More than two decades into their career, are still finding new ways to surprise and evolve.
Their 13th album, ‘388’, arrived with little warning, but has been ; its rawness, warmth and spontaneity capturing everything that has always made The Coral so distinctive.
Yet behind the surprise release is a record that feels deeply connected to where the band first began. Drawing on the sounds, experiences and attitudes of their formative years, it finds The Coral stripping things back, trusting their instincts and embracing the chemistry that comes from years of playing together.
After a busy festival season, and look ahead to taking the record on the road for their autumn tour. They spoke to Clash’s backstage at about revisiting the band’s roots, the instincts that have shaped the new record, the thrill of performing live, and those moments when you just know you’ve got the take.
You’ve got a busy weekend on the festival circuit this summer. How much do you love doing festivals, and how do you approach your set list in comparison to your own gigs?
It’s a short one today (at Victorious), so I think all the festivals we’re doing this weekend are different lengths, so we’ll sort of guess the length and we’ll keep playing. But you know, we’ve been around the houses and have been around for a while, so we are used to it!
Can we expect to hear any tracks from ‘388’ today?
Not today, because we’ve only got half an hour to play. Usually we have three or four in the set when it’s our full-length set, so you’ll probably only get one or two across the weekend.
You have to play around with the set a little bit when playing festivals, but you’re going on tour in October, with two dates in December too. It’s your first headline tour in three years, following the tour supporting ‘Sea Of Mirrors’. Can we expect to hear tracks from ‘388’ there, given you’ll have a longer set to play with?
You’ll definitely get like three or four tracks from ‘388’, and then we’ll dip into songs from right across the career retrospective.
Your 13th album came as quite a surprise release. It seemed to come out of nowhere, but it’s also a really nostalgic record, drawing on your formative years and teenage experiences.
Can you tell me a little more about how it came about? I know you were exploring everything from Zambian rock to other influences, so what inspired you to go back to that period and bring those sounds together?
Do you remember the book tour we did a couple of years ago about how we made our debut album?
I do remember! I went to one of your shows at the Union Chapel in London – it was brilliant! Your documentary ‘Dreaming of You: The Making of The Coral’ grew out of the same process of looking back at the band’s early years didn’t it?
The documentary came from that, because we had to piece the past together, really. Before we released the debut album, we made a few other records that were basically false starts and they were a bit more like early Marley tunes, you know, that kind of rocksteady influence.
It was kind of natural to follow on and do some tunes. We were listening to a lot of that stuff again, things like The Specials and Lee “Scratch” Perry, and we discovered Zamrock – it all kind of fed back into the way we were approaching ‘388’.
The new album has been incredibly well received. Has it been one of your favourite albums to make?
Yeah, definitely. It’s up there with ‘Coral Island’, the first album and ‘Distance Inbetween’ really. In terms of favourites, I’d probably say the first album, ‘Coral Island’ and this one. This was one of the most enjoyable experiences when it comes to making music.
It was totally about the music, and there was no pressure as we weren’t really expecting to make it all. If you know what I mean? No one was expecting us to release it.
It was easy, probably one of the easiest – just enjoyable!
Were there any standout moments for you while making the album?
: Yeah my dog died halfway through!
Oh no, sorry to hear that – that’s really sad!
: Life was happening around us!
We were just doing the takes live, and it was just about being on the edge. Just knowing when it’s the take. But if you fuck up on the last verse or whatever, you just have to ride with it.
But everything is spilling onto everything. If one person fucks up, it’s all gone, but no one fucked up!
: You just relax and enjoy it.
: A lot of the time, because we’d rehearsed, we’d be like, “Let’s soundcheck it,” and then we’d just listen back and we liked it that way.
We didn’t want the takes to get too good. What we’d usually do is we’d get it on the first or second take, then the second take would be really good, or the first one.
So, a case of what goes on take, stays on take then?! When you’ve been in a band together for so many years, do you feel like you just naturally know what the other person is going to do? Almost like you develop a kind of telepathy with each other?
So, you just know instinctively what each other is going to say or do?
– That’s why the tunes come together! If someone says a word and it’ll be like a reference that everyone can really tap into. All the parts come together really quickly.
: Yeah, everyone knew the rules. The rules were pretty much that we were going to record rhythm tracks rather than backing tracks. We were looking back at Bo Diddley and all the sort of ska stuff and rocksteady. We had the parameters, and that made it really easy.
The setup was easy because every song sounded the same sonically, if you know what I mean?
It made it easy to do a song, vocals mixed down – that was it. Every one of them.
There’s a real rawness and directness to both the production and songwriting on this album. It really feels like each track is a ‘moment’ in its own right? Do you think revisiting your debut brought some of that early sensibility back into the music?
Yeah. Like the beginning of ‘Waiting for the Heartaches’. When you’re remastering the first album, you realise that things are exactly what you are feeling. That’s it. You don’t need to wrap it up in anything. Just straight on and, you know, that’s it.
Yeah, because the two albums before it were quite different in the way of writing.
More about storytelling in a way…
Yeah, more thematic. They were kind of like – I wouldn’t say concept albums, but there was a concept behind all the songs and it all had to fit.
It was a lot of imagery, wasn’t it? It was still personal, but it just depends how you do it. You know, there’s different ways of poetry and it is still personal. You know, say the way someone says something, that direct, like a speech or whatever.
I’d say, I would imagine if you were in the ’60s, and you heard Malcolm X or something. The way we talk directly, that’s still poetry in a different way. There are loads of different ways to do it – and that’s the way we wanted to do it on this album.
Bearing in mind that ‘388’ was such a beautiful surprise, can we expect any more new music from The Coral this year or perhaps next year?
Oh, I don’t know!
Circumstance will dictate it. If there’s a spark or there’s an idea, we’ll just jump on it.
At the moment we’re doing a lot. We really want us to do a good tour, and we’ve played a lot of festivals. Once you get to your mid-40s, you can’t just rock up and do it. You’ve got to actually get fit. You’ve got to warm your voice up every day. So, then that mindset is well different to writing and being creative.
So, whereas you could do both, at the moment I’m just in the mindset of playing live and fronting the band, which is a completely different mindset. So, but then once you finish your last gig, and you know you haven’t got a gig for three or four months, then a different mindset might take over.
Do you guys prefer being in the studio or performing live? What is it about playing to a crowd that you love?
Both, but we don’t get to play many of our own gigs, so I’m really looking forward to the tour. At a lot of gigs we play, you rock up somewhere and you haven’t had a soundcheck, the wind’s blowing everywhere, and it’s not quite the same as doing your own gig.
I’m really looking forward to getting in there and playing in front of our crowd on tour, with a great sound, lights and all that.
What’s the best gig you’ve ever played?
Probably Glastonbury 2003.
The one we just played, where we put on a bill with Liam Bailey, Brooke Combe and Skeleton Coast.
A Late Summer Night Scream?
Yeah, it was the only thing we played recently at Grand Central last year. Definitely in the top five. It was sold out and just, I don’t know, we don’t usually get crowds where everyone’s singing back at you – every word.
The hometown gigs are always going to be pretty special. What’s it like living there? Do people recognise you much, or is it all pretty chilled? Can you still just go about your day without getting mobbed?
Not really – the music’s more famous than we are!
Brooke Combe is also playing this weekend, and she’s really starting to get the attention she deserves. I know her music influenced ‘388’ a little bit too. What is it about her music that you connect with?
Yeah, just working with her and how direct she is, and just that energy. You know, when you look at stuff when you’re younger, you just end up bouncing off it.
A lot of it was inspired by the scene when we were younger. I was just looking at it as a fan in a way. I loved the attitude of it, and I wanted to try and capture a bit of that in what we were doing. There was a certain attitude with the sound.
Looking ahead to the tour, can you give us any hints about what to expect? You mentioned you’ll be playing a few songs from ‘388’, but are you going to dip into the whole discography as well?
The festival set that we’ve been honing over the last three years is going to be the tour now, with a few changes. We’ve been honing this set since post-lockdown and we did the first album tour where we played the whole first album when we were meant to do a tour, so we actually haven’t done our own proper tour since pre-lockdown.
So, it’s the set we’ve honed since lockdown, really. We’re going to play that every night, and I think people are going to love it.
I completely agree! Are you going to catch anyone else playing at Victorious Festival today? If so, who are you most looking forward to seeing?
I am definitely going to watch Cast, that will be good.
Me too, they will be absolutely brilliant!
JAMES: We can’t stick around as we have a four-hour drive, but Cast was one of the first gigs I ever saw. So I’d like to watch their set.
Nick, how about you? What was the first gig you went to?
NICK: The first gig I went to was Finley Quaye.
Nice, I bet that was a really nice chilled gig! James, you’ve produced some really great records for other artists such as Brooke Combe and Blossoms. Is there anyone you’d love to work with who you haven’t had the chance to produce yet?
JAMES: I would love to do Liam Bailey, if someone will pay for it!
‘388’ is out now. Catch The Coral on tour this Autumn – for all headline shows click HERE.