The Coronas are hitting Kytelers for the festive season
By Kate O’neill
Kilkenny fans of The Coronas will be pleased to hear that they are making a Kilkenny appearance this Christmas at Kytelers on December 16, and this is one gig that should be worth booking in advance.
Since their 2007 debut album, Heroes Or Ghosts, The Coronas have slowly but surely been embraced by their ever-growing contingent of fans as one of the best Irish bands to have emerged in the past five years.
They have achieved success by word of mouth, without so much as a planning meeting, the traditional way of getting your name out there in Ireland and in my mind the best way. The toughest critics are the die-hard music fans who generally congregate in pubs. Impress them and you impress all. This method worked for The Coronas.
“We never sat down and discussed what type of music we were going to make, and I think that stood to us. Some bands do that, and talk about image, clothes, hair, and to this day we still don’t do that. We just worked with the songs we had, and let it happen,” commented lead guitarist Dave McPhillips.
The band have grown from strength to strength and their latest album Tony Was An Ex-Con, is a great reflection of their ever growing talent.
Heroes or Ghosts achieved platinum sales in Ireland, and spawned massive singles such as ‘Grace, Don’t Wait!’, ‘Heroes or Ghosts’, and especially ‘San Diego Song’ which became an anthem in clubs and radio stations all across the country.
The Dublin quartet quickly followed its release with sell-out shows nationwide, two Meteor Award nominations, and a spellbinding set on the main stage at Oxegen. All this, along with tours in the US, UK, and Asia, has enabled the Coronas to establish themselves as one of Ireland’s biggest new bands.
“We’ve worked really hard for the last two years but taking a break never really occurred to us,” says lead singer Danny O’Reilly.
“We wanted to continue to build on what we had going and we knew the only way to do that was to go into the studio and record an album that we felt blew Heroes [or Ghosts] out of the water.
“We were quite young when we recorded Heroes or Ghosts,” concurs Dave McPhillips (indeed they had all just turned 21). “And, although we were so proud of it, we really didn’t expect it to do as well as it did. The last couple of years on the road, constantly gigging and developing our sound, left us with a better idea of the album we wanted to make.”
Indeed anyone who has become accustomed to the Coronas’ own brand of pop-rock tunes will have plenty of reason to cheer when it comes to their new album, Tony Was An Ex-Con, recorded over six weeks in the prestigious Sawmills studio in Cornwall. This time round the guys teamed up with esteemed producer John Cornfield (Muse, Razorlight, Oasis). “Working with John in the mill [Sawmills] was an amazing experience,” says bassist Knoxy. “We thought that, with his resume, he’d be telling us exactly what to do but he was really cool and just let us do our thing. It was a really chilled-out, productive, atmosphere.”
The title track comes from an incredible story about the lads on tour in America, involving a psychotic bus driver who left the entire entourage fearing for their lives.
“It’s funny looking back at it now, but at the time it was really quite scary,” says drummer Conor Egan.
In Tony Was An Ex-Con, The Coronas’ fans will once again be reminded of the endearing spirit that made Heroes or Ghosts a true word-of-mouth success, while many will be impressed by how far they have come musically.
Grab some of the spirit of The Coronas this Christmas on December 16, at Kytelers Inn on Kieran Street. Tickets are available at the bar.
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