Interview: The Answering Machine talk lifelines and plans for US domination

A lot of bands will tell you it’s the creation of the second album that harbours the most pressure. But The Answering Machine aren’t most bands.

After the release of their Dave Eringa produced debut Another City, Another Sorry the Manchester-band decided to revert to a more in-house style and so in 2011 Lifeline was born. It was a process that allowed them to ‘ease off on the gas’. Self-production afforded the 4-piece time to experiment while simultaneously learning. Inspired by the simple and raw approach of bands like Whitest Boy Alive and Phoenix, The Answering Machine are self-confessing pop enthusiasts where a hook here and a riff there play an integral role in the band’s ethos; it’s all about the moving of the feet. Having already signed to US management, The Answering Machine are playing four shows at the ubiquitous SXSW.

The Answering Machine’s Martin Colclough gives Jasmine Phull a glimpse into the future of a band who are already half way there.

Your debut was released in 2009. There must be a lot of things that have changed since then. Did you approach the creation of Lifeline differently? More learned?

In terms of recording and writing, we didn’t feel the need to look outside of our band for inspirations and influences. I guess that’s why we kept the production in-house and just let it evolve a bit. The first album we did with Dave Eringa, whom we admire immensely, but this time we wanted to keep it really simple and more DIY. The writing process was a lot different because so much changes when a band moves onto new material. We never set out to only play one genre of music; we always wanted to delve into different avenues and stuff. We just had a lot more fun with it I think. It was probably more fun to make than the first because it was a lot more personal. For the second we were able to sit down, take the foot off the gas a little and do whatever we wanted. It was slightly different for us because we didn’t have label pressures dictating the schedule. We spear our future so it allows us to have fun with it.

Do you think there was more pressure on the first album compared to the second?

Yea, which is kind of ironic because a lot of bands will say it’s the other way around. For the first album it was always obvious to us how it was going to sound because when we started we already had a bunch of songs and then over the next few years we collected a couple more. The debut is kind of our greatest hits from the first four years. The first album sort of writes itself over a period of time.

What’s the meaning of the title ‘Lifeline’?

‘Lifeline’ was the track I was writing at the time of deciding the album name. We’d also realised some lyrics Pat had written for the track ‘Anything Anything’ also contained the word ‘lifeline’. We never consciously decide what the theme’s going to be, it just comes around. It’s quite depressing but there’s a lot of desperation in the lyrics.

You both shared the writing of the album?

Yea. I usually do about 70 per cent of the music and Pat will write 70 per cent of the lyrics. I’ll always come up for some theme for the lyrics and then set Pat up to take it from there. For ‘Animals’ I just gave him the title and he just wrote the song around that. A lot of the time one of us will just write the lyrics and it the title will be obvious. I think we write with a pop sensibility so it’s always set out from the start.

Is the order of the tracks important?

Definitely. The first track ‘My Little Navy’ is one we had for a long time. It was always meant to be an instrumental but we never really found its true ‘force’ 'til we came to this album. The first song on debut Another City, Another Sorry had a lot of punk aesthetic; very in your face, whereas we wanted the first track of Lifeline to evolve a little. It was always going to be intense but subtler as well. We wanted the semi-dynamics of Lifeline to play like a rollercoaster. I wouldn’t call it a concept album but it is kind of conceptual in its lyrical journey. We hope that people still listen to albums from start to finish. We wanted to keep it alive so we made an mp3 version and a CD version where the songs were blended into one another. That’s the one we’d like people to listen. 

Does being an artist affect the way you hear other people’s songs?

Especially since producing this new album I’ve noticed that I listen to sounds and how they’ve created the sounds. At the end of the day we love pop music, it’s why we’re all in a band. We love songs with pop hooks; it’s got to make you move your feet I guess. If you’re not thinking about how it is constructed and put together it’s definitely the sign of a good song. I still find myself deconstructing things but bands like Phoenix or Whitest Boy Alive are ones I don’t want to overthink. They’re very raw and simple and they were a big influence on Lifeline.

As a band you are based in Manchester. Does the city have an influence on the music?

We’re connected to the community, from the venues to the record shops. I don’t think the band would be the same if we weren’t based here. A lot of Manchester bands will tell you that the community here is really tight; bands stick together and talk to one another. I don’t think you find that in other cities. Even the bands that are from the completely opposite ends of the musical spectrum get along with one another.

Festival season is coming up. Do you have any subconscious goals for the progression of the band? You’ll be at SXSW again this year. Is that quite an important event in terms of promoting and being seen?

Yea. We’ve just confirmed we’ll be doing four shows in two days, so we’ll be totally shattered by the end of it. We’re told that’s the nature of the festival. We first did it in 2008 and all I remember is the bars. They were giving out free CDs and we were putting the CDs over the beers and trying to drink our pints through the middle hole. That’s all I remember (laughs). Seriously though, it’s obviously important for the US as there is a lot of UK press out there. We’re currently trying to get a release in America as well, so that’s part of the reason we’re going over there; we’ve just been signed by US management. We try to get to America quite a few times a year. We’re hoping a lot of people will be there and that some of them will notice us and then we can, hopefully, tour across the US. That’s one of two dreams in the band. One is to play Japan, which we’ve done, and the other is to tour across the US.

Interview by: Jasmine Phull

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The Answering Machine play at Sound Control on March 24th. Tickets for this event are available below. 

Tickets are no longer available for this event