Ireland’s popular band The Coronas, whose trajectory took a curious detour due to sharing a name with the virus that shut down the world in 2020, return with a strong, new album aptly titled TIME STOPPED. Set for release on October 7 on the band’s imprint SoFarSoGood Records (distributed by Blix Street), TIME STOPPED addresses the pandemic head on via 11 original songs bearing an underlying theme of hope.
TIME STOPPED, the band’s 7th album, builds on the momentum gained from their last release, TRUE LOVE WAITS, which topped the Irish charts the first week of its release in July, 2020, following an innovative, socially-distanced “tour” of Ireland in an album-themed ice cream truck. This unique approach had the band bring the new album directly to their fans during a pandemic—with a bonus of ice cream—resulting in TRUE LOVE WAITS holding off new releases from Fontaines D.C. and Taylor Swift to reach No. 1 that week. It became the fastest selling Irish album of the year and The Coronas’ most successful album to date internationally.
Known for high energy live performances and audience singalongs, The Coronas, comprising lead singer Danny O’Reilly, bass guitarist Graham Knox and drummer Conor Egan, are ecstatic to be able to return to live appearances, kicking off the summer season with sold-out shows at the Marquee in Cork and the grounds of Trinity College in their native Dublin. U.S. and Canada shows, twice postponed, are now scheduled for the fall as well as shows in the UK, Europe and Australia.
The three-piece indie band will once again close out their year with holiday shows at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre, a custom that in 2020 was relegated to a sans audience streaming event in order to maintain the tradition. This year’s four-night run is expected the culminate with the band’s 60th consecutive sell-out show at the prestigious Dublin venue.
The Coronas teased TIME STOPPED late last year with the cheery “Write Our Own Soundtrack” and the creative triple-screen music video made by Coronas’ long-time collaborator John Broe.
As the album approached completion and live shows were imminent, the upbeat track “Strive,” an indie-pop song with a distinctly eighties feel, was released. Filled with melody, groove, synths and saxophone solos, it was written during the first Irish lockdown and lyrically it hints at being there for someone no matter what difficulties surround the relationship. It was supported by a retro themed music video also created by John Broe.
To coincide with the Trinity College concert held on July 1, where the massive, capacity crowd endured a summer rainstorm, the band rolled out “Don’t You Say You’re In Love” and trumpeted the new album’s official release date. “The song is a snapshot of a faltering relationship – the insecurities and vulnerabilities that come with feeling a companion is drifting,” explains Danny O’Reilly. “Sonically, we tried to arrange the song differently to how we normally would, with the intro and verses being full and loud while the choruses break down to just piano and vocal.” Photographer and videographer WOLFF captured the band’s live performance of this new song in one take during the Trinity College show:
Recorded largely at Eastcote Studios in London, where the band has recorded previously, with producer George Murphy (The Specials, Ellie Goulding, Mumford and Sons) and mixing with Grammy®-winning mixer Peter Katis, making TIME STOPPED was a very positive experience for the band. “We’d worked with George before so it was just really comfortable,” Danny explains. “After the two years of the pandemic, it felt so good to be back in the studio, locked away from the world, and just being a band again.”
Overall, TIME STOPPED is an album about hopefulness. Danny explains that the album’s through line addresses with how we all sought to be connected in the time of global panic. “When everything is suddenly upside down,” he says, “relationships and our place in the world are given a new perspective. Even though it came together in an uncertain time, TIME STOPPED is a positive album about togetherness and support.”
Additionally, it’s a project laden with poignant lyrics as well as classic Coronas stadium-sized melodies ripe for singalongs as Coronas fans are known to do during their live shows, which have begun to resume in earnest. Joining the trio on the road will be
well-known All Tvvins guitarist Lar Kaye, who plays on the new album and has also appeared on other Coronas’ recordings. Playing keyboards in the touring band is Irish recording artist Róisín O, whose new album COURAGEOUS, has been receiving major attention in Ireland.
“TIME STOPPED was written to be played live,” says O’Reilly. “We’re ridiculously excited to be on the road again and to play these new songs to full capacity rooms around the world. It’s going to be emotional.”
Not surprisingly, The Coronas were named #1 Live Act of the Year in Ireland’s Hot Press 2022 Readers’ Poll. “We feel blessed to able to continue to do what we love most, to sing our hearts out together with the people who continue to support us,” Danny says. “To us, our live shows are what it’s really all about.”
The Coronas have previously released six studio albums: HEROES OR GHOSTS (2007), TONY WAS AN EX-CON (2009), CLOSER TO YOU (2011) THE LONG WAY (2014), TRUST THE WIRE, which topped the Irish charts its first week of release in 2017, and TRUE LOVE WAITS, which repeated the feat in 2020. Their first three albums were released via the independent Irish label 3ú Records and the fourth one on Island Records, while the TRUST THE WIRE marked their return to the independent route with the launch of their own imprint, SoFarSoGood Records, distributed by Blix Street Records, for ensuing releases. In 2019, they released LIVE AT THE OLYMPIA album, a recording that captures the exuberance and excitement of The Coronas live in concert as well as the fervor of their devoted audiences that has made them one of Ireland’s biggest and best-loved bands.
“With an album we’re so proud of coming out, some huge shows and festivals this summer, and a world tour coming in the fall, it’s such an exciting time for us now,” says O’Reilly. “We’re just so happy to get back to doing what we love to do.”
