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caroline
Niall Stokes:
As the drummer in a band, you're occupying a seat that's normally
occupied by men.
Caroline Corr:
It's a natural thing for boys to go instead of girls but I think there
should be a lot more females playing. I don't know why they don't.
Partly the assumption would be that you need to be strong.
Yeah, but you build that up. It's
not that you can get up there and do 2 hour gigs straight away. Everybody's
going to be a bit tired at first. So, there is an assumption that you have
to be strong but I don't think so. I think it's just - play!
You came to it late. Is that a particular challenge?
It was quite scary at the beginning
because I hadn't a clue. I had a boyfriend who had a drum kit and I started
to play a few beats. And then I went to this guy and just practiced a bit
and the next minute I was doing a live TV show and the next minute I was
on the road and I was a drummer. And I was like 'wow, how did this happen?'
but I liked it so I went for it.
Was there any sense of you thinking that maybe you'd drawn the short
straw?
No, not at all. I'm very comfortable
there. That's what I like doing. I think it's nice that there's a woman
playing the drums in the band. I was just drawn to it.
Obviously the fact that you are a family has a big influence on the
dynamic within the group. Do you find it's harder to operate on a professional
level?
There were stages when it was
very, very hard - times when it was very difficult to put aside the past,
or issues that we might disagree on personally. We're very different and
have different opinions and we have to take them on board. But we've got
a lot better at that. I think we've matured, we're older I suppose and
just brush off any side comments if there's a little bit of a dig. It's
a very hard environment being together all the time. I think it's ridiculous.
People must look at us and go 'this is insane, this family travelling around
the world together!'.
On a personal level, on the road, do you ever feel uncomfortable
about the idea that it's your family who are seeing you do certain things
that might be frowned on?
We don't have that now anymore.
We want to enjoy ourselves while we're doing this and we're not interested
in stunting each other in any way. Live and let live a bit you know.
Andrea is in the spotlight most and she's the one that gets to sing
90% of the time. is there any sense in which you feel uneasy about that
or diminished in any way?
No - Andrea was always going to
be the singer. People assume you want to sing - I don't. I'm happy with
my job. Sharon's a violinist, she wouldn't want to be a singer because
that's what she's most comfortable at. We do fits us personality-wise on
stage. Who's to say I could be a lead singer? Not everybody could do it.
So what do you do to build up your strength with the drumming?
I try to stay fit. I run, I swim
whenever I can. I do about 45 minutes regular on the treadmill. Sometimes
I lapse a bit and swim instead. I keep active and keep my energy up generally.
Do you work out to build muscle-strength in your arms?
Just so I am fit enough to do
two hours and not feel wrecked by the end of the gig. There have been times
when I've got run down, especially coming up to Christmas when I'm doing
a tour. I'm beating the drums every night, it's cold, it's dark and there
are colds flying around the place. I feel I have to keep up to stay on
the top of it. It's mental as well - you have to be positive.
The other thing about touring is that it's not just the gigs that
take it out of you, it's the drinking and the rest of it!
If we've had a day off we'll do
it but we won't do it the night before a gig because it does compromise
a gig. You can't afford to burn the candle. People have paid in and you
don't want to be wrecked up there.
The whole thing exploded in a huge way with Talk On Corners. What
was your best moment during that period?
We all loved doing Lansdowne.
Doing all those gigs around the world and coming back and doing that gig
was great. It was a great feeling, to finally be getting somewhere. For
a long time we felt we were getting nowhere.
So what's an average day when you've off the road?
Sleep as long as you possibly
can. Cook or go out for dinner....laundry, basic stuff..
Obviously with the success comes financial security but also with
a bit of money comes the possibility of being indulgent. Is that something
you're conscious of?
When your lifestyle changes so
much, reality sometimes isn't a part of what you're doing at all but we're
very aware of that. I know when we're in this little cocoon, when we gig
around the world, that this is not really reality based. There's a whole
other world out there.
Sometimes rock'n'roll people indulge their appetites to some degree
as a defence mechanism.
It's escapism. I can understand
people getting heavily into drugs in the music industry. I used to not
understand it but now I do. The lifestyle is so ridiculous. There's very
little space for yourself so I think it's pure escapism when people get
into drugs.
Speaking of indulgence - what's your favourite recipe?
I don't have one. I like to cook
basic stuff - mashed potatoes and some kind of fish or I'll cook meat.
I'll cook anything. I'll cook spaghetti bolognese. I don't have a dish
I'm particularly proud of. I wouldn't be jumping up and down about anything
I cook.
What, about Ireland, annoys you most?
Oh Ireland? God can I say anything
bad about Ireland? I can't think of anything that really gets to me.
Well it could be the roads, it could be rain, it could be politicians.
It could be the media!
There's nothing that really, really
gets me down about Ireland.
Nothing at all? You've a fantastically positive view....
Of life in general (laughs).
Do you feel part of the place sufficiently, that you'd want to vote
in elections?
Erm.....not really no. I was never
into voting and stuff like that...which is terrible! But a lot of the time
I'm so out of touch with what's actually happening. I'm interested in news
but politically I'm just not really that interested but that's a bad thing,
that's a bad thing. You should always vote. (laughs)
Where do you see yourself in 10 years' time?
I'd still like to be doing music.
Probably, hopefully, maybe...I might get married. I don't know quite yet.
Erm...maybe have children at some stage. I'll have to have children within
ten years or it's just never going to happy otherwise (laughs).
And hopefully I will still have a career in music. That would be my dream
cause I don't see myself being out of music. I'd hate it...it wouldn't
be..it wouldn't be us you know?
So do you think you can have children and manage them in the context
of doing the kind of stuff you're doing?
No, it would have to be completely
different lifestyle. You couldn't tour, not with the babies and that. I
wouldn't do that to my child. I just wouldn't bother with having it if
you're not going to look after it.
But isn't there a sense then in which you're having to put a very
important aspect of your life on hold completely until the band does what
it has to do?
Subconsciously, you're putting
a lot of your life on the backburner. You're putting your relationships
on the backburner. Everything's totally geared towards your career but
there's something about that that I like. It's kind of like a trap I suppose.
(laughs) I love it so much that I'm happy to do that for the moment.
But what about your boyfriends?
I'm lucky enough to have a boyfriend
that's very understanding and he loves what we do and he loves what I do.
I think you have to be with someone understanding who's able to cope with
that and able to say 'oh well, that's her job, she travels around. It's
what she does!'.
But isn't there always a difficulty about communicating in that context?
I mean first of all, the fact that you're on the road means you're often
thousands of miles apart.
Yeah, it's a very difficult one
and it can cause insane problems but if you try your hardest to keep it
together it can work. But I think it's a very difficult thing to do and
it doesn't work for everybody. I think some people need to be together
all the time.
There must be a reason why so many people involved in entertainment
or rock'n'roll end up getting together with people who are in entertainment
or rock'n'roll - which of course doesn't necessarily work either!
If you're living a very strange
lifestyle it is hard for someone who's never experienced anything like
that to understand. So that's why you get movie stars marrying movie stars.
In Blue was made under the cloud of the death of your mother. Can
you give me a sense of what it was like trying to deal with that when you
were making the record?
It's quite blurry. I think you
get on with things in a very strange way and I look back and I go 'wow,
did we do all that?' but we did. I think you can hear it in the record
a little bit towards the end. It was obviously a tough time you know -
for everybody. I think you're not quite totally in tune with it still even
though it'll be a year now this month. You can't really relate to it sometimes
because you kind of want to distance yourself from it. There's a defensive
mechanism still I think.
The fact that it happened so quickly must have made it more difficult.
We knew she was sick but we didn't
quite know how sick she was. Jim did have some idea I think 'cause he had
been reading it up on the internet and I remember him saying 'You know
Caroline it's quite serious' and I was going 'yeah well…'. But you don't
think it's that serious, there's always something inside you saying 'they
can do something about it' but with this particular lung disease they could
do absolutely nothing, it was just one of those awful diseases that takes
over very, very fast. At least we were there - that was good but it was
very, very sudden, it really was.
'No More Cry' dealt with that. People might say they never thought they'd
hear the word 'anger' on a Corr's record. Is that what people felt alongside
the grief?
For quite a while you definitely
feel very, very pissed off (laughs). You go through so many different
emotions and one of them, at the beginning, is anger. And it's there in
that song yeah. Well that song's about rejecting the pain of it and..just
no more cry you know. I've had enough (laughs). But that song is for Dad
really.
One response to In Blue was that a degree of maturing had taken place.
What's your opinion on that?
Definitely. I think Andrea wrote
stuff that was a lot more personal to her. Sometimes you don't want to
let things out in songs, you want to keep things to yourself, you don't
want to give everything away. But on this record Andrea wrote totally from
the heart.
Do you get itchy feet when you're off the road?
I start going mad when I'm at
home. I need to be back out.
How does that manifest itself?
(laughs) I get irritated.
I get a bit claustrophobic when I go home.
What about the attention? You step into the street and everybody
knows you. It's impossible to hide from people.
Yeah it is. There was a time when
you could hide but then you realise 'this is not as easy as it was'. I
think we've grown into it gradually and we've adjusted with it and we've
adjusted to being part of The Corrs. Cause you're not just Caroline Corr
anymore - you're part of The Corrs.
But you go down the supermarket and do your shopping?
Yeah but I'll be noticed, I'll
be followed around the aisles probably, even by the staff. I'd be aware
of it but it's fine - it doesn't bother me. I just get on it and get the
shopping done. It would never stop me from going shopping or anything like
that. People don't expect you to do you own shopping as well which is really
strange. They think you're got people doing it for you (laughs). People
say to you ' How come you're doing your shopping?'. Well why wouldn't I
doing my own shopping? I like doing it.
Are you more self-conscious or less self-conscious when you're trying
on clothes in a shop or whatever?
More self-conscious. Sometimes
it will deter you from really trying on a load of stuff cause you know
someone's going to spot you and look at you and see what you're putting
on. It's not crazy you know but I'd like a bit more privacy (laughs).
Do you ever look and thing 'I could do without all this sh*t; to
the extent that you think you'd like to walk away?
Sometimes. I mean sometimes you
need to get away but you can find space for yourself as long as you try
to do that. But not totally. You just get used to it, it kind of becomes
a part of your life.
But is the only time that you're really free when you're on holidays
or in some remote part of Spain or something?
Yeah, yeah definitely. We went
on holidays, myself and my boyfriend to India and we went backpacking.
That's total freedom. Do whatever you want to do. So on certain holidays
you're totally free doing your own thing. And you forget you're in a band
which is great for a while - until you get back home! (laughs)
India would be a particularly good in that respect - you're less
than a speck on the face of the earth there.
It's great. It's total freedom.
I love it!
(end of Caroline interview)