Heroes or ghosts? The return of the Coronas

“Our driver was a total psychopath!” This is the inspiration given for the name of The Coronas’ second album, Tony Was An Ex-Con, when I speak to lead singer Danny. I can’t help but laugh.

“We were trying to think of different names for the album for ages. The story for it actually came about in November while we were in America, and we had a bus driver who at first just seemed a little bit odd, but it turned out he was crazy”.

It’s been two years since The Coronas released their platinum selling debut album and it’s pleasing to know they haven’t lost their down-to-earth air. Following the release of Heroes or Ghosts, The Coronas became an overnight success when the album spent 26 weeks in the Irish charts. And now, three years since they first began, the band have had three hit singles, two Meteor Award nominations and two appearances on the Main Stage at Oxegen.

“We always knew we wanted to pursue a career in music,” Danny tells me. “It took us a while to really get where we wanted to be going. After school, it seemed like the right thing to do. And that’s where we really started getting our fan base, at college. We’d play different gigs, play different venues, doing support acts for bands and that started us off. When we got the record deal in December 2006, we had just done a gig in Whelan’s and there were touts out to see us. The gig was totally sold out. It was that night that we seriously said to ourselves, ‘We have to give this a go’.” And give it a go is exactly what the Terenure foursome did. Following that gig in Whelan’s, the band was signed to independent label 3u Records.

Given the name of their new album, it is natural to wonder was The Coronas’ last trip to America a big influence on them? “I wouldn’t say the trip to America was the major influence for our new album. Tony Was An Ex-Con [which is also a song featured on the album], was the first song we wrote; it was the first new song that started us off on this new wave of tunes. But it really came down to getting time in the New Year. We’d had two and a half years since our last album so we had a good bit of time to do some new stuff.”

Although Danny describes this album as “new stuff”, the magic that made The Coronas so popular in the first place is still there but now more mature.

“When we did the first album, we had never done much touring or anything outside of Dublin. We just decided to release the songs we had at the time and learn from the album really. We didn’t think it was going to do as well as it did. We were so lucky that San Diego Song took off. Dublin radio stations just started giving it a lot of air play. Once you get the radio play the gigs start coming and the album starts selling. Then it’s a lot easier for your next single to get radio play. We were just lucky.”

Luck was only part of it - hard work and ingenuity from the band played a bigger role in getting where they are today. “At a time really before iPods had become huge, we would make loads of CDs and just hand them out to people for free at our gigs.” Danny says. “We would have people who had come back from holidays and they would tell us how because they only had a few CDs with them, and ours was one of them, they ended up listening to us all the time. It was a great way to get our name out there.”

And getting their name out there didn’t only apply to Ireland. Having already toured America twice, the band are now expanding their grasp with the release of this album. Plans are in motion to go on tour in Asia in November involving 17 shows on the back of a record deal in Japan. The rise of The Coronas success is not lost on Danny. “It’s crazy that they even know who we are, but someone’s obviously working on our behalf over there.”

For their new album, the band teamed up with John Cornfield who has worked on Muse and Razorlight albums. So how exactly did they get someone so experienced to work with a band who had only one album under their belt? “First of all, we were thinking of who we would like to work with. And we decided we might as well aim the highest that we can. So we made a list of people we would like to work with, and John was literally on the top of the list. So we recorded a few demos ourselves of the new tracks and sent them over to him. Straight away he got back and said he loved the songs. We couldn’t believe it, to get someone like him was amazing.”

It seems that everything The Coronas touch turns to gold, with one of the highlights for the band performing on the Main Stage at Oxegen two years in a row. “The difference between last year and this year, even though we had not had a lot of singles out during the year, was that we got a huge crowd anyway, which was amazing. Playing to all the fans on the main stage was such a buzz.” But the boys were not swayed by VIP areas and celebrity mingling. Instead they roughed it with everybody else and camped out for the festival, hanging out with their friends and going to see bands.

Following their appearance at Oxegen, the band have been travelling around the country supporting another home grown Irish success, The Script. “We had a great laugh with the guys. As an end of tour prank, they ran out on stage to us while we were playing and covered us and all our instruments in silly string. The crowd went mental. We were just laughing in complete shock.”

But sometimes alongside the fun comes the downright strange, shown when Danny reveals to me some of their fan’s more unusual behaviour. “Knoxy, our bassist, had a crazy stalker fan one time who came to one of our in-store signings. And she started crying when she saw him and he signed her album for her and that. We thought it was so funny because he’s the quietest member. But then it got weird. She cut off a piece of his hair and then kept emailing our manager saying she sleeps with Knoxy’s hair under her pillow every night!”

Despite this, the band wouldn’t change any of their experiences from the last few years. “If this were to disappear tomorrow, we would take away the best two years of our lives. Being able to do this is just the most amazing experience. We work hard, it’s what we love doing. When we have a few days off I miss gigging straight away. There are experiences we will never forget and things we can tell our grandchildren.”

With their success not likely to stop rising anytime soon, I’m sure these Heroes will have plenty of memories to recall in years to come.