At the End of the Day with Dolores O’Riordan Issue #41

The iconic ‘90s singer takes No Baggage on the road

By Jonathan Shipley
Published: August 1st, 2009 | 12:00am

“We all die,” says the fiery Irish songwriter matter-of-factly. “You can’t take things with you when you die. If you can leave something here, though, that’s what’s important.” The 38-year-old musician broke away from the crushing success of a chart-topping band to focus on more important matters — like taking care of her children, her husband, and herself.

Dolores Mary Eileen O’Riordan, the youngest of seven kids from a Catholic family in the town of Ballybricken in County Limerick, responded to an ad in the early ‘90s. A local band, helmed by brothers Noel and Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler, needed a female singer — O’Riordan needed an outlet for the pages of lyrics she’d been writing. “We kind of clicked,” she says.

Clicked is an understatement. After four Top 20 albums on the Billboard 200 charts, eight top 20 singles, and worldwide sales in excess of over 40 million units sold, the Cranberries were the click heard ‘round the world. The band’s debut album, Everybody Else is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? became number one in Britain and sold five million copies in the United States. The follow up, No Need to Argue, cemented them as one of the most successful acts of the ‘90s — it sold 14.5 million albums in the United States alone.

As the Cranberries began to fill arenas, O’Riordan found herself tangled in the endless touring, flights, and hotel rooms. The brief stopovers at her home in Ireland, where she would kiss her children goodnight, were barely respites before the next morning, the next flight, and the next show. “You put your head down and work. You work all the time,” she says. “You kind of lose touch of yourself.” The fame, the tours, the media blitz, “It got really boring after awhile.” While singing “Linger” in Lisbon, “Salvation” in Seattle, “Dreams” in Dresden, and “Promises” in Prague, O’Riordan began to see things differently. “It made me into something different. When I was out there, I was lonely,” she admits.

So she left. After 2001’s Wake Up and Smell the Coffee was released and a European tour with the Rolling Stones completed, the Cranberries announced they were taking some time to pursue individual careers. “It was safe. I wanted to see what it was like being an adult in an adult world,” O’Riordan says.

So she holed up in Ottawa with her family and started writing again. First came her 2007 solo debut, Are You Listening?, which sold nowhere near the stratospheric numbers of the Cranberries, but the artist was satisfied. And if the title of her second solo album, No Baggage, is to be believed, O’Riordan has shed the darker aspects of her earlier life. Arguably her most accomplished, honest, exposing album since her first work with the Cranberries, it contains eleven tracks penned “as a hobby.” O’Riordan co-produced the album with Ontario-based Dan Brodbeck (she splits her time now between Ireland and Ottawa) and is happy with the results. “It’s quite experimental,” she says. “It’s the most fun I had in a studio since the early days.”

“You can’t be an artist without opening up, being vulnerable,” she says of the revealing No Baggage. “You don’t have to be perfect, just be honest with your strengths and your weaknesses. You can then open up like a flower.” The album itself blossoms into piano ballads, forthright rocknroll, infectious pop, and Indian-styled songs that one wouldn’t immediately associate with the short-haired 20-something crooning “Linger” to MTV fans a decade ago.

After 15 years off the road, O’Riordan is planning the tour for her new album this fall. It’ll be an acoustic tour, and she’ll undoubtedly scatter some of her old Cranberries tunes throughout the No Baggage set. After a painful touring history, O’Riordan’s newfound perspective shines strong: “At the end of the day, what hurts us makes us stronger.” That is to say, she won’t be bringing that baggage on the road with Baggage. What she will be bringing with her, are words to live by: “I just want continued health and happiness … I am really fortunate to have what I have.” And, at the end of the day, that’s about all we can ask for.