rockyourlyricsLast time we saw a show going sold out in twenty minutes it was last year with the 50th anniversary of Rolling Stones in London; few weeks a go it happened the same thing to both shows of The Coronas @ the Olympia in December.
We had the possibility to speak with Danny O’Reilly, singer of the band, about their lyrics and their new projects.
RYL: Two years a go you released you last album “Closer to You”, today you are working in studio preparing a new one. Would you tell us more about it?
Danny :Yeah we’re currently working on the next one. We’re recording with an amazing producer Eliot James (Two Door Cinema Club, Kaiser Chiefs) and so far its going really well. I can honestly say we’ve never been as excited about a batch of new songs as we are about these ones. We hope to have it all done and ready to release by March/April.
RYL: In the middle of preparation you find time also to tour, you will have two concerts @ The Olympia in December ….tickets were sold out in 20 minutes! You will prepare something special for your fans?
Danny: The Olympia has always been a special venue for us. we grew up going to gigs there. My first ever proper gig (apart from Mary Black concerts!) was The Frames there when i was 13. So whenever we get to play there its very special. We’re going to be playing a few of the new songs, so that will be an exclusive!
RYL: Talking about the fans, their number is growing more and more, as their expectations, how this impact your style in making music?
Danny: Its not something we think about too much. I think when you start second guessing yourself and think “will people like this”, you can lose whats important in the song. The best songs mean a lot to the writer and, in turn, the fans relate, not the other way around. So we always just do our best and write what we think is good and fingers crossed people will like it
RYL: Our website is about writing lyrics and analyzing them, how do you write your songs?
Danny: It can be different for different songs. For our first album I wrote most of the songs on an acoustic guitar and brought them to the boys and we all wrote our parts but that has changed a lot over time, these days we all write together. Someone might arrive with an idea of a verse or chorus or a couple of chords just and we’ll all develop it from there together, live in the room. Its a cool way of working, especially if you trust each other and value each others opinion without letting your ego get in the way. Myself and Dave write a lot of the lyrics together
RYL: Let’s talk about “Mark My Words” one of our favorite songs part of “Closer to You”, what inspired you to write its verses?
Danny: Dave had a big part in the verses in this song, i wrote the chorus and had the melody for the verses and we worked on the verses together. They’re about how you can get disillusioned with the music industry, about how sometimes you’re promised the world by people but they don’t deliver. Second verse is about believing in yourself, if you can get your dream woman, why cant you get your dream career
RYL: If you had to pick a song from the album “Heroes and Ghost” which one you would select and why?
Danny: Heroes or Ghosts the song means a lot to me. I remember when I wrote it I felt this enormous sense of pride. We played at a battle of the bands in UCD a year or so before I wrote it and I thought we had done great (lead singer’s ego!). We only came 3rd out of 6 bands and I was devastated. Our manager Jim could see I was upset and said “Danny, thats just one man’s mood and opinion” and he was dead right. When we started recording the album and the songs started to come together and i could see us improving I finished the song. Dave wrote the second verse which i think is a gorgeous lyric. I was so proud of the song i wanted to finish it myself but when he sent me the “You know these roads…” verse it fitted perfectly and was exactly what the second verse needed to say so it became a co-write
RYL: “Someone else hands” is a song part of the album “Tony was an ex con”, its lyrics talks about a broken relationship due to mistakes, Looking back at your career, which was the biggest mistake (or wrong choice) you made and how you are making sure it will not happen again?
Danny: We’ve definitely made some wrong choices over the years. But we try not to dwell on them. We believe everything happens for a reason and if we stay positive and work hard we’ll be happier and have a better chance of being successful. You learn little things here and there through your mistakes and thats a good thing. One little one that springs to mind was just before we did Closer to You, we were asked to do a college tour of Ireland. We had already released Tony, done a college tour a few months previous and as well as that we had done our own headline tour of Ireland. By the time we came around to doing the second college tour, we felt a little stale. We were playing the same set to the same people from less than a year before. In hindsight we should have waited until Closer to You was out and the gigs would have been 10 times better. We’ve realized you have to be careful not to do too much (even if the offers are good financially). Over gigging the same places can have a detrimental effect. Don’t get me wrong the gigs went well, but we could feel they would have been better if we had new material and we should have waited.
RYL: Which is your favorite rock song of all time?
Danny: Paranoid Android – Radiohead (its got everything!)
http://youtu.be/sPLEbAVjiLA
RYL: How would you explain your song “Addicted to Progress”?
Danny: Addicted was one of those songs that came very quickly. As soon as I wrote the piano part, the lyrics just poured out of me. There was actually another verse that I wrote that we had to cut out, which is unusual for me. Usually i write 1 verse and chorus and leave the 2nd verse until the last minute or until Dave writes a good one! The lost verse was something like “you know i love you so please guide us, its where we go now that defines us”. I liked the second half of that line so I’ve used it on one of our new songs called Speak my Mind. Addicted is about how some arguments and disagreements between two people are actually not caused by the two people themselves and if they were away from all the other bad influences, they’d be fine. Its also got some lines about the band and believing in ones self
RYL: We have seen from your FB page that you are a fan of Breaking Bad, are you happy about its final episode?
Danny: Yes very satisfied with the ending, its hard to end a show like that and I think they got it right. Im just sad its over!
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