Stereoboard.com writer Adam Simpson had the pleasure of interviewing The Coronas front man Danny O’Reilly. The Irish group’s success has been quite amazing so far, bagging an award for the best Irish album, the acts following is growing and growing, especially after playing at some big festivals and working with people such as Paul McCartney and John Cornfield.
The group have been busy lately playing at several festivals, notably The Isle Of Wight, I wondered how the group had found these venues.
“They were fantastic, really amazing and in fact we were supporting Paul McCartney in Dublin in front of probably 20,000 people and then straight on to the Isle Of Wight, we had a great gig there.
It was clear that the group enjoyed working with Paul McCartney.
"Oh yeah it was amazing, just to meet him, we're huge fans so it was amazing.”
The group’s latest album, ‘Tony Was An Ex Con’ has done really well, voted Irish album of the year ahead of U2 and Snow Patrol, I wondered how proud the group are of the album and also what it has achieved.
"Yeah we're really proud, things have been going great for us in Ireland and we’ve got a great fan base here, so we’re looking forward to spreading our wings.
The group recorded the album with renowned producer John Cornfield of Sawmill Studios; I wondered how the group felt about that, considering some of the great acts he has worked with in the past, such as Razorlight, Muse and Oasis.
The group told me that it was amazing, “We worked with a great producer, who has worked with the likes of Razorlight and Muse and Supergrass and guys like that and were really happy with how it turned out”
I wondered how working with John Cornfield came about.
The group picked John because he had produced albums which the group loved. “We basically just looked on the internet at albums that we liked and his name kept coming up as the producer.” The group sent him their previous work, which he told them he loved and the rest is history. “He said he’d do it, so that was that, we went down to Cornwall for 6 weeks and recorded the album and it was amazing.”
Ireland is renowned for its music and there have been some great acts from Ireland, I wondered if the group felt any pressure on them because of this.
The group clearly don’t see it as a pressure, but more a motivation. “We look at bands like U2 and Snow Patrol and if anything it gives us a belief of what you can achieve so it helps us to believe that it is possible to be a really big band.”
The groups sound is a rich blend of music; I wondered where the group had grabbed their influences.
It’s clear that the group take onboard a huge range of influences and use them to produce a unique sound. The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Radiohead and The Stone Roses were all mentioned. “It’s great, because we all have a varied range of influences that we can blend into the pot and hopefully come up with something new and original.”
The indie genre has moved forward a lot and lots of bands are adding their own twists to it now, so what are The Coronas planning to do with your sound and how would they describe the sound that we are already accustomed?
“Well I wouldn’t say we were a massively experimental band, we're not trying to reinvent the wheel or anything.” The band wants to write good pop songs and continue to play well as musicians. “We are influenced by the likes of the Beatles who basically wrote great pop songs and I think that’s what we're best at.“
So what is in store for The Coronas for the rest of the year?
“We're touring a lot in the UK and in Ireland, we're touring Australia in November and America in October and we're looking to work on the new album in September.” The group told me they have got a few songs together already and they are looking to start recording in the New Year. “We want to set some time aside to work on that and hopefully record it in the New Year.”
So it looks like we can expect a new album fairly soon.
“Yeah, but we're not looking to rush,” The group explained that they have a great record label who are not pressuring them for new material. “Were going to take our time and make sure we're happy with all our songs.”
I wondered if the group would be again looking to John Cornfield to produce the new album for them.
“We're not sure, we haven’t really talked about it, it’s definitely a possibility, John is an amazing producer, I guess it depends on the songs and which way we want to go, we may want to try something new but it’s definitely a possibility that we may work with John.”
Does this mean that we can expect something different from the group’s next album?
Well it seems so the group are definitely looking to put together a varied mix of songs. “The songs we’ve got so far sound a bit different.” “We’ve got some soft stuff and also some folk stuff, we grew up with the Irish folk scene, there’ll be some rocky songs and a few poppy songs.”
The group have been very busy gigging; I wondered how they enjoyed life on the road.
“It's great, all the band and the team get on really well and we have a great time” The group have travelled all over the world playing and there are more tours coming up across the globe. “We’ve been to some amazing places, Australia, Asia, the UK and America as well so it’s great that we get on so well and have a great time and we're lucky that we get to play music for a career and hopefully we’ll be able to do that for a long time.”
Of all the achievements the group have had so far, I wondered which they are most proud of.
“Winning the award for best Irish album was great, we beat some stiff competition and the fact that it was voted for by the public was brilliant and that’s the part we'll never forget, the public support and I think more recently supporting Paul McCartney was a big achievement for us, it was a dream come true, well never forget that.”
The group obviously admire Paul McCartney, I wondered if the group still got star struck, when meeting such huge names.
“Yeah course, Paul McCartney probably more than a lot of people, we're huge fans of the Beatles and they changed how pop music was written.”
I wondered if the group expected to win the award for best album, considering the competition of U2 and Snow Patrol.
“No, it was a huge shock, we turned up at the awards ceremony, expecting U2 to win it again and we thought that they’d maybe tell us before hand if we were to win it, so we had no idea and it was a complete shock.”
The groups first album ‘Zeros Or Ghosts’ was a success in its own right, the group did not promote it at all and yet achieved a lot of success and a huge following because of it. I wondered how they felt about that, which is an achievement in its own right.
“Yeah it was definitely a word of mouth thing, at the time we had no critical acclaim and nobody really knew who we were, we just released the album early on and gigged the hell out of it and we got a college and university following and it just took off from there.” This is something which is very well respected and not something which the industry sees a lot of nowadays. “I think people respected what we had done because we started from the ground up and even people who weren’t really into our music could respect what we’d done, we didn’t have any money behind us really so we just worked really hard.”
The group have played on the main stage at the ‘Oxygen Festival’, I wondered how that felt.
“It was amazing, we played alongside some great bands and we can’t wait to go back, it’s an amazing line up and we are really looking forward to it.”
Having played all over the world, was there any particular place that had stood out for the group?
“We really loved Australia, it’s just such an amazing country, we were there for 3 weeks and we fell in love with the place.”
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
We don't run any advertising! Our editorial content is solely funded by lovely people like yourself using Stereoboard's listings when buying tickets for live events. To keep supporting us, next time you're looking for concert, festival, sport or theatre tickets, please search for "Stereoboard". It costs you nothing, you may find a better price than the usual outlets, and save yourself from waiting in an endless queue on Friday mornings as we list ALL available sellers!
So it looks like we can expect a new album fairly soon.
