On the path of most resistance

Although wary of the potential fallout from her diddley- eye-free solo debut, Andrea Corr is 'beyond happy' with the work, she tells Tony Clayton-Lea

What a long strange trip it has been for 32-year-old Andrea Corr. Lounging on a hotel room sofa and looking for all the world like a human representation of a new upmarket car - oozing quality, sleek, well-defined lines and smartly upholstered - she has trod a reasonably well worn path from pulling pints in pubs in her native Dundalk to being a member of one of Ireland's most successful groups.

However, now that The Corrs are on an extended hiatus, arguably the prettiest member of the family band (and, no, we don't mean Jim) has taken it upon herself to climb out of the box marked Bland Irish Pop and slink over to another box, this one sticker-marked with the unwieldy title of Sophisticated Pop For Discerning Ears. In other words, with the release of her debut solo album, Ten Feet High, in one fell swoop - and without so much as a tin whistle or fiddle in the mix - Andrea has chopped off a portion of her extant fan base.

She has chosen to do it for a number of reasons, but mostly, we reckon, because she finally wanted to be recognised as someone of fibre after years of being perceived as a singer of syrup. There was no master plan, she says, and she certainly didn't contrive to make sure she made a different album from whatever she would have contributed to a Corrs record. Quite simply, songs had been written over a period of some years, they were very much her own thing, and she wanted to make a record that would excite her. The implication that some of The Corrs records failed to excite her hangs in the air like a cloud threatening to burst.

One of the templates for Ten Feet High was Björk's groundbreaking 1993 album, Debut. Produced by Nellee Hooper (who, tellingly, also produced Ten Feet High). Debut mingled the singer's mercurial personality with songs that skipped, bounced and collided with listeners' expectations. Ten Feet High might not generate precisely the same startling experiences, but it's certainly a long way from the music we have come to associate with Andrea Corr.

SHE IS, SHE says of the record, "beyond happy. I wanted to fulfil myself and make the best record I could. That's all I wanted to do. And regardless of what happens that's how I feel about it. I feel when I listened to it - and I don't mean this is any arrogant or self-deprecating way - that I made a record which was beyond what I thought I could have done."

She is wary of the potential fallout that might arise from fans of The Corrs. "Because it's different to The Corrs, I've been very careful to say, 'Please, before you make up your mind, listen to it'. Some people are crying out for the violins, whereas others are saying 'thank God there's no diddley-eye'. I just hope that people will listen to it with open ears and minds."

Discreet and diplomatic as she is, there's no getting away from the sense of Andrea wanting to stretch her levels of creativity beyond what she was allowed to do as a family band member. Within such a format, compromises are always made, while even subtle pressure from record company executives can play havoc with artistic direction. She admits that the studio set-up for her solo work was markedly different from going into a studio with The Corrs.

"Initially, I went in there with Nellee Hooper, a man I so admired but didn't really know. I was very, very shy and only in doing that did I realise how much being in a studio with my family did we protect each other. Going into the sound booths by myself, singing my songs, I felt so exposed and so vulnerable. I'm glad I did it, because I believe we should be doing things that we're not complacent or nonchalant about. You get better and more out of yourself if you do something that's harder for you to do - you go beyond your expectations."

DID SHE FEEL that what she was doing, perhaps latterly, with The Corrs wasn't exciting enough or maintaining her interest? "You always hope that you get better as songwriters - that's your aim - and I believe we did. I don't think there came a point where we just knocked out another tune and put it on another record. The last record we did (Home, released in 2005) was an Irish one - and that's one of my favourite Corrs albums. We never played or performed better, and it was obviously done very organically, so I got a kick out of that."

But Ten Feet High is far more about - and of - you, isn't it? "It's got to be. As you get older, you accept your vulnerabilities more, you're braver about exposing those, whereas in your 20s, you're fighting that all the time and trying to fit in. So I'm obviously more in this record because I'm braver to say the truth. With the lyrics, for instance, I didn't feel I had to be braver or more honest, I just was. I didn't control the lyrical content, either - they weren't only as much as I was willing to reveal."

REVEALING LYRICS OR not, privacy is an issue. Andrea says that she has insisted on wanting to live her life as a normal person (or as normal a life a person can manage in her position) and finds the interruption of her personal life surreal. "Revealing things about yourself? Well, I think culture in general has accepted that it's okay to ask personal questions. I don't blame the media for that, I blame us as consumers; it's obviously what we're asking for. That said, I refuse to accept that we want to know about Paris Hilton getting out of jail. That's breaking news on Sky? I'm sorry, but I do think we're smarter than that, and I have a far higher regard for people's intelligence."

While privacy issues frustrate, home remains a constant balm. She goes back to Dundalk as much as she can to visit her father, family and friends. Does a provincial town hold much interest to a woman with a healthy bank balance and some very famous friends? Possibly not, but one should never underestimate the resonances of the place where one was born and raised.

Besides, Andrea is not so sure that there can be a distance, emotional or otherwise.

"I really enjoy going back, because I was very happy growing up there. I find the people very supportive, although as per usual there's the odd person who'll say stuff like 'fair play to yez, but I always thought your music was sh***!', but it wouldn't be colourful if there wasn't a comment like that. Mostly, they're really supportive and lovely people."

Did she have any notions whatsoever of what her life might turn out like? "I loved singing and getting transported into the stories of the songs I loved. That was my favourite hobby - I'd even do it before I went to school, sit in the chair, put my headphones on and sing along to the songs. But our parents played music every weekend, so music was always there. Often you'd be recording songs for mammy and writing down the lyrics for her.

"I suppose I did want to be a singer, that seemed inevitable, but at the same time I didn't fully decide it - you don't at the age of 15, do you? In a naive way, I think we thought it might work." Which brings us back to Ten Feet High, a record that, says Andrea, didn't put people at ease, particularly those who work in record companies.

ENTER GUARDIAN ANGELS Bono and Gavin Friday - the pair encouraging and embracing the stylistic changes, making suggestions and phone calls, ensuring that Andrea knew she was making the right decisions. Andrea wanted something with a pop cut-and-thrust, something with sonic pins and needles. The record company wanted Corrs-lite.

"I wasn't going calm," she says, "whereas they wanted Andrea goes Karen Carpenter. That's probably what they dreamed of, and I understand that - they're business people and that's what they cared about.

"Bono and Gavin didn't get involved in the writing, or anything like that, but the level of belief from people I so respect, musically, every way, really gave me the courage to do the record. As I said, I didn't need to do it, but in order to do it properly I did need to be brave, and that was amazing."

Ten Feet High is on release through Atlantic