The Coronas, a band from Ireland, first hit the Dublin rock scene in 2003 and they’re still going strong, back with their new EP Reprise.
I sat down with Danny O’Reilly backstage before their headline show at Subterania in London a couple of weeks ago and talked about new music, embarrassing moments on stage and hidden talents.
You have been together for over ten years now, how did you guys first meet?
D- we actually met in school and it’s been a long road since then but we still love it and we’re all really good friends! We started the band as mates and we sort of took it from there, we didn’t really know what we were doing but it’s good fun.
You probably get asked this quite a lot but why ‘The Coronas’?
D- It’s actually after a movie we love called almost famous, there’s great music in it and it’s about this young kid who loves the music industry and wants to get into it, in that he writes on an old-school typewriter called Corona Smith and we thought it was it would be cool name!
You have just released your EP ‘Reprise’ can you tell me more about it?
D- it’s called ‘Reprise’, we’re really proud of it and we only went into the studio in January, we had a few songs left over from the last couple of albums, ones that didn’t fit in with the last few albums we had so we went in and recorded them! We didn’t overthink; we just did it. We didn’t try to make it sound like an album and it’s got a great reaction, it’s gone to number one on Itunes today
What is your songwriting process like?
D- every song is different! Sometimes I’ll write a song on acoustic guitar and show the rest of the band, sometimes we work on it together and jam in a room or Dave and I will sit by a piano and an acoustic guitar and write a song from scratch. We try to keep it organic as songwriting can be a personal thing and we’re lucky that we’re all really good friends
Where is your favourite place to tour?
D- Ooh my favourite place to tour would have to be the states, we’ve been there three times in the last year and every city is really different!
The Irish music scene is bursting with such talent at the moment, Have you got your eye on anyone?
As you say, it’s a really good time for Irish music at the moment! Gavin James is doing really well! I love Hudson Taylor and There’s a new band called ‘Wild Youth who I love! My sisters’ band called ‘Thanks Brother’ so it’s a really good time for the Irish music scene.
Describe your band in 3 words
D- Energetic, Passionate and Soulful
What has been the craziest thing that has happened on tour?
D- we had this bus driver that was driving us around America and he was being a total psycho and he just kept driving the bus and wouldn’t tell us where he was going!
S- Wow sounds scary
D- it was! We later found out that he was an ex-con who had some issues and we didn’t know what to do! We just abandoned him and got off the bus.
S- never booking with him again right?
D- No * laughs * never again!
What has been your most embarrassing moment on stage?
D- Oh I fall over all the time! We’ve been on the road for almost ten years and I’ve never said the wrong place on stage and when we were touring Australia, we were playing in Sydney and I started the show with “Hello Melbourne” and I was so embarrassed!
Have you got any hidden talents other than music?
D- I can turn the eyelids inside out!
What are your plans for the rest of the year?
D- we’re doing a lot of festivals this year, we’re going back to America and from September to December, we’re touring America, Europe and Australia