Dolores O’Riordan

Dolores O’Riordan
by John Voket
EDGE Boston Contributor
Wednesday Jul 4, 2007
Source: http://www.edgeboston.com

Dolores O’Riordan.

As early as 1993 Dolores O’Riordan and her band mates in the Cranberries found them-selves having to dispel rumors about her pending departure from the band to pursue a solo career. But it wasn’t until a decade later that the Cranberries would play their last few gigs, several as openers for the Rolling Stones, before its members went their separate ways.

Almost immediately after becoming a self-proclaimed “free agent,” the sprightly soprano began develop-ing material that became her first solo offering, Are You Listening. The May release has been well-received and contains a variety of palettes on which O’Riordan has portrayed various life-altering ex-periences including the death of her much beloved mother-in-law (Black Widow,) her marriage to Don Burton (Apple of My Eye,) and the birth of her youngest daughter Dakota which inspired her first solo single (Ordinary Day.)

After filling June with more than a dozen live shows across Europe, O’Riordan hits the states with a Boston gig July 9, and subsequently winds her way through most major markets including New York, Philly, Chicago, Denver and Seattle before wrapping in Vancouver on the 23rd.

She recently talked with EDGE about her new project, the tour and some of the events in her life that have influenced her art, post-Cranberries.

EDGE: Your advance indicates the songwriting for Are You Listening took place over al-most four years. Which song was completed first?

Dolores O’Riordan: Apple of My Eye was first. I wrote that while I was still touring with the Cranberries in 2003. I remember I was out on the road without my husband and my kids, and all I had to keep me company at times was a picture of him I would carry along from hotel room to hotel room. And I wrote that one of those nights when I was on my own sitting in one of those lonely hotel rooms.

EDGE: It has been publicized that the song Black Widow was created for the Spiderman II movie soundtrack, and ended up on the new solo album instead. Can you put any rumors about that number to rest by clarifying the background of that really emotional song?

O’Riordan: I think the Spider Man thing is just a rumor, something that developed a life of its own on the Internet. Around the time the Cranberries decided to take a break, I learned my dear mother-in-law had cancer. I remember beginning writing that song on a particularly sad day in Octo-ber. You know when you are in your 20s you think you are going to live forever, but as you get older you begin to find out there’s so much of that disease in the world it’s really very disturbing.

EDGE: I know for some songwriters it’s a hard question to answer but can you elevate a few of the new songs to being your favorites?

O’Riordan: I quite like the piano part on Black Widow. I had the melody down and I remember playing it for my husband and he said it’s really nice, but it’s really weird. And I think that’s when we started thinking it might be right for a soundtrack. He said it was ’very spidery.’ Then we started going through what we went through with my mother-in-law and I started putting lyrics to it. The way it all unfolded was such an experimental process for me, never really knowing what it was going to come out like in the end. But in the end I really ended up liking it because it is so different, you know? In the Spirit has a similar kind of piano part, and that song was particularly rewarding for me. I wrote it during a period when I was sort of looking for something of my own mind. Over the years I spent so much time with the Cranberries, touring about and all, and in a way I became this famous singer person. But I wanted to know who I really was, what it would be like for me to take away the singer and take away that whole world. And over those four years it has been really good because the self-discovery had a rejuvenating effect on me.

EDGE: Your youngest, Dakota Rain, was born during the process of creating Are You Listening. Did the pregnancy or her subsequent arrival have any influence on the songs?

O’Riordan: Yes, Ordinary Day is written about her. But you know my children don’t really know much about mommy being a singer. I’m the one around the house doing the dishes and making the dinner. We try to keep things pretty normal. I’m really careful about fame because I got famous really young and it didn’t affect me really well. I think so many parents hope their children might get into the public eye, and then when the kids are 13 or 14 they can’t handle it. You won’t find me pushing my kids to be in any of my videos or anything like that. I try to keep them out of the public eye, and keep their feet on the ground.

” … I really try to live one day at a time. That’s my motto - I live in the moment and enjoy what I’m going through now. I’m not going to think about next year because it may never come, right?”

EDGE: I’m sure with all the experiences your husband had as road manager for Duran Duran, having his guidance and experience has been really important as well.

O’Riordan: It’s very good actually. I think there is something extra special about having your spouse managing your career, because they love you and they’re not going to push you too hard. And they know when to pull back on the workload. It’s great to have that symbiosis. He supports every-thing I do, but he doesn’t get involved in the creative process. He is more like the agent, talking to me about what is coming up in terms of shows and keeping his eye on the business end of things.

EDGE: You worked with Morgan Page on a remix of the first single Ordinary Day. Will that remix be an exclusive, or do you have designs on working with other DJs, producers or remix art-ists on their interpretations of your new material?

O’Riordan: I think it was an experiment to see how it would work out for the sake of mak-ing a dance-oriented thing for the teenagers and the dance crowd. I don’t have any plans for other re-mixes.

EDGE: You collaborated with Zuccero, who also shared the studio with Sting, Eric Clap-ton and Sheryl Crow on that same album. In the process of putting your new album together, did any-one approach you about having any famous guests collaborating?

O’Riordan: Nobody approached me because I was completely un-approachable. I was in the forest. I had no email, I just shut the doors on the whole world so I could just have my own private experience. I had spent 15 years bouncing ideas off other people, and I really wanted to prove to myself I could pull it off by myself. It was lovely to just shut the doors on the planet - forget about the fact that I was a singer or entertainer - and suddenly launch this therapeutic process. I used the time to get rid of my own issues, and to talk about my own issues in the music.

EDGE: In the process of songwriting or producing, was there a conscious effort to craft certain songs to appeal to perhaps younger fans who might consider a band like The Cranberries a “classic” act?

O’Riordan: I don’t really think about my work like that. Writing was such a therapeutic process for me. I was just locked away from the world and I wasn’t really thinking consciously about the audience that would be receiving the music. If I was I might not have been so creative with the lyr-ics, and been so open with my heart. During the process I had another baby, and I started painting and thinking I might never go back to this at all. For me it was just about getting myself away from every-body and thinking about my own life.

EDGE: What artists do you look to for inspiration as a songwriter, or as a really dynamic performer?

O’Riordan: There are hundreds of people I think are great performers and songwriters. But I don’t think about it much when I put pen to paper and I get down to the piano and it’s coming out of my heart and soul. I love David Bowie, but I never conscientiously sit down and try to write a song like David Bowie, I’m never going to sit down and try and write a song like Changes. That would sound really false because it wouldn’t really be creative. There are so many artists I admire, you know, David Bowie, Metallica, Aerosmith, Bjork, Annie Lennox, David Crosby, Sinead O’Connor, but I don’t try to copy them because I think I have my own style and my own gift and I try to keep in tune to that.

EDGE: Besides this upcoming tour and further promotion for the new album, what else is on your plate for the coming year? Are you looking ahead to your second solo album?

O’Riordan: Absolutely not. If I can manage to go through with this tour that will be great. I may fall in love with it, and I might go longer, but I really try to live one day at a time. That’s my motto - I live in the moment and enjoy what I’m going through now. I’m not going to think about next year because it may never come, right?