The
Cranberries formed in May of 1990. Dolores had been singing since she was
about three years old, playing piano and writing songs since her early
teens. She was looking for a band to play with. Noel, Mike and I (Fergal)
had been playing our respective instruments for about two years and had
played in a band called "The Cranberry Saw Us" for six or seven months.
The singer in "The Cranberry Saw Us" (Niall) decided he was going to leave
to concentrate on another band he was in, but he said that there was a
friend of his girlfriend's who was a singer, and she was looking for a
band. Enter Dolores!
Noel
had been writing pieces of music, and he would bring them to rehearsals
where Mike and I would add our respective parts, but after a while it got
a bit monotonous, as there were no lyrics or vocals. So, on that night
in May, we were in our rehearsal room and in walked Dolores with her keyboard
under her arm. We said our "hellos" and it was all very embarrassing, especially
for her, because there were five or six of our friends there!
Nevertheless
she set up her keyboard and began to play and sing a few songs. Needless
to say everyone was stunned. Then we played some of the pieces that Noel
had written and Dolores seemed to like them. We gave her a tape and arranged
to meet for a rehearsal the following week. The next week came around,
as they tend to do, and there we were, all four of us in the room alone.
Dolores said she had really liked the tape and we decided to run through
some of the songs. We played the music for Linger and she began to sing
(BINGO!!). That was it, a match made in heaven! We rehearsed for the next
three or four weeks and decided it was time to record some demo's to see
what the songs would sound like recorded properly. We were delighted with
the results and we managed to get some gigs opening up for some local bands.
Shortly
afterwards, Sett, a friend of ours who worked in a local recording studio,
advised us to send the tape to some record companies to try to get a recording
contract. For the next few months we gigged continuously in Ireland and
the UK, and various record company people came to see us. We recorded an
EP called "Uncertain" and a few months later we recorded our first Album,
"Everybody Else Is Doing It So Why Can't We". The rest as they say is history!
-FERGAL-
16th
December 1997
The
Nobel Prize Concert, Oslo, Norway, December 1998. Not exactly a prime place
of popular music for rock and roll acts to belt out a few live ones. But
this time, it's different.
The
Cranberries are on stage. Noel, Fergal and Mike are pushing the beat on
their first single in two years, Promises, while Delores O'Riordan is driving
the song all the way home. It was so funny, she thinks back on it now.
The first time gigging together in almost three years and the whole audience
is dressed in suits and looking serious! But they loved it, she laughs.
And all agree it was great to be back on stage again.
The
Cranberries are indeed back. Back with a new album, Bury the Hatchet and
a new world tour late in the year. Back with a freshness and enthusiasm
that have made the quartet that hail from Limerick, Ireland one of the
most successful rock bands in the world.
Steeped
in dazzling pop melodies that roll between the soft, the acoustic, and
the positively furious, Bury the Hatchet is The Cranberries most fully
realized album to date. The fact that they played a larger role in the
production of this album, producing Hatchet with co-producer Benedict Fenner
(Brian Eno, Laurie Anderson) certainly played a large part in their growth
as musicians and songwriters.
Love,
life and new beginnings form a rich vein of emotion and mood through the
13 original tracks that comprise Bury the Hatchet.
Every
song is a story, a memory, a picture, written with the conviction for which
The Cranberries have long been known. From the extraordinary power of Fee
Fi Fo, a song which deals with child abuse, to the blend of humor and pathos
in Desperate Andy, Bury the Hatchet, The Cranberries fourth album in seven
years has depth and emotional force between the lines.
The
space and melodies of songs like the rollicking Copycat, The rocking Delilah
and the exquisite You Capture Me capture the heart.
Everyone
has their favorites: "My Favorite is 'Dying In the Sun,'" says drummer
Fergal Lawler, referring to the delicate number on the album. "They're
all good, but Delores sounds amazing on that track. She did the vocals
in two takes. It's pure emotion."
The
songs on Bury the Hatchet were written by Delores and guitarist Noel Hogan,
a partnership that has produced the majority of The Cranberries catalog
during their nine years together.
In
fact, it took only a week after Delores auditioned for the original band
back in May 1990 for her to co-write her first songs with The Cranberries,
including the hit, Linger.
It
would be another year before they would sign to Island Records and another
two before the release of their debut album, Everybody Else Is Doing It,
So Why Can't We, came out in 1993.
A slow
steady climb up the American Billboard album charts during 1993 proved
to both the band and the record label that The Cranberries sound was remarkably
popular.
Everybody
Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We remained in the charts for two years,
and together with the singles Dreams and Linger gave The Cranberries the
breakthrough into America that every band dreams of but few ever achieve.
Their
growing success in America was mirrored in the UK in '94 when the album
re-entered the charts at Number One. In total, their debut album has sold
over seven million copies world wide. In October 1994, The Cranberries
released their second album No Need To Argue, which contained the hit singles,
Ode To My Family and I Can't Be With you.
Ridiculous
Thoughts, and Zombie, the breakthrough track that helped transform pop
music at the time. The album would go on to sell more than fifteen million
units world wide, and lead to sold-out American arena tour in the Summer
of 1995 where the band developed into a dynamic, unpredictable performers
they are today.
The
pace continued with no breaks for the band. Immediately following the success
of their world tour, the band returned to the studio and finished their
third album, To The Faithful Departed, in just five weeks.
To
The Faithful Departed was released in 1996. The band immediately embarked
on a demanding itinerary of video shoots , promotional appearances, interviews
and an ambitious worldwide tour. The schedule pushed the band to their
very brink and n October 96 the band were forced to cancel their remaining
dates due to exhaustion. In retrospect, it was the best thing for the band.
The
four members took nearly two years off. "I spent a few months in Manchester
and London going football matches," says bassist Mike Hogan. Fergal and
his new wife went backpacking in Asia, and Noel and his wife Catherine
opened a restaurant in Limerick. And in November '97 Delores gave birth
to a beautiful baby boy named Taylor Baxter Burton.
By
that time, the band were all rested and started recording new songs in
a Toronto studio, where Copycat, Just My Imagination and Animal Instinct
were created. It was clear from the start that the group were on a roll
and that the album would develop at an organic and easy pace.
"The
title Bury the Hatchet is our way of saying it's all behind us now," says
Noel. "There were things that affected us all back then. But it's time
to move on now. Time to bury those things and get on with what we do best."
In
May '98 soon after Delores and her husband Don moved into their new house
outside of Limerick, The Cranberries and Benedict Fenner began recording
songs at Le Miravel, a famous chateau in the South of France. They worked
there for two months before moving to London.
Shortly
after, Mike and his long-time girlfriend Siobahn's wedding in July, the
band took up residence in a London studio for the summer where the rest
of the album was completed.
"In
all, it took us about six months to record this album," says Noel. "It
wasn't like we were in a hurry or anything. We did it at a pace that felt
right. And for us, six months is a very long time."
