CORELLA ON 2024 SO FAR, MAIN STAGE APPEARANCES AND NBHD FESTIVAL! | INTERVIEW WITH JOEL SMITH

Corella are having a great summer thus far, having played major festival sets at festivals including Reading, Boardmasters, Truck, and many more! After the release of their debut album, ‘Once Upon A Weekend,’ earlier this year, the band has gone from strength to strength. Corella, who are quickly establishing themselves as mainstays of the expanding Manchester music scene, will play at the city’s NBHD Festival. I sat down with lead singer, Joel Smith, to discuss the whirlwind of 2024 and the excitement of being back in the band’s hometown!

By Keira Knox

Keira : It’s been a phenomenal year for Corella, with the release of your debut album and appearances across festival main stages! If you could sum up 2024 so far in three words what would they be?

Joel : Right off the bat with that question aren’t you! (laughing) I would say… what would I say? Three words to sum it up would be euphoric, dream, which sums it up completely because its been an absolute dream! I want to say something about being tired because it was a slog! (laughing)… Exhausting!

Keira : You’re well known for your outstanding live performances. How excited are you to be performing at this years NBHD festival?

Joel : We’re buzzing! To get to play in Manchester on its own is the one! Manchester crowds are special! We’re very lucky to be playing at a sick venue as well, so we’re buzzing for that! We’re buzzing to get back in front of all the people in Manchester because this is home for us! I’m super excited to see everyone, there’s going to be lots of friends and family there! It’s a sick festival anyway, there’s plenty of good bands on this year, some bands that we know really well like The Royston Club! Super excited to be on stage and check out some of the other bands that we haven’t had chance to see yet!

Keira : As you’ve just touched on, the band were formed in Manchester, how does the vibe differ at a hometown show?

Joel : I would say that every city is different! You’ve got different crowds, like when we went over to Europe that was completely different! All in their own cool way! Manchester is hands down one of the best cities we’ve ever played! I think the city is a vibe of music anyway, there is a lot of bands that have started out in Manchester, which I think is down to the people supporting them as well! We’ve definitely felt that from the start, the energy that the people give us as well, it’s like a family vibe in Manchester! Everyone’s welcome, everyone helps each other, everyone’s there for a good time! That’s what makes it so special!

Keira : How does it feel playing festivals in comparison to headline shows? Do you have a preference?

Joel : Festivals are a free hit really! You can turn up on stage and nobody knows who you are, which is quite exciting really because you could pick up a load of fans! With headline shows, there’s a lot of pressure on that to get out there and sell the tickets! Everyone is paying good money to come and see you, but even though the reception at a headline show is amazing, they’re all singing along to your songs, but festivals you can pick up a lot fans and its gives you the opportunity to check out other bands on the day! Which is something we love to do!

Keira : You’ve lead me perfectly to my next question there! When you’re performing at festivals do you ever get the opportunity to explore or watch new bands, or are you moving straight on to whatever is coming next?

Joel : Sometimes we have to get to a festival early to load in all of our stuff, so we sometimes potter about for a bit! We did that this year, we played a lot of stages, and some main stages, so we were watching from backstage too. We got to take in different bands that we wanted to see all year that we haven’t managed to get on their tours. You could stumble across another band or artists that you like, it gives you a bit more influence. Checking out these artists, especially when we’re looking for support bands, that’s always a good thing to look out for.

Keira : Have you got any favourites from festivals this year?

Joel : I would definitely say that we loved watching The Royston Club. Those boys are really, really good! A band called CVC, we watched them at I think Truck Festival, I was absolutely blown away by them. They are incredible. We’ve played near them in Stockton, but they were on at the same time as us so we didn’t catch their set. We watched them at Truck, they’re definitely onto something big.

Keira : More of a fun question for you, if you could pick any artists on the NBHD bill to cover one of you tracks, which artist would you pick and which song would you choose?

Joel : I think I would like to hear The Academic, just to see if they could do it better than us! (laughing) I think I’d get them to play ‘Bloom’, just to see if we’re actually good or not! (laughing)

Keira : You’re known for your crowd interaction at these gigs, are we going to see anymore crowd surfing at NBHD?

Joel : If the security let me do it, I am in there! All the festivals we’ve played, we’ve managed to win over the security. They’ve said to us after “That show was incredible!”, so if the vibe is there, if Manchester bring the vibes which I’m sure they will, I’ll be in there for one last time this year.

Keira : What does your pre show routine look like to get you in the mood for going on stage? Is it different for a festival?

Joel : You know what, festivals can be quite tricky! If you get there early it can be quite easy to crack open a beer early one before you play. If we are at a festival we try to keep it under wrapped about 2 hours before the show instead of 6 or 7 hours before! (laughing) It’s the same sort of thing we do for headline shows, we always do a warm up. It’s just about getting a vibe for the festival, you’re watching bands that are already out there, you sort of get a gist of what the crowd is like. So for us, it’s about getting pumped up and putting on a good show.

Keira : What would you like new fans and listeners to take away from your performance at NBHD?

Joel : I want them to lose themselves in the music. There’s a lot of sh*t going down in the world right now, if we can make the crowd feel something good for an hour, let them forget abut their troubles and problems. Let people be in the moment, hopefully they’ll leave the gig wanting to see us again. We want to put a smile on peoples faces.

Tickets for NBHD Festival below!

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