Ethereal Girl
In a heartfelt interview, Dolores O’Riordan talks to Hot Press about her new solo record, her decision to move to Canada and the debilitating effects of fame. Plus, why a Cranberries reunion may be a matter of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’.
Olaf Tyaransen, 25 Aug 2009
It’s June 11 2009, and sitting by a bay window in the upstairs lobby of Dublin’s Westbury Hotel, grazing over a large fruit salad bowl, the elfin-like, newly-blonde and always quirky Dolores O’Riordan is giving Hot Press the hard sell on her forthcoming second solo album, No Baggage.
“You know, it’d be great if it does well,” she says, speaking in a strong Limerick accent utterly undiminished by years of international travel and celebrity, “but to be honest with you, I’m not really all that worried either way.” As if to emphasise her unconcern, the 37-year-old delightedly spears a piece of fruit with a silver fork and holds it up for inspection. “Wow! Have you ever seen a blackberry that big?”
Having shifted more than 40 million albums during her Cranberries career, O’Riordan can easily afford to be blasé about her sales. Already one of Ireland’s wealthiest women, she sincerely maintains that she’s not in it for the money at this stage. “I’m not one of those mad greedy guts or anything. I’ve had a lot of luck, and made a lot. At the end of the day, I love making music anyway, to inspire people.”
Having said that, she may still be feeling a little burnt from her bum experience with her debut solo album. Although 2007’s Are You Listening? was critically lauded, her record label, Sanctuary, went belly-up midway through its promotional campaign.
“Oh, the shitty music industry, which I hate, man!” she sighs. “I signed to Sanctuary right after being with Universal for years and years and years. And after 17 years with The Cranberries, I took a four-year break from music; didn’t know that I’d ever go back, but did go back. But I was being very careful about what I signed and all that.
“So I signed to Sanctuary Records who had been around for ages. They started off as a management company for Iron Maiden, maybe 25 years ago. But they’ve been around forever and now they’ve become a record company, and I thought, that looks grand and solid – they’re indie and they’ll be good. Jesus, six months into Are you Listening? they got bought out by Universal in the States and they become defunct and everyone gets fired, and my record gets taken off the shelves. What a pain in the arse, man!”
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