The Coral find new depths (From Redditch Advertiser)

The Coral find new depths

7:00am Saturday 17th July 2010

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The Coral release their new album Butterfly House on Monday July 12, and begin a UK tour the same day. The Merseysiders explain their new album, and how they coped with the departure of a member after their last album.

By Andy Welch The Coral are standing outside the BBC's Broadcasting House in the centre of London.

They've just completed a session for Clive Anderson's Radio 4 show Loose Ends, and up walks a man in his 50s with a camera and notepad asking for a quick snap and an autograph.

The trio - fourth and fifth members Nick Power and Ian Skelly are missing - look a little surprised, but duly oblige. It's safe to say they're not used to being recognised on the street.

As we walk around town to find food for the band's ravenous singer James Skelly, no one else bats an eyelid.

Unstarry, unassuming characters they may be; their music is anything but.

"This is our best record," says James of Butterfly House, released on July 12. He's happy now he's tucking into a few plates of tapas, although it takes a while for him to loosen up and properly start chatting.

"In a way, you have to think that about each record you've made, but with this one I really think it.

"It's the most consistent, and will stand the test of time better than the others. The first album (The Coral, 2002) will always be great, it's got something magic about it, but this album will age the best of all of them.

"Maybe it's just more to my current tastes than others have been, I don't know..." he says, before taking a bite into a chicken wing.

There is something special about Butterfly House, the Merseysider's sixth album if you count the limited-edition psychedelic oddity that was 2004's Nightfreak And The Sons Of Becker.

There's nothing particularly new here in terms of influences - The Byrds, Love, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Captain Beefheart etc - and the band have lost none of their original, typically English spark. The songs are just better.

"We just did our thing as always," says James. "We weren't trying to rip anyone off, but there's something on this that we've all related to, and we've played to our strengths.

"It was more collaborative," he adds.

"I mean, we've always written together, maybe not so much on the last album (Roots & Echoes, 2007), but we were all on the same page, and everyone gave everything they could.

"I think in the past we've wanted the same things, but we've all given a bit less."

For Butterfly House, James and keyboard player Nick remained main songwriters, although with each track, there's a lovely story of how a misunderstood comment, misheard idea or throwaway line was picked up by another member of the group and turned into something worth holding on to.

"On More Than A Lover, Ian thought I was singing 'Too much to carry on', which I wasn't but soon changed it to, because I knew exactly what it meant."

Another case was Roving Jewel, which was kickstarted by James mistaking his brother Ian's lyric for "I used to call 'at' the Roving Jewel" rather than "I used to call 'her' the Roving Jewel".

Subtle, maybe, but significant enough to change James's train of thought and, within minutes, come up with a totally new narrative for the song's sublime melody.

"It's about this fella who was trying to write the ultimate piece of literature about his life," explains James.

"He goes to this place to write it but ends up going insane trying to write, so decides to give up art in the end because he realises he can't write about a life if he's not living one.

"It's like The Shining or something. Sometimes you just have to put whatever it is down and live your life."

For a band who've just spent the best part of three years making an album, there's something poetic about that. The irony isn't lost on James.

"It wasn't an easy process, this album," he admits.

"The last song to go on the album was the single 1000 Years. We wrote that in 10 minutes. The first one was Green Is The Colour that me and Nick wrote. That was inspired by Swamp Thing, you know, the Alan Moore comic? He uses the land as a metaphor for so many other things and I liked that idea.

"In Green Is The Colour, it could just be about a girl with green eyes walking in a forest, but it's more about jealousy and being trapped."

It turns out James is an avid reader of graphic novels and he quickly reels off a list of his favourite writers which includes such giants in the field as Jamie Delano, Frank Miller, and Garth Ennis.

"I don't read much else, really," he says. "Late-Eighties through to the early-Nineties - the comics from that time are some of the best writing I've ever read, of any type. It's the most creative medium I think, and people think it's for kids..."

Butterfly House is the first album The Coral have made since losing original guitarist Bill Ryder-Jones.

It's not a new development, he first left after their 2004 album The Invisible Invasion for personal reasons, but rejoined in time for Roots & Echoes.

"It didn't have a big impact this time, really," he says. "When he left the first time, that's when it was really hard.

"We were really getting onto something then, really loose jamming and I thought that would be our best album, but he had a bad time and had to take a break. Before that, we were just bouncing along, no problems and you think nothing's going to stop you. Next thing you know, someone who's been your friend for all those years is gone in a way.

"It was kind of frustrating for two or three years, so when he left it was a release for all of us. It was a positive thing for him and us, and there'll never be hard feelings, we'll always share those albums and what we all went through."

It was clearly a bit of an ordeal, losing a band member, but as James says, it's in the past, and as they approach the release of this sixth album, there seems to be a new optimism in the band.

"Working with John Leckie on this album was amazing, we learned a lot," says James by way of explanation. "He's worked with John Lennon, Phil Spector, Pink Floyd, The Stone Roses, and Radiohead. You don't get a better CV than that.

"The way we worked, too, just five of us playing in the studio - we'd never recorded like that before, and it gave us a lot of confidence and really moved us on.

"In some ways it feels like we've started all over again."

Extra time - The Coral :: The Coral are James Skelly, Nick Power, Ian Skelly, Paul Duffy and Lee Southall.

:: The band met at school in West Kirby and Hoylake on the Wirral, and formed the band in 1996.

:: Their debut album was nominated for a Mercury Prize in 2002.

:: Their song Dreaming Of You has been used in numerous TV shows including US medical drama Scrubs.

:: When the band recorded Roots & Echoes, they used Noel Gallagher's Wheeler's End studio, where they were allowed to use any of the Oasis man's enviable guitar collection. As a thank you, they bought him a miniature model of a Gibson Flying V.

:: The Coral release their sixth album Butterfly House on Monday July 12. They begin their UK tour on the same day in Birmingham's Alexandra Theatre.

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