The Corrs – Interview

Almost 15 years after The Corrs became an international, multi-platinum sensation with a unique mix of pop songs and traditional Celtic instrumentation, the band of Irish siblings has recorded their first traditional Irish music album.

HOME contains a collection of 13 traditional and modern Irish songs performed by The Corrs clan — Andrea on lead vocals and tin whistle; Caroline on drums, bodhran, piano and vocals; Jim on keyboards, guitar and vocals; and Sharon on violin and vocals. Recorded not only to please fans who have long clamored for an entire album of Irish music from the group, HOME is also a tribute to the group’s mother — Jean — who died in 1999. Her handwritten songbook, Andrea says, provided a major source of material for the album. “She used to play every weekend in pubs with Daddy, and she’d written all these Irish songs out in a book. They’re songs we’ve loved over the years, and because our parents played them in their band, they’re very special to us.”

HOME includes songs that span a millennium of Irish music from “Return to Fingal,” a song music scholars say is at least 1,000 years old, to “Old Town,” a song written in 1982 by late Thin Lizzy frontman and fellow Irishman Phil Lynott. Along with traditional songs such as “My Lagan Love,” “Moorlough Shore” and “Black Is The Colour,” HOME also includes The Corrs singing several songs in Gaelic — “Brid Og Ni Mhaille” and “Buachaill On Eirne.”

Born and raised as a close-knit family in Dundalk, the Corrs siblings all played instruments from an early age. In 1990 they appeared in Alan Parker’s film The Commitments. Since 1996, the band has released four studio albums, all of which have achieved platinum status internationally.

We talk with singer, and youngest sibling, Andrea.

HIP: How did you pick the songs that were included on the album?
ANDREA: To be honest preparing for this album—we really enjoyed it. I learned so much. We took these songs for granted in childhood. And then exploring them it’s like you rediscover an Irish history that hadn’t been aware of about the Irish people and the way they were. We got together in Caroline’s house around the piano and we all had different ideas. There were songs I remembered learning in school and… There are such beautiful melodies and the lyrics are very sad but hopeful. Each of us had ideas that we thought would be great and we tried them out and tried to lend something new to them. Jim would come up with piano riffs and often they would become hypnotic and we’d chance up something that would make them unique—unique to us. Then we went through my mother’s songbook. My mother and father had a band and they would play every weekend and they had quite a large Irish repertoire. We found songs in there of hers like “Spancill Hill.” We thought it would be a lovely thing to do. It felt cyclical like it was supposed to happen in a way. You know years later her children are looking through the songbook and making an album of what they find. Yeah, that is kind of the way… we had lots but it was obvious the ones we couldn’t do without.

A lot of the songs sound very contemporary. If I hadn’t read they were traditional Irish songs I would not have known.

I don’t think there’d be a point in doing it if we didn’t make them our own. But also, at the same time, these songs are so beautiful that they stand alone with vocals and piano—particularly “Heart Like A Wheel” the McGarrigle song. So we did go where the songs demanded and we used orchestra on nearly all of them and obviously Mitchell Froom produced. I suppose that’s interesting because he’s not Irish at all, he’s produced our live records before. But he is such a musical man that he was perfect because it’s very organic and was done live. I think that lent to that contemporary feel too.

I wonder if any Americans of Irish descent will find something interesting in these songs.

If you have Irish in your history, even if you are from Ireland, going through these songs—there is something really special in them. There is something reminiscent in them of a time when people didn’t get everything so easily and things weren’t so accessible. I just love that feeling.

I don’t think we are active enough in our own heritages.

I think we tend to take things for granted. Even your own people. It is really wonderful if something comes along and brings you back to something that gives you a sense of the bigger picture. It makes you feel small. I really like that. [Laughs] There are so many Irish people in America and I feel even if they haven’t heard these songs something will resonate because it is their history. It’s in their blood. I think if they get the spirit of it that it’ll resonate.

THE CORRS

How did you come up with the idea in the first place?

We’ve talked about it because the music we write since is really pop but strongly derived from traditional Irish music. We knew that set us apart from other bands. Caroline came up with the idea that we should do a traditional Irish album. Do you know the feeling that where you are standing is exactly where you are supposed to be standing? That is the way it felt for all of us. Obviously it had to do with our mother and father as well. Everyone plays to the best of their ability here. I don’t think on any other album you can hear how good a piano player Jim is. This is the one album where I could just be a singer and enjoy being a singer without the responsibility of being a writer. There is something gorgeous about singing. It really felt right. It was lovely.

How was the album accepted at home?

They loved it. It went straight to number one.

I was curious because some artists in America will record traditional or folk songs and they don’t always get a great response.

I think everyone was very supportive about how we did them. It wasn’t selling out. It was beautiful. We didn’t just throw it together. I think it’s beautiful.

Sometimes I think people are under the impression that when certain artists in America do a traditional album it’s more about making money.

Well, this was certainly a labor of love. If people like it that’s fantastic. It wasn’t about being number one. We are aware they aren’t our own songs and it’s a different type of album. It’s not really a commercial album.

Does it matter that someone may not know these are traditional songs?

I never mind what people think or how they take it. It’s up to them if they want to get into it and think about what you are saying or about their past that is great. It comes with no message. Know what I mean? [Laughs]

THE CORRS

Where did the idea for the DVD come from?

Have you seen it?

Well I’m not fully to blame. The record label never sent me one—still I’m pretty embarrassed now that you’ve asked me. I was going to try to fake it. [We both laugh]

Oh they have to send it to you! It’s so crazy to watch that ourselves. When we decided to be a band, when I was in The Commitments when I was sixteen, we started in the bedroom of Jim’s house with a little 8-track. We got a camcorder at the time and to make ourselves better for TV performances. Our manager at the time set us up with TV performances even though we did have anything out yet. But we would record ourselves. It was so embarrassing but it is so amazing to look at it because of all the things that have happened since. It was so innocent. We would have the camcorder on and we’d record ourselves so we have recordings of our first demos. So we’d be rehearsing for TV shows and gigs. And then we have us going to America and recordings of us leaving our parents at the airport. And us getting a record deal and signing the record deal and on and on from then to playing in front of forty-thousand people. It’s up all the way home… which is why we named this record Home. It’s more of a real life story rather than a VH1 story about getting addicted to barbiturates. [Laughs] It really is a nice story that follows a really weird family that decided to be a band. [Laughs] It’s mad. It really is mad. Our manager had to edit all this massive amounts of footage.

You must have had a lot of it.

Massive amounts. That includes all of our TV shows and all the albums. But when we watched it—I watched it with Caroline—It’s so emotional to watch. It’s so intense while you are living it that you don’t see the wonder of it because you are working so hard and moving along everyday. It is really emotional for us to watch it. It’s very interesting. It’s not like every other like the ‘tune in for the three-in-the-bed romp.’ [Laughs]

You almost wish every band had something like this because no one really has any interest in a band until everyone likes them and that is when they start recording things for DVD.

It’s great because if I was starting I’d love to have seen this—but at the same time it might scare the life out of me and make me change my mind. [Laughs] It shows the amount of work it takes but it also shows the heights you can climb. We came from such a small town and the amount that has happened—it does let you see all the possibilities. It’s inspiring.

It is inspiring because there are people in America that live in small towns who don’t think they have a chance to make it without being on a reality show or moving to a major city.

Or changing themselves. There are very unreal pressures and this whole story is about… I think we were more fortunate with the time we were in because there was more focus on being great at playing your instruments and writing great songs. It was more important getting better and not getting famous.

It’s good that someone had the forethought to videotape everything.

It does seem like a masterplan in retrospect but it’s quite strange. It makes you feel like there is a great hand involved in all of this. This is the kind of stuff you would usually be embarrassed by. You know when you look back and you have that mad hair and you are dancing and going through that whole time in your life when you are massively self-conscious and insecure and at the same time absolutely posey and hairslick is important. [Laughs]

+ Charlie Craine