock & Metal’s Hidden Gems Podcast returns with a brand-new series and this time, we're going rock and we’re shining a spotlight on a hidden gem band.

In this episode, we dive into the early years of my chosen hidden gem band The Answer, covering the period from their formation up to 2009, including their debut album Rise and the follow up Everyday Demons. We explore the band’s formation, their bluesy classic rock influences, and how they carved out their sound in a modern rock landscape. Along the way, we highlight some of the standout tracks that define this era and showcase to you why The Answer deserve more recognition and respect in the rock world.

If you’re a fan of blues-driven rock in the style of Led Zeppelin, Rival Sons, and AC/DC, then this is a band you don’t want to miss.

Keep an eye out for Episode 2, where we’ll continue the journey through The Answer’s discography and explore how their sound evolves over the years and further emphasise why The Answer should be a part of your music playlists.

For any requests for future episodes, please email: RandM.HiddenGems.Podcast@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Welcome back!

SPEAKER_00 1:11

We're on to a new series on Rock and Metal's Hidden Gems podcast. I am your host, as always, Daniel Stucky. And it's been a little bit of a gap since the last series we did on Night Twitch. And back then we picked that gigantic band and we focused on their hidden gem tracks. Remember, each series we flipped the script on this podcast, and this time we are focusing on the hidden gem band themselves. A band that doesn't get the love and recognition that I feel their music deserves. And this time we're gonna be focusing on more of the rock side of the podcast name. We've done a lot of the metal in rock and metals hidden gems podcast. This time we're gonna do some of the rock. And if you're a fan of rock bands like ACDC, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, The Scorpions, or even some modern, more modern day kind of classic rock bands like Rival Sons, Airborne, Blackstone Cherry, then this is the rock band that you may have never heard and you should have heard that I'm gonna hopefully introduce to you today and make you fall in love with them like I have done in the past. This band is called The Answer. No, there is no other answer. The band is called The Answer. Alright, that jokes aside, let's get into the podcast. Our hidden gem band on this series is the Answer Hello and welcome everyone to the new series on Rock and Metal's Hidden Gems podcast. This one is on the hidden gem band themselves. Like I mentioned earlier, and as I mentioned earlier as well, we are focusing this series on more of the rock than the metal side of Rock and Metal's Hidden Gems podcast. Probably for the first time going full focus into that rock world. And the band I have picked out as my hidden gem band, and I want to introduce to you, if you've not heard of them before, is the band called The Answer. Coming all the way from County Down, Northern Ireland. Other famous people from County Down, Northern Ireland. Well, the biggest one is gonna be um Grand Slam golf champ major champion Rory McElroy. There's also Hollywood star Jamie Dorner, known from the 50 Shades of Grey movie franchise. I'm sure many of the ladies out there know fully well who Jamie Dornan is, due to his um certain looks, let's just say, is also uh from the Formula One world Eddie Irvine is from County Town, Northern Ireland. In addition to indie rock band Ash, which we'll do a little play of later. But the band we are covering today is The Answer, and they are firmly rooted in today's classic rock genre world where they take that sound from their favourite bands, obviously bands like Led Zeppelin. You can hear the influence a mile away, bands like Aerosmith, and they take it into a slightly more modern world. I say slightly more modern because this band uh started releasing albums in the early 2000s. So they've been going for quite a long time. The most recent album came out in 2023, so that was only three years ago. They're still kind of uh recording and producing music. But they take that sound from the classic rock era of the 1970s, really, the 1980s a little bit, and they just give it that more modern twist in terms of the production quality, uh the recording kind of making it more accessible for the younger listener, you know, the ones that weren't born in the 1970s, they were born in the 1990s, say, or the 2000s, it's more palatable for the uh ears, and that's what the answer is, and that's what I'm going to show you on this series. It'll only be a few episodes at most in this series. The band doesn't have the kind of discography back catalogue as a Nightwish or an Iron Maiden. Um, and at the same time, because this is the Hidden Gem Band series rather than hidden gem tracks, I'm not gonna be dissecting individual tracks. Certainly I'll be showing you tracks from each album, the ones I think are worth a listen to. But I'll be playing a verse chorus and then moving on. I'm not gonna dissect individual bars and sections like I have done in previous series and episodes. I think the answer isn't that type of band that benefits from a deep dive. Like, for example, if you ever did a series on Opeth, you gotta deep dive in there. The progressive nature, the artistic approach, you can have to. With the answer, they're just trying to rock your balls off, okay? And we're gonna show that to you in the series. And I hope you join me and enjoy the journey we take you on with this podcast. So let's get into it. The answer. As I've mentioned, they're from County Down, Northern Ireland, and they were formed in the year 2000 by guitarist Paul Mahn at aged 18. Uh, he's basically inspired by other bands from the local area, such as Ash. So that was Burn Baby Burn by the band Ash, an indie rock band from the same area of Northern Ireland as the answer, and one of the inspirations for founding guitarist Paul Mann. Now, Paul's father was a jazz trumpeter and a member of the Irish show band The Freshman, who he was a member of from 1962 to 1978. So Paul obviously grew up in the musical family, in the musical world. His dad would have been touring in this band all across Ireland. So he's obviously entrenched in that world, and I'm sure he sees his dad as kind of an inspiration to him, someone he looks up to. So, no doubt, not just Paul got into the music world, learned an instrument such as guitar in this case, but also seeing his dad have success and turn it into a profession, a career, meant that he obviously wasn't deterred by what a lot of people are, right? You know, they learn an instrument, they may have interest in that instrument or that music, a genre, being in a band, whatever it is. Maybe they'll even do local gigs, but they never take it deeply, deeply seriously because the chances of making it as a professional in that world, making it a career, is very, very hard, very, very slim. There's so many people that want to do it that it means demand and supply, basic economics, you know, is a greater demand to the supply to the positions available to make this uh a career. And the people who do really, really want it are driven and does everything in their power, including the sacrifices they have to do by basically living with no money for a short period or a long period until they get their big breakthrough. Those people, that determination, are the ones that will make it. So for a lot of people, and even people who do have that determination just don't get the luck, the right place, right time, so they don't make it. But Paul seeing his dad do it, he would have seen that those barriers were less than what it is for the regular folk whose parents just work in the local supermarket or the local factory, whatever that may be. Now let's have a little listen to uh the Irish show band The Freshman. This song is called Papa Um Mau Mau. And remember, Paul's dad is the trumpeter. That was the freshman with Papa Um Mau Mau. Now, I mentioned before I played the clip that Paul's father was a jazz trumpeter in The Freshman. And he was part of the freshman when that song came out in the mid-1970s. However, uh, you would have noticed in that clip you probably didn't hear any trumpets. Whether they're in the mix but really, really quiet and hard to hear, or whether they're not there at all, I can't promise to you because it's actually really hard to find anything on this band. Uh, they were obviously uh a decently successful touring band given the number of years they were active. But in terms of today's world of streaming services where everyone gets their music or YouTube, there's not really that much in the way for the band The Freshman. Um there's like one album I can find on Spotify, which is also mixed amongst um clearly tracks that are in the same genre, but not um The Freshman, the band, because they're recorded way before they were even a thing in 1962. They sound like they come from the 1930s. But in terms of the album that was there and the track that's easily the biggest for them, and the one with the most notoriety on Google, etc., is Papa O Mau Mouse. So just so you can get an idea of the kind of music that that band played, I chose that clip, even though you can't quite hear trumpets in the song entirely, let alone the clip that I played. Now, Paul, going back to the guitarist founding guitar Paul Mahn from The Answer, Paul knew he wanted to be in a rock band and mentioned it to an old school friend called Mickey Waters, who also played bass guitar and had been in multiple cover bands across Belfast and Northern Ireland with Paul, playing covers of Deep Purple and the red hot chili peppers, etc. Uh, Paul called up a drummer he knew as well called James Heatley, who had been uh a stand-in drummer in 1993 for fellow Northern Irish band Ash, the one I played you earlier with the clip Burn Baby Burn. And James was about to take his finals in university, but Paul agreed to wait for James to finish his degree in psychology before really kicking into gear with this concept, this band he had an idea of. Now he's got a guitarist himself, he's got uh a bass guitarist in Mickey Waters, his old school friend, and he's now got a drummer in James Heatley, who's also drummed previously for the Northern Irish band Ash. So some credentials there for James. Now, one thing Paul still needs to make his project come alive, something every rock band needs. A singer, a lead vocalist! So who's he gonna choose? And it's let's be honest, it's probably the hardest position to fill in any band, really. Uh, you do get good singers out there, but they're either taken by another band or project, or they're just hiding away. People are scared to sing in public, so sometimes you don't know these people are c as good as they are compared to the amount of guitarists and drummers, etc. You find in the wild singers are hard to come across, especially good singers, right? You don't want someone that can just sing in tune, you want someone that can sing in tune and stand out. You get cat guitarists who can play the notes um and they can get by, but if you want to really make it and be an iconic guitarist, you don't just play the notes. You play them with your own style, your own flair. That's what separates the likes of uh Ingvie Malmstein, Steve Vai, those guitarists, Virtuosos, but also the ones that are in the bands, you know, the rock bands like Slash and Guns N' Roses and Angus Young in ACDC, they all have their own style, their own flair. They could play the same lick, the same riff, the same chords, but they'd be slightly different, not just because songwriting-wise they're written differently, but because of the way they pluck those strings are slightly differently and unique to them. And it's the same for a singer, and it's more important if you ask me for a singer, because the way they are in the mix, that's what everyone usually tunes their ears to listen to. Because whether you're a musician or not, everyone's generally obviously there are some exceptions, but generally everyone's got a mouth and a tongue, and they can talk, and therefore they can sing. Well or not, doesn't matter, but they can. And maybe in public they won't do it, but in private, you know, in that car drive by themselves or in a shower by themselves, or maybe just in their bedroom. People sing, right? Everyone must do some singing in a lifetime. To even know that they're bad at it, bad at it, you've got to do some singing. So therefore, that's the bit that everyone can gravitate to because that's the bit that they always relate to. So it's always so important to have a good singer. And the answer do. Uh so singer Cormac Neeson. Uh, he was actually trying to make it as a blues singer in New York when Paul, the guitarist, sent him a letter asking him to come home to Northern Ireland and sing with them. Cormac was known to the band as he was previously playing in the local county town area in a band called Vinyl, but obviously he'd made it to North America, to the United States, to New York, New York City, to try and make it as that blue to St. Blue singer. But the opportunity to come home to some friends in his home country, Northern Ireland, give rock a go, why not? And as you'll hear when it comes to the answer, they're a very blues rock band. So suits Cormac Neeson to a T and his voice. And you'll hear that in the clips that I show you. Now, in interviews, etc., the band members have spouted uh a number of bands that have been big inspirations for the answer to the project. And if you didn't hear them say in an interview, you would know it yourself just by hearing the music that they make. But let's reel some off that they've claimed in interviews. So, for example, big big influence. It slaps you across the face when you hear the answer's music. How much of an inspiration this band is to the answer? It's it's obvious and not in a bad way, in a good way. And that band is 1970s, classic rock legends, Led Zeppelin.

SPEAKER_03 15:06

Hey hey, Mom said the way you move, go make you sweat, go make you grow. Go make you stay.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

As well as Led Zeppelin there, another classic rock band fronted by classic rock singer Paul Rogers, who once did a tour as a frontman for Queen well after Freddie Mercury's death, and before they found their permanent kind of touring Freddie Mercury replacement in Adam Lambert. Now, this band was his original Paul Rogers' original band, his classic rock band free. And as well as classic rock legends free, then Paul Rogers, uh, there is another classic rock legend that the answer spouted as one of their main influences, and this one comes from Ireland themselves, and that is Finn Lizzie. Now, there are other influences the band have said that maybe are even earlier chronologically than the likes of Led Zeppelin Free and Thin Lizzie. For example, one very early inspiration from the band was Robert Johnson. 1930s artist Robert Johnson there with Sweet Home Chicago. Now there's one other inspiration that stood out for me that again is from around that's earlier than like the Led Zeppelins, the Free, the Thin Lizzie, but a bit later than Robert Johnson. And this is an inspiration that I know was one for Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden fame. So he was certainly one of the founders of that rock and even metal sound that a lot of people have inspiration from, either directly, like the case with the answer and Bruce Dickinson, or indirectly by you know, being inspired by Bruce Dickinson or the answer, and then being inspired by Howlin' Wolf. I just heard the guy's name, Howlin' Wolf.

SPEAKER_03 18:24

Well tell me how to hear me cry.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

Howlin' Wolf there with the track Smokestack Lightning. And what a voice on Howlin' Wolf, right? I mean, you can absolutely see the way he's belting out those notes. I mean, that's full-on power. You can see how he's inspired many people, especially in like that power metal genre or in that arena rock, the bon Jovies of the world, the way they try and belt out the notes to try and hit every single person in the crowd, whether they're in the very front row or whether they're in the very back row of a hundred thousand seater arena stadium, whatever it is, field in a festival. Um, Howlin Wolf clearly is a big inspiration for those people. And what, what a what a voice. But he was also an inspiration for the answer. Now, the answer, their debut rehearsal occurred in June of 2000. And they spent the year 2001, a year later was basically spent writing, rehearsing, and gigging. And by 2002, so two years after their debut rehearsal, they attracted the attention of MCD promotions who put them on the Witness Festival that year. Now, those listening globally will be wondering what the Witness Festival is. Basically, it's a big festival in Ireland, so in the home country of the Ancer. And there are some big names, not just in the history of Witness Festival, but in this 2002 edition that The Answer were a part of. And like the major uh festivals, rock, metal, pop, whatever it is, there's multiple stages, so there's a huge amount of bands. I'll just rip some names out here that was in the 2002 edition. So, for example, you've got uh the Libertines, you've got Hubertank, the Chemical Brothers, the Dandy Warholes, remember them? And they are one-hit wonder. Yeah, I like you, yeah, I like you, yeah, feel so bohemian like you. That was all over my television as a teenager because Vodafone, the telephone company, the network company uh in the UK, they plastered all over their TV advertising. And back then you had to watch the adverts on TV, you know, this is the late 90s, early 2000s era, where you had limited TV channels, you couldn't really pre-record anything unless you got a VHS out, and it's a bit of a faff. So no one's gonna do that for live TV, and you know, they're only gonna do that if they're recording a movie to watch again, or they're recording a live event that was on at stupid o'clock in the morning, which I used to do for the American professional wrestling, the WWE WWF at the time. But yeah, you couldn't skip the advert, so this Vodafone advert was on all the time, and all you had was I like you, yeah, I like you. And it's the only song that Dandy Warholes will ever be known for, and they're only known for it because they managed to get it on a Vodafone advert and drum it into people's ears in the United Kingdom. Also worth mentioning that Vodafone was sponsoring Manchester United, the Premier League football club at the time, who had David Beckham on their playing staff. So, as you can imagine, David Beckham holding up a mobile phone by Vodafone while the Dandy Warholes played in the background. That advert was all over TV because of the Beckham effect. So great for the Dandy Warholes, bad for the rest of us. Anyway. Back to the Witness Festival, and less about my rant on the Dandy Warholes. Also, there was Ian Brown, there was Beverly Knight, um, Maria Doyle Kennedy, no doubt, the Hives, Green Day were there, and these were the headliners on the main stage. We had, first of all, Primal Scream. It's a two-day festival, weekend Saturday, Sunday. Going on before the final band on the Saturday was this band, The Foo Fighters. But who did they go on before? Who was headlined? Who was the last band on that main stage on that Saturday, day one of the festival, right after the Food Fighters? And the Food Fighters are right after Green Day. So if you're a fan of those bands, you would have loved this show. Uh but no, the main, main, main headline on Saturday was The Prodigy. But who's headlining the main stage on the final day of the festival, the Sunday? Well, it's this UK Brit Pop Monster, Oasis. So huge, huge bands on that Witness Festival. Not just in the history of the festival, but in that particular year, 2002. Maybe some of them weren't as popular in 2002 as they would grow to be, but you know, imagine being on that set as a brand new band. You've been doing the gigs around Ireland and Northern Ireland for two years at this point. You've finally been noticed by a promotions company, and they've given you that opportunity. It's a good opportunity. Are they on the main stage? No, there's multiple stages. They would have been on one of the smaller ones, and probably earlier in the day rather than being the headline act of that smaller stage. But it's still a great opportunity to reach a number of ears and hopefully get a bunch, a bunch of new fans. Now, there's a couple of EPs released um before their main album. There was Breakdown Honey in 2001, the first year after they uh formed as a band, and a year later, around the time they did the Witness Festival, there was an EP called End Your Day on a High. However, I can't find anything anywhere. Usually these kind of things surface up on YouTube. Someone has a bootleg somewhere or an old copy, and somehow it makes it onto YouTube and I can stream it for you, lovely listeners. Um, but because we're doing the Hidden Gem Band, not the Hidden Gem track series, these bands have less notoriety than the likes of Iron Maiden and Nightwish series we've done in the past. So it's harder for me to find these more niche content. And unfortunately, I can't find any content from either of these two EPs. So the answer of the band, they toured intensively, making a name for themselves in County Down, then in Northern Ireland, then in the Republic of Ireland, so the island, the whole um landmass, the island as a whole, uh, before getting their break in London, and therefore a record deal. And that record deal led to their first album, which was released in 2005, so five years after they formed, three years after that famous festival appearance in Witness the Witness Festival in Northern Ireland in 2002. This album was released in 2005 and it was called Rise. Now, this album Rise that came out in 2005. This was my first introduction to the band The Answer. One of my first gigs, wasn't the first gig, the very first proper gig I went to was the Unholy Alliance tour between Slayer and Slipknot that occurred around this time in 2005. Maybe 2004-ish. But one of the maybe the next gig gig after that, something would have been one of my first five gigs I ever went to. Proper gigs, not local stuff. Um, it was a White Snake gig, and I didn't know who the support band was going in, I just knew I liked White Snake. Um, let's go watch White Snake in my local arena. So we did, and we turned up, and it was only when we got in the crowd and we saw the skin on the bass drum uh that we knew that the support band was a band called The Ancer. And when we first saw the name The Ancer, and we saw the little artwork and the logo, we were like, What's this band? You know, we're teenagers, right? We're judgmental by nature as teenagers, everyone I think to a degree is. Uh, and we just assumed this is gonna be some rubbish band, maybe even a local band. Uh, but from the first guitar ref that they played when they came out, and it was the same song I opened, this podcast episode with a song called Under the Sky. It's track one on the album Rise. They opened with our track that ref we were like, ooh, we all looked at all of our all of our friends that all thought the same thing when we first saw that bass drum. And when that first guitar lick happened, do do do do do do do do do do do we all looked at each other and we're like, uh oh, we were wrong! This kicks ass. And then when you had Cormac Neeson, the singer, then coming out with his vocals. Well, we when he first came out, he looked a bit like a hippie. He looked like he belonged in like a 1960s rock band, you know, like Sergeant Pepper's Beatles Era, you know, the the Leonard Skinner, or Leonard Skinned, if you're uh a diehard Leonard Skinner fan. By the way, that's how you actually pronounce that band name. They've got an album named after the band name Leonard Skinnard, but underneath the actual words Leonard Skinner, they have the syllables of how you actually are meant to pronounce it, and believe it or not, it's actually Leonard Skinnard. However, let's be honest, we all call it Leonard Skinnard because it's spelt like Leonard Skinnard. And I'm from now on gonna stick with Leonard Skinnard. But yeah, Cormac looked like based on his appearance, both his hair, his outfit, like he belonged in a band like Leonard Skinnard, but in that 1960s, 1970s era, and I guess it kind of suits what the band's going for in a little way. So yeah, when we first saw him, we're like, oh, how good is this guy gonna be, yeah, the catarlic is kicking ass, but is he gonna join in and match him and be awesome and go head to head with Paul Man on a catarlic? And then when he starts, at first he's quite toned back at the first verse of that song Under the Sky. But then he kicks into life, and you're like, wow, not only this band got kick-ass riffs, but they got a really, really good bluesy kick-ass singer, too. Let's have a little listen to Under the Sky. I've played the introduction for you already on the intro to the podcast episode, but let's skip to the chorus. Under the sky, there track one on the album rides the opening, debut release from The Answer, and it's so important whether it's your debut album or your first EP that kind of makes the waves, or whether it's your first album that's like broken through and reached new listeners, so those listeners are hearing your band for the first time. It's so important for that first track, that opening song one on the album or the EP, for it to tell those listeners what you are about as a band. What kind of style of music are you? What kind of energy do you bring? If you're one of those bands that has deep lyrical content, well, what message are you trying to convey to the listener? What message are you trying to sprout to the audience out there? What are you about with your music, your art form? And I think the answer to that brilliantly here with Under the Sky on a debut album release. It just kicks you straight from riff one, bar one. It's no messing, it's in your face. It tells the world that we are paying homage to classic rock, to our elders in the rock realm, our inspirations, but we are bringing it into the modern era at a time in the early 2000s, at least anyway, it was modern when they were first hearing it. And it doesn't mess about. It's just here we are, and this is what we do as a band. If you like it, great. If you don't, you probably want to turn the album off. This band isn't for you. And Under the Sky is a great, great track. But that wasn't actually the first single that the band released off this album, or the first single they released in general. No, the first single was uh out in July of 2005, and it was this one. It was called Keep Believing. Official single released by the Ansa called Keep Believe In. Now, weirdly, that, although that was released the same year as this album Rise in 2005, that song actually wasn't on the original release of the album. That song wasn't released on the album Rise until two years later in 2007, when they re-released the album Rise with a bonus CD with bonus tracks. Uh, there was a cover there of the Aerosmith song Sweet Emotion, which I'll play for you in a little bit. Um but yeah, it's just strange that the first single wasn't on the original release of the album. Only two years later, when they re-released it. And the reason why they re-released it, well okay, depends who you listen to. I mean, some will just think they wanted to grab some more money, but maybe some think it's a record company's decision to kind of capitalize on some of the major artists that the artists are supporting on their world tours, etc., with the extra notoriety and listeners and ears at the gaming, like myself, who saw them at a white snake gig for the first time. Or the other potential reason is because this album Rise, nearly half the album, if not slightly more than half of the album, eventually do come out as singles. And there are some like negative feedback with this from the fans in the terms of usually you get two or three singles per album, and then you buy the album and you're rewarded with the rest of the tracks. Uh, but by here, by releasing all of these tracks all the time, and for diehard fans of bands, whether they're a major band like Iron Maiden and Metallica or a smaller known band like The Answer, you do get diehard bands, right? And they want to purchase and own everything that band can possibly give them. Uh so by releasing the single after single after single when you've already got the album and it's nothing new really, um, it was kind of seen as a bit of a corporation cash grab a little bit. And the reason why there were so many singles off the album Rise is because it's 2005 and digital downloads are starting to get the respect that you see today in terms of how they impact the charts and they're seen as like equals to um physical media purchases. Nowadays, you know, streaming services are seen as equal as well, you know, with the number of streams uh they contribute to the chart. Back then it was physical media and the uh idea of purchasing digital to digital downloads from things like iTunes, uh, they were starting to get that same respect and have the same influence on the charts. And it's much, much cheaper, right? To release a single as a digital download only, which is what the answer was doing here, rather than going through the whole production in the factory to um print physical media, whether it's vinyl, cassette tape, CDs, whatever it is. Um, it's more expensive to do that, and let's be honest, as we've seen over the years since 2005, streaming services, digital downloads, they've kind of completely replaced that physical media. You still get it for albums because there's uh a new refound audience, the retro audience for vinyl, but you don't really get it for CDs. You certainly don't get it for cassette tapes anymore. They are definitely a thing of the past. And it's funny, back in 2005, I remember, you know, CDs were still easily able to buy. I was still purchasing CDs on a regularity from the CD store. But they thought the next thing to come after CDs is the mini-disc had a go and kind of failed. But they thought the thing after that would be kind of like SD cards or micro SD cards. They thought they would be the new physical media for music and even maybe even films and movies. But as we've seen, the internet was too big a thing to put back in the box, and we end up with things like Spotify and iTunes music, etc. etc., which is where we are today. History lesson over. Now I just mentioned that I would play the answers Aerosmith cover Sweet Emotion for you. That was on the re-release of this album Rise in 2007 on the bonus disc. Well, before I forget, here it is Sweet Emotion. The answer after keep believing, they did release another single, as I mentioned, at least half the album is singles, but the next big one they released that had like a music video to accompany it, was out in November of 2005, and this one was on the album Rise. In fact, it was track number two, I believe, on the album Rise, and this is called Never Too Late. And listen out for the snare drum intro uh by James Heatley on the drums here, because it's great. Listen out. But you're probably thinking, Dan, why did you uh mention the drummer there? Yeah, sure he was fine, but you got Paul Mann on guitar there, ripping it on that intro. And you, sir and or madam are correct. He is certainly ripping it in on that intro there on the guitar. Uh, and he sounded great, right? Um but I like the simplicity of what the drummer was doing and how that kind of carried through onto the main drum beat and the fills he was playing when everything else, bass, guitar, etc., all kicked in with a main introduction and begun. I'm rambling. But you get the idea. I like the simplicity, and I may be on my own there, and Paul Mann sounds great, and he is repping it, and it's certainly technically a lot harder to do what Paul Mann's doing than James Heatley on the drums, but I like the drums in this one. Anyway, back to never too late. Little little fact as well. This song managed to get uh the answer onto one of the guitar hero games back around this period, 2005 to 2008-ish, somewhere around there. We'll listen to the chorus and then I'll dig out which guitar hero game it was on for some of the guitar hero fanatics out there because I know you're listening. Now back to never too late. The chorus there from Never Too Late. It's quite a simple chorus, but easy to sing along to no never too late, never too low, easy, easy to sing along. Not many words, quite a simple melody, uh vocal melody. Everyone can do it. Uh let's get towards the end of the song for those guitar hero fanatics. Guitar Hero World Tour, the fourth kind of Activision Guitar Hero game. It was on that in 2008. Let's go to the end of Never Too Late now because they kind of rip it towards the end in typical rock fashion, where they know all the instruments, including the vocalists, are just going for it and just going crazy at the end. And get a really cool riff towards the end as well, which is quite catchily. It's the same riff you've heard earlier, but this time you've got some vocals over the top of it. So let's get to the end of the song. It's been about a minute-long clip, so if you're really not interested, just press that 30-second forward skip twice, and you'll be good to go. This is the end of Never Too Late. That was the end of Never Too Late There by The Answer. Now, I really liked that ending mainly because it reminds me of when I saw them live supporting Whitesnake at that gig, because it was a typical rock gig where most of the songs ended with the guitars, the bass, the drums, the vocalist occasionally just ripping on their instrument instruments, having that breakdown at the end of the song that you get in a lot of rock songs, a lot of ACDC live songs, for example, do the same, and it reminded me of what the answer are like as a live band. And I think that represents them really well at the end of Never Too Late. Now I'm at the point of the podcast where I am just going to be playing what I think are the better songs on each answer album. We're still sticking with Rise for now, but we're not gonna concentrate too much on this is a single, this was the music video. We will touch on it where I feel it's necessary, but generally half of this album was released as a single, at least a digital download single. The main one was Never Too Late, which we just covered. And in the other album, some of them don't even have a single, they are just an album, which you get with kind of these lower profile rock or metal bands. So I'm just gonna be playing you the hits, as they say. And the next hit is actually one of guitarist Paul Mann's favourite answer tracks, one of his personal favorites that he likes to play live, and it's from the same album, Rise, and it's called Come Follow Me. Now, before I play it, I'm gonna play you the intro and the first verse to start off with. We'll come back for the chorus. But I feel especially the verse when uh Cormac comes in with the singing, I feel it's very, very reminiscent to me of early Bonscott era ACDC. It sounds like something that would come off the Highway to Hell album for me anyway, with my ears, but with a more modern twist in terms of production quality, etc. You can for me, you can definitely hear the AC DC inspiration in that verse, at least, anyway. Let's get to it. This was called Come Follow Me. Did you hear the ACDC inspiration or is it just me? I mean, that main riff, the very bluesy riff, that's not very ACDC. That I'd say is more like a Led Zeppelin black dog kind of thing for me, but with a much higher tempo. But when Cormac comes in with the vocals, maybe it's just because he sounds kind of like Bon Scott to me at that moment. But I get that ACDC inspiration from there. And ACDC is definitely an inspiration for the answer. They've said it and it's quite obvious with a style of music. Not their only inspiration, there's many more, like Led Zeppelin, like I've already mentioned, um, as well as Deep Purple and more modern ones like Airborne, and you can hear some airborne in that song as well. But let's be honest, airborne sound like an AC DC ripoff band anyway. Uh, let's get to the chorus of Come Follow Me. Love that chorus. You got the more melodic, higher toned guitar melody coming over the top of the chords there as well, just giving it a new tone compared to the rest of the song. Uh, and they do that very clever thing that I think rock bands, especially more than metal bands, should be doing if they're not already. In that they're trying to think of ways to, yes, write cool, kick-ass rock songs that sound great when it's played on the stereo in the car, whatever the setting is. But they're also thinking about the live show and the live crowd and how they can get them involved in their song. So it's not just kind of like a long-winded, many-worded chorus, they've got that come follow me with the backing vocals there as well. And it's kind of like a call-answer thing going on with the backing vocals going, come follow me. And then Cormac comes in with his line, when your hand's so heavy with the weight of the day, come follow me. The question comes back in, you know, and then Cormac comes back with the answer with I can steal you while I am on my way. Come follow me. You know, it's gone back and forth, and that come follow me is perfect for crowd participation. It's so easy for Cormac just to point the microphone at the crowd. You got the back-in vocals to make sure they know what to sing and say, and yeah, it's so easy to pick up. You hear it the first chorus, and you got the second and the third one to come, or even the first line of the first chorus and the repetitive nature of that line, it's easy for a crowd to pick up. And that's kind of you know, it makes for great rock concerts, right? Crowd participation. It's what I think most bands are going for, unless you're a band like Tool who's going more for that artistic form of their live shows. Uh, but most rock bands especially are going for the crowd participation because that's kind of seen as the energy and what makes a good rock concert. Outside of just playing well and playing tight as a unit. I mean, imagine going to an Iron Maiden concert. They play Fear of the Dark, and you don't have the crowd going, oh you just had Qatar doing that, I know, and Bruce coming in with Fear of the Dark! Imagine you had no crowd participation, it would suck, and that's why Fear of the Dark is seen as better uh on the live albums than it is on the studio album. It sounds much better live at Dawnington 92 than it does on the Fear of the Dark album itself because of the energy the crowd comes with it. And you can see the I feel like the band are thinking about that here in this chorus. And as I said, it's Paul Man's one of his personal favourite songs from The Answer, and personal favourite songs from The Answer to play live with The Answer. So um I feel like that was definitely part of the thinking. If it wasn't, then they got lucky. But smart bands, they think about things like that. It's not just about, oh, that'll sound cool, yeah, great, that'll sound good on the record, yeah, that comes into it, but it's also for a rock band, someone that earns their money more as a touring live band than as a studio record selling artist. I mean, if Cardi B or some other pop group, rapper, singer, whatever, they get their money from streaming today. Back in the day that would have been from physical media sales. Yes, they make money from live touring, but they get so many more streams in the billions and billions of bad bunnies of the world. They're getting more money and just as much money as they need from the streaming services. Rock bands don't get that luxury, they get their money more from touring. There'll be people that generally don't stream their songs, but will go see them when they're in their local town or city. Anyway, I've rambled enough about this topic. Uh, that was Come Follow Me. We're gonna move on to another song I quite like on this album, and this one's called Memphis Water. The answer are bringing the blues. This is as bluesy as it gets. And remember when I talked about the answers inspirations, I mentioned earlier people from way earlier than the classic rock area, like Howlin' Wolf, and I also mentioned Robert Johnson. They were firmly rooted in the blues, and I can imagine this being a more modern-day Howlin' Wolf song. Even the way Cormac Neeson is singing it. I can imagine Howlin' Wolf whistling uh those that vocal melody away with the power as well. And it is so uh stereotypical uh blues, 12 bar blues, and once you learn in not even GCSE music, you learn the 12 bar blues in compulsory music lessons before you've chosen your subjects over here in the United Kingdom and how our education system works. Everyone learns the 12 bar blues, and this is exactly what this is. It's so versatile, and it's been used in so many songs of 12 bar blues. Some will say it all sounds the same. I'm not gonna die in that hill arguing with you. I can see your point if you feel that way. But when a band just dips into it, like the answer is you're paying homage, um, I think it sounds great. And you know, you got the way Cormac is singing. I mention his very howlin' wolf-like, you know, Memphis Worder! Washing all your blues away. It's not just the way he's singing it, but it's also the lyrics. It's so stereotyped for that American blues world, you know. It's even the track, Memphis Water. I mean, this is a band from Northern Ireland, they're not from the States. Yes, Cormac spent some time in New York trying to make it as a blues vocalist before he joined the band, but at the same time, New York is nowhere near Memphis, Tennessee. It's just a typical blues, but if you like the blues, you'll feel at home and it's great. And obviously they're paying homage to their inspirations of some of those bands that would be from that area of the United States. I want to mention as well, these kind of rock bands, if you ever go to see them live, uh yes, they'll play the hits, but very often they will have that one very bluesy song in the track list that they play live the set list. You usually find it's in the middle of the set list, and it's usually like a come down period, like we've come out of the gate, you can play some hits, maybe play some new songs, and now we're gonna have the come down period with the blues section for a song or two, and then we'll pick it back up with some more hits before we do the encore. I find that's typical of the classic rock. I mean, even outside of the classic rock world, I've seen Sir Tom Jones uh live twice, and both the times he did this with some blues covers that weren't even his original songs. Sometimes they whip the stools out and they all sit in the stools when they play guitar and sing, even the vocalists will sit will sit in the stool. I've seen Aerosmith do this live when I saw them live at Darnington, not the one they released on DVD in Blu-ray, but the one they did two years prior. Um even in that one they released in Blu-ray, the one I didn't attend at Darnington Park. I'm sure they did it there as well. It's usually where guitarist Joe Perry kind of has his couple of songs to show off, and they're very, very bluesy. And again, the stool is out. Um it's and Whitesnake. I I saw the answer on a Whitesnake gig. Whitesnake always do it. It is one of their I say original tracks. It's one that they've recorded, but it's actually a cover track. In fact, let's play it now. It's always the same track that Whitesnake do it with, and it's this track called Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City. Showing around Now listen Every place Whitesnake and Eight No Love in the Heart of the City there. Originally a song done by the blues artist Bobby Blue Bland. He literally has blue as his middle name. That's how blues Bobby Bland is. Uh great, great song, great, great cover by Whitesnake. They always play it live. And this is the point I make. These kind of rock bands like The Answer are paying homage to their inspirations. They always had that breakdown section in the middle of the song, that blues track. And when they play it live, like Whitesnake did in this instance, it usually goes on way longer than the studio version. And they usually have solo after solo. Uh, they'll maybe break it down and have a crowd participation part where they're singing alone with just the drums and nothing else, and then all the other musicians come in afterwards, as it does with Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City. Yeah, it's a typical almost a trope of the rock live world, if you ask me. But this is the answers song that they're able to do this. We have Memphis Water. I'm not saying if you see them live today, they'll do it because they've moved on as a band since 2005 when the Rise album came out, their debut album. But it certainly sets a scene for them to do the same things that their ancestors, their inspiration rock bands did. Uh let's get back to Memphis Water. I want to play a little bit where it kicks into life with a with the drummer kind of going double time and picking the pace up, the tempo up, and because basically it sounds cool, and then we'll move on to some other answer songs. Back to Memphis Water. Without the build-up, it doesn't hit the same sometimes. I talked about this in previous episodes. And when I get to an ep OPET series, trust me, I'm gonna be highlighting it left, right, and centre with examples as well. Um but yeah, it kicks in there with a double time, you get the guitar solo, and oh why do these live rock bands love doing that I mentioned that long blues track live where they're all soloing going for it sometimes 10 minutes long. Well, the reason being is that it's a 12 bar blues, it's a very simple scale. Everyone knows it, it sounds good, and it's easy to improvise over, it's easy to jam over, all the musicians know exactly where they are. As soon as a drummer tries to change in the pace a little bit, they all know, okay, quickly switch next section, and they're all on the same page, it's just ingrained in the rock musicians for because rock is born from blues, and it's just yeah, everyone knows where they are, and it sounds good, and it's so easy and easy to solo over, basically. If you've got a little bit of musical theory knowledge, you'll be able to solo over the 12 bar blues, even if I'm not talking about like a hard technical solo, it could be just long-held notes like that'd be quite easy to play in guitar. I mean, someone could probably learn that in a week or two if you've never picked up a guitar before. An experienced guitar player could play that within five minutes. It's really, really not hard, less than that even. But you know, it's a solo and it sounds good over the 12 bar blues. It's just so easy to play over. There's so much feel and emotion involved. You just know what notes you're allowed to hit, and if you want to go up or down, one step, two steps, you just go there and you just go where the music takes you. And it's fun. Ultimately, that's why it's fun. But I was gonna call out as well towards the end of that last clip when Cormac Neeson comes back in with the vocals after all the solos, the emotion that's there, and this is typical of blues, right? It's not something you're gonna get in some metal songs, even some rock songs are just talking about how to hit up girls or how to destroy hotel rooms. But it is something you definitely get in blues and bluesy rock. Uh, so when he comes back in with the lyrics, you know sorrow, sorrow can be replaced. He's not just going, you know sorrow, sorrow can be replaced. Sounds okay, nothing more. But no, Cormac comes in with all the emotions, he's going like, you know sorrow, sorrow can be replaced. Which one sounds better? Especially for this blues rock. You need the edge to cut through the guitars and the drums and the bass guitar. And he does it here, and he does it towards the end of the song because he don't want to get everyone up at the start and then have nothing to hit them with at the end. Great, great blues singing from Cormac Neeson. Now we're gonna move on from Memphis Water. We're gonna move on to the fifth song I want to highlight off the album Rise. And this one is called Preaching. And if you liked Memphis Water, I think you're gonna like preaching. It's very bluesy. Let's go.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:42

I am gonna get me a religion, I'm gonna join the Baptist church. That's right. Gonna be a Baptist preacher so that I won't have to work. Well I'm in the poppies. Jumpin' up and down, down, down, down, down. I'm in the poopies. Jumpin' up and down around That's a great opening, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:54

Everything comes in in their turn, nothing comes in all at the same time, even the base, it just builds up. Builds up an end and it goes. Everything kicks in and it's rocking at that point. And they 100% played us live when I saw them. I remember hearing it live when I saw them. It's a great, great track. And the lyrics are quite scatty in a little way. They're very bluesy still, but they're quite scatty in terms of how Cormac delivers them. Like, I'm gonna get me a religion! I'm gonna join the Baptist at the church! It's very much like you know, it he's coming in a scat delivery style compared to just going, I'm gonna get me a religion, I'm gonna join the Baptist Church. It doesn't sound anywhere near as good. You got that pizzazz, that style a Cormac gives it. And this song has that blues rock DNA written all over it, and it sounds great. We're gonna cut to the end of the song because I just want to play a little bit more of when it's absolutely rocking. This will be like the final 45 seconds to a minute of the track, and then we're gonna move on to the rest of the answer story and get to album two called Everyday Demons. But first, the end of Preachin'. Which I promise you they played live when I saw them at the White Snake gig, and I think is a true, true. If they don't play live, they absolutely should. It's a great, great song. The way it builds, the blues, the rock, the delivery from all the uh band members, uh, it's a fantastic song. Recommend you listen to that if you like the sound of what I just played. Now, in 2005, around a time, no, just after Rise the album had come out, uh, Classic Rock magazine voted the answer as the best new band of 2005. And the album Rise was nominated for Best Album by Classic Rock magazine as well. So they're getting the accolades they deserve from some of the media in that niche, so in the classic rock niche yeah. But if they want to build up that popularity, that audience to make this uh a long-term deal with the band, then they're gonna need a little bit more than just uh some nominations in Classic Rock magazine. And at the start of that was supporting Deep Purple in 2006 at the London Astoria, quite a famous arena. Uh it's definitely bigger than anything that the answer at this point in time, or even today, could play live if they were headlining, but supporting uh Deep Purple, a massive band, especially in the UK, and certainly one of their inspirations. Imagine think of whatever you're into, whether it is music, I'm assuming it is because you're listening to this podcast, or maybe it's a sport or movies or gaming. Imagine meeting one of your heroes, and not just meeting them, but actually playing that game with them, doing that live show with them, playing that sport against them or with them. I must feel awesome for the band to know that you're now in the same locker room, dressing room. Okay, you won't be in exactly the same room, but you'll be just a couple of rooms down from them in the same arena, and you likely will drink and socialise with them after or before the gig. Imagine that with the heroes, and deep purple are certainly some heroes for the answer. Now, some of you when it mentioned Deep Purple, if you're uh maybe younger in age, you may think of Smoke on the Water, Ala Push, maybe another song like Black Knight, or even maybe even Hush, because that's been on a guitar hero and some uh adverts on television. Uh but let me tell you, Deep Purple are a kick-ass rock band, they are more than just a smoke on the water riff. And the hush song is completely different to what they turned into. That was like one of the earlier albums. They had a different singer then. They didn't have Ian Gillen, who was easily their best singer. In fact, let me play you a little bit of Deep Purple, because I think if you're a younger audience member, you need to be enlightened and taught to how awesome Deep Purple is, and you'll be able to hear otherwise how obvious an inspiration they are to the answer and how awesome it would be for them to have supported them at this big London show in the Astoria. This is Deep Purple.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:04

Can't you see your fake yeah? It's the fire.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:44

They got loads of great tracks, Deep Purple. Deep Purple is probably one of those bands that'll get their own series where we tackle the hidden gem tracks in the future. Another band I will likely get one in the future is the band Whitesnake. And it was after this Deep Purple gig that the ants uh supported Whitesnake throughout their UK tour in 2006 on the live in the still of the night tour. Uh, and that's the one obviously I discovered the answer at. Uh, they also opened for Aerosmith at Hyde Park in 2007. And in 2007, they also supported the Rolling Stones in huge open-air gigs in both Serbia and Germany, Deutschland, while also supporting the Who in their home country of Ireland. Uh, they played at the Phil Leinert Memorial Gig in Dublin, where bassist Mickey Waters played Phil Leinert's iconic black bass guitar. And he was the first to do so since Phil Leinert's death in 1986. So this is a whole 20 years later, 21 years later. First to do it since Phil Leinert, if you didn't know, was the singer from Thin Lizzie, fellow Irish classic rockers. Uh, the band then managed to get an indie label called the End Record to sign him for US distribution. So now they got a gateway into the US market as well. And this led to them being picked to support ACDC on their North American and European leg of their world tour in 2008. The Black Ice World Tour. Yeah, you're not just playing one or two gigs, not just playing gigs in a single country, you're now playing across Europe and across the United States and all of those 50 states wherever AC DC are playing on that tour. And AC DC, they are worldwide worldwide global rock phenomenon. They're Australian, yes, technically, I think some of the band members are actually from the north of England near Newcastle upon Tyne area. But a huge, huge opportunity to be here by so many more people across North America and across Europe. It's a huge, huge deal for them to be uh picked up on that tour. It's a huge honour for them to be able to support a band like ACDC and the amount of people they'll be playing to on a world tour. Especially in 2008. Yes, they would still sell out a world tour if they tour today, and they still do tour, I believe. However, in 2008, you're even closer to their peak peak years when the songs weren't just being they weren't just playing the hits, we're playing the classics. They're playing new stuff as well, they're releasing new stuff. I mean, our black ice world tour is in support of the album Black Ice, I believe. So there's a music video for a lead single for the album, Black Ice. You've got the promotion for the album release, and then you've got the promotion for the world tour to go with it. You've got the money machine behind you. Today, if ECDC do a world tour, they'll just, you know, maybe release some digital stuff on their social media just to announce it, but it'll sell out quickly. So the record companies, they don't have to put a bunch of money behind it to promote it. Back in 2008, they had that, plus they had their reputation uh behind them, which is equal to what it is today, if may if not maybe a bit higher in 2008 than it is today, simply because it was closer to those peak years of ACDC. So huge, huge honour to support them, as I've said. Now, after this came the second album released in March of 2009, and our second album is called Everyday Demons. It went in 25 on the UK album chart, and it had mixed reviews. Uh Rolling Stone magazine gave it two and a half out of five, so literally halfway marked from them. But Ultimate Guitar gave it nine out of ten, so they loved it. Almost a perfect score. Um, the first single came out in February 2009, and I'll play a little bit for you now, is called On and On.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:46

Wake from a dream will it disappear? Can you look me in the eye, Tumma? Do you see it disappear?

SPEAKER_00 1:16:34

That was the On and On. The first single from Everyday Demons. Great, great track, a really cool riff there to start us off, and your foot's tapping along to that song. It just has to, like in the previous one I played Preachin, I think that one too, it gets your head nodding and your foot tapping. Um, I'm gonna play a little bit of the opening track from Everyday Demons next, and it still sticks to the demon theme of the album title, and this one's called Demon Eyes.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:13

Look at that sea both streets and clothes and me.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:45

It's the opening track to the album, so like the opening track to Rise Under the Sky, it hits you hard and it kicks ass, which is what rock albums should do. If a rock album or metal album starts with uh an emotional ballad as track one, there's something wrong. It needs to kick you in the face in track one. The emotional ballad's gonna come later in the album, further down the list. I think track two is even too early for those. But yeah, great, great track here opening. We're gonna get back to it in a moment. But a little bit of background on what the lyrical content in the song is actually about. Demonize. In terms of the band, there's some swearing here, so mind your ears, kids. Uh, the band Cormac Neeson was quoted as saying, Demon Add is basically about the two-faced motherfuckers in this world who think they're the dog's bollocks.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:33

They pretend to be your friend, but the whole time they're looking down on you in a very fucking condescending way, and then going around the corner and slagging you off behind your back.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:44

Now, in the Nightwish uh series, I did a lot of quotes from uh Thomas Holopinen and others, and obviously they are Finnish from Finland and they have a Finnish accent, but I can't do a Finnish accent. So I didn't try because I didn't want to insult. I also can't do a Northern Irish accent at all. Certainly not one of the strongest skills in my repertoire, if I have any. So instead, I gave you what I would consider a wrestling promo quote. So hopefully it was enjoyable, if nothing else. But yeah, demonize is basically about two-faced people who um love to be your friend to your face, but behind your back they're slagging you off. Um, I'm sure everyone knows someone at some point in their life who would fit that description. Let's get back to Demonize, and we'll get to the bridge in the chorus. So that was the opening track, Demon Eyes of Everyday Demons. Now, there is one other track I want to pick out on Everyday Demons, and it's a song called Pride. Now, before I go to Pride, we've got another wrestling promo for you to do. Another Cormac Neeson quote about what Pride is all about, the song. So I quote.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:36

Pride pertains to a time when I was walking in a bar in Ireland where you'd see a lot of really beautiful young women coming into the bar and kind of drink themselves away all day, and ended up going home with some kind of fucking low-life motherfucker who's just hanging around the bars waiting to pick up women like that. I just remember thinking these girls don't need to do that. They're beautiful, intelligent, and they deserve a lot better.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:04

Quote there from Cormac Neeson, vocalist from the band The Answer and part-time professional wrestler. Okay, Sue's never a professional wrestler, but I had fun. I'm doing my thing, having fun. Hopefully, it's fun to listen to. If not, go unmute. I apologize, skip my little wrestling promos. Anyway, let's get to the song I was talking about. The song's called, to remind you, pride.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:33

You better let the bar. You never had a star. You never had a fall.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:38

Gives me Aerosmith vibes, and we'll talk about that again in a later album. Certainly, Aerosmith is definitely another inspiration for this band. And I can see Steven Tyler and the rest of the gang singing that song easily. That chorus and the bridge leading up to it is very, very catchy. And that's where the song shines, but in most good songs, right? The chorus is where it shines. That's the hook, that's the bit that repeats, and that's it needs to be a hook. If the chorus isn't memorable, then you haven't got a song really, unless you're going for like something more like a tool or an OPEC, something more progressive and art form, or an instrumental band, like animals as leaders, even they'll have instrumental choruses. But it's less important for them. They're going for a different audience, they're targeting different things, but the listeners that are listening for different things. Most people who are making just kick-ass rock songs or pop songs or rap songs, your chorus needs to be memorable. If it's not, you ain't got anything. You ain't got a song that'll sell. And this one's described as a great, great chorus and a bridge leading up to it. Now, uh the next album, Revival, was released on the 3rd of October 2011. So two years after, two and a half years after Everyday Demons. And it was first released on label Spine Farm Records. Now we're gonna have to leave it there for episode one on our series of The Answer. Uh, we have recorded the whole thing in one go, and we've had to split it into two episodes just because of the length. Would have been too long to easily digest. So we're gonna split into a part one and a part two. This is the end of part one, and I do hope you join us for episode two, which will be dropping in a week's time. Thank you once again for listening to Rock and Metal's Hidden Gems podcast. I am your host, as always, Daniel Stuckey. And please, please, please do join us for episode two on the answer and hear whatever kick-ass songs they release further down the road after Everyday Demons. And do also go back and check out our series on the bands like the Diablo Swing Orchestra, Iron Maiden, and Nightwish. Our deep dives there. Hopefully, you if you enjoyed this, you will also enjoy those. Thanks again for listening, and I'll see you next time. Bye bye.