from=Autumn 1997
Corrs for Celebration
Interviewer-Greg Phillips
Of an evening Melbourne's Palais Theatre is alive with enthusiastic
concert or theatre patrons waiting in anticipation of seeing something special. During the
day it takes on the persona of a dark and dusty attic. It's a stark contrast for The
Corrs, who are inside the theatre commencing soundcheck, for they are literally a breath
of fresh air in an industry which is currently dominated by manufactured pop bands
recording cover songs. Atlantic Records had no choice but to sign the three sisters and
brother combination. It's no secret that they are virtually stunning but what a Corrs
concert goer also discovers is that they are not only insanely talented but also have
their feet firmly on the ground. Their blend of well crafted pop songs mixed with the
instrumentation of their homeland of Ireland has already been rewarded with CD sales over
one million, a fair slice of that cake rung up on Australian cash registers. The Corrs are
quick to point out that they are enjoying ! every bit of the ride. Their sense of fun is
evident late into their concerts when they launch into a funky "We Are Family, All My
Sisters And Me". Jim Corr, the brother responsible for keyboard and guitar duties
took some time out from testing sound levels to talk to Australian Musician's GREG
PHILLIPS about the Corrs unique sound.
GP: Jim, I'm interested in the marriage of the traditional with the technological.
Instruments like the tin whistles and Bohdrans weren't invented to be amplified to five
thousand or more people. Does this amplification cause any problems?
JC: They merely take their own character once they're amplified. The Bohdran for
instance turns into a very powerful percussion instrument when it's amplified. And just
the way Caroline plays it, you hear the lows to the highs and depending on where she's got
her hand positioned, and you can make it sound like the same sort of tone as a drum kit
with that high pitched sound for the snare and low pitched sound for the kick drum and
that's what Caroline does on stage. So you really turn it into a different instrument with
amplification but the marriage has certainly worked for us. Initially I suppose it was a
process of experimentation to try and come up with the sound.
GP: What do you take on stage?
JC: At the moment I'm using a Korg Trinity and some stuff sequenced on that.
Actually I'm going to change that to a Roland XB80 because I've discovered that machine
and I like it so much better. It's so much more user friendly because I'm used to the
Rolands. So I'll get into using that. We use a JV800 overthe other side of the stage for
Sharon who plays on 'Closer'.
GP: How does someone like you, who is on the road all the time, come across new
equipment?
JC: I've always been a fan of Roland gear. From a very early age, I think the first
synth I had was the first multi-timbral sort of thing. I think it was a W30 with a
sequencer, which I loved. Then I got a 750. I suppose I just do what everybody else does,
I just go into music shops and playing them and getting feedback from my friends and
reading the articles in the magazines, you know finding out what particular features they
have.
GP: Tell me about your Guitars?
JC: Guitars... I've always loved Strats. I want to get into using Teles now.
Actually the sound we're going for now is going to get slightly...we want to get back to
using dated instruments as well, like Gretchs and Gibsons. So we want to get into doing
that. I'm also using a Yamaha. I've got a sponsorship with Yamaha and it's a very nice
guitar as well. It's a Pacifica.
GP: What do you use to amplify your guitars?
JC: It's a Mesa Boogie and it's a Blue Angel which I just got recently and outboard
I'm using a Roland ME8.
GP: What about Sharon's violin is that electric or acoustic?
JC: What she's using right now is a Barcus Berry electricc violin. That's what
she's discovered to be the best. She's tried the Zetas, she's tried sticking a fishman
(pickup) onto her acoustic violin. I don't know whether it's the nature of her acoustic
violin or what, but by far the best sound we are getting from the electric Barcus Berry.
GP: You mentioned the Yamaha sponsorship, do you have deals with anyone else?
JC: Caroline is using a Yamaha too for drums and we also have a deal with Roland. I
actually have an XB80 they've given us and they've given us a Roland GS880 hard disk
recorder which we use on the road for recording demos. We do also have a music shop in
Dublin which fits us out for stuff from plecs to drumsticks, you know stuff like that.
GP: How does the songwriting process work with The Corrs?
JC: It depends. It's a collaborative affair generally. Some person or two people
might come up with the initial foundations or ideas, then everybody becomes involved and
we develop it further and it evolves into a Corrs song. That's generally the way it
happens.
GP: What criteria do you use to decide if a particular song should remain
traditional or to add more electric elements?
JC: Just by trial and error and listening. I mean mainly our songs tend to be more
pop and rock before they're traditional. The traditional is sort of an extra ingredient.
First and foremost we try to write a good pop or rock song and then apply a sort of
traditional management to it.
GP: I suppose it's the nature of the instrument you use that gives it traditional
feel anyway?
JC: Yeah, exactly, I mean we gre up in a place called Dundalk in Ireland and we're
very much influenced by music coming from close to the water and music in our own homeland
so that's how we've evolved that Irish traditionalised music with rock and pop.
GP: You've been on the road for a long time now, virtually at the end of a world
tour so how are you using your soundcheck today and in general?
JC: We use it to warm up. We also use it to get used to specific instruments that
we change around the stage, which is what happens with acoustic guitar which change over
to other guitars at one point of the show. We make sure we rehearse those songs just to
make sure that every change in terms of guitars, different guitars or keyboards is
rehearsed. And also we use it for a good warm up. It helps us warm up our voices and just
get in gear for the pending show.
GP: You are using two additional musicians on stage....
JC: We use a guy called Keith Duffy on bass and a guy called Anto Drennan on lead
guitar and they're both from Dublin. I met Anto through all the bands I played with years
ago. Keith Duffy I just heard of and he was recommended by someone. We get along so well
it's just a great combination. It's like two new extra members to the family.
GP: It seems that you've been to Australia so many times in the last couple of
years, this time you did places like Cairns in the middle of our hot summer, I don't know
if that was an outdoor gig....
JC: Cairns was an indoor gig, it was air-conditioned, it was very nice, I think
it's dangerous doing outdoor gigs. You know it's been a dramatic contrast coming from
Ireland in the winter and to playing Cairns. It's beautiful, it's just pure heaven. We had
some days off and we went to the Great Barrier Reef.
GP: So now looking to the future how will the next album differ?
JC: It'll differ quite a bit in terms of what we've learnt and how we've grown in
the past couple of years, especially from playing live. Because it's developed into a much
more raw energetic thing, I think actually, to be honest, the next album will be much more
less reliant on technology. I mean the first one we were using Macintosh computers with
software that was being converted down into Syclavier files. We worked with a Synclavier
programmer. We think about, and listen to what other bands are doing nowadays. You nearly,
in a sense lose something to the over use of technology. It will certainly be very much a
Corrs sound and songs but we want to get a little bit more back to the basics. It's not
going to be a folk album. It's still going to be very similar to what we put out before
but slightly less reliant on technology.
GP: Have you decided on a producer?
JC: We have got David Foster(producer of their first album) who is producing half
the album and Glen Ballard who, produced Alanis Morisette, is producing the other half.
GP: A lot of Irish performers are very political, is that something you prefer to
stay away from?
JC: We stay away from that because the way we look at it, we're not politicians,
we're musicians. I think if you want to start voicing your opinion on issues which you
might be concerned about, you certainly need to be very knowledgeable about particular
events. We don't have time to deftly get involved in current affairs. We're making music
to hopefully make people happy or drag some emotion from people. That's not to say we
wouldn't speak out in the future if we thought we felt very strongly about something but
you know we just want to make good music.
GP: You have come a long way in what would seem a short time, to the public anyway,
what goals have you set for yourself?
JC: We've been together for about seven years, people don't realise that. We
started off writing and recording in a small bedroom studio so we've been going since then
and had a lot of ups and downs thankfully it's only been in these past three years that
things have really kicked in with the signing of us to Atlantic Records. We think we've
made a fantastic foundation worldwide for this album. So obviously we'd like to achieve an
even greater success with the second. We hope that our sound is even more appealing to
people. We feel very good about the second album, a lot of high hopes for it. We would
love to do the same thing in Australia. It's fantastic how well it's gone for us here and
we've got a fantastic record company here and hopefully we can repeat the same success
here worldwide.