Dolores O'riordan

The importance of asking questions has occupied the human mind since time immemorial. Posing questions to friends, figures of authority – even oneself – can lead not only to information, but also enlightenment. Such has been the approach of singer/songwriter Dolores O’Riordan. First bursting upon the music scene as lead singer of The Cranberries (whose debut album was snappily titled Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?), O’Riordan has been following a solo path since 2003. Her first solo disc, Are You Listening?, came out in 2007; now she presents her Cooking Vinyl Records follow-up, the slyly-titled No Baggage. “I probably haven’t worn my heart on my sleeve like this since the second Cranberries album [1994’s No Need to Argue],” she says. “It’s at times very confessional and dealing with my true emotions. Everyone, through their experiences or their background, has had terrible moments where they think they can’t handle it. With this record I’m trying to show that, no matter how bad things may seem, it’s not really that bad in the big picture.” Looking forward and backwards – sometimes simultaneously – is one of the new work’s primary themes, as evidenced on such key tracks as the quasi-Beatlesque ‘Fly Through’ and its yearning for unambiguous solutions, the bittersweet nostalgia of the insinuatingly catchy ‘It’s You’, and the blunt, seemingly self-critical ‘Stupid’. “That one’s about how some people, maybe a lot of people, can feel when they find themselves in a difficult situation,” O’Riordan explains, “and how that can continue to affect them years later.” A similar approach permeates ‘Skeleton’, which takes its title not just from the physical structure at each person’s core but also from the all-too-common “skeletons in the closet” that we all have. Not for nothing does the song advise that, despite frequent wishes to the contrary, “You can’t outrun your skeleton”. “The way children, and many adults, have this fear of skeletons was something I wanted to explore,” O’Riordan says. “We all have one, physically and spiritually, and realizing that can make you a stronger person. Learning to accept your experiences, and see how they’ve made you the person you are, is something I feel very strongly about.” Always a keen observer of human behavior in its many manifestations, O’Riordan says that lately she’s been taking a closer look at her place in life, securely in what she calls a “middle generation” between her parents and her children. “It’s been said before,” she muses, “but it’s incredible how quickly life evolves. Life really is a journey, and there’s no such thing as perfection, really. I’ve come to see how important it is to accept the challenges and uncertainties that come up, and to accept them as a part of life. I never lack for inspiration,” she adds, noting the ever-developing perspectives she shares with her various family members. “A lot of this material was written and inspired by what’s around me. I know I’m fortunate to still have my parents, and I didn’t want to be one of those people who’s always on the road or in the studio who suddenly realizes they should have spent more time with their children. Certain moments only last for so long,” she notes, “and it’s important to live within those moments.” Those moments nowadays are often spent with her husband Don Burton, their three children (aged 3 to 12), and a 17-year-old son from Burton’s previous relationship. Together they split time between Dublin and Ontario, Canada, where she takes solace and inspiration from a home “deep in the woods. There’s lots of wildlife around, and it’s about as far away from ‘society’ as you can get. It makes for a nice little escape.” O’Riordan knows something about escape. Born in 1971 in Ballybricken, Limerick, Ireland, she answered an ad in the early 1990s placed by brothers Noel and Mike Hogan seeking a lead singer for what was then called The Cranberry Saw Us. Impressed by O’Riordan’s soaring vocal style and songwriting skill – she already had a rough version of “Linger” in hand – they soon offered her the gig. Led by “Linger”, debut album Everybody Else Is Doing It … eventually hit #1 in Britain. Follow-up No Need to Argue cemented the group’s popularity via such popular tracks as ‘Zombie’ ‘Ridiculous Thoughts’, and ‘Ode to My Family’ ultimately being certified 5x platinum in Europe (hitting # 1 in Germany, Austria, and Australia, and # 2 in the U.K.), and 7x platinum in the U.S. A massive tour followed, with stops in England, Europe, the U.S. and Mexico, and the band – in particular, O’Riordan – started regularly popping up on the covers of music magazines, from Rolling Stone and Pulse to Q, Vox, and Musikexpress. Sold-out shows in Japan and Australia soon followed. The heavier-sounding To the Faithful Departed (1996) – which also hit # 2 in the U.K. - was followed by 1999’s Bury the Hatchet and 2001’s Wake Up and Smell the Coffee, each amply illustrating an evolving maturity and confidence – but also increasingly hinting at a growing world-weariness on the part of its seemingly tireless lead singer. Accolades and opportunities continued to proliferate: In 1996 she appeared at Luciano Pavarotti’s annual “Pavarotti & Friends” charity concert in his hometown of Modena, Italy, performing ‘Ave Maria’ with the maestro and a version of ‘Linger’ with Duran Duran’s Simon LeBon. After thirteen years, five albums, countless concerts (including some opening stints on the Rolling Stones’ Licks tour), and enormous international success with The Cranberries, in 2003 O’Riordan decided she’d had enough. “It had become too much of a compromise,” she says of stardom. “At the end of the day, I was very much feeling like a product. The weird thing about having success with a record is that everyone says, ‘Okay, now the next one has to be bigger and better!’ Eventually it becomes very much a ball-and-chain situation, and I got tired of it. I wanted to be free of that collar.” Living in the wilds of Ontario became a meditative experience, time which O’Riordan spent painting, volunteering at a local school, and generally “becoming human again. I needed to figure out that, if I wasn’t the singer of The Cranberries, then who am I?” Walking away from music for good, however, ultimately proved not to be an option. “I started writing just for the sake of writing,” she recalls, “and over time I realized I wanted to get back into the spotlight a bit. There was a sort of ‘Why do you want to do it all again?’ feeling, but by that time the world was a different place, and I was surprised to find that I’d been missed. There was a kind of respect there, waiting for me. Sometimes it’s good to go away for awhile,” she laughs. Indeed, even during her prolonged break she was invited by Pope Benedict XVI to appear at the Vatican’s annual Christmas concert in 2005, performing ‘Adeste Fideles’ with Italian singer Gianluca Terranova and a new version of ‘Linger’ – her only live performance of that year. Meanwhile, sessions for Are You Listening? went smoothly and a tour followed its release. Falling back into bad habits was, however, never on the agenda. “There’s only so much wine you can drink on the road,” she declares, “so instead I took to writing songs to hold me together. You always feel guilty for being away from your family when you’re touring, but I was able to create this spiritual outlet. A lot of the songs came really fast.” O’Riordan co-produced No Baggage with Ontario-based Dan Brodbeck, resulting in a bright, clean sound that finds the singer’s still-astoundingly emotive voice front and center, be it on the gorgeously piano ballad ‘Lunatic’ or the forthright, anthemic rocker ‘Be Careful’. But there’s also room for sonic experimentation, most obviously on ‘Throw Your Arms Around Me’, with its Indian-styled instrumentation and structure. It’s a song that O’Riordan is clearly proud of. “That song’s really about how there are two kinds of people: those who are believers and have faith, and those who scoff at such things,” she says. “It has a kind of mysterious sound to it, unpredictable; it doesn’t sound anything like normal.” Some fans may also be surprised to hear that O’Riordan remains friends with her former bandmates, but, after all, The Cranberries never really split up; instead, they went on hiatus. In fact, in January, O’Riordan played a set at Dublin’s Trinity College with the brothers Hogan to commemorate her being made an Honorary Patron of Trinity’s Philosophical Society. “We sort of checked each other out at first, counting gray hairs and examining waistlines,” she laughs. “But when we started playing it was as if we’d never stopped; there were no nerves, nothing weird. It was completely natural, and it was nice to know that we still have that.” Small wonder, then, that the ever-inquisitive O’Riordan continues to view life – and her place in it – with stoic calm. The question posed by No Baggage is, clearly, meant sardonically. “I hope listeners find some comfort and can relate to what they hear with this record,” she says. “The key is to realize that there’s always hope. Thinking that can make it so.”