The Cranberries were one of Ireland's biggest bands when they split in 2003, after 40 million album sales and 14 years together. Now solo, Dolores O'Riordan talks to Brian Boyd.
In the middle of 2003, The Cranberries were playing concerts with The Rolling Stones and debuting new songs that were intended for their sixth studio album.
Their previous five albums (plus a greatest hits package) had sold in excess of 40 million copies worldwide. For a band who had begun life as a small indie band on a small indie label - Rough Trade - it had been quite a ride.
Their backstory is well-known: the debut Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?was released in 1993 to shrugs of indifference. The band were sent out to the US as the opening act for that year's new big thing, Suede. By the end of the tour, The Cranberries were headlining and Suede went home early.
MTV had picked up on the single Linger, put it on heavy rotation and within a matter of months, The Cranberries had done what many bands spend years trying to do with no success - they had cracked America.
Everybody Elsewent on to sell three million copies in the US alone, its follow-up No Need To Arguesold more than four million in the US. The next three albums didn't perform as well, but still sold in the millions.
Why then the split in 2003? "Everyone thought we were going to split after the second album," says Dolores O'Riordan. "There was always this talk of me going solo. But I didn't run when people predicted, I stayed for five albums. It was very demanding - the only break I had from the 'Berries was when I had my first two children. But then it was only a case of have the child, take three months off and then go straight back into rehearsals. I think after the greatest hits album, we all felt it was time to do something else. We had been doing the band for 14 years together.
"We had great times and I couldn't have wished for more, the three guys were great. But it was a lot of pressure and I suppose as the front person, I had that bit more on me.
"It took us a while to wind it down - we couldn't stop for contractual reasons. If you've been booked in for a year-and-a-half tour, there's all these insurance considerations. It was all our own fault - the workload.
"We were too hungry; we didn't know when our plate was full. We were always 'more, more, more'. I suppose we played with fire and got a bit burnt. But really it was more about your life changing and your priorities changing.
"We had this dream to be a rock band and we accomplished it. Been there, done that."
It's been four years since O'Riordan last pulled on a guitar in anger, but straight out of rehearsals for her upcoming solo tour, and with her solo album in the shops next week, O'Riordan, one suspects, wouldn't have taken so long to go back into the fray if it wasn't for family reasons.
"As I was saying, your priorities change and situations change. What happened was my mother-in-law in Canada [she's married to the Canadian music industry figure, Don Burton] was very ill and I wanted her grandchildren [O'Riordan's three young children] to spend time with her.
"So we moved to Canada for a while - the children were at school there and everything - and my mother-in-law had cancer and died from it, so it was a really terrible time, but at least the children got to spend some time with her. Whatever plans I had for a solo album after The Cranberries suddenly didn't matter, but what I did find was that there was a piano in the house we have out there and every so often, I'd go over and just start playing.
"As you know, the winters in Canada are very tough - it's minus 30 outside and the snow is six feet deep, but I became transfixed by how dramatic the changes in the seasons are over there and watching all this while playing the piano brought about the solo album".
It took four years to complete because, freed from the constraints of major label deadlines, O'Riordan could work at her own pace. "Songwriters have amazing freedom when they're not contractually bound," she says. "This is the first time since I was a teenager that I didn't have to meet a musical deadline.
"It was a fabulous four years away - I got to be a human being again and I needed that for my sanity. What I also found was that normally a songwriter has about a year to do an album, but I had four years, so you're going to go through a lot more emotionally and because of that, there's a complete change in the subject matter of the songs.
"The new songs such as Ordinary Dayare about my life now, and Black Widowis about what my mother-in-law went through. They're all very personal songs - and some of them can sound a bit disturbing at times."
With her European tour starting at the end of May (with Irish dates to be announced), she knows that a lot of people will be coming to the shows because of her past life in The Cranberries.
"I made the decision that I just wouldn't play the solo songs at the gigs - I'll be doing a few Cranberries songs as well. I wrote the songs or co-wrote them with Noel (Hogan, the Cranberries' guitarist), so they are my songs. I think it's weird that some artists run away from their past - I've no problems doing Cranberries songs as a solo artist. After all, I wouldn't be anything without people going out and buying those records."
She hasn't seen her old band mates for a few years. "We're all in different places, physically and emotionally [Dolores lives in Dublin, the rest of the band in Limerick]. But you know a lot of bands are like that - they don't see each other when they come off the road. The last time I spoke to Noel, he was telling me how excited he was about his new band, the Mono Band, and how he could experiment with different sounds and I feel the same way about my solo work. As for a Cranberries reunion down the line - you never know. There were no disagreements or bitterness when we split."
Now signed to the Sanctuary label, she's enjoying the experience.
"Sanctuary are a real artist-friendly label and they're totally into you making all the decisions about your work" she says. "For example, when it came to planning the video for the first single, Ordinary Day, they asked me if I wanted to do the treatment for it. It's something I just wouldn't have the time to do, but it was nice to be asked."
Pleased that the head of the label has just rung her to say that Ordinary Dayhas just become the second most added song for US radio this week - "I haven't had this much radio support since No Need To Argue" - she thinks she'll be better prepared to face the critics this time around.
"Nothing ever hurts the second time, whether that be a broken heart, a jilted lover or press criticism," she says. "If you're an artist or a writer, you have to expect criticism from the media, but as I get older, I've come to learn that it's part of the gig and now it's water off a duck's back to me. Not everyone is going to like what I do, but I'm not going to let that stop me. If you give the criticism too much attention, it will paralyse you. And that's not going to happen."
After the Cranberries
NOEL HOGAN (guitarist)After The Cranberries, Noel formed the Mono Band which features Richard Walters and a variety of guests on vocal duties. Their critically acclaimed self-titled album, produced by Stephen Street, was released in 2005, and the new Mono Band songs have been produced by Bernard Butler from Suede. See www.monoband.co.uk
FERGAL LAWLER (drummer)Lawler has also formed his own band, called The Low Network which features two other Limerick musicians - Jennifer McMahon on vocals and Kieran Calvert on guitar. They have just posted their first EP onto their MySpace page: www.myspace com/thelownetwork
MIKE HOGAN (bass player)Apart from managing his own cafe in Limerick, Mike also plays bass with the Mono Band.
