They're playing Boyle, Belmullet, Buncrana and Brian's wedding after backing a Beatle. The Coronas tell LAUREN MURPHYthat they're expanding their target audience
‘HE WAS really cool,” Coronas frontman Danny O’Reilly is saying, stirring a cup of tea and enviously eyeing up his bandmate’s cheesecake across the table. “He made an effort to come down and meet us, and we got a photo with him and everything. We were just standing there, and he’s pulling these cheesy ‘thumbs up’ poses.”
It’s been less than a week since The Coronas supported Paul McCartney at the RDS – probably the biggest support slot of their career to date. But Dublin’s own mop-topped fab four take gigs like warming up for a Beatle in their stride these days. Last month, they toured Australia; last week, they played the Isle of Wight festival, and this coming weekend, they’re back to the UK for another festival date before returning to play Oxegen’s main stage for the third year running.
And it’s not that they’re particularly arrogant, but really, The Coronas couldn’t care less what you think of them. Clustered around a table in a small, bustling café in their home town of Terenure, they’re a polite, affable and good-humoured bunch.
It’s not what their detractors would have you believe; the past few years has seen the pop-rockers painted as overprivileged idlers, serving as bullseyes on the metaphorical dartboard of indie snobs everywhere. It’s something that they’re well aware of, but the respect of their fellow musicians isn’t something they particularly strive for. O’Reilly, who’s now used to being customarily referred to as “son of folk icon Mary Black” in interviews, is something of a reluctant spokesman, but an articulate one nonetheless.
“There was a poll in some LA magazine of the most liked celebrity and the most disliked celebrity, and Bono topped both,” he laughs. “I think the better you’re doing, there’s always gonna be more people having a go. I’ve heard people getting in sly digs here and there, but it doesn’t really bother me. We’ve never really had a great relationship with the press, there’s never been any real hype about us in the media. I think I’d rather be in the position that we’re in than be critically acclaimed and not sell out any gigs.”
Putting out a second album that sounded less like a collection of songs scrappily written on the back of a homework journal, and more like a professional record helped their cause somewhat. Tony Was an Ex-Con, the follow-up to 2007's Heroes or Ghosts, was recorded in the Cornwall studio of John Cornfield and undeniably benefitted from the experienced producer's steering hand.
"We were quite young when we went into the record the first album," he nods. "We'd just gone 21 and just finished college. We hadn't really done much gigging outside Dublin, never mind outside Ireland. We'd done a few demos here and there, but we were really thrown into the deep end when it came to the first album. But it gave us a really good starting point." Perhaps it was a combination of that greenness and the desire to write a hit song that led to their best-known (and best-loathed, depending on who you're talking to) tune, San Diego Song. With its chorus of "We sleep all day, and we drink all night", it was scoffed at by many who snarkily dismissed it as "J1 pop". They'll readily admit that their songwriting has evolved since then – but now slightly older and wiser, can they honestly continue to sing such a song with conviction? Will it still be in their setlist in five, 10 years' time? "Ten years?! For the reunion tour, maybe," laughs guitarist Dave McPhillips.
“It’s always a fun song to play live,” O’Reilly adds with a shrug. “Once the crowd are enjoying it and singing it back to you, that makes it a lot easier. It zoned in on a certain mindset of a lot of students, and that was totally by accident. It is what it is. It’s great to have it there and to have a crowd-pleaser. We’ll never begrudge it for what it’s done for us.”
The early days of The Coronas were frequently filled with numerous school and college gigs. Two years ago, O’Reilly said that hearing 13-year-old girls shout “inappropriate” things at the band made him more than a little uncomfortable, but there has been a perceptible, if ever-so-slight shift in their audiences since then.
“I think the second album has a lot to do with it, it wasn’t quite as polished. And the way the singles have got airplay on the radio this time around – the songs are getting to an older audience or a broader audience, maybe,” nods O’Reilly. “It’s nothing we’ve ever thought about or tried to aim for, really – we just do what we do and try to write good tunes. But it did feel like we were making something together the second time around. It felt more professional. John was after a live kind of sound, which was what we wanted. It made us tighter, because we pretty much played it live.”
Playing live has always been a priority for the foursome, who have gigged extensively across Ireland, as well as touring the UK, US and Australia. It’s not all big international dates and festival frolics, though; a glance at their upcoming tour schedule reveals forthcoming stop-offs in Boyle, Belmullet and Buncrana. “It’s funny, people really appreciate you going to the back arse of nowhere to do a gig. We did a gig in Belmullet last year and they told us it was the best thing to ever happen to the town,” says O’Reilly. “They just couldn’t believe we went down there, but that’s our bread and butter. That’s how we afford to get to be in a band.”
It’s a combination of playing the local gigs and being signed to an independent label (3ú Records, owned by O’Reilly’s father, Joe) that allows them the space and time to write album number three. Although there’s no pressure to deliver it anytime soon, the foursome acknowledge that they need international backing to really break outside of Ireland in any meaningful way. A management deal has already been signed with a US company, and they’ll head to Los Angeles in November to play showcases with the hope of picking up a label to ply their wares Stateside.
“We’re confident in our own ability,” says McPhillips. “We feel like we’ve got it together in many ways with the new songs. We know what we’re doing now – that’s not to begrudge any of the other songs. We’re proud of everything we’ve written.”
"Sometimes you get into your comfort zone playing gigs in Ireland," agrees O'Reilly. "You know you can play San Diego Songand the crowd will sing it back to you, and it's sort of all going well even if it's not going well, type-thing. We don't wanna get cynical and say 'Oh, why aren't we getting signed?' sort of thing – it just hasn't happened for us so far. And they way the industry's going at the moment, it's hard to know what's ahead. But we're hoping at this stage that we'll do a good enough third album that people won't be able to ignore it overseas, and someone will pick it up."
Just as the cups are being cleared from the table, I ask whether McCartney imparted any sage advice or inspirational counsel backstage at the RDS. “Well, when he asked me what I played and I told him bass, he just said ‘Stay together’,” says Graham Knox with a sombre nod. Wise words, if ever they were spoken.
The Coronas play Brian O’Driscoll’s wedding barbecue tomorrow and Oxegen’s Main Stage on Friday, July 9th. For further Irish tour dates, see www.thecoronas.net
