[jv11]

Долорес дала шикарное интервью испанскому гей-порталу Chueca.com. Несмотря на это, интервью очень информативное.

Оказывается, Stay With Me рассказывает об отце Долорес, у которого был рак. :( Сейчас отцу уже лучше, но все равно - такого мы не знали. :( Тогда эта песня приобретает еще более страшный смысл... А я-то думал, она про Дона...

И Долорес любит Snow Patrol, Coldplay, Metallica, Aerosmith, Thin Lizzy и Evanescence. :)))


Dolores O’Riordan: Lesbian icon?

March 13th, 2007 by Alex

“If women find me attractive, that’s great. If men find me attractive, that’s fine too,” Dolores O’Riordan says in an interview for Spanish gay portal Chueca.com. The site, which proclaims her a lesbian icon (er?), asks her about religion and about the androgynous look that she sported for most of The Cranberries’ early career.

Interview with Dolores

Dolores O’Riordan announced the temporary separation of the Cranberries in 2003. But she has not until now decided to publish her new album. We spoke with her on her new release, “Are you listening”, on sale in May, on the future of her old band and on how it feels for a religious person like her to be a gay-lesbian icon.

Q:If you could imagine how the Cranberries 6th record would to be, what would be the difference between that record and “Are you listening”
D: It would be a completely differenct record, because the songs I wrote with the guys were completely different.

Q: However, songs like “Loser” or “When we were young” would fit in a Cranberries album.
D: Yes, because I wrote 70% of the Cranberries music and I write my own songs now. I haven’t changed, and I’m still the same person, and also the same singer. My record is more experimental and for the first time I’ve had to take care of everything myself. Different musicians helped me, and for the first time it’s been pretty experimental. It took me way longer, but I enjoy taking everything calmly, relaxing, and resting.

Q: The first time that there where rumors of your solo career was in the early 90s. When was the first time you really thought about it?
D: Not until I record the “Greatest Hits”. Before it had gone through my head, but I knew I wanted to finish what I had with the guys: the 5 CD’s, and the contract we had signed. I wanted to finish the Cranberries with the Cranberries.

Q: SO do you consider the project completely done?
D: It’s a possibility we will reunite, of course. The door is open. It hasn’t closed, who knows.

Q: The theme of death has always appeared in a lot of your songs, and now it’s present in your song “Black Widow”. How do you confront it?
D: “Black Widow” is a song about my mother in law’s death. She had cancer, and she fought with all sorts of treatments: chemotherapy, radiation…but everything made her worse. “Stay with me” is a song about cancer my father had. Fortunatley, he was able to get better, but the song is about the fear I felt about losing him. Music is very good therapy to deal with death. It’s a part of your life. Everyone is going to die, everyone around you. And in the end you have to try to move forward.

Q: Religion must help calm your fears, because you are a very religious person. At least from what we can tell with songs like “Angel fire” or “This is the day”
D: It’s good to have faith, to think there’s something after death, that we are going to a better place. Maybe we’ll find eachother in another place. It’s good that heaven exist. It would be horrible to think that one day you’ll be underground and that’s it…so I like to think there’s something else.

Q: Does your religion prohibit you from supporting gay marriage?
D: I don’t understand conventional/established religion. I don’t follow anyones established rules. It’s just that I have faith and I beleive in a greater spirit, & that’s it. If gay people want to get married, that’s very good. Everyone is happy.

Q: At one point you became a lesbian icon, given your androginy. Does that bother you given your religion?
D: It was just cos I had short hair. But why would it bother me? I think we should accept each other the way we are. Humans have to be able to love each other. Love can present itself in many different ways. If girls find me attractive I find that fantastic. And same thing if guys find me attractive.

Q: There are songs that seem to be inspired by your husband, and they sound very happy.
D: “Apple of my eye” is a very obvious one. It’s about loving someone, it’s very simple. I think it’s such a simple song that it’s very pretty.

Q: Part of Cranberries charm was that simplicity, but the critics never seem to understand that.
D: I have never cared what the critics thought about my lyrics being too simple. I think it’s always been a charm about the music that I do, and I think that’s why people like my songs.

Q: In this new record you worked with new producers like Dan Brodbeck and Youth. How did you find them?
D: Through Sanctuary. They suggested people for me to work with. Most of the disk belongs to Dan Brodbeck. Youth simply came to Canada and worked on a couple of songs one of them being “Ordinary Day”. It was great working with new people. I can’t find a word to describe all the ideas Dan brought in. It was a bunch of things.

Q: What music have you bene listening to lately?
D: I don’t listen to much music now, but I really like Snow Patrol and Coldplay. I don’t have a lot of time now to listen to music. I’m very busy.

Q: There are some metal songs in the album. Do you like metal?
D: Yes I like: Metallica, Aerosmith. I like Think Lizzy and Evanescence.

Q: You start your solo tour on May 29th in Barcelona. Do you hope to come back with a more extensive tour?
D: Right now there are 12 dates in Europe, and 15 in North America in June. I hope to come back to bigger places. It all depends on how the record does. It depends on a lot of things how my kids are doing, how the record is received, how everyone feels.

[jv11]

Еще одно интервью Долорес! Она его дала испанской прессе несколько дней назад.

Вот его я точно советую прочитать всем! Долорес утверждает, что на альбоме нет ни одной песни, посвященной няне (лукавит?), а также говорит, что она не слушала альбом Mono Band. :( И вообще о Ноэле она как-то не очень радушно отзывается... Ну, в смысле, ничего плохого не говорит, но и хороших слов тоже нет. :((( Короче, странное какое-то интервью. Что-то оно мне не очень понравилось. :(

Теперь я точно начинаю задумываться о том, что October и Accept Things посвящены Ноэлю или распаду Клюкв... :(

Третьим синглом, возможно, будет Apple Of My Eye. Долорес не имеет отношения к выбору синглов: их выбирает компания, а она только соглашается. :(

Madrid, Spain - March 2007

D : How are you ?
Q: Fine, and you?
D: Happy to be in Madrid. What a beautiful day, and what beautiful sights!
Q: Yes, it’s the first hot day. It’s a great day.
D: Are you Irish, you’re so white…
Q: No, no, no, I’m from here. It’s just that I hate tanning.
D: You get burned? Like me. I have to protect my face.
Q : I ‘m going to start by giving you bad news. Did you know your CD leaked?
D: Yes they told me.
Q : How does it sit with you ?
D: It’s inevitable. I knew it would happen, and it has happened. Things have changed from a couple years ago with the internet. The days where you waited until the day of the actual CD release date are gone. This happens to all groups, it’s the way things are. It would be worse if people didn’t like it, but people are liking it.
Q: Do you follow your fans opinions on the internet?
D: I don’t really like computers. I haven’t even been to my myspace page. I’ve heard them talk about it. I wrote a letter and gave it to my manager, and he put it up. But I don’t even know how computers work, I don’t even know how to turn one on. I create & write songs, I like writing songs. I don’t like computers.
Q: How did you find out your CD leaked then?
D: My manager told me.
Q : Why did you choose « Ordinary Day » , such a calm song for a single ?
D: My record label thought it was a good song to represent the new record, and I agreed.
Q: When we were young doesn’t stick more? Woudn’t it be more successful?
D: I don’t know, it didn’t worry me what would be a single and what woudn’t be. I only write the songs. Other people decide. They know the market better, so they pick the singles and I don’t. I’m not good at picking out what are the best songs. All the songs are mine, and I like them all, so I don’t care to know what the single will be. They where talking about picking “When we were young” like you said, and another one too..I don’t remember.
Q: October ?
D : No (thinks for a while) …Apple.

Q: Isn’t that too slow?
D: Yes it’s very simple. But it’s so simple that it’s pretty.
Q : Critics never accepted the simplicity of the Cranberries. People loved the songs, they had CD’s like “No Need to Argue” in their hearts but it never appeared as one of the greatest CD’s of the 90s. Personally, I don’t understand it.
D: Neither do I, but it doesn’t worry me too much. People have very good memories about that album, very hard times in their lives. At that time it helped a lot of people come forward. That is what matters, not that critics pay attention to you.
Q: Do you hope for better reviews now? You don’t care?
D: I don’t think a lot about that. I’ve been doing this for 20 years. You write what you want, you accept the critics and don’t think too much about it. You can’t change it.
Q: From 0 to 11. What percentage do we have of listening to another Cranberries album ?
C: It would happen, ofcourse. The door is open. The door doesn’t close. Who knows.
Q: Have you listened to Mono Band’s record. The guitarist of the Cranberries?
D: No I don’t have it.
Q: You haven’t heard the songs?
D: No
Q: Why?
D: I don’t have time, I’m too busy.
Q: You don’t speak to Noel often?
D: My husband talks to him. Before we made music together and now we don’t, so what are we going to talk about? He’s not a woman, you can’t talk to him about woman things. I would call his wife in that case. We talk about motherly things, about our kids.

Q: You could talk about music, because you’re writing music without him for the first time.
D: I don’t talk to him about my music. I think I need to talk to you, the press, the media about my music but I’m not going to ask another musician if they like my album. If we saw eachother we would talk, but we live in different cities, and we’re both busy with our kids, we never see eachother.
Q : The breakup sounds a little worse then you made it seem.
D: No at all! We haven’t broken up, we’re on a break.
Q : In these last couple years death has been present in your career and is present in your new songs. In the past you wrote a lot of songs about religion. Have you become more conservative over the years?
D: Yes everyone becomes more conservative over the years. But I don’t fight with myself like I did when I was younger. I’ve learn to accept myself. And you? You’re around 30 right?
Q: Not yet, I’m 27.
D: When you pass 30 you look back and you realize that you have to accept, you can’t always be fighting with yourself. You have to take life calmly.
Q : This is the first CD we see you with really long hair, you have left behind your more masculine look. Why do you have long hair?
D: I’m very busy with my kids and I don’t have time to cut it. Motherhood takes a lot of work. If you have short hair you have to cut it every 4 weeks, so having it longer is easier.
Q: Speaking of your kids, it seems that on your new CD there are a lot of songs about your nanny.
D: I don’t have a nanny.
Q: Not the one now, I mean, the one in the past.
D: If you’re reffering to the one that sued me, there are no songs about her.
Q : There was an article that said you where writing a lot of songs about your nanny, and I thought they were « In the garden » , « Loser », or « Accept Things ».
D: Rumors, they aren’t true.
Q : How did you decide to incorporate Irish music into « Human Spirit ? »
D: I play the tin whistle because I think it fits the song.
Q: Do you think the result is something similar to the “corrs” or do you think that it has nothing to do with them?
D: Well they use the tin whistle too, so it could sound similar because it’s the same instrument.
Q : Why aren’t there more Angelo Badalamenti songs on the new album ?
D: Because when I work with Angelo, I work with Angelo, and when I do my own record, I do my own record. Angelo is a genius in my opinion. I love “twin peaks” and “tercipelo azul” and that’s why I wanted to work with him. I was very lucky to be able to work with him, and that he wanted to work with me as well.
Q: Are you interested in making music for films?
D: Yes and for me now it’s easier, I can work from my studio back at home.
Q: And being an actress? It was rumored that you wanted to be in a musical with AC/DC.
D: Yes it’s true I spoke with Brian Johnson one night at a restaurant, we had drank a lot but in the end it didn’t work out. Maybe there was too much alcohol in the process. It would be great if we did it, sometimes you talk about these things without taking them seriously and you don’t know if it will work out or not. About being an actress, maybe one day when I’m older. Right now I’m occupied with this.
Q: Are you ready for the tour? Will you play Cranberries songs?
D: I might play old songs because fans like hearing old songs.
Q: & do you want to play them?
D: Yes, why not. One over the other. Possibly the hits, ofcourse.
Q: Why Cranberries CD do you remember the most/worst?
D: I remember all of them. All of them had their good/bad things. I dealt with good and bad people. Life is always like that.
Q : You don’t have a special place in your heart for any of them ?
D : This one right now, is very special to me.
Q: Artist always say that their current album is their best.
D: It’s where you are now, you don’t have to look back. This record is more about me now.
Q : Musically, who influenced you on this record ? “October” kind of sounds like Colplay, although really Coldplay came after the Cranberries.
D: I don’t listen to much music, I don’t have time. I can’t judge my music, or compare it to other artist, I leave that to the press. But thanks, I love coldplay.
Q : Loser kind of sounds like Morrissey. Do you like the smiths, or was that more the guys?
D: No, I love Morrissey.
Q: How would you sum up are you listening, a sad or happy record?
D: It’s a CD I wrote about my experiences over the past four years. And I hope you like it.