Caroline Corr in interview

OK Magazine, November 27th, 2002

Caroline Corr has always been the loud beating heart of the Corrs, the shy drummer perched beside her kit, but this year has definitely been her annus mirabilis.

"It has been a bit mad", she admits to OK magazine. In August she married property developer Frank Woods, her boyfriend of 5 years, in the candlelit church of saint Joan Baptista in Deya Majorca, in a ceremony attended by Celtic pop royalty, including U2's Bono and the Edge (AND LARRY!) and Texas's Sharleen Spiteri, not to mention Caroline's famous siblings, Jim, Sharon and Andrea. In October she announced that she was expecting her first child, due next spring.

The Corrs are in the middle of recording their next album and promoting their first DVD video compilation, but Caroline found time to speak openly to OK! about her new husband, her passion for music and how the band have coped in the 3 years since the untimely death of their beloved mother.

Q: How did you and Frank meet, and what attracted you to him?

We met almost 5 years ago in a club [laughs]. Very romantic! I liked his conversation; he was really easy to talk to. I didn't pay much attention to him at the time. I wasn't thinking, this is that man for me. I was quite aloof about the whole thing for some reason. But I do remember thinking he was really interesting to talk to and I had no qualms about going out on another date with him. That I remember!

Q: How would you describe Frank?

He is really generous and a kind and very caring person. And he's great fun. You really have a laugh with him. But then I would say that, im married to him – what else am I going to say?

Q: So he doesn't mind being 'Mr Caroline Corr'?

He's very strong and independent in his own right, so he's never really felt like that. Obviously I've travelled a lot and that's not been easy over the years but it just works. He's supportive of what I do and I'm supportive of what he does.

Q: Some people say Frank reminds them of your father, Gerry.

I don't think he's like my dad at all, I really don't. I think they have a sense of humour in common, they make each other laugh. But I don't think they're very much like each other, no.

Q: Tell us about your wedding day.

It was fantastic, amazing. I suppose there's always a big build up to it and you always think you'll enjoy the reception more than the church. But I really enjoyed the church element of it and it was a really memorable day.

Q: Why did you choose to get married in Majorca?

We didn't really want to do the Irish wedding, even though I love Ireland. I wanted to do something a little bit different. I really like that part of Majorca, especially Deia. Its so beautiful. And we really like the church. We've spent a lot of time there and we've got to know the place and have a few friends there. So it seemed like the ideal place to have the wedding.

Q: What about your honeymoon?

It was great, we travelled to a good few place. We did Italy, France, Corsica and Sardinia, so we had quite a varied honeymoon. We had a great time, but we'd done a lot of travelling and, with having the wedding abroad as well, we'd been away for so long we were quite eager to get home as well.

Q: How does it feel not to be single any more?

I think being single is fantastic, and while you are single make the most of it. But it was a time in my life when I really felt I would like to get married and it felt right for our relationship. But I don't feel it's a relief, its refreshing to be married.

Q: So how did you feel the moment you were pregnant?

I felt a mixture of elation and anxiety all in one go, because I hadn't planned it, but at the same time I knew I was ready for it. I felt ok about it, but you still have that sense of anxiety. You go, oh my god, I can't believe that!

Q: But you've always wanted a family?

Oh definitely, at some stage. It was only a matter of when. I thought I would probably have waited a bit longer, but you can't plan these things and if you do start planning things they rarely ever work out the way you expect them to.

Q: What was Frank's reaction?

He was really happy. I mean he was really shocked, but a little happy, so he was the same as me.

Q: And after Frank, who did you tell first?

My sister, Andrea. I waited a couple of days and then I told her. She was so happy for me, it was amazing.

Q: So will Andrea be the baby's godmother?

I don't know, I haven't thought about that. We're all pretty close, I don't know who I'll pick. It may not even be one of my sisters.

Q: How are preparations going for the birth?

There's a lot of things to get ready but I've been quite chilled out about it and I'm not going to run out and start buying things to early. I'm not going to go bananas - I'll wait a bit longer and maybe start stocking up. It's too early for classes yet, but I do yoga and all that sort of stuff.

Q: How will a baby affect your priorities?

I'm not sure. I've always been career-orientated and its strange when you know your priorities are going to shift to the baby. But I want to work it as best I can – I want to be with the child, but I do want to have some semblance of a career as well. The only way I'm going to do that is to figure it out when the baby comes and see how much work it's going to involve.

Q: More than you think, perhaps.

It's going to take up and awful lot of my time, but it doesn't mean I'm not going to be able to do records and promotion. I'm not going to stop everything.

Q: Are you going to take a sabbatical from the band?

Oh no. I'm just going to spend the first few weeks with the baby and see how that goes. We're doing a record here in Dublin, so it's a really good time for it to have happened because we wouldn't have been out on the road anyway. We'll probably try to get the record released early next year, so as soon as that's ready to go I should still be able to promote it and work as well.

Q: You're involved with the NSPCC's Christmas cards on the theme of the 12 days of Christmas, which we featured in OK! A couple of weeks ago. How did you get involved?

They're all different and the one I'm involved in is 12 drummers drumming. I thought it was a unique idea. Roger Taylor from Queen was there in. I've always been a big fan of his, so it was great to work with him, and the Earl of Litchfield was photographing it and I hadn't worked with him either. I thought it would be a great opportunity and it's nice to do something at Christmas for charity.

Q: Tell us about the new Corrs video compilation. What will your fans find on it?

We've never put out all of our videos before and it's about time we did, so we thought it was a great idea. And it also has extra stuff from the Unplugged that we did on MTV, like Radio and Everybody Hurts, and another one people won't have seen is the video for One Night, which we did in Spanish with an artist called Alejandro Sanz. I haven't seen many of our videos for such a long time and it's nice to look back on them and there are a lot of fans to want to do that too.

Q: Do you ever pinch yourself that you're being paid to do a job you love?

Oh yes. I was brought up in it and there was nothing else I was ever going to do except for music. But I do pinch myself and think, I'm not doing a nine-to-five job, I'm not doing anything like that and it's wonderful to be able to write music and get it out to the world and actually be paid for it. You do have to pinch yourself and say how idyllic it is.

Q: Why do you think the Corrs are so popular?

I don't know what the appeal is. We worded very hard especially the first five years of our career. We toured a lot, we did a lot of writing and got the albums out as quick as we could. Some people hate it, some love it. I think the fans just like the music. It's not making that many statements, it's just music.

Q: Is music therapeutic for you?

Just playing any instrument itself can be quite cathartic, and being involved in music in any way is so good for you. It's a form of release, a form of expression and if you can do it in a job it's amazing.

Q: Why did you choose the drums?

I believe there should be a lot more female drummers. There are very few and I don't know why. Maybe it's seen as a male thing. It's not that it take strength, it just takes a bit of practice, although you have to be fit to play live – I really had to get fit on tour to keep up. I started running for fitness and for m back; a lot of drummers have problems with their backs and I have a special seat that supports me.

Q: So how do you feel when you're in concert?

I love it – the adrenaline rush for performing on stage is quite incredible. You miss that when you haven't been on tour for a while, the feeling of going out in front of so many people who are there just to see you. It's an incredible feeling.

Q: What are you most proud of musically?

I look at what's in the charts at the moment and I look at other people who have a great talent and haven't been successful and I think to myself, wow, we really did well. It's such a high risk and it's so hard to be successful. And the accumulation of 25 million records makes you feel you've actually achieved something. Of course, we'd love another really successful record. But you can't keep up forever – you have some extremely artistic moments and some great ideas, and sometimes you just don't.

Q: Are you bothered about the amount of attention that band's image gets' compared to the music?

When you've got three girls in a band who are seen as "pleasing to the eye" there's nothing you can do about it. That's just the way we've been made. We went into it for the music and when people come and see our concerts they understand us a lot more and what we do as a family, so it doesn't bother me at all.

Q: It must get claustrophobic being with your family all the time.

We've got used to it over the years. There was a time in our lives when we were younger and we had a lot more arguments. I'm very stubborn. In an argument I should say sorry quicker, but I eventually get there. We constantly laugh at each other because we know each other so well. Of course, it's hard to get space and get your own time, but we've had so many arguments over the years, we've given up now because we're bored with it. And we do really enjoy each others company.

Q: It's now 3 years since your mother passed away. How has it affected you as a family?

I think losing the nucleus of a family, which I believe is the mother, is absolutely devastating, but we are thankful that we still have our dad. It changes everything, it changes your whole family dynamic, it really does. You become quite different people when you lose somebody like that. So it was a hugh change for us, because we were al very close to our mum.

Q: Was there any talk of the band leaving the music business then?

No, there was never any thought of that. We were actually in the middle of our third record, In Blue, when it happened. Mum love that fact that we were in music and what we were doing; it made her very excited. She would have hated us to have given up and not done it. And there were never any questions of that. I think the natural thing when you're grieving is to dive into work, and that's certainly what we did. We knew mum would have wanted us to keep going.