The Coral: Interview with Nick Power

The Coral return after 3 years with a sprawling double album that’s on top form as usual. It’s a concept album that delves into the world of old fairgrounds and carnivals that have always held a nostalgic air to the kids and adults alike. It takes you back to the saucy postcards, the smell of doughnuts, the penny arcades, fortune tellers. I could go on. Wayne AF Carey speaks to Nick Power (keyboards, organ, melodica, harmonica, piano, backing vocals, lyrics) about the making of this summer hazed platter of pop psychedelia…

“Tell us a bit about the album and the concept.”

“We’ve always written stuff in our songs about these type of things as we live in the sort of area that’s like a seaside town. We used to have a pier here, loads of arcades. It was like a holiday destination for like the people of Liverpool and the surrounding area, but most of it’s gone now, even the arcades are getting sold off. I mean growing up around here you tend to go on holiday to Rhyl or Llandudno, these places that are really kind of close to us. You meet loads of characters you can write about. We just thought, let’s consolidate it into one theme, make it conceptual so you can totally immerse yourself in it and lose yourself. Everyone in the band sings and writes at least one song. We tried to not sort of plan it, to almost stitch it together at the end. This was where we got the idea of splitting it into two sides. Side one is meant to be about the island in its heyday, everything newly built, loads of crowds, loads of money, that sort of thing. Side two is like we’re the house band in some run-down hotel at the end of the pier. Everything is sort of like a picture of where we live now. The first side is a memory.”

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