Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
Vocalist/guitarist Andy Cairns of the Northern Irish rock group Therapy? discussed the band’s plans for the sequel to 2023’s “Hard Cold Fire” album in a recent interview with Neil Jones of TotalRock, as per Blabbermouth.
The reason why Therapy? hasn’t had a record out for a while is because just after COVID I went and had an MRI scan ’cause my knees were sore, and it turned out I needed two full knee replacements — not one, but two. And they have to leave six months between each one. So in February 2025 I had my left knee replaced, and that’s 12 weeks rehab, learning to walk properly again… It’s all metal and steel in there. And then we were able to do a few shows over that summer. And then in November of ’25, I had my right knee fully replaced. And the rehab just really stopped about three weeks ago.
When asked if “the road rigour” and all the gigs Therapy? had performed over the past three and a half decades were to blame for the damage to his knees, Andy responded as follows.
I don’t know. I’ve been doing this a long time. I only turned 60 last year, so they did say to me, ‘You’re quite young for someone that needs new knees.’ But I’m glad I got ’em done, because they were agony. I mean, I was living with them really badly for two and a half years, and it was agony and I was on all kinds of painkillers to get on stage, and I had to make sure I sat in the dressing room with my leg up and didn’t move. And it was no fun, really. I mean, the adrenaline’s a wonderful thing. Adrenaline got me through all the shows, but then I said to the record company, I said to our management, and more importantly, I said to Michael [McKeegan, bass] and Neil [Cooper, drums] in the band, ‘I need to get this sorted. And it’s going to mean at least a year out of Therapy? stuff.’ So they were very good about it. And yeah, [the knees are] done now.
Andy continued by saying that if it weren’t for his knee replacements, a new Therapy? album probably would have been out by now.
“It would’ve been, ’cause we started writing it, because we don’t all live nearby — Michael still lives in Ireland and Neil lives up near Derby and I live in Cambridge here — it’s like a military operation to get us all together. And we do it in blocks of a week at a time. Then we go back and all this. And I think what happened was we’d started writing some songs. We got together and then we took the decision about the knees. And I found it very difficult to write lyrics when I was recovering, because for 12 weeks at a time I was like staring at the four walls, not really going out. And I wasn’t able to go to gigs. I wasn’t able to go and visit mates. So, the lyrics were really slow. But then, as I said, we’ve just been back in again. We’ve written the majority of the record. We’re going to record half of it in May. And it’s sounding really good. We’re using [producer] Chris Sheldon, who did [1994’s] ‘Troublegum’, who did ‘Hard Cold Fire’. He’s doing it. He’s heard the songs. He likes them. So, yeah, for our fans, it’s a bit disappointing that it took so long, but we’re glad that we’re doing it now. We could have maybe — I don’t know what we could have done — we could have maybe done it on a computer, but it’s not the Therapy? way… We got together just before I got my second knee done in November. And we had lots of really good music. We had finished songs [musically], but no lyrics for a lot of songs. And then I couldn’t get anything for them. And then when [my right] knee began to recover — it was just about the second week in January — and I had a really good day when I went out to the famous man shed and I was able to stand up and I got three songs finished in a day. And then that was it. Regardless of my knees, every Therapy? album’s been the same. It’s nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, then gush. [Laughs]
Andy responded to the question of when Therapy? intends to finish and release the next album.
The next thing we’re doing is we’re in rehearsals for another week to finish off this album in April. Then we go in and record five or six songs in May. Then we go over to Italy. We’re playing with Dropkick Murphys in Italy. Then we come back and we do the rest of the album. Then we have a summer of festivals. And then the idea is we don’t really know if we’ll release the album before the end of the year, or we might go old school and release a couple of singles and tour the singles, and then release the album in January next year and do a full tour.
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