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Q&A With The Corrs
As The Corrs are about to release their new single Irresistible,
TV WEEK caught up with three out of four members of Ireland’s biggest band
for a chat.
Comprising three sisters and one brother of the Corr family – vocalist
Andrea, drummer Caroline, violinist Sharon and guitarist/keyboard player
Jim – The Corrs blend traditional Irish music with contemporary pop/rock
and the occasional use of synthesisers.
The quartet Sharon, Andrea - who couldn’t make our interview
that day as she was sick – Caroline and Jim formed in 1991 and was confined
to regional popularity in Ireland until 1994, when the American ambassador
to the country invited The Corrs to perform at the 1994 World Cup in Boston.
This led to a support slot on Celine Dion’s 1996 tour, which the group
joined just after appearing at that year’s Olympic Games in Atlanta.
The Corrs debut album Forgiven, Not Forgotten became internationally
popular, but nowhere more so than in their homeland, where its four-times-platinum
status made it one of the most popular debuts by an Irish group. Talk
On Corners followed in 1998, and was reissued in expanded form early
the following year. Andrea, who had a small part in the 1991 film The
Commitments, returned to acting five years later with a role in Evita.
TV WEEK: Who are your musical influences?
CAROLINE: There were a lot when we were younger as we were brought
up in a musical family – both our parents played instruments. At the time
they were listening to bands like the Eagles, and we were listening to
Simon and Garfunkel, Fleetwood Mac – all very melodic music. We’ve all
developed different tastes as we’ve got older. Some of us like the Police
and Genesis, others like Crowded House, Prince and Depeche Mode. We were
into so many different types of music then and that hasn’t really changed.
TV WEEK: You guys have great artwork on your albums and you’re
seen a lot in fashion magazines. Do you enjoyed being involved in those
other worlds?
SHARON: Yeah, it’s fun and it’s a diversion. We really haven’t
done a lot of that because our primary focus is obviously music, but it
is fun. There are some amazing people in the fashion world, and you do
meet a lot of interesting, eccentric photographers. So, it’s another avenue,
and because we’re in the music business our work relates to so many different
businesses. It encompasses sound, media, TV, also fashion and magazines.
So, it’s a crazy world to be in, with a lot of opportunities.
TV WEEK: Do you find it distracting that your beauty is talked
about rather than your music?
CAROLINE: That does happen, but I think when we were starting
out, people didn’t know what to think. They were more used to seeing four
guys up on stage with guitars instead of three girls in a band that can
play different instruments. So, some people had a preconceived idea about
what we could do, but once they came to a show those ideas just disappeared.
That’s why we have such a dedicated fan base.
TV WEEK: How important is your style to your overall image?
CAROLINE: Fashion in itself is not important. What is important
is that we show ourselves as individuals and that involves what we like
to wear. The most important thing for us on stage is that we’re wearing
clothes we can comfortably perform in for a full set. Our style might not
be mainstream fashion – it’s just what we like to wear.
SHARON: [Laughing] Well, we’ll probably look back in
40 years time and be horrified at what we wore…
CAROLINE: We don’t really like to make fashion statements –
the music we make is what’s important.
TV WEEK: Is there any sibling rivalry in the group?
SHARON: Not at the moment. I mean, we’ve been doing this for
10 years…
JIM: There’s never been sibling rivalry.
SHARON: No, there hasn’t! But there were obviously family rants
occasionlly, like all families do. You know, we’ve been on the road together
for about 10 years now, and we’ve had a lot of hard times and claustrophobic
times too. But along with that we’ve had good times, and all that experience
has helped us mature. We’ve no tendency nowadays to dwell on the stupid
little rows – we just get on with it. We enjoy each other’s company very
much. I think it’s because we realise that, regardless of us being family,
we all came together to do this as individuals because this was what we
each loved to do. So, we have to get on with each other because we have
a fantastic chemistry musically.
TV WEEK: Have you had the chance to meet any celebrities you
admire?
JIM: I wouldn’t say that we’re fans of anyone. There are certain…
CAROLINE: Sting, you love Sting!
JIM:…people who we’ve admired for their voices. Yes, I do think
Sting is great.
CAROLINE: Sharon met [singer/songwriter] Neil Finn from
Crowded House, and she was so exited…
SHARON: I couldn’t speak!
CAROLINE: We were doing one of those music awards shows and
all of a sudden there was Neil Finn, and Sharon starts freaking out. [Laughing]
I’ve never seen her like that before but it was just because he’s such
an amazing songwriter.
SHARON: I’ve always loved his stuff from Crowded House. We’re
all usually pretty unfazed by meeting guys who are celebrities, but I remember
another time when we were doing this show in Paris. Our tour manager Henry
said, “You know [US actor] Johnny Depp would like to meet you”,
and so we said “Yeah, that’s fine”, and we were getting ready in our trailer
and in comes Johnny Depp. He’s got these shades on, and he looks smouldering
as usual, just fantastic [laughing], and he came in and he was talking
to us for a few minutes. Everything was going fine until he said, “So,
where are you all from?”, and he lifted his shades up, and we could all
see his eyes, and at that moment none of us could remember where we were
from…not one of us!
CAROLINE: [Laughing] It was ridiculous!
SHARON: Yeah, it was great and he was just beautiful.
TV WEEK: Is that the best part of your job, meeting people like
that?
SHARON: No, because you can’t expect to get on with all these
people. Just because you seem them on TV, that doesn’t mean that you’ll
identify with each other.
CAROLINE: It was just Johnny Depp – just a person. Other bands
are quite shy with each other. Every time you’re at awards ceremonies,
you know everyone knows who everyone else is, but no one knows how to deal
with it. Sometimes you can be really disappointed when you meet someone
and sometimes they’ll turn out to be really lovely. But most people tend
to be very careful of each other at these events.
TV WEEK: You’ve played all over the world – even for the Queen.
Do you still get nervous?
CAROLINE: You never totally shake off your nerves, you just
learn to control them. When we first started out, we were nervous all the
time [laughing], but the more you perform the less nervous you feel.
That old adage ‘practice makes perfect’ is very true. You know that you’re
going to go up there and do the best you can. We all, at different times,
get nervous for different reasons. It might be a huge gig or a home gig
– like the one we did in Dublin to about 50,000 people. That was pretty
nerve-wracking. There are also isolated gigs that are unnerving, but I
think we’ve improved. I don’t really get nervous about gigs much anymore,
but there is the odd time.
TV WEEK: Do you guys have a ritual before you go out and play?
CAROLINE: We hum [laughs]! No…
JIM: Not really.
SHARON: No, nothing.
JIM: We do a little bit of practising on our instruments, and
we’ll do a decent sound check which will warm us up anyway, but there’s
no particular ritual.
CAROLINE: We pace up and down. That’s one thing we all do.
SHARON: We become very quiet to try and block out any other
intrusion, and to focus completely on the gig. You need complete tunnel
vision just before you go out on stage because that’s what will get you
through. I think the thing to do is to concentrate on enjoying the music,
and then the crowd will enjoy it, too.
TV WEEK: Are you able to concentrate without slipping into autopilot
at all?
CAROLINE: I’ve noticed myself sometimes going into autopilot,
and then I realise that I can’t remember what the next note is…or I’ll
forget the words. It’s crazy! Luckily, it happens very rarely. Usually,
if you focus on the emotions of the music, it works.
TV WEEK: Jim, what’s it like to be the big brother with all
those screaming male fans out there crazy about your sisters?
JIM: Do you mean, do I get protective?
TV WEEK: Exactly – do you get protective, or are you over that?
JIM: Truly, we’ve got a lovely fan base, and there have only
been a few cases that have got slightly out of hand. Like in New York recently,
there were a few problems. Some nationalities will hold back and be very
shy, and others are right up in your face, like the Spanish and the Italians.
CAROLINE: Those Italians were really out there…screaming “We
love you!” at the tops of their lungs.
JIM: I had to rescue Andrea one day. We were shooting the video
for Irresistible in the middle of Times Square in New York a few
weeks ago, and Andrea was accosted by some extremely excited male fans.
I had to actually intervene quite forcibly because she started to feel
claustrophobic – they were starting to pull at her – and I had to take
her away. I mean, that was just their way of showing us their appreciation
and they really just wanted autographs. I generally don’t have to be protective.
These are Irish girls, after all, and they are well capable of looking
after themselves.
TV WEEK: Is it hard for you as a man to get your voice in among
all the female harmonies?
JIM: Not really, because what’s going to suit me, from a voice
point of view, is going to be obvious, and I generally take the lower lines.
Sometimes, my voice won’t suit a particular line, so we just won’t put
it in.
TV WEEK: Talking about blending voices, do you think that your
voices blend more easily because you’re all family?
SHARON: They do blend pretty easily, although I remember years
ago when we used to layer our vocals. We had a problem with phasing because
both myself and Caroline sing a lot of the back-up vocals, and we sounded
so much alike that the back-up actually sounded like one voice. But we
don’t really have a problem with it anymore.
TV WEEK: Caroline, is it true that you learned to play the drums
from one of your ex-boyfriends?
CAROLINE: It is true. I was originally playing piano in the
band, and it was in the very early days of our career when we first began
playing together. I had a boyfriend who had a sort of band room a the back
of his house, and he had a drum kit, and he was playing and I was thinking,
“That sounds really good”. So, I just got up one day and I tried to play
something. Then I asked him to teach me something and he taught me a few
beats, and then, all of a sudden, I was playing in the band. So, it was
really very fast. At the time, our band didn’t have a drummer. We were
just writing all the time, and we hadn’t really started performing as a
band. But Jim came in one day and saw me bashing away at the drums and
said, “This would be great for the band”. So that’s how I ended up playing
drums in the band.
TV WEEK: Do you have anything in the studio with you before
you record or during recording that is essential?
JIM: Yes, a bottle of Guinness. [All laughing]
SHARON: Just food really, and coffee.
JIM: Table tennis.
SHARON: Yeah, we usually have tennis table, and I’m trying to
get a pool table in there, but it’s more expensive than a table tennis
table. Usually there aren’t many things that we need to have in the studio.
We don’t need to have a lot of perks. We just get in there and play the
music, and it has to be a comfortable, family environment.
CAROLINE: Yeah, and it’s great if there are a couple of rooms
to hang out in, not just one room for everyone. We all need to get a bit
of space sometimes.
TV WEEK: Does everyone feel comfortable with this nomadic lifestyle
of touring?
JIM: I can only speak for myself, but you learn quickly to become
comfortable with the lifestyle. You have to adjust to living out of a suitcase
if this is what you want to do with your life. It’s not a normal life,
but it’s incredible what happens when you’re at home for any length of
time – being on the road actually gets into your blood so much that you
miss the road, you miss the travelling. Again, I can only speak for myself,
of course, but I certainly miss it. You can adjust to it, and anyone can
become a nomad if one wants to.
