Dublin’s finest The Coronas, are set to release their eighth studio album, Thoughts & Observations which is out this Friday, September 27. The trio are excited, as they close in on their upcoming Australian live shows this November, with tickets already selling fast, with Sydney’s show at Selina’s all ready sold out.
A multi-platinum group who can claim supporting Bruce Springsteen in Hyde Park, playing for President Biden, and a burgeoning global fanbase, The Coronas’ last three albums also went straight to #1 in the Irish Charts, with recent sold out tours in their wake spanning North America and Australia further showcasing the trio’s successful and ever-growing legacy.
We spoke to Danny O’Reilly as he was unpacking the brand new vinyl at home, and talked about the excitement of the new record, running their own label and the anticipation building around their return to Australia.
Danny: Hello, Sean.
Sean: Danny, how are you?
Danny: Not too bad. How are you?
Sean: Yeah, very, very well, thank you, Danny. Thank you so much for your time, for the chat. How’s things for you? Where you are?
Danny: Great, great. I’m here sitting in Dublin. It’s a sunny morning, but it’s gone really cold here. You can really feel the winter coming in, just even in the last week. I mean, we had a pretty bad summer anyway, but yeah, the temperatures have dropped now. So I’m already thinking about being in Australia in November and getting to the good weather and chilling out on Coogee Beach or wherever we have a little bit of time off, you know, so yeah I’m looking forward to it.
Sean: We’ve just swung the other way. We’ve just had our first proper Spring day today with 24 degrees, here in Perth and not a cloud in the sky. It’s the first day I didn’t have to have a coat on [laughs] so yeah, beautiful so it’s just swung around for you in time for a lovely summer visit.
Danny: [laughs] I thought Perth was nice all year round.
Sean: We get some cold mornings in the winter and we have had a wet one this year but we’ve finally turned the corner. We get so many bands come over to Australia, as you’re probably well aware and sometimes just they can’t get to Perth through logistics or whatever but it’s great to see you’ve managed to squeeze Perth in on your dates in November which is fantastic.
Danny: Yeah, we’re looking forward to it and Perth’s always been really good for us and you’re right, even this time we couldn’t squeeze in Brisbane or Adelaide the way it worked out. And Brisbane we played the last time, we played Adelaide before. But Perth has always been great for us. We played there a couple of times, whether it be out in Fremantle or in the city. And yeah, we’re really buzzing. And this time we’re there on a Saturday night. So I hear the tickets are flying. I only heard last week that our Sydney show is sold out. So we’re hoping by November we can get all three shows sold out. So it’s an exciting time Sean.
Sean: Well of course ‘Thoughts and Observations’… the countdown is on. I think we’re about fifteen days away before the release. Some of the singles are out there to have a listen. They’ve dropped already – I think I’m right in saying there’s four out there that are available to listen to and what a wonderful sound you guys have got going on again.
Danny: Thank you very much Sean. Yeah, we’re proud of the album and it came together pretty well. We recorded in London in January and yeah, we’ve been sort of drip feeding the songs out to our fans and the reaction so far has been great. So yeah, buzzing now to get it out. I have it here. I just got the vinyl yesterday. Can I show you? It looks pretty (Danny holds up the brand new vinyl – it looks fantastic!)
Sean: Oh, wow.
Danny: Yeah. So that’s the vinyl there. I literally just got it. So, we’re going in today to our manager’s office to sign them for the pre-orders and all that sort of stuff. That’s the sort of stage we’re at now with the album, which is coming out on the 27th, where we’re signing and doing a lot of interviews and all the sort of behind the scenes stuff that isn’t quite as glamorous as tour life. But we’ve started our own label now. So there’s a lot of that stuff that needs to be done. And yeah, it almost, almost… I’m not going to say this because my girlfriend is slagging me… [laughs] It almost feels like we have a bit of a nine to five day job at the moment because we’re label people as opposed to band. And she’s like, “You do not have a nine to five, like, you know?” [laughs] So yeah, we’re getting a lot of work done.
There’s a lot of Zoom meetings and WhatsApps. And that’s the thing, when you start your own label, like when we were signed to Island Records in the UK and whenever things go badly, when you have a label, you go, “oh, the label didn’t do this. They didn’t release the right song and they didn’t promote us this way or that way.” But when you’re your own label, you’ve only yourself to blame. So it’s like, oh, we better start working harder. So that’s what’s happened. It’s made us work a lot harder. And we have teams in place. And obviously, we license the album overseas and we have different labels in different territories. So that’s the way it works. So there’s a lot of meetings, a lot of planning. But we enjoy it and we enjoy the process of all that stuff and even the organizing side now. We’re doing a launch tour here in Ireland in the next couple of weeks and we’re playing some small venues, doing some signings and stuff like that and all of that stuff logistically, it just has to be organized. It’s a lot of fun, though we enjoy the the challenge and it makes you appreciate life on the road then when you’re just busy gigging.
Sean: Does that add to the pressure or release pressure that you’re running your own label? As you said, you do have that control of picking the songs to release and even the direction the album will, take musically.
Danny: It’s funny that, because when you’ve no one else saying that it should be this song or it should be this single next, it’s actually harder because we are going, “Is this the right one?” and you start second guessing yourself and you go, “well should we release a song that we think might get some radio play or should we release a song that we really like or should we release a song that maybe might work on tic toc?” [laughs] Like what the hell is that sort of conversation? This is something that we never had when we started the band, you know. I mean our first album came out in the late naughties and it was still physical, you know what i mean? So the industry has changed so much but I do think in answer to your question, I don’t know if it heightens the pressure but it definitely makes us work harder and we have a bit more because you feel a bit more proud when it goes well.
Our last album went to number one here in Ireland and it was a nice moment because we had put the work in, you know and as an indie band that was a big thing so we definitely work hard. I don’t know about pressure – we’re proud of the album and we’re happy to get it out and often there are times it’s out of your hands. We don’t really know how it’ll connect with people but so far the reaction has been amazing but you never really know. The only thing I think we’ve learned a couple albums ago is that we need to be really just proud of the music first and foremost and really like it ourselves and I think once you start thinking about what other people might like or what might work on tiktok or what ever this type of current music that’s getting played on then that sort of contrived thing doesn’t work. So I think we’re just excited to get it out. And I’m not really nervous about getting it out. I’m just happy to get it out into the world. And then I’ll start working on the next one. And, you know, I think we’ve gotten better over the years, as I say, of just sort of going, separating ourselves from it. But yeah, we work very hard for the release in a good way.
Sean: It’s great to see the vinyl in your hands and even better to see that vinyl sales are back up nice and high. I hope you’re bringing plenty of copies here to Australia because I’ll be grabbing a signed copy when you guys get to Perth [laughs].
Danny: Absolutely and you’re right, it is a big thing for us and even with charting in Ireland one physical copy is worth like 3,000 streams… I don’t know how it works or whatever but so the week of the album we’ll be going around the country trying to flog them and I’m the same as you, I’ve got vinyl downstairs and I love getting a new vinyl of my favourite act or whatever. I have even got one of my favourite Aussie bands, a band called Gang of Youths and I pre-ordered their album and I have it downstairs and I have it hanging on the wall. I am that old sort of nerd who likes opening up a physical copy as well but yeah it’s great to see that vinyl sales are back.
We put a lot more thought into design and and the layout of the record and thankfully our bass player Knoxy has an interest in design and and crafting and all those things and bringing them all together and so it’s not my forte but I go, “yeah that’s cool – well done.” [laughs] But I suppose that I have my other attributes that I bring to the band but it’s cool. And that’s another thing we’ve done with the label is we delegate the work between us nicely. Conor, our drummer does a lot of the live stuff – he’s almost like a production manager for our live shows and as I say Knoxy does a lot of the sleeve design and merch and online socials. He’d be the first one to to update the socials and all that and our manager then does a lot of all the logistics and all the distribution and connecting with our other licensee labels or whatever and so it’s a big team effort for sure but we enjoy it.
Sean: Talking of a team effort, how does the song writing go for you guys when putting together an album? Has it been a very similar process every time, because obviously this is now the eighth studio album. Has it now become a quite slick operation where you all sit around together or is it ideas pinging around Whatsapp?
Danny: Yeah it’s a bit more probably like that now. It sort of changed over the years and as I say, in the early days I used to almost write maybe an almost complete song on an acoustic guitar, like start to finish and bring it to the band and then we’d work on it, work on the lyrics and work on our parts and arrange it and that would be how the song would be written for the most part. Sometimes we’d sit around in a room and just work from scratch as well but these days it’s a lot more, I’ll do a bit on the laptop and I’ll make a little demo now and I’ll purposely make it sound terrible… I’m not a great producer anyway but I’ll just do it on Garage Band or very basic on Logic or whatever and try not to spend too much time on it but if the song sounds okay with all terrible sounds and all the mistakes and little bits, then we know we have potential and I’ll literally Whatsapp them, as you say, little bits of demos to the rest of the band and that’s when I get nervous… more nervous than when we actually release an album because really the only two people in the world I’m trying to impress most with my song writing are the other two guys in the band and that’s Knoxy and Conor and if they’re excited about something then I get more excited about it as well.
Then we’ll work on them together and develop the idea and I’ll do some co-writing with different friends of mine, our live band as well have gotten involved in some song writing. They’re really talented producers and writers themselves, so Lar Kaye who plays guitar with us, he’s in an amazing band called All Tvvins who are fantastic as well and Cian MacSweeney who is a singer and producer. He plays saxophone with us and keyboards, and he’s a great producer and songwriter as well. So we have talented people around us that I work with or might bring an idea to or work with the band. So it’s different for each song. But for this album in particular, I had a bunch of songs on demos, and we sort of wanted to make them work organically.
So myself, Knoxy, and Conor went in to a small little studio around the corner from here with the producer, George Murphy. We flew him back from London… he’s from London and we flew him in here for three days. And we just went through all the demos that I had and just fleshed them out, because sometimes a demo can sound interesting, but you get into a room and it doesn’t really work. And that’s when the songs really become Corona songs and not just crappy demos on my laptop. We worked them out and see what sounds good as a three piece and no bells and whistles no extra synths or guitars, just myself on the piano, one vocal and a drum and bass and if there’s magic in that then we know that everything we add on top of it will just be better so that was how we fleshed out a lot of the songs for this album and it worked and it was a really enjoyable process.
Sean: Obviously, we touched briefly on the tour in November on the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd. It’s one of those horrible whirlwind, let’s cram three days into the biggest country in the world you possibly can but its great to see that tickets are selling – we’ll put the link in the interview somewhere and I just know there will be three sold out shows come November 20th but Danny, I’d love to finish with a couple of general questions if I may and the first is my dinner guest question: If you could invite three musicians, dead or alive to join you for a bit of dinner who would you have sat around the table for the evening?
Danny: Great question Sean. I would have to say Paul McCartney. I’m obsessed with The Beatles and I think it would have to be Paul because I watched the documentary ‘Get Back’ a while ago and I just found it so fascinating – he was sort of the leader of the band and I would have assumed it would have been John Lennon but he was definitely the driving force. I saw him getting interviewed one time where he said when his kids were younger, like in their teens or whatever, their friends would come over to the house and start asking about Beatles songs and how did you write that song and how did your right this song and his kids are like rolling their eyes at him but that would be me. [laughs] If i got over to his house I would just talk to him about Beatles music and how he wrote this and how he wrote that. And I’d be throwing out hours of annoying questions for him. So he might not enjoy the dinner party, but I would enjoy the dinner party. [laughs]
And then I suppose, OK, two other musicians… I’d say Prince, because he’d be just so much fun. I’d say he’s such sort of an odd character and it would create a bit of strangeness and uneasiness but I’m sure he’d have some interesting stories as well. And okay, the third musician I want someone like Leonard Cohen or someone might have some deep reflections and thoughtful things to say you and maybe have some life advice so I’m gonna say those three.
Sean: Great table and love the way you have said why for each on too. Well, you touched on your vinyl and your love of music so here’s one. What was the last album you listened to?
Danny: The last album I listened to, I think it was James Vincent McMorrow. He’s an Irish singer songwriter, he’s brilliant and he just released an album (Wide Open, Horses) so I definitely listened to that last week. I’m sure there’s something I probably listened to since then but that was probably the last sit down album where I was like, “okay, James has a new album out and I’m gonna sit down and listen to it start to finish.” And it’s great – he’s a really talented singer songwriter and he is successful and has had a few albums now and it’s definitely worth a listen. I think it’s probably his best album since his first two which I really, really like as well. Yeah James Vincent McMorrow, he’s really cool, he’s really chill and really nice and he’s got a great voice. I mentioned my favourite Aussie band Gang of Youths… I love them as well so I’m hoping that they might have some new music so that was probably the last vinyl I put on where I actually sat down and put on. The National are another band that I’m obsessed with. They’re from Cincinnati and they’ve had a load of albums and I listen to them all the time. So they’re definitely a big influence on me. So that’s probably another one that I’ve listened to recently.
Sean: Very final question. If you could be credited with writing any song ever written, what song would you choose?
Danny: Oh, there’s so many. I mean, I could go for the real greedy answer and just say like some successful Christmas song, like, you know, ‘A Fairytale in New York’ or whatever, because it makes the royalties every Christmas, like, and it is a great song. But I would say if I could write any song of all time, I would say, I don’t know, maybe like ‘Paranoid Android’ by Radiohead or something that is like, or ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ by Queen. When I listen to a song like that you’re just like, how how did they come up with that part and and how nicely the bits run into each other, those songs that have different sections like and it works so well so definitely Bohemian Rhapsody or as I say Radiohead if I want to impress my hipster music friends a little bit more I’ll say [laughs] Radiohead and ‘Paranoid Android’.
Sean: Well, we wish you all the best for the album release and of course we wish you safe travels for when you head down to see us in November too.
Danny: Thank you so much Sean. It’s been lovely chatting to you and hope we see you in Perth.
Sean: I hope so. Thank you for your time today Danny.
Danny: Yours too Sean. Bye.
