In love with The Coronas
The gigs might have gone but Danny O’Reilly has every reason to be optimistic about the band’s new album
WILLIAM Shakespeare once pointed out that the course of true love never did run smooth. And it’s an adage that The Coronas have built their new album around. Released today, True Love Waits is the band’s new album and thanks to the pandemic, waiting is unfortunately inevitable in that the live shows to celebrate its release are postponed.
It’s been a turbulent record to make with the departure of guitarist Dave McPhillips causing a rethink before a pandemic with an unfortunate similarity set about destroying life as we knew it.
‘It’s a weird feeling,’ says frontman Danny O’Reilly over the course of a Zoom call. ‘At the moment we are really busy doing promo and it’s nice to be back doing stuff at all.
WE WERE meant to release it in May and we delayed it for a couple of months. We would have delayed it again, say, if it was clear that gigs were coming back in September. But we finished it at the end of last year and we released four songs off it so it just felt right to get it out.’
There had been a plan in place, according to Graham Knox, the band’s bassist, if it was a case of financial disaster, as it is this year for many musicians - but things are okay for the moment.
‘As soon as this happened our manger Jim got the accounts in order and basically said we will be grand until the end of the year but anything longer than that we will have to start looking into it,’ Graham explains.
‘At the moment we are working loads but it’s all outgoings,’ Danny says. ‘We are our own record label so we do everything, right down to music videos and organising launches. But it’s one of those things we’ve had plenty of discussions about ourselves and it doesn’t feel right to us at the moment to look into charging people for things online.
‘It’s a tough one. I’ve seen some bands doing paid gigs online but there’s so music stuff out there for free. We have been luckier than most in that we’ve had a good run for the last ten years in Ireland so we’d like to think we would be able to ride out the storm for the moment and get stuck back in when gigs come back — if they do — early next year.’
Gigging is how The Coronas earn their keep really and no-one ever thought it could disappear overnight the way it has.
‘If anything, the live gigging industry has been expanding over the years and it was one that people thought would be rock solid forever. That people will always want to go to gigs no matter what. So yeah - no one could have predicted this.’
It’s the technicians and crews that the lads feel most sorry for, those who put on gigs and work on a freelance basis, which is why they took part in last week’s Song From An Empty Room.
But they are hopeful that they will soon be able to perform some kind of live show somewhere as True Love Waits is an album they are extremely proud of.
‘We had four songs done last February that we recorded with Rob Kirwin in LA and that’s what we thought the album would sound like,’ says Danny. ‘But Dave sat us down last summer and said he hadn’t been happy and wanted to leave. We knew he hadn’t been enjoying it as much, especially the touring - but I was still a bit surprised that he wanted to leave.’
Danny initially felt he could talk his pal round but Dave convinced him it was the right thing to do. ‘He wanted to go back to college and do his own thing and in a way that led the album in a different direction.’
THEN things changed dramatically because, without Dave, the album was going to sound different anyway so Danny threw caution to the wind.
‘I started writing loads in the middle of last year with different people and we thought let’s just go with our instincts as it will sound different anyway,’ Danny says. ‘Recording stuff was really enjoyable with the three of us and our producer George Murphy in London.
‘We opened up the band instead of closing it down — we collaborated with so many people. Dave came over and played guitar on about five or six tracks, Lar Kaye from All Tvvins played guitar, Kian from True Tides played guitar and did backing vocals. My sister and Knoxy’s cousin in-law did backing vocals. We did the song Lost In the Thick of It with Gabrielle Aplin who we know as she is Alfie from Hudson Taylor’s partner.
‘It opened out the band to more people and that felt good. Our live band is already bigger anyway so that was nice to do. It was sort of natural and the album was a really enjoyable process to make. It was nice to be back in London as well because we used to live there.
‘Everything was going grand and we were excited about the next chapter. We had so many gigs planned — a tour of Britain, a tour of the US, a tour of Australia and all our shows in the summer. And everything was postponed or cancelled.
‘And then you throw in the extra weirdness of our unfortunate band name on top of that
which just sort of made the whole thing a bit mad. But here we are.’
The ‘unfortunate’ band name looked like it was going to be an issue but as Graham Knox points out: ‘We were here first. So we’re just going to ride that wave. At the start it was definitely a case of ‘oh s**t’ but the virus went to a whole new level and I don’t think people are comparing the two any more.’
Danny adds: ‘It wasn’t a great name to start with. At nearly every interview we have done someone has mentioned Corona beer, and now it’s going to be coronavirus.’
True Love Waits contains tales of lost love, break ups, difficulties but at its heart, Danny O’Reilly insists, there’s great optimism. Yes there’s an ending but out of that comes a new beginning. ‘It has optimism,’ he says. ‘It’s got the potential for happiness. I think it’s got moments of break ups of relationships but I was careful to not put any bitterness in there. I tried to always have the hint of optimism and even if things aren’t going well and themes of self improvement — trying to get the most out of a situation and learn from things. ‘It’s okay to give yourself a pat on the back sometimes and say you are doing alright and not be too hard on yourself. ‘You try to be the best version of yourself — the best bandmate, the best friend, the best son, the best brother that you can be. Those were the sort of themes I was drawn towards. ‘I think maybe those are the things that interest me when I listen to other bands. I am going through a phase of listening to the National, and Gang of Youths is another band I love - and the lyrics are all about getting into your early thirties and trying to be better and trying to appreciate things. To be grateful and enjoy the journey.
‘All that stuff tinged with a personal break up I went through a year ago, and then Dave leaving, and then the optimism that followed as we saw the next chapter unfold,’ Danny says of the new album’s inspirations.
‘I think I’m in a pretty good place at the moment I think those sort of lyrics ended up coming through.’
‘And then the virus hit,’ says Knoxy and they both start laughing.
In fact, lockdown was probably the longest period the bandmates had spent apart since they met as children. And it was hard. ‘He is one of the soundest people I have ever met,’ Danny says when asked what Graham is like. ‘We have been mates since we were kids and I love him with all my heart.’ And that love is reciprocated in this band of brothers by all three, including drummer Conor Egan. Graham says: ‘It’s like a brotherly thing. There’s never been a big fight - it’s just an argument and then it’s grand. We are mates first and bandmates second almost.’ While working on various aspects of the album release over lockdown, Graham has been able to enjoy uninterrupted time with his little daughter Juno who will be two in October.
And although being a father makes touring slightly more difficult as there’s even more of a pull to home, Graham feels he can fully be there for Juno when he’s not on the road.
‘It comes and goes in waves,’ Graham says. ‘When we are not touring or gigging which is generally half the year, I am here the whole time. I spend all my time with Juno and every once in a while I go away then.’
‘The other thing is my mother did it to me and I’ve only a few issues,’ says Danny, joking about being the famous offspring of folk star Mary Black.
‘When my ma was home she was fully home - she’d drop us to school, take us to football matches. And then when she was away we knew she was working and it got to the stage where we could go and visit her in the States on tour.’
But with drummer Conor Egan also married, does Danny not now feel like the odd one out?
‘Why do you think I got a dog?’ he jokes of his new rescue pup Jess. ‘I need someone to love me! No, Knoxy and Aoife have been together since before the band got going and the same with Conor and Niamh and I am envious of their love but I am so happy for them. Those relationships are solid — they got lucky.
‘I see the love that Juno brings and I am envious of that and hopefully one day... But I am happy out now with Jess (the pup). There’s no rush on that side of things.’
In fact the title track of the album True Love Waits is all about this.
‘That’s probably the only love song on the album and it’s about saying it will happen and being optimistic about it. I think that’s an important attitude to have — we don’t need to rush things, just let things happen and hopefully they will sort themselves out, pandemic aside,’ Danny says.
THERE will be a rush on this weekend as The Coronas hit the road on a mini-tour with a twist to sign copies of their album. They’ve joined forces with Murphy’s Ice Cream to tour in a Super Sprinkles ice-cream van, signing copies of their album and giving free pots of Murphy’s most popular flavour, Dingle Sea Salt, to their fans.
Today they’ll be hitting the Town Square in Mitchelstown in Cork, followed by stops in Limerick at famed music venue Dolan’s and finishing up at Murphy’s Ice Cream on High Street in Galway. On Saturday they will start off at Murphy’s Ice Cream on Wicklow Street in Dublin, then head to the Millpond in Dundrum Town Centre, finishing that evening outside Starbucks in Liffey Valley Shopping Centre in conjunction with Golden Discs.
The tour ends on Monday when first they will drive through Kilkenny around noon, visit City Square Shopping Centre in Waterford again with Golden Discs and then take a trip out to Dunmore East.
It’s not a gig, not yet anyway - but it shows The Coronas are still connecting with the legions of fans they have and are as ambitious as ever for True Love Waits to be a success.
‘We still have the hunger and I still think we have a lot to offer musically as well,’ Danny says. ‘Our fans have grown with us a bit and maybe we are in a different part of the whole scene now.
‘All I want is to get the album out and be able to play it live. You just fill a different part of the whole painting and maybe we’ve just shifted a little bit because our followers are getting a little bit older too — we’re not sleeping all day and drinking all night like we did,’ he says referencing their anthemic San Diego Song.
‘That was just honesty and our fans were students then as well. Now we are trying to be better people and people who have grown with us will relate to that.’