Articolo1

SAM: POP QUIZ (May 1, 1999)

Cranberries Dolores ORiordan:

"Very nice. Very normal. Very real."

Thats how the Cranberries Dolores ORiordan describes her bands long-awaited
new album, "Bury The Hatchet". And surprisingly, even after selling 28
million records worldwide and finding herself in more tabloids than any
Irish rock star since Bono or Sinead OConner, "nice, normal and real" also
describes ORiordan herself. As pop stars go, ORiordan is the closest thing
to the girl next door.

Maybe thats because less than ten years ago, ORiordan was the girl next
door. In fact, ORiordan was still a high school student when she answered a
1990 newspaper ad placed by The Cranberry Saw Us, a quirky bar band from her
hometown of Limerick Ireland. And although she once hoped to attend college,
her immediate and intense focus on the Cranberries pursuit of fame wound up
cutting her university career short. Within three years, "Linger" became an
American hit and put the Cranberries into the international registry of rock
stardom. Since then, behind ORiordans remarkable voice, The Cranberries have
spent much of the last seven years racking up hit after hit--translating
their political urgency and pop playfulness into both critical and
commercial success.

Granted, life has not been just a bowl of berries. Although only 28,
ORiordan has seen her share of the price that comes with fame: seven years
of non-stop touring, a string of serious injuries and illnesses and a case
of Internet blackmail. But while toils of international celebrity have
clearly stolen some of the innocence from the girl next door, ORiordan says
all she needed to recover her sanity was a "trip back home"--a three-year
hiatus that ended with Bury The Hatchet, The Cranberries least political,
most focused and most altogether upbeat record.

To mark that release, ORiordan agreed to give college one more try and take
the SAM Pop Quiz--an easy enough task for someone whos been through so much,
so quickly and managed to stay so very, yes, "nice, normal and real."

Warning. The following is, as promised, unedited and uncensored. That means
it's sloppy, rambling, confusing and full of the type of glaring grammatical
mistakes that people make when they talk. Normally, magazine editors clean
this stuff up and cut for length and get rid of some of the naughty bits
when articles go to press. But we promised you "raw," so it's "raw" you get.

Question: Had I attended college I would have majored in: a) medicine, b)
political science, c) psychology, d) music.

Answer: (c) Psychology. It has always interested me. Psychology would have
been useful. Ive always been really interested in the psychology of the
human being and how people think. I think at the end of the day, if you
understand psychology you can understand people better.

As for music, to be honest, I was two grades off getting a music diploma in
high school, but I hated theory. It ruined the beauty and innocence of music
and was all very bloody technical. When I joined the band I was in my final
year in school and was taking the exam that determines if you get into
college or university. It was that year that quit piano and ran away from
home and joined a band.

My parents were distressed by my: a) high school hooky, b) my lack of
interest in college, c) my hanging out with musicians, d) all of the above

Answer: (d) I had the worst attendance record my school had ever seen. I
remember, one year I ditched a whole term, three months out of the year. My
friend was the prefect- it was her job to take my name and say I was in
school. It was this system, where you prefect- a roll call- and I got her to
say I was there when I wasnt. They must be onto that system now, but it
worked then. Of course, I really started failing exams around the same time
too. Skipping school and hanging with the band kind of signaled the end of
my education.

I chose rock stardom over school because: a) clubs are more fun than
libraries, b) I was naive enough to believe rock stardom would be easier, c)
I figured I could always go back to school later, d) none of the above.

Answer: (a) A bit of a) and thats about it, really. I just thought it was
the more exciting life. Music just seemed real natural. From the time I was
5 years old, all I wanted to be was in a band. I wanted to be Elvis Presley.
As a child, he was really a rock star, doing things people didnt do. At the
same time, I had the chance to be a piano teacher, but I really wanted to do
the rock and roll thing.

Fame at 20 is: a) a great way to avoid a desk job, b) more work and less fun
than anybody imagines, c) really tough to adjust to, d) better than being
anonymous at 20.

Answer: (c) Its really tough and what we did was just keep working all the
time, so we never really adjusted to it until about two years ago. Thats
when we all kind of went insane and paranoid. It was healthy to take a break
though because we started hating being in the band. It got to the point
where we said "Why are we doing this? We have no friends. We have no social
life. Were lonely. We miss our lovers. Weve lived in bus for seven years and
all our friends are having fun at home." We needed a career break. And now
that weve taken it, the sense of magic is back. It's much more fun being in
the band now. Theres a challenge now and when it got to the point where
there was no challenge it stopped being fun.

The most important pre-millennial music figure in my life has been: a) Kurt
Cobain, b) John Lennon, c) Elvis Presley, d) none of the above.

Answer: (c) John Lennon was a very spiritual man who also didnt give a toss
what anyone told him, so that was important. But Elvis was a star, the
glitter-god. He was the rebel and no matter what he sang, he sang it with
passion. Even now, when I watch the old performance videos--as bad as the
quality is--they make you want to see him live. He had passion like nobody
else and a beautiful voice. Everyone takes the piss out of him now, but I
dont remember the late period Elvis. When I was a little girl, my mom only
played the younger stuff. She was in young with young Elvis. I used to ask
her, "Is there any man in the world you love outside of Dad?" And shed say,
"Well, of course theres Elvis." She was a great girl and a good mom, but she
had that one thing--Elvis.

I believe my countrys greatest contribution to pop culture has been: a) U2,
b) Guinness, c) Waking Ned Devine, d) Michael Flatly, Lord Of The Dance

Answer: (both a & b) Ive spent time with both U2 and Guinness [laughs]. I
think U2 is really important for Ireland. They were the first Irish band to
get really huge. They were worldwide massive. I was into the Smiths and the
Cure but they never got that big. For young people in Ireland, U2 showed us
that we could be successful as rock stars. And they spawned a million bands
trying to be that kind of rock star. In fact, their inspiration actually has
a lot to do with why we called our first album "Everybody Else Is Doing It,
So Why Can't We?"

On the road, I get most of my news from: a) television, b) radio, c) the
Internet, d) news?--whos got time for news?

Answer: (a) Ive spent way too much time in hotels watching CNN. And when it
becomes a source of writing like it did, thats when its miserable, and thats
when you have to take a career break and head back to find yourself a life
again. Otherwise, youre just writing global issue crap and stop being the
person you were when you started the band. Watching CNN does not generate
normal songs for normal people.

My lyrical bent towards politics is: a) generally misunderstood, b) the only
responsible way to use my fame. c) better than writing about sex, drugs and
rock n roll, d) all of the above. Answer: (a) I think people think were a
political band, I guess because "Zombie" was such a hit all over the world.
But were not political, were just emotional humanitarian people. We write
about human things and sometimes it might tie into politics, but I dont give
a toss who rules what country at the end of the day as long as nobody is
getting hurt. Besides, from where were standing you can get on the soapbox
all too easily. Some people that get successful and famous think they should
hang out with politicians and leaders and go for pints with them. And the
politicians Ive met I wouldnt want to sit down and hang around with. Theyre
really a different kind of people. Theyre no fun.

If I were eighteen years old again, Id be: a) more cynical, b) following
exactly the same path, c) working on a college degree, d) outside the
student union protesting one thing or another.

Answer: (b) Id probably do what I did again. I have no regrets. Ive had some
really bad experiences and done some stupid things. But the crap you take in
your life, in bad relationships or whatever, are part of growing up and part
of becoming the person you are. And I think if you toss away some of the
tougher experiences you wouldnt be as informed as you are today. Not to want
to follow the same path could be just as dangerous.

The most surreal and disturbing side effect of my rock stardom has been: a)
the internet blackmail incident, b) the knicker incident, c) the consistent
press focus on how I look over how I feel, d) the press attention my family
has received, e) all of the above.

Answer: (e) We just had some crazy journalist come to Ireland to interview
me and instead, he went to my dads house. My dad is really quite innocent,
so he invited him in and this guy takes pictures of the inside of his house.
It was all unannounced and not cool at all. My dads 60 and a nice Irish
country man, he must have assumed this guy was nice and invited him in for
tea. My dad doesnt really take much notice of what I do. He knows Im a big
pop star, but Im still just his daughter. Its kind of lousy that some people
dont respect that. You may be a big pop star, but your ma and pa are
different people that should be left out. In some ways thats part of the
job, but Ive done really good with my child. If a photographer comes near my
son Im definitely going to break the camera over their head. Its not fair to
take try and take pictures of babies. Children should be left to themselves
until they can make decisions and decide what they want to be.

I wish I knew less about: a) The Spice Girls, b) war (the political
conflict, not the 70s funk band), c) hair and make-up, d) Oasis.

Answer: (a) You cant help but hear about them if you live over here. You
turn on the television and there they are. The loud English girl thing is
grating. They seem like a bunch of little kiddies, but theyre grown-up and
famous. Theyre quite funny at times, but its not really music. It all sounds
like Christmas songs or something, with 20 layers of vocals and videos with
air blowing and big-boobed girls. Its all so manufactured. At the same time,
its nice for them to get a break in life. Just because I think what the
music is and what the Spice Girls are is crap, doesnt mean they cant be nice
people as individuals.

You can call the Cranberries anything but: a) dreamy, b) chick rock, c)
disposable, d) whirling.

Answer: (c) To be honest, I think "Linger" is such a beautiful song that it
could have been a beautiful song twenty years ago. Its not really
disposable, fashionable music. It seems like the kind of song that will
always be around. And while a song like "Zombie" has a lot of vibe going
along too, its more kind of Nineties. I think that our music can cut through
fads and fashion. And I think we used to whirl a bit more as teenagers. We
stomp now. Whirling is a nice way to start--whirling and gliding until you
figure out your own sound and get a little more naughty and aggressive. Its
really hard sometimes to play those whirling songs. In rehearsal I sometimes
start to fall asleep. But the truth is, while we may have whirled eight
years ago there were also same strange meds in the venues in those days. The
room was whirling for a lot of people...

The Cranberries are: a) a disfunctional family, b) in need of another woman
member, c) a constantly changing beast, d) one person short of a great
basketball team.

Answer: (e) None of the above. We can be disfunctional when we work too
hard. And were kind of like a family but its kind of different than the
normal family. What we do is like a job and we all have our own families,
wives, and husbands but at the end of the day the four of us definitely love
the band.

Its part of our lives. You have to have your band and your family too. A few
years ago we started spending more time with each other than our families
and it all started to fall apart. We all loved each other but it was like,
"Hey man, youre as cool as a breeze, but Jesus, I wish I knew what was going
on in your head." It had been months since we sat down and talked like
normal people. Every time we met we were on camera or on-stage and we
started to feel like we didnt know each other that well. And it took us a
while to realize we werent having fun because nobody wanted to say it. But
once we talked we realized we all needed a little time at home, away from
the crowds, away from the stage. Its much more fun being in the band now.
And the irony now is that when youre on-stage every day you miss being home
writing songs about the local pub, its the simple things you miss. Then
again, this is the first time weve been famous and you can only learn from
experience.

My history of show-stopping injuries and illnesses has made me: a) take
better care of my body, b) realize Ive often pushed myself too hard, c)
reconsider my occupation, d) a hypochondriac.

Answer: (both b & d). Since I had the baby its really different. Suddenly
you realize you have a beautiful body thats good for something. After
breast-feeding I discovered what those things hanging from me were. I was
never into that whole boob/female thing. After living in a bus with men for
seven years, you get to a point where you wish you were a boy. Ive always
been into men and found them gorgeous and attractive, but it had also seemed
more attractive to be male to me. Then when I had my baby I changed my mind.
A man can never experience the things I have recently. And its made me
grateful for my body and looking after my health, because at the end of the
day you have a child to look after. I also think Im very psychosomatic. At
the end of the last tour, I hadnt slept for three months. Id get into bed
and worry about the next night. I was working too hard and got completely
wound up too easily. Thats not healthy so Im going to take it much easier
now. Life is too short to spend working.