Anna Corcoran’s voice and beautiful melodies have earned her a great accolades and plaudits for her work, especially alongside her great friend Robert Vincent and since the release of her E.P., Anything Better, the owner of that recognisable voice has just kept growing in stature and quite rightly so.
Before she took to stage at The Unity Theatre, Anna took time out from the worries of the day to music world and relaxed in the café and loosened up before her show she spoke of her new video for the outstanding single The Show, her work on the E.P. and the reasons why she still calls Liverpool her home.
I hope you are ready to perform as the heat is blistering outside, we all might need to be cooled by you.
Anna: “Kind of, no it’s alright the theatre is lovely and cool this evening.”
Congratulations on the video for The Show, it is a marvellous piece of work as is the single in which it was inspired by.
Anna: “Thank you, it has been a really exciting few months. I have been waiting to put the video out for ages, well in fact you had the preview about a month ago didn’t you? I think the nature of when you are doing things on your own and when you put them out yourself, you are constantly waiting, hoping that an opportunity will arise will come along to put it out on a bigger platform, in the end then becomes a shame to keep it hidden away so I just thought I would tie it in with tonight’s gig and release it then. The single has been out for a while and ideally you would release the video in conjunction with the single but doing it all independently and funding it all myself you find you have to stagger things a bit. It has been a huge learning curve and for the next single everything should happen a bit more quickly.”
Well it is a marvellous piece, very evocative. The whole black and white perspective, the striking images, just gives that air of quality and mystery.
Anna: “There was a lot of discussion beforehand on how to do it and the budget played a big part. In my mind, I think yours was the first review of the single that kind of suggested the imagery that is conjured up for the listeners and I had in an ideal world I would want a fairground and I would want a theatre and spotlights but hopefully what we have achieved with the video still tells a story even though we were in one room, in which we had found in this lovely café, and we set up the mirror from my own dressing table and we set up the jewellery boxes and my dressing table to create this image of the girl just staring at herself to suggest is what you see really going on, is it actually happening? Is she imaging what could happen in the future? Something that has already happened, something she wants to happen? You never really know, is it her performing, her dancing, what exactly is The Show?”
I am down on record as saying it is one of my favourites of the year so far. The piano is just beautiful throughout. Was it hard work creating the E.P?
Anna: “That song very nearly didn’t make it on the E.P. I thought it was a bit random.”
Wow, really?
Anna: “I think it was Robert Vincent who said, that is one of your best songs, you need to put that in. I had played it to him ages ago. I had recorded it on my phone and we were in Brighton recording his new album and I played it him whilst we were sitting in the kitchen and I asked what he thought and because it really doesn’t go with the other two tracks on the E.P. and now I wish in a way that I had kept that track separate and to channel it in a different route but you learn and I had the other two songs which I wanted to make available and which I really like but I think the way The Show is produced is far truer to where I am musically. The other tracks are where I am musically when I playing with lots of other people, like Robert for example. I don’t think there is any coincidence that I had been working with Rob a lot for two years and I suddenly have two songs that sound a bit Americana.
I have really enjoyed working with Robert, it’s difficult at the moment location wise and depending where gigs are and we are in different places in the country. I am here all the time, even though I live away from the city, in fact my postal address is still my mum and dad’s house (laughs). I am only really away relationship wise, musically I am still very much in Liverpool. I am here every ten days for different projects and the community I know, the musicians I know, it’s important that I stay part of that and stay a feature of the Liverpool scene.”
You have come back to Liverpool for this very special gig tonight at The Unity Theatre and of course you performed at Ian Prowse’s Monday Night Club second anniversary celebrations last night, I think you more than qualify as still being part of Liverpool.
Anna: “I actually came back on Sunday, I did a concert in Waterloo for Jospice, which was a fabulous concert directed by a friend of mine called Martin O’Boyle, which I think raised £4,000 pounds for the charity. Then of course tonight and I perform on stage after Dave O’Grady and then tomorrow I am going to the Liverpool Music Awards party at Eric’s then I am off to the Latitude Festival at the weekend.”
Performing?
Anna: “(laughs), No I wish. Hopefully one day. I went along to the Monday Club yesterday. Being as it was the second anniversary I thought I would go. I am so often gigging that it is difficult on your nights off to make yourself go out to gigs and open-mic nights and it’s the first time I have had a Monday night free for ages and I thought I would go along. It was great I saw Dominic Dunn who did a set.”
What a guy! He also did a song on Friday as part of Ian Prowse’s gig in the Rodewald Suite on Friday.
Anna: “I thought he was excellent. There were some great poets there too; it all got a bit raucous. I went on about a quarter to twelve and I was worried that my set was going to be too subdued for that time of night and Ian suitably shouted them down and told them to shut the f-up. I don’t think I swear enough for the Monday Club (laughs). They were all really appreciative. When I left there were still people left to go up.”
It is a fantastic night. You have obviously enjoyed the last few days, would you ever return to Liverpool full time?
Anna: “Well I have been heavily involved in Generator, which is an artist development programme back home in Northumbria which is funded by the Arts Council and they are really keen to help artists who are working independently with advice and contacts and seminars that you can attend. They have all these different services and I popped in for some advice when I was releasing the single. So the plan I suppose is to keep everything going in Liverpool but as I start to raise a profile in the North-East maybe they will meet somewhere around York (laughs). I am a bit of wandering minstrel, a bit of gypsy. You know I would be happy with a camper van and my keyboard. I’m quite happy to be a nomad.”
Any more plans to release a new single or some music soon?
Anna: “I’m writing again now, the plan is to certainly release more material. By the end of the summer or just after there will be another single release and then the plan is to attract some independent labels and some management. It’s now about building a team who are passionate about making the project and then moving forward.”
*This interview was recorded before the news was announced that Ms. Corcoran was nominated for Female Artist Of The Year for the 2013 Liverpool Music Awards alongside Natalie McCool and Eva Peterson. Liverpool Sound and Vision would like to congratulate all three women on their outstanding contribution to music.
Ian D. Hall