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Pressparty interview Sharon Corr about her new album: "I'm more 'me' than I have ever been"

The Corrs were one of the biggest acts of the 90s and early 2000s and violinist and vocalist Sharon Corr embarked on a solo career after the Irish group split.

She is due to release her second album 'The Same Sun' in the UK on September 8 and with the single 'Take A Minute' due to land on June 23, Pressparty caught up with Corr to find out more.

Do you think 'The Same Sun' is your best piece of work yet?

Yeah, I do. I'd imagine every artist thinks that when they're bringing out a new album, but this is the truth. I think it's a really good album. It's very organic - it's just me singing and playing and writing my own songs. I'm really happy with it. The response has been great, because I launched it last year and I've been releasing by territory as I tour, so now I'm releasing it in the UK. I've had really good feedback.

What sort of lyrical themes run through the album?

I think an album is like a short history of a time in your life, and [it depends] on the song...the single that's out at the moment, 'Take A Minute', is about trying to make a moment last forever, like freezing time or bending time. I wrote it about leaving - I'm always leaving, to go on tour. There's a great heartache in leaving and a great anticipation in leaving as well and both things sit side by side. I was writing about leaving my loved one and wanting to make that moment last forever.

What do you hope to achieve from the single?

The usual! Radio play would be nice, which I'm already getting. And I want it to be like an ambassador for the album.

Are you bothered about chart performance?

Of course, and if anyone tells you they aren't, they're lying. The thing is, you need to create something great first - you need to write something great and then if it gets played on the radio then that's kind of saying that they're agreeing with you, that you've done something really well.

Going to back to The Corrs - are you trying to get away from the Corrs tag or are you happy with it?

I'm not - I hate it when artists do that. The Corrs was an amazing thing. We sold 45 million albums and toured the world. It's part of me and who I am, but what I am doing is trying to progress and get better at what I do and discover my own path. I think I'm more 'me' than I have ever been.

Did you ever envisage The Corrs getting so big?

I think we hoped, but we didn't even know what big was - we were really young. I think we knew that if we wrote great songs, we knew we could sing and play them and perform them, and that if we worked hard enough, hopefully it'd click. It grew and grew slowly and surely.

How do you feel the industry has changed since then?

Well there's a lot less money in the industry so that has really altered it. I think this is fundamental - write a great song and people will like it. So I think you can never really stray too much from that. I've never left the industry, I've flown with it and I embrace it. These are all opportunities to get the most out of it. Great gigs and great songs, that's there - it's just how it's done is different.

Ten years down the line, do you think there would there be any plans to reunite the Corrs?

We don't have any plans, I don't know what's going to happen there. You never say never - if the guys want to do something or it feels like it's a good idea then we would do it, but I think it would be short and sweet if it ever happened. But it's very important that I'm not dependent on other people in order to be able to sing and perform and be out there. So, we shall see.

 

 

 

Is going to solo and being a frontlady second nature to you now?

Very much so. It was always there, and before The Corrs I was always writing and performing my own songs. It's kind of been my whole life. It took a little time for me to jump to the front of the stage rather than being at the side, but I've been solo eight years now.

So is this the absolute true Sharon Corr?

Yep, it is. It's all me.

Do you think your musical talent and violin playing was maybe overshadowed a bit in The Corrs?

I don't tend to apply negativity to the past, because it was what it was. My talent wasn't overshadowed. I wrote songs and we had hits with them, so I never felt like that. I felt like it was an opportunity. It felt it was teamwork and I felt it was four rather than one. Within that environment you need to compromise in order to agree. The past was the past and I feel like it was just a huge opportunity for me, so I don't think I was lost - I feel like I was very much celebrated.

Looking forward, do you have any UK tour plans?

I'm going to tour the UK in September. We're just confirming the actual dates at the moment, but they will be up on my website in the coming weeks.

You were a coach on The Voice Ireland for two series until last year. If you were an aspiring musician today, would you want to be on shows like The Voice or the X Factor?

I wouldn't put myself through the torture of ever appearing on the X Factor. I think it's ugly and I think they laugh at people, and I don't find that entertaining or worthy of viewing. But The Voice I would certainly consider, from the point of view of getting great coaching from someone from the industry who knows what they're talking about. And also the idea of getting that platform - you can do a tour after being on The Voice. You can start to make money, you can really work on your craft out there on stage.

I'm not sure I would have gone on it - I think I probably would have spent more of my time focusing on getting better and better, like we did in The Corrs. We did tonnes of crappy gigs to get bigger gigs, and [then we were] writing better and better music. But nowadays, I think I would enter The Voice. I would, if I was a young artist.

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Watch Sharon Corr's 'Take A Minute' video below: