Irish Superstars The Coronas played BST Hyde Park on the 6th July 2023 in support of Bruce Springsteen. Having found success with songs such as ‘San Diego Song’, ‘Heroes or Ghosts’ and ‘Give Me A Minute’ the band have been on the scene since 2003 taking their rock sound global.
I sat down with Danny O’ Reilly to discuss new albums, what it’s like playing to an Irish crowd and meeting Joe Biden.
The Coronas have got a busy week. You’re supporting Bruce Springsteen tonight and you’ve got TRNSMT Festival in Scotland this weekend.
Yeah, it’s great to be back doing some festivals. It’s a great summer for us because we’re busy but we’re not overly busy. It’s festivals at weekends so you get a few days off with time to meet friends. Even in Glasgow, I’m thinking about spending a bit of time hanging on to see the other acts. That’s the best thing about festivals, you get to see other bands.
Your show to the home crowd at Fairview Park was sold out. How does it feel to play to the Irish crowd when you sell out the gig?
It’s incredible. That night in particular was just one of the magical ones that we will remember. It was the perfect sized venue for us at home. With the amount of albums we’ve had and the amount of songs we’ve had, it was just perfect. It was covered but not indoors and it was a nice day. Everything worked out well. We spent a lot of time working on the show as well. When you do shows like that, you’re sort of in competition with bigger bands so you want to put on a big production as well. You have to adjust the show to the size of the venue and stage. Thankfully, we had toured a lot since the album (‘Time Stopped’) had come out and we’d spent three months on the road so we were playing ok.
On the note of the new album, ‘Time Stopped’, how has it fared on the road? As much as I hate referencing what seems like the distant memory of Covid now, it was a pandemic album.
Yeah, amazing. The reaction has been incredible. For a band like us who have been around for a long time with a good few albums, I would be happy enough if we were considered just a nostalgia band, just playing the old stuff. I would take that but thankfully, touch wood, it’s not just that. Our crowd seem to have grown, they want to hear the new stuff. The last two albums, we actually released one (‘True Love Waits’) at the start of the pandemic meant that we were actually promoting two new albums and we were thinking ‘are people going to be ok listening to two new albums worth of music’ but they loved it. Everywhere we go, we see people sing back the newer stuff. We’ve found moments in the sets where we can do some old stuff and new stuff. It can get harder at a festival like this where 40 minutes is tricky especially when you’ve got seven albums but its a good complaint I suppose.
Covid was a strange time for musicians as well as audiences. Fans were having to dive into live streams of bands and find things out through the internet mainly so it was a strange time for artist as well as consumer.
One hundred percent. We made a conscious effort not to overdo the streaming thing. We did one big stream in which we put a lot of thought and money into instead of doing one every Friday in our living room. Post Covid, people are still a bit unsure. I think the big shows are doing really well. Thankfully in Ireland, we just fall on that side of putting on bigger shows because I know that across the board tickets seem to be down. People seem to be a bit non committal. We just feel grateful to come out the back of Covid with two years of uncertainty not knowing how and if it would come back. Now we’re just appreciative of what we do. Even then just sitting with the band and crew just chatting, it’s great. Everyone just has that little bit more appreciation.
Would you say that your songwriting changed a lot during the newer album, writing it in that time?
Yeah, I’d say it was gradual. We moved over here and signed to Island and ‘The Long Way’ record came out which was probably our most successful album but after that when we went back, Island dropped us and it was like ok what now, we’re a big band in Ireland that failed after signing to a major label. That was the first time I struggled with writers block, I just didn’t like what I was writing. That was the first time it had happened to me. I used to have this confidence and flow with writing. In recent years, I learnt a lot about myself as a writer. I could appreciate what I was good at but I was also a lot less about locking myself away to write the next album and then show everyone at the end of it. Now it’s a lot more collaborative. Even though we’re now a three piece as The Coronas, we write with a lot of people. There’s a few people that I trust to give a bit of an idea to and work on it together. I’ve opened up my songwriting to all my talented friends to use different bits from different people. The first three albums, I wrote all the songs myself and I would bring it to the band with an acoustic guitar and we’d arrange it but now it’s more collaborative. It’s something I’m really comfortable with and excited about. Still a lot of the lyrics I do myself but it’s just sonically and melodically I’m working with a lot of different people and that’s helping evolve our sound.
Would you say that the latest album is a testament to that? It’s varied with ‘Don’t You Say You Love Me’, ‘Write Your Own Soundtrack’ having different edges for example.
Oh definitely. The collaborating with different people is with people who know us, three of them are playing live with us today. Even the producer that we recorded the last two albums with in Eastcote Studios is brilliant. He knows us, knows how to develop us. Shows us how to approach things in slightly different ways.
As a band, you’ve been in the industry a while. You have some family roots in it too. What would you say the biggest lesson as a band you’ve learnt is?
I think enjoying it, enjoying the journey is important. You can always look at other bands and artists and go ‘oh look at what they’re doing, they’re playing the later slot or they’re getting this label’ or whatever but I always say there’s no guarantee that Chris Martin is a happier human being than I am just because his band is huge. I love Coldplay and I’m sure he is happy but there’s no guarantee he is! If you told me when we started we’d be playing Hyde Park on the same bill as Bruce Springsteen and Frank Turner I’d be like wow! Then when you get there, you think what’s the next band doing over there? It’s just enjoying the journey as you’re going through it. I think Covid made us notice that more.
You’ve probably got more of a personal mission to be a bit more rock ’n’ roll than your own Mum (Mary Black). Actually, a Google search on your name brings up her name and then ‘is Danny O’ Reilly married’?
That’s hilarious *laughs*. In Ireland, my Mum is a huge legend and I told her we sold out Shepherds Bush here and she said ‘ah come back to me when you sell out three nights in the Albert Hall’. I’m like wow! Not only are our genres different with us being more rock and her Irish folk, the industry has changed a lot since her peak in the 90’s. She’s very supportive. I’m sure she’d probably wish I’d settle down and get married alright but she’s just proud. She encouraged me and my sister (Roisin O) to write at an early stage which is the best bit of advice she gave us. It’s funny because we toured in Japan and I was doing an interview out there and the first thing the guy said to me was ‘so Mary Black…’. I rang my Mum afterwards and told her I couldn’t believe they were asking after her and she told me she’d toured Japan loads of times. In my head she’s just my Mum but you forget I suppose. Last September we played a big festival in Ireland called Electric Picnic’ and she got up on stage with us. We learnt one of her songs and played it and the crowd went mental. It was moments like that, that I didn’t ever think I’d do in the early days. In fact, if an interviewer had asked if it was to ok to ask about my mother, I’d say I’d rather you didn’t but now I’m just proud of her. We’re established enough in our own right now so I’m happy to talk about her now.
There was a picture of you recently with Joe Biden, I imagine that was probably the most nerve wracking photo you’ve taken?
That was funny the way it happened. We only found out about it three days before. It was all cloak and daggers with security everywhere. He was very charismatic when we got to meet him. I wasn’t sure what he’d be like and people had said he’s pushing on a bit but he was really lovely talking about golf and Ireland. We did it before for Obama as well so we’re doing well for the Democrats *laughs*.
It’s funny when he’s in his full suit with his Presidential smile, it almost looks fake.
People have asked us that, he looks a little like a wax work. Sometimes that happens though. We supported Paul Mcartney once and he gave it the big double peace sign, cliché Mcartney in the photo. When you look at it, it’s like is that really him or is that a cardboard cut out *laughs*. I suppose when you’ve taken so many photos over the years, you’ve just got your thing. We’ve got an American tour in March and it’s an angle now to be able to talk about having your photo with Biden.
What are your future plans for 2023? Obviously you’ve just mentioned the American tour.
That’s early next year, we’ve got a few good festivals coming up. Then we’re writing for the next album. I don’t think we’ll record it until next year and hope to have it out by the end of 2024. That’s the rough plan. I’ve got a handful of songs written so far. Like I said, we’ve had two albums come out recently so there’s not mad pressure but at the same time, it feels like we’ve gotten this album cycle out of our hands. Put it this way, by the time we get to America in March next year, I think we’ll be playing some unreleased new songs. That’s the way we’ve always gone. We just roll onto the next album. Even though we’ve never got huge, we just took baby steps forward. I think we learnt a lot on the fly, even in the first album. You’d have a studio for two weeks and I remember we had eight songs and it was like ‘oh, you better write a few more then’. Nowadays, when you finish an album, I do wonder, is the tank empty, is there another one in us? But once you get one little idea that you like, you then get your eye on the next one. One step in front of the other.
The Coronas’ album ‘Time Stopped’ is out now. Watch the video for ‘Getaway Car’ below:
