The Answering Machine - London, Summer 2007
By: Alex Lee Thomson
Every now and again a band comes along that you know you'll love until the day you die. You're instantly attracted to them, and for whatever reason, they speak to you, make you feel connected with their songs and no matter what's going on in your life, you're humming their tunes. At this years Great Escape Festival in Brighton, The Answering Machine played a secret gig in a shop window and as the strangest array of people ventured into the store, from little kids sucking lollipops to their nans clenching M&S bags, the approachability of the band became their obvious magnetism, and their songs stuck in your head for the rest of the day. It's surprising when a band can move you so much the first time you hear them and even more surprisingly is that it takes a few songs to realise they don't have a drummer, but for whatever reason they're important, whether it be the simple honesty of their songs or the raw manner in which they're presented, they are continually enchanting. We met up with the band as they played at the Islington Bar Academy in the smoke of London, far away from their Manchester roots, and as we found out what makes their music tick, we also realised that they're among the nicest bloody kids in rock 'n' roll.
Rockfeedback: So you're from the same Manchester scene that's recently birthed Performance, The Whip and Polytechnic, would you say the developing landscape around you has had an effect on the band that you set out to be?
Martin (lead vocals and guitar): I don't think there were any bands around at the time that were similar to us, there were bands around that we respected and enjoyed watching but it was more listening to our record collections that gave us our sound, in more of a natural sense. We just made the songs we wanted to write, it's not like we thought anybody was going to hear them. We just got pissed and wrote songs.
RFB: Is there a sense of pride coming from an area that has been at the forefront of the best musical advances in recent times?
Martin: Yeah, yeah, there's a great heritage and it kind of makes you feel happy and all warm inside that Manchester's alive again, like we're hoping that great sense of community is coming back and for people to get excited about music again.
[Talk of other great Manchester bands leads to talks of London bands and the scenes around them that spawn]:
Martin: It seems to be a new thing that when a band comes through, like The Libertines, everybody else tries to replicate that sound while it's still around and the media jump on it and straight away it's the scene and all that, but it didn't seem like that happened before, like, maybe a good band would come out and it was maybe ten or twenty years later it would be replicated. That's it just now; it's instant music. There's a beautiful aspect to all that but it's horrible at the same time, everybody having a go, but you end up with so many bands that are all doing the same thing and you get lost in new music.
RFB: Do you think people lose interest quicker as well?
Martin: Yeah, you'll always be hearing somebody say, "oh check out this band on MySpace", and you do but two days later you've forgotten what the band is called.
RFB: It can't help being governed by two main bodies these days, like the NME and Radio One, who try and process new bands as quickly as possible, using the 3 issue rule in the NME for instance whereby you're undiscovered, then landed, then has-beens...
Martin: ...Definitely. The industry and the media alike, on a mass scale, do that a lot... just plough these bands through to make some money off them, but then there's labels like Transgressive and the like who do the complete opposite. It's a shame people don't pay more attention to those trying to make music over money.
[Rambling and un-publishable rants - we feel a bit funny about them mentioning us at Trans, but hey, their words not ours! - about the media turn into praise for The Answering Machine's first home High Voltage and the topic of the bands persistent first single, 'Oklahoma' is raised, as is the songs catchy nature]:
RFB: I've been singing that song to myself since Brighton but I don't know the words, so I've had to make them up...
Martin and Patrick (backing vocals and guitar): Oh, I think we need to hear those!
RFB: I think they're something along the lines of, "Oklahoma, I'm such a stoner, I get a boner..."
Martin: [laughs] Choke my boner...
[Laughter quickly turns to embarrassment on behalf of this Rockfeedbacker and the album is swiftly brought up]:
RFB: Any notions of an album yet?
Martin: We're thinking as a band just now about where we want to go. We're sort of in a stage of realisation and we're thinking about what songs to put on the album, if our songs are strong enough and really getting excited and nervous. There's no talks with the industry or anything like that but it's on the horizon.
RFB: I think what's great is that you're already getting attention from the media despite being so young and only having two limited edition singles out...
Patrick: Yeah, we've been a really lucky band from day one, we really have. Lots of things have gone in our favour since we started and where a lot of bands struggle early on things have just randomly happened for us.
RFB: ...and so how long have you been together now?
Martin: I think about a year and a half. We got onto High Voltage (label) really early on, just like winged it, and there's this kind of guilty feeling inside because we see f**kin' amazing bands in Manchester that are still grafting away and trying their hardest, and we hope that if we make it we can support them.
RFB: What bands in Manchester right now would you champion?
Martin: Well, Polytechnic and Cherry Ghost right now but they're doing such great stuff anyway. Probably The Headliners who are an amazing band, I was speaking to them last night and they were playing this little club down the road and I was like, 'don't worry about it mate 'cous you're going to go onto bigger things'.
Gemma (bass): Yeah, they do such amazing shows, they're so incredible live.
Martin: All the bands in Manchester support each other and there's a great thread of friendship and network, I imagine it's a bit more dog eat dog down here in London.
[Yet more endless chatting about Manchester bands ensues, featuring a list of Joe Stretch's finer qualities as the enigmatic frontman to (We Are) Performance, leading to nostalgic banter of our home towns where it's revealed this Rockfeedbacker once lived in the same unspeakably small village as Martin]
RFB: So how do you feel about leaving a place you all so obviously love and touring to somewhere like London?
Martin: Well the good thing about London is that you can go to any part and it has a different feel. For example we did three shows on three nights a while ago, like Camden, Newcross and Shorditch and every show was completely different, they all have a different vibe, and that's what's so great about London, and all the crowds have been great and really got into it.
RFB: Watching you play live, the main thing that stands out, besides the music itself, obviously, is the fact you're lacking... a drummer...
Martin: Oh, what?
Gemma: Are we really?
Patrick: Oh shit, I never look back on stage!
RFB: No, no... honestly, you don't have one! I'm not saying that's a bad thing, if anything it allows the focus to fall onto the guitars and vocals in a way it wouldn't for anybody else, but I wondered what the reason behind it was?
Martin: Well to be honest we started out looking for a drummer but couldn't find anybody right so Patrick suggested getting a drum machine because we already had a lot of songs to play and we wanted to get out there and play them. I think what a lot of people don't understand is, when they jump in and go, "they haven't got a drummer!", they think it's because we don't like drums or something but it's the complete opposite. We love drums so much that we care about them and want them to be right, so do them ourselves. But in the early stages we were like Busted in many respects...
Gemma: ...I think in many ways we're like Busted...
RFB: No, you are not like Busted!
Patrick: We're Busted in disguise.
RFB: It obviously makes you a more flexible band, making it possible to, say, play in a shop window and sound right, but are you still looking for a flesh and blood counterpart?
Gemma: We wouldn't rule it out.
Martin: Of course not, but the most important thing is how they'd fit into the band and as we've become quite a tight unit now it would be hard for them and us but there might be somebody out there. Send us a letter if you want to be our drummer!
RFB: Maybe some kind of X Factor system could work, like...
Martin: ...like a drummer in each city! Have to remember that, ha, note to self.
RFB: As far as your sound goes in general, you've said that the Manchester scene per-say wasn't an influence, but what bands lurked in your record collections that did aspire to the creation of who you are now? Or at least what bands have you been likened to?
Martin: I think we've had references in the press to people like The Strokes, Polytechnic, oh and my mum, like, text me and said, "I've just heard that band Kooks on the radio and they sound like you", so I was like... OK, thanks mum.
[After regaling the band of my encounter with Kooks and their infamous beer-robbing mannerisms during a tour with The Subways]
RFB: Do you class comparisons to the Kooks as a good or bad thing?
Martin: No comment. That's my mum for you - she listens to Simply Red. No, she doesn't listen to Simply Red actually.
RFB: My mum listens to Meat Loaf!
[Parental inspirations move us to even more tête-à-têtes of bands we love, taking us back to the idea of a record label's responsibility, and the sometimes overbearing approach that many have to their bands].
Martin: I think we're all very aware of how things can change and how labels, pushed by the press, can force you into doing things and moving you along. A song should be natural and come to you in a creative way. A problem with the media now is that if they don't jump on you straight away, and they're like a week late, they're not interested because they've missed the boat or whatever and it's sad if anything. Y'know, we don't want to be the Kooks.
RFB: Indeed, the beer-robbing bastards.
Martin: When you write this interview up it'll just be you calling the Kooks 'beer-robbing bastards'.
RFB: Hum, maybe I'll edit it.
We all leave for sound-check as requests for playing topless are gracelessly delivered to the idea that this Rockfeedbacker would become their official cover artist, named by Martin as 'Voicemail'. We go to the show and they play a blinder. We all feel happy, though slightly violated. I go home singing the right words to 'Oklahoma'.
Artists in this article: The Answering Machine