How it’s New York: The Coronas had hoped to promote their new album, ‘True Love Waits’ with shows in New York.
How it’s Irish: The band hail from County Dublin.
Mike Fitzpatrick chats with Danny O’Reilly, frontman with leading Irish act, The Coronas, who recently enjoyed having their latest album, ‘True Love Waits’, hit the top of the Irish album charts.
Jim Morrison had patience. Maybe Neil Young, John Lydon, Bob Geldof, Thom Yorke and the brothers Gallagher also, took a deep breath and smiled, each time they were asked about their respective bands’ names. Morrison, no doubt, enjoyed discussing Aldous Huxley’s ‘Doors of Perception’. Which ‘Boomtown’ did Geldof’s rats come from though, did Mr. Young once know of a crazy horse, or did he have an interest in Native American history? What was a ‘radiohead’, or a ‘sex pistol’? And what of this ‘oasis’, that Noel and Liam represented.
None of them however, shared their band’s name, with the single-most newsworthy event of any of our respective lifetimes. If Dubliner Danny O’Reilly has become tired, even irritated, of continually having to talk about his band’s name, The Coronas, as the Corona Virus continues to rampage across the globe, he hasn’t shown it. Indeed, he’s been, as he’s known to be, quite a gentleman, about the whole affair. A conversationalist, who enjoys the craic and the chat.
The affable Irishman, who recently, witnessed, rather than celebrated, the band’s sixth album, ‘True Love Waits’, hitting the top of the Irish charts, spoke with this writer, from his vacation in Dingle, County Kerry, and opened up about his hopes for the future, his concerns for the present, and his appreciation of the past.
Mike Fitzpatrick: The last time we spoke, the band was preparing to release the new album; ‘True Love Waits’. That’s since come out, and went to Number One in the Irish Album charts. Tell us about that.
Danny O’Reilly: It’s been a crazy few months, obviously, and nobody could have foreseen what’s happened, worldwide, with the virus. We were so much looking forward to going on the road, promoting the album, taking on a world tour, and doing a few big shows in Ireland in the summer, but or course, that all changed. We’re delighted though, to have gotten it released anyway. Initially, we had delayed it a few months, but it (eventually) felt right to release it. We could see there was definitely an appetite for new music from our followers, and it’s gotten a great reaction. We’ve not been able to promote it as we’d like to have, of course, but now it’s just about trying to weather the storm, and see how things are when we get back to normal. In the meantime, we’ll just start working towards the next one.
MF: You’ve had quite a unique way of promoting the album, how did that go?
DOR: Yes! Our manager had this genius idea, seeing as we couldn’t do our usual gigs, press events, in-store signings and so on. We couldn’t even go on the radio to do interviews or acoustic performances, so our manager had the idea of getting us together in an ice cream van, and driving around the country. People really took to us, it was one of those things, there’s so little going on, so people were just loving the fact that there was something different happening. We had people coming to us, having the album signed, and of course a free (socially distant) ice cream too! Then, the album went to the top of the charts. It was a great, fun way to launch the album.
MF: And you drove all over the country in the ice cream van?!
DOR: Well, we did about seven or eight stops. We went to Limerick, Athlone, Waterford, Sligo, Cork and then a few stops in Dublin. Initially it was just for a little promo, to get the album in people’s minds, but we didn’t reckon on such big crowds turning up. We thought there might be twenty or thirty people at each stop, you know, take a few photos, give some ice cream and move on, but there were hundreds at each stop, people queuing up down the street! Everyone we’ve met, has said that it was such a cool, fun idea.
MF: There’s a great duet on there, with Gabrielle Aplin, called ‘Lost in the Thick of It’. How did that come about?
DOR: Well Alfie Taylor and Gabrielle are good friends of ours. Alfie is Gabrielle’s fiance, he’s in a band called Hudson Taylor, and they live in Brighton. Last summer they invited me over to hang out for a few days. We said we might do a little writing while I was there, there was no pressure, so we’d have a bit of craic for the weekend. I brought my guitar, and, it was a very natural organic thing, just sitting there, one Saturday afternoon. I’d a piano riff prepared, and we just started jamming, and it all came together very quickly. I was kind of referencing that movie, ‘Juno’, in my head, it has some great music in it. It’s probably my favorite song on the album. After we wrote it, I said to Gabrielle and Alfie, that I thought it should have been a duet, and she stepped up, and she’s such a successful artist in her own right, it’s great to have her on the album. It felt right too, as we wrote it together. It was a lot of fun, and we got to play it live once, in Vicar Street, on the night before Christmas Eve. Nobody knew it of course, but it went down well.
MF: There’s one song, ‘I Think We Jinxed It’, where, and I’m probably way off here, but I feel your vocals sound a little like Brandon Flowers, of The Killers. Have you ever received any comparisons that flattered, or even irritated you before?
DOR: There are some I’ve heard, that I really don’t see or hear myself. I love The Killers, I’ve seen them several times and went to see Brandon Flowers on his solo tour when he played at The Academy, in Dublin. ‘Hot Fuss’, is probably one of our favorite albums, so, I’ll take that comparison! In the title track of ‘True Love Ways’, there is definitely a Coldplay influence too, when the band comes in towards the end, that’s our ‘lighter in the air ‘Fix You’ moment’!
MF: Looking at the Irish charts recently, The Coronas are up there with the likes of U2, Bruce Springsteen, Queen, David Bowie, Elton John and The Red Hot Chili Peppers, how does that feel?
DOR: It’s amazing, and now, we’ve done it for so long, it’s something we’re really proud of, to have had that longevity. It’s not easy, to keep a band together, as we found out. Our guitar player, and best friend, Dave, having taken a step back out of the group. But, the more we do it, the more we appreciate it. I’m looking at the charts with all those big names and we’ve never taken it for granted. Seeing our name, alongside those, and hearing we’re selling out gigs, or having top-selling albums, we just appreciate it all so much, that we’re, I suppose, still somewhat relevant.
MF: And the band’s audience has continued to develop.
DOR: It has, I love it when, we’d play in the US, and we get Americans come up to us, after a show, and tell us that they’d no idea that we had a back catalog. They’d only been familiar with a few songs, due to their coming up on their own Spotify playlists. That’s one good thing about streaming, and Spotify and all that, it kind of opens up your music to all kinds of new people.
MF: I had to ask at some stage, how has the band coped, with its name being continually associated with something so newsworthy, that there’s no escaping from?
DOR: Initially, there was a moment, when I thought that it was going to have a major negative impact on us. It was a natural response, and immediately, I felt so guilty, as this is such a serious thing. People are dying. I suppose, it is natural, to be concerned about our livelihoods, and while, obviously, we’re very concerned, I don’t think we’ll be changing our name. By all accounts, our Spotify figures are up more than ever, and I’d like to think that’s due to us releasing good music, but who knows? The album has done well, and we seem to be doing more interviews than ever. I think some interviews are done, perhaps just because of the name angle, but that doesn’t bother me. I don’t mind mentioning our (currently) unfortunate band name for one question, then spend ten minutes talking about the album.
MF: And how about the future?
DOR: Well, moving forward, I don’t know if the band’s name will be a positive thing or not, eventually, when we, the human race, beat the virus, maybe it’ll have some sort of positive effect, but it would have been defeatist for us to change our name. But, the pandemic is so incomparable to everything, and so big. Initially, when it was small, there were (internet memes) and so on, but now, it’s just out there, and has almost lost meaning, and it weirdly, concerns me less, the bigger it has become, where the band’s name is concerned, but, we’re moving forward.
MF: How do you think new bands are coping in the current climate?
DOR: I think it’s been a really difficult time for everyone. For us, personally, when the lockdown hit, I was thinking, we’d have been affected a lot more if we’d just been starting out. It’s so important (if a band wants to keep going), to be authentic, to have good management, have friends help out, have people you trust around you. That’s all been so important to us. My young nieces are now just starting out, and I tell them, to just keep writing and practicing. You need talent, the right people, but you need luck too. We’ve seen so many great acts over the years, some good friends of ours, we’d hear their work, think they were going to be huge, and it just didn’t happen.
MF: There’s a lot of Irish acts in the charts too, how is the current Irish scene?
DOR: It’s an amazing time for Irish music. When we came along, there was a bunch of great bands, and we were kind of riding along on their coattails, we were the new guys on the block. Whatever the time though, Ireland just keeps producing great acts. There’s Dermot Kennedy, he’s had an amazing few years, Hozier, Niall Horan, Picture This, The Academic, Fontaines DC, and then there are a bunch of Irish female artists, breaking through which is great. It’s an exciting time for Irish music, and I think, that when gigs do come back, hopefully next summer, there’ll be a lot of festivals in Ireland that will have mostly, or all, Irish acts.
MF: Due to American and UK-based bands not touring as much?
DOR: Yes, if you look at Electric Picnic, you might have the likes of Hozier, The Script and Dermot Kennedy, headlining the festival, then maybe ourselves and Bell X1, second on the bill, or whatever. I feel that there are bands and performers out there to fill every slot, and every genre of music. Fontaines DC, they’re such a perfect example, they’ve come along, and their new album is great, I love it. Then, there are new R’n’B and rap artists, coming through, so I’m excited about that too. There may still be restrictions on capacities and distancing and so on next summer, so I don’t think there’ll be many American acts coming over, so there could be a cool run of gigs next summer with all the Irish acts getting together supporting one another, and its about time as the scene here is so supportive. Niall Horan has mentioned us several times in Instagram. He has no need to, we don’t share management or a label, and the same with Hozier, those little things are just so cool, that support. So, next summer, will be a lot of fun, we’ll see what happens.
The Coronas’ latest album; ‘True Love Waits’, is available now…..
