Blues-influenced hard rock band the Answer first came together in 2000 when guitarist Paul Mahon, then 18 years old and living in Northern Ireland, decided to put together a group with the help of a friend, bassist Micky Waters. Waters was already a veteran of the Belfast club circuit, having played in several cover bands, and Mahon had been given a crash course in the nuts and bolts of the music business by his father, who played trumpet in a long-running Irish show band.