The Coral

Liverpool psych band The Coral have taken a breather for a while but are back with a shimmering, harmony-laden, powerful new album, Distance Inbetween. They’ve grown up a lot since their debut back in 2002 and their mature sound is really one to get onboard with. They play at The Waterfront this month, so I spoke to lead singer and lyricist James Skelly about what they’ll be playing at the show, what he’s learnt from running a label lately, and the timeless nature of The Coral’s music.

You’ve not released anything for a good six years – how did you come to start thinking and talking about touring again and making more music?

We just felt it was the right time really. We felt refreshed, we’d had a good break and were ready to go. I’ve been running a label, Skeleton Key which we released She Drew The Gun and Blossoms’ first few singles on. We just needed a break, it had all become a bit too routine really. So it just then happened naturally, we started working on The Coral tunes.

What have you got out of having this time away from The Coral?

I’ve learnt a lot, namely how annoying bands are! And therefore how annoying we would have been to a producer or a manager, so that’s helped me to look at The Coral in a more objective way.

Psych’s pretty big at the moment, people like Jane Weaver, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and Temples, but back when you started it wasn’t that in. What sort of music were you all listening to when you started the band and who did you want to sound like at first?

Every member of the band liked different stuff but we all liked Captain Beefheart, Love, The Byrds, The Stone Roses. Bill loved dub at that time, I’ve always loved Frank Sinatra and Bob Marley, Paul loved Pink Floyd and more prog stuff. Everyone brought their own stuff to it, we didn’t really have any rules.

Your 2002 debut album was nominated for the Mercury. Did that have any sort of effect on your confidence as a band or your hopes for the future?

At the time we were just young and we just thought why would you get an award for music, you do music cos that’s all you can de. We were a bit untrusting and saw it as part of a world we didn’t want to be involved in. The music industry was all a bit pally and we didn’t want that, which is how you should be as a young band. Anything like that we thought needed to be broken up. We were just young and railing against everything.

The Coral have always stood apart from whatever’s been happening on the scene at that time – in fact it’s always felt pretty timeless. Has that made it harder or easier for the band to have a set identity, especially as your sound is always changing?

I think that is our identity if you know what I mean, that we never wanted anything to be of the time because when it ages it doesn’t work. I like bands that sound out of step or even unfashionable but they stand alone and unique in that way.

How has your home city of Liverpool influenced The Coral’s music and lyrics?

Where we live is on the seaside but 15 minutes from Liverpool on the train. You can see Liverpool from the beach, and my dad worked on the markets so I’d always go and work there with him. I’ve always romanticised it in a way, The Beatles, The Bunnymen, The La’s, all those bands, so we just ingested all of that. On the other side we could see Wales, so we were influenced by the Super Furry Animals and Gorky’s, so you can hear that put together in a way with The Coral.

Your new album Distance Inbetween feels fresh and live. Was the recording process different for you this time around?

No, we’ve recorded every album live, pretty much. The rhythm section is always live anyway. The way I see it is if you like The Coral you want the character of it to come through the recordings, you don’t want a Pro Tools version of it, it becomes tiresome.

The album’s great, and I’m sure it will be amazing to hear it live – do you tend to stick closely to the original song or do you improvise and stretch things out when you’re playing them live?

No, we like each gig to be different, it keeps it interesting. There are loads of different jams – Andy Votel did a remix of Holy Revelation and we’ve learnt it and play it live. We’ve brought some old favourites back to play live as well.

The video for Million Eyes is very cool – how did it come to be?

Last minute actually! We had an idea which didn’t work. We then gave Sam, who does all our live projections on tour, a week to come up with something and he’s been working with an analogue synth but for soundwaves. So the movement of the sound affects the visuals if you know what I mean. He came up with the idea to use one of our projections but we’re within it.

I wondered why you called the album Distance Inbetween?

We have a concept for every album – it helps you kind of pull it together. This one was the unknown, so the distance inbetween is where you mostly are..you never seem to be getting there, you never seem to be there as humans or whatever. We’re always inbetween. Butterfly House, our previous album was called that to represent the death of an old world, this different world. The butterfly house was meant to represent an innocent world before people knew everything, or thought they knew everything. Everyone’s opinion has been legitimised now via social media, but Butterfly House was set in a world where more people believed in magic.

If you met someone who’d not heard The Coral before, which of your songs would you play them?

Don’t Think You’re The First. It’s my favourite.

You’re clearly still making music together after 20 years because you have something to say – what’s kept you together so long and what keeps you returning?

We’re like The Lost Boys – we made a promise and we’re all pretty loyal. We all get on better than ever. We’ve worked ourselves into a good place with a good life/work balance. We all hang round with each other anyway.

You’ve supported some of the biggest UK bands of the last 20 years including Blur, Oasis and The Arctic Monkeys. What’s the best bit of advice you’ve ever been given?

The best piece of advice I’ve been given was from the producer John Leckie who worked as a tape operator at Abbey Road. I said to him “Didn’t you shit yourself when you had to cut the tape for The Beatles?” and he said “No. I just did it.” And ever since then I’ve just done it! The best piece of advice I’ve ever been given!

The Coral play at The Waterfront on 13th December. Tickets available from ueatickets.ticketabc.com