12 ROCK & POP THE INDEPENDENT FRIDAY4MAY2007 THE INDEPENDENT FRIDAY 4 MAY2007 ROCK & POP B

Kin Cheung/AP The Cranberries’ vocalist is recording again after her maternity leave. Now solo, Dolores O’Riordan talks to CHRIS MUGAN Experience counts

howcase gigs are usually un­ hours in my dressing room and couldn’t melancholy of “Ordinary Day”, is its comfortable, anodyne affairs, move on in my head. In my twenties, I rocky extremes, notably the super-heavy, where a new signing performs for thought I knew so much about the world, Metallica-style power chords on “In the a record label’s staff and invitees. but when I hit 301 made so many boo-boos Garden” and the venomous “Loser”. The cool reception and polite I realised I never knew it all. It’s pecu­ It is less of a shock when you learn that applauseS can make for a dispiriting start liar when you’re young to have everyone alongside Therapy?’s Hopkins, there is to a solo career. Dolores O’Riordan does­ looking at you; you get paranoid and self- the bassist Marco Mendoza, who has n’t let this get to her. The former lead conscious. I’d stay in my room doing six played with Thin Lizzy and Whitesnake, singer of The Cranberries may only be hours of yoga.” while Toronto-based Steve Demarchi performing in the basement of a private She admits to behaving in an arrogant played guitar for The Cranberries. Yet members’ club, but she punches the air manner. “If you’re with yourself all the O’Riordan had not planned on a rock as if reaching out to the furthest reach­ time and not meeting anyone or experi­ sound. She mentions the song “Letting es of a vast arena. As the former singer encing anyone, you can’t evolve. You get Go”, again about her mother-in-law, and of one of Ireland’s biggest cultural ex­ up on stage and get this attention that isn’t which was leaked. ports, adjusting to more intimate venues natural. I lacked normality and relation­ “When I started out recording this is going to take some time. At least she ships. I had no friends for four or five album, I wrote two songs that didn’t make is enjoying performing again, after her old years, while they all went to college.” it on to the record. ‘Letting Go’ had this band stuttered to a close. This explains the unevenness of some funeral march thing, and ‘Without You’ Next day, the star from Limerick looks of her songwriting with The Cranberries, was about missing my own family They just as fresh-faced as we chat about the when she would churn out such desper­ were both soft, piano-driven songs, so I gig in a north London office complex. She ate polemics as “Bosnia” (“We live in our thought this album was going to be nice laughs when I mention the eye-popping secure surroundings/ And people die and ethereal, but then I wrote ‘Black energy of drummer Graham Hopkins, for­ out there”). O’Riordan rolls her eyes at Widow’ and I started yelling. I realised I merly of Northern Ireland’s explosive the memory. “Taking four years off was needed drums to take it to the next level, rock outfit Therapy?. “He broke six sticks such a good idea, because you experience so it all kind of unfolded from there. I did­ that night, you know,” she says proudly, so much. When you try to write an album n’t know what kind of music it was, be­ in a brogue that betrays her roots. in a year and you’re living in a tour bus, cause I don’t have that much knowledge.” The vocalist is just as proud of the resta focused work ethic stood them in good attacks. I didn’t know what was happen­you can only write about being famous or Another track, “Angel Fire”, reminds of her new band. “It’s a relief because I stead as their output declined in quality ing; you don’t when you’re crackingbeing up, stuck in a hotel room.” us of O’Riordan’s spiritual side. She was do want to tour and you need to haveand that the three albums that followed saw and I couldn’t go home. I didn’t want to What immediately strikes you about brought up Catholic and still has fond energy and bond, so it’s all falling intoever-decreasing sales. A sound now go back there with my tail between myAre You Listening? is how personal the memories of the former Pope, John Paul place. Especially because this record isaimed at the arenas they played failed to legs; I was too proud. Then I went to seerecord is. “When you go through experi­ II. She is a regular performer at the Vat­ not a stylised or manufactured thing, it’swin critical plaudits or new fans, leaving a really great psychoanalyst. He saw a lotences, whether they are really dark or ican’s Christmas concerts, where she pre­ about the songs.” them with such consolations as the of entertainers. I needed to get away andbeautiful, they give you inspiration, but miered the song last year. “I’m Christian As if to emphasis the point, she minor is hit “Promises” in 1999 and a best find myself. So I went off to the forest forit’s just life, isn’t it? There were no in lots of ways, but not conventional. A lot dressed in black with a studded belt that international sales award in Taiwan. Fit­ a few months and learnt how to relax.boundaries I because I was representing of the stuff I learnt, I take with me today would suit fellow Irish legend Phil Lynott.tingly for such constant giggers, their smelt a flower for the first time in fivemyself and I felt I could really spit things - that we should let each other be our­ Despite the rock look, O’Riordan still ex­swan song was support slots with the years and started crying because I re­out without inhibitions. If you have pain selves. I was chuffed to see the inside [of udes the maternal glow of a mother ofStones and AC/DC. alised I’d forgotten about life.” and issues, once you get them out of your the Vatican] and I met II Papa, who was three. She was last in the news in 2004 Almost since The Cranberries O’Riordan uses the word “human” system,a every time you perform you feel lovely, very saintly. I was mad about him. for being unsuccessfully sued by a formerachieved success in the Nineties, ru­ lot, as if to stress that being human isbetter. You know you’re not the only one, I thought he really cared for the poor and nanny, though it is more life-changingmours have abounded that O’Riordan more than simply being a member of abecause everyone else feels it. You be­ he loved to meet the people. I saw him events that inform new albumAre You would go solo. “People were always say­ species, it is a state of mind. Her lyrics, come human again.” when he came to Limerick, when I was Listening?. Death and new life are the two ing that,” O’Riordan complains. “I want­ too, are full of self-help jargon, whetherAnother part of the learning process a kid. So it was pretty mindblowing to take poles between which she has oscillateded to fulfil the journey with [the band], it is being unable to “relate to you”, orhas been the varied collaborations since my mum out to meet him.” over a four-year stretch. not just jump ship when we had the suc­ learning to “accept things”. she left The Cranberries. O’Riordan has Despite the involvement of the mega­ “I was doing it as therapy,” O’Riordancess. By going through the highs and lows, worked with the German dance pio­ producer Youth on the single and “Apple explains about the personal nature ofyou her learn from your mistakes.” neers Jam & Spoon, Italy’s famed croon­ of My Eye”, recordingAre You Listening? songwriting, and the time it took to re­Stars, The Cranberries’ greatest hits I ’d sit fo r hours in my dressing room ander Zucchero and on the soundtrack for has been a relatively stripped-down af­ lease her first solo record. “I wanted toset, was a full stop for the band, though Mel Gibson’sThe Passion of the Christ. fair. The band would fly in to either switch off and be a human being, so I es­before then its members knew the end I couldn’t move on in my head. I thought She even had a cameo as a wedding Toronto or Dublin, where her children go caped from the industry and the wholewas nigh, especially as they began to raise singer in the Adam Sandler vehicleClick. to school, and lay down up to six songs entertainment side of things. For 14 or families.15 “There were a lot of things hap­ that I knew so much about the world But it was working with David Lynch’s in a two-day session. “They were really years I’d always felt under pressure, be­pening in the background, a lot of sick favourite composer Angelo Badalamen- great players and it was great that we did­ cause there was always another albumkids. We had one child in an incubator for ti that had the most impact. “You learn n’t have the pressure of a major studio,” to come, and another album then.” three months and the same one had In 2003, O’Riordan’s mother-in-lawsomething from all these people, like with O’Riordan enthuses. “Sometimes you The Cranberries formed in Limerick leukaemia,” O’Riordan says, careful to was diagnosed with breast cancer and Jam & Spoon I was doing a more soulful draw a mental blank in that situation, in 1990, with 19-year-old O’Riordan protectim­ identities. “One of the guys was given eight months to live. That inspiredstyle, but I contacted Angelo direct. I loved which you don’t have in a little room.” posing herself as the band’s precociouscoming from hospital to the stage for a “Black Widow”, one of the earliest songsTwin Peaks, and I love that darker O’Riordan has rediscovered her magic lyricist. Indeed, her calling card was the year and a half. Another guy got glauco­ to be written for this album. The singermusic. I realised how much I could do on in homely surroundings. With a band she words to what became one of theirma, so there was so much illness.” took time out with her Canadian husbandmy own, when he’d send me music and trusts and a healthy work-life balance, she biggest hits, “Linger”. Their debut album Only now can O’Riordan admit the toll to support his family, putting her kidsI intowould lay down vocals at home.” is unlikely to consider a Cranberries re­ came out three years later and after a fal­that success took on her. When she au­ school there. “She cameround a lot, soO’Riordan nursed her youngest girl union in the short term. Indeed, the solo tering start propelled them to fame onditioned for the band in 1990, this that song was about watching her,” O’Ri-Dakota on the setClick, of after a peri­ artist jokingly points out that 2010 would both sides of the Atlantic.Everybody Else youngest of seven siblings still lived with ordan remembers. “You don’t know whatod of inactivity to raise the child and en­ mark her old group’s 20th anniversary. Is Doing It, So Why Can’t was We? ignored her parents. As The Cranberries like until you go through it withsure that her other children did not feel Relations between them remain cor­ in the US until The Cranberries touredachieved success in the US, their singer starting on the inside and eat-left out. When she returned home, she dial, though, with offers of guitars for her there and got on MTV, while it took became 12 infamous for a haughty manner the surface wrote her song for Dakota, the first sin­ forthcoming tour. Not that she needs their months for “Linger” to become a UK hit.and elfin size, which she reveals was due If she has one lesson from hergle “Ordinary Day”, and set about writ­ help - O’Riordan has found that she gets Their rise continued with their secondto an eating disorder. She admits to hav­ time with The it has been ing in earnest. She’s married to the further when she travels light. album No Need To Argue and its histri­ ing gone through therapy early in her ca­ not to take herself too former Duran Duran tour manager Don onic smash hit “Zombie”. Throughout reerthis after a nervous breakdown in 1994. about being perfect. If I Burton, so forming a band was simplic­ ‘Ordinary Day’ is out now on time, the band toured ceaselessly and “I was 90 pounds in weight, not sleep­ it’s not the end of the world. When ity itself. The most surprising thing about Sanctuary; Are You Listening?’ racked up sales across the world. Suching, not eating and having a lot of panic younger, I’d be so depressed. I’d the album, especially after the lilting ‘There were a lot of things happening, a lot of sick kids’: Dolores O’Riordan (above) on the end of The Cranberries; (left) as sheis released was then on Monday