Interview: The Coronas
The Coronas
In 2020, you couldn’t imagine a more unfortunate band name, but in The Coronas’ defence they’ve been rocking the name for seventeen years now.
Their sixth album ‘True Love Waits’ went straight to No.1 in the Irish Charts and sits proudly in our Albums Of The Year list. Philip Giouras spoke to lead singer Danny O’Reilly about the record earlier this year ahead of its release...
Irish rock band The Coronas have been crafting critically acclaimed and beloved rock songs for nearly two decades. 2020 was set to be a momentous year for the group as they prepared to embark on a globe-trotting tour in support of new album ‘True Love Waits’, their first record as a now three piece since the departure of guitarist Dave McPhillips last winter. They also had new expectations following up their first ever Irish No.1 Album ‘Trust The Wire’ back in 2017. Plans were soon derailed however when the unfortunately named virus Corona swept the world instead. Lead singer O’Reilly joked with The Guardian back in June that ‘he’d swap the Coronas with the Vaccines’, nonetheless his humour captured Twitter when he enquired with alcohol beverage brand Corona what their plans were to deal with their new namesake. I caught up with O’Reilly ahead of the albums launch to delve into what it was like creating and launching a record in this new normal and where his hopes for the future lie.
When I get in touch with O’Reilly, he sounds chirpy, noticeably excited pending the album’s release. He speaks to me from his mini studio setup on the West coast of Ireland, where what was meant to be a long weekend unexpectedly stretched into four months following lockdown restrictions. Despite the scenic views and peaceful surroundings, he admits he struggled to immediately reignite that creative spark “Initially I came down and I sort of was like ‘What can I do from here?’ and initially I was struggling to be creative and trying to always probably be too hard on myself and going, ‘I need to use this time to do something’… I found it tough to write at the start’. Inspiration eventually hit O’Reilly however when he found solace in a series of Isolation cover performances “So, what I started doing was covers of other Irish bands on the band’s social media and it got a great response. It was sort of something that I did for myself to learn some other music and sort of be productive without having to be really creative. I did it for about three or four weeks and was really grateful, every night I just learned a different song that gave me a schedule to work on… So, after that, I started writing for myself a bit more”. Like other creatives O’Reilly acknowledged the pressure that comes with free time in isolation “I think there’s almost a productivity competition out there. It can get to some people but thankfully I dodged that one by singing other people’s songs for a while”.
“Initially, I was struggling to be creative and trying to always probably be too hard on myself”
I first saw Danny O’Reilly perform back in Christmas of 2019, at Never Fade’s annual festive concert. It was there in which he joined Gabrielle Aplin on stage to duet a song which would later be released as ‘The Thick Of It’, a spellbinding moment and highlight of the evening as they harmonised, their vocals beautifully intwined across the moving ballad. When it came to discussing ‘True Love Waits’, I had to start there “Gabrielle and her partner Alfie, from Hudson Taylor are really good friends of ours, over the years we’ve played with them plenty of times. Last summer they invited me over to their house in Brighton just to hang out for a weekend, we’d sort of been saying we must do it like crazy, it was just one of those things you keep putting off and eventually it was like ‘Okay, I’m going to book this weekend and I’m coming over just to hang’ and I brought my guitar because we said we do a bit of writing, but we definitely kept it casual you know and if we write a couple of songs or if we don’t its no problem… We ended up writing two songs, one of them being The Thick Of It, which I was so excited and proud of from the very early demo that we did in Brighton, in fact it hasn’t changed too much at all. Initially it was just Gabrielle singing it and then when I got home, I was thinking it could work sort of as a duet, in my head I was referencing the soundtrack for the movie Juno where the songs are sort of just quirky simple melodies with two people singing in unison but an octave apart. There’s another song by Snow Patrol in which they did a duet with Martha Wainwright on called ‘Set the Fire to The Third Bar’, I’ve always loved the song so I also had that sort of thing in my head on how it could work. Gabrielle was happy to get involved with it as a duet, so that was great because obviously she’s a very successful artist in her own right and it made sense because we wrote the song together, it was a lot of fun doing it and it’s our first proper duet we’ve had on one of our albums, so you could say it was about time”.
The connection between O’Reilly and Aplin in the song is also creatively reflected within the songs music video which due to lockdown went through a surprising amount of changes before landing on the quirky portrait meets animation style the viewer is presented with as O’Reilly explains to me “Initially we were talking about recording the video for it just before lockdown happened, we wanted it to hold up not just to the other isolation videos that are available but also just hold up in general, Bjorn the director and his co-director Johnny had some great ideas. We basically were presented with a brief of what the music video was going to be, it was still set to be a split screen and it was a slightly quirky isolation video. Originally, we were going to use a lot more props, do a bigger studio, and get me and Gabrielle moving around the two screens. But actually, I was so relieved when I saw the adjusted one where it was just ‘no, you deliver straight to camera’. They sent us down a mate of mine, he came down with a backdrop of just a black sheet and I just sat down and sang straight to camera. Gabrielle did the same thing in Brighton and then we sent it off to this amazing animation team who sort of put all the quirky little bits of animation around us and it turned out great as well, I was really happy with as you say something a bit different. I think it stood out a little bit judging by the reaction to it”.
“I just thought of this amazing Radiohead song that I always loved called True Love Waits and so I was just like, I’m robbing that title”
‘True Love Waits’ has come about at the start of a new chapter for The Coronas, after the departure of guitarist Dave McPhillips last year and it seems to have had an effect on how the group have gone about making music this time around. “We’ve done a lot on this album with our friends being involved, Alfie came in and did backing vocals, my sister did some and basically all our live band has gotten much bigger, at this stage we have trumpeters and everything, they all played on it, it was really fun and I think that was sort of really important for us because our guitar player left the band last year. I think we decided to open up the band as opposed to closing it down into a three piece, we wanted to be more open arms to everyone and I called around to lots of people to get involved. We also used a couple different producers as well, something we haven’t done before. That change to a three piece has actually gave us a new lease of life, a bit of vigour, sometimes I think a change is a good and all of a sudden it was going to be different whether we liked it or not, and that took the pressure off, we can do whatever we want, so lets try somethings different, it was kind of funny because we all seemed to pull in the same direction when Dave left a lot more than we had been doing, it’s not like he was the reason because often I would clash with Noxi or Conor our drummer about different things, so it’s not like he was at fault but for whatever reason when the new chapter started as you say, we sort of were just pulling in the same direction so it was a really fun album to make”.
Fans of Radiohead may be familiar with the title “Initially I was writing the song that became True Love Waits with a good friend of mine, Cian McSweeney. We were working on the chorus and as it came together it actually doesn’t say True Love Waits, it says ‘If it’s true love, it will wait for us”. So, I just thought of this amazing Radiohead song that I always loved called True Love Waits and so I was just like, I’m robbing that title, and decided to call the song True Love Waits. When it came to picking the album name it was actually Noxi who suggested it and was like, it just feels positive, It’s a positive phrase, but it’s not too positive. It’s sort of like it’s not there yet, but you’re getting there and it gives you something to cling to. But also, I don’t know, it represented a lot of lyrics. I think recently, in the last two albums, there’s a lot of songs about, you know, self-improvement and trying to be the best you can be; trying to be the best brother, you can be the best friend, you can be the best boyfriend or the best bandmate you can be and yeah, so a lot of the lyrics sort of began to go that way and you’re trying to get there. I think oftentimes with romantic relationships, the same can be said, like, you know, you want to be the best and you want to be happy and you want to get that stuff right, that side of your life and so that was just, I think connected to the whole thing and it just sort of felt that way, it had a little hint of positivity that we’ll get there, you know”.
When it comes to the sound of the album, I ask if there’s anything at that point he most eager for fans to hear “There’s a couple of tunes on it I’m really proud of, I was really excited about getting ‘Lost In The Thick Of It’ released, to be honest I was so happy when we all agreed that it was going to be the next single, I think It’s just a cool song. ‘True Love Waits’ the song is also a track that I’m really proud of as well, there’s a few songs that I’m look forward to playing live for a crowd. There’s a moment on a song called ‘I Think We Jinxed It’ that I love, it’s probably my favourite moment on the album. I have weird reasons for liking different songs, like I remember a certain snare sound, and a verse and that’ll be the reason I love it, ‘Light Me Up’ for example I feel like its got the best drum sound in a second verse… ever! And that’s why I like it (chuckles). But yeah, I think when you’re so close to it all, you’re proud of every song and its hard to pick a favourite”.
I wanted to ask O’Reilly about the incredible piece of art that symbolises the records front cover and the inspiration for the piece “It’s been made for the record especially, like I’d love to take credit (chuckles). First of all, I totally agree with you. I think it’s deadly. I really love it. But like, it’s funny how when you’re in a band you have different strengths. The artwork, design and merchandise aren’t my bag at all, our bassist Noxi (Graham Knox) is so creative, he has a really good eye for things, and is artistic in a lot of ways. His wife is also a graphic designer and has helped us with things in the past, so it’s not unusual for us to consult his wife Eva about all the merchandise etc., she’s a great soundboard to have. Both Noxi and Eva had found this artist online called Katie Chandler and they loved all of their stuff and sent it over to us really early on into the album process and tells us ‘I just found this artist, we could commission to do some artwork or whatever you have in mind’ and their shots were amazing, with a couple in particular we loved the vibe of, so we got in touch and they’ve been on board for the whole album, all the singles, and artwork etc”. Interestingly, O’Reilly also touched on the fact we live in a world that has moved away from physical media and the additional work, care and attention involved when you run your own label “The artwork and the singles are things that we still take seriously in a day where the physical CD isn’t really a thing anymore. We always want to put together these decent packets like you know, it’s not so much expensive financially, it’s but it’s just time consuming. When you’re putting out an album though it’s cool to do things like that, and we enjoy that side of things. Just spending a little bit of time making sure we have the design of the thing, right and not rushing the release, which is, you know, the Track listings and a picture on the front like, you know, we want it to be a proper album. So as I say, I have to give credit to Noxi, our bass player, he’s sort of the creative design and so forth, he even sent me new ideas for merchandise yesterday, and I think are great like as well, he just has a knack and whatever he takes, I tend to like you know, so it’s, it’s great to have that in the band. Then like Connor, for example, our drummer is brilliant at putting all our social media videos together. So, when we do the isolation covers, you know, from our homes, he put all the videos together and the audio and he’s been busy with that stuff. Then I’ve been doing interviews, so it’s interesting the way you sort of adapt and we’re still functioning as as a band, even though we’re not rehearsing or gigging and we’re still trying to give plenty to talk about, especially because we’re on our own record label them as well. So, all that stuff, if we don’t do it, no one will like, you know, so we have to be on top of everything. And it’s, it’s cool, it’s fun and thankfully as I say, we have a good team that are good at different things”.
There’s a beaming sense of pride and love for the album throughout my conversation with lead singer O’Reilly. He mentioned it when we spoke, but there is a real sense of camaraderie between the group and their loved ones. After speaking to O’Reilly it feels wrong to label The Coronas a trio or a band, they’re much more than that, they’re a family.
Does anyone fancy some ice cream?
I also touched upon live shows when we spoke, back in the summer it seemed such a distant possibility, The Coronas did manage to find some creative solutions around the problem however, just this month they performed a live stream from Dublin’s Olympia for fans who could purchase tickets. Meanwhile in August, they launched the album with a series of record signings and a side of ice cream as they toured Ireland in a bespoke Ice Cream van as they handed out frozen treats whilst wearing personalised ‘True Love Waits’ face masks.
Following our chat, it’s safe to say ‘True Love Waits’ has resonated with fans after it debuted at No.1 on the Irish Album Chart, narrowly pipping the hotly anticipated sophomore record from Fontaines DC to the post. The group told the Official Charts “When we heard the news this morning we were taken aback. We’re still not sure it has completely sunk in yet. We are absolutely delighted and we want to thank all our Coronas team, especially our manager, Jim. Thanks to all our fans who bought, streamed and downloaded True Love Waits, the reaction to it has been amazing and it means so much to us”. It’s their second successive No.1 Album for the group and we’re proud to list it in our Top 25 Albums Of The Year.
The art of true love
‘Light Me Up’
‘Lost In The Thick Of It’
‘LA At Night’
The artwork for both the album and the singles for True Love Waits is truly stunning. I wanted to give a special highlight to the pieces and the artist behind them. As mentioned in our conversation they were made by Katie Chandler and you can find more of their astonishing work at katiechandler.com or by following them on Instagram @kchandlerart