Stars in Ireland but unknown anywhere else. Now Coronas want to change that
Danny O’Reilly on break-up songs and coming out from the shadow of his famous mother
The Coronas are still that rare thing in the Irish music industry: a rock band that can sell out some of the largest venues in this country, yet are virtually unknown overseas. Even when they play their next gig in Belfast, it will be in the 500-seat capacity Mandela Hall but come February it’s highly likely that they will have sold all 14,000 tickets available for their 3Arena gig in Dublin.
The Coronas formed while still at school in Terenure College. They have now been together for 11 years and have three platinum-selling albums on their own 3ú label to their name.
Now international success may finally be beckoning as they have signed to a major label. The first fruit from the Island/Coronas coupling is The Long
Way, out next week. You would imagine that their likely elevation to the next level would be universally welcomed. Yet I’ve heard many in the Irish music industry sniff at the success of the Dublin-based quartet.
Sceptics point to the fact that lead singer Danny O’Reilly’s mother is Mary Black. His father, Joe O’Reilly, runs the Dara record label. Danny’s aunt is Frances Black. Some contend that a pot-hole free road to success was laid before them. The fact that Danny enjoyed a high-profile relationship for several years with presenter Laura Whitmore (who even appeared in the video for the single Mark
My Words) and also dated Love/ Hate star Aoibhinn McGinnitty was seen as further proof that the Coronas were just some hyped entity, not quite authentic; fodder for the gossip columns.
Sitting in the offices of their new label recently, Danny and guitarist Dave McPhillips were happy to reject all the charges and started with how their ascent to success began. ‘We took many small steps forward before we got to the stage where we were ready for the major label and the next level,’ Danny says.
‘We started out playing in tiny pubs and clubs just like everybody else.
‘Then when we became established we had interest from Irish-based major labels. At that time we felt that we were doing well enough in terms of radio play and our records were being distributed properly here; we didn’t feel we needed to be signed to a major label for Ireland.
‘Now, though, we are just beginning to feel the benefits of being on a major label. We would have been scrabbling around trying to arrange this interview with you by ourselves and to have Island’s expertise now means we can get on with so many more things musically.’
Their first two albums, Heroes Or Ghosts and Tony Was An ex-Con, achieved platinum sales due to that relentless gigging schedule. However, after the release of their third album, Closer To You, the band felt that they were becoming ‘too comfortable’.
‘We moved to London with the idea of putting ourselves into the shop window,’ Dave says. ‘We also knew we had to change how we approached things to really progress.’
Danny adds: ‘We became big in Ireland but it’s a small territory. When that happens in any country to any band, they end up doing less gigs. When we started out we were doing four or five gigs a week regularly. Then you get to the stage where you are only doing two big gigs a year and that means you spend less time with each other making music.
‘We started making this album two years ago. We wrote 12 songs down in Dingle and only one of those songs has made the album. We moved to London and all the songs we wrote there were stronger.
‘We were living together and we got that urge again to be better, more ambitious.’
Many of the songs on the new album fall into the category of ‘break-up’ songs and because of his relationship with Laura Whitmore, Danny knows many will see those tracks as reflecting the break-up of their relationship.
‘My songwriting has always been the same, it’s always been personal stuff to me,’ Danny says. ‘The first album, Heroes Or Ghosts,
‘My songwriting has always been the same... it’s always been about personal stuff. If I tried to change, I would fail’
was a break-up album but the person who those songs were written about wasn’t high profile. If I had tried to change my way of songwriting I would have failed.’
When one hears the line: ‘If you have something constructive to say about my present or future, yeah you know where I am.’ It sounds like a classic phone hang-up line. Does he store those little zingers somewhere for future use?
‘I don’t collect them. I wouldn’t look through my old text messages to see if there are any good lyrics there,’ he laughs.
Danny also admits that his attitude has changed over the years to questions about being the son of Mary Black.
‘In the beginning I didn’t want to talk about my mam for the very reason that people might think I was using that connection for us to get attention.
‘Now that we’ve had some success off our own bat, I’m happy to talk about her. She is a legend and I am very proud of her.
‘But we know about the begrudgery of the Irish – if I didn’t have a mother who was a singer they would find something else,’ he adds.