The Answering Machine at the JD Set courtesy of Shirlaine Forrest

Fresh from completing the tribute to the Buzzocks JD Set on Channel 4 together with Tim Burgess, The Answering Machine are off to the mixing studio next week to start mixing their second album. The album, recorded in Manchester by the band themselves and produced by vocalist Martin Colclough, suggests a mature progression from their first album. The following are Martin’s thoughts on what the band were trying to achieve with their sophomore album.

We ended 2009 with a wonderful feeling in our hearts. We had created the debut album we’d been dreaming of since the band formed. It packed a punch and we believed it captured the boisterous energy of the infancy period of The Answering Machine. We spent the month of November 2009 hanging out in an apartment in Brooklyn, NY, feeling somewhat anxious as to the new direction of the band. As any band will say, the pressure placed on a second album is like nothing else. There’s a sense of finding some middle ground between the start and end product. We explored a few avenues, creatively. Beginning with a raw Sonic Youth-eque track called ‘Winter Without You’. The intensity and passion was there, but we just didn’t feel it reflected where we were at.

At this time, there was a certain sense of anxiety within the band. Not with each other, but more a reassessment of who we are and what we want to be. Something of a mid-mid-life crisis struck me, and the result was a song called ‘3 Miles’, the first track we completed as a band for the new record. It draws on emotions like we never have before in The Answering Machine, and is a ‘heart-on-sleeve’ account of where my head was at. It was also the creative spark we needed, and it triggered an outpouring of ideas and themes that would ultimately shape this second record.

I write this on the final day of tracking. We have produced the record ourselves, something which we felt strongly about. It means alot to me that we have full control over the finished product, as I want people to hear these tracks how we want them to be heard. No egos here, we are just extremely proud of what we’ve achieved.

The band will be assisted in the mixing process by the infamous Manics/Idlewild producer, Dave Eringa who produced their first album. The album is scheduled for release worldwide later this year.