Caroline Corr

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 straightaway. 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 the 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 drums in the band. I was just drawn to it.
Obviously the fact that you re 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 really 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. What we do fits us personality-wise on stage. Who s to say I could be a lead singer? Not everybody can 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 regularly 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 that I m 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 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 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 re off the road?
Sleep as long as you possibly can. Cook, or go out for dinner laundry, basic stuff.
Obviously with 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 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 in 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 usen t to 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 me.
Well it could be the roads, it could be the rain, it could be the 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?
Em, not really, no. I was never into voting and stuff like that...which is terrible! But a lot of the time I m just 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 ten years time?
I d still like to be doing music. Probably, hopefully, maybe... I might get married. I don t know quite yet. Em, maybe have children, at some stage. I ll have to have children within ten years, or it s just never going to happen otherwise. (laughs) And hopefully still have a career in music. That would be my dream. Cause I don t see myself ever being out of music. I d hate it. I wouldn t be... it wouldn t be us, you know?
So do you think you can have kids and manage them in the context of doing the kind of stuff that you re doing?
No, it would have to be a 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 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 are putting an awful 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 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 that 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 is 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? How did we do the record? How did we just go back into the studio? How did we get through 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 kinda 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 about 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 at 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 staff. I d be aware of it, but it s fine it doesn t bother me. I just get on with 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 your own shopping as well, which is really strange. They think that you ve got people doing it for you. (laughs) People say to you how come you re doing your shopping? . Well why wouldn t I be doing my 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 think, I could do without all this shit 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 and do that. But not totally. You just get used to it, it kinda becomes 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 the band, which is great, for a while. Until you get back home! (laughs)
India would be 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!