At approximately 3:30 local time (4:30 EST), The Cranberries finally arrived at the studios of the station 9 85 Radio in Mexico City. The interview covered several topics (including an extensive conversation about drinking!), the most important of which are below:
Dolores talked extensively about the day she wrote one of the band’s new songs, “New York Skyline.” She said, “Usually when I decide to write a song like that, it usually happens to me when I’m very relaxed and I’m having a couple glasses of wine. And then my inhibitions and my walls are down so I don’t think about what I’m doing. It’s kind of like you just sit down with music and it just starts to come out, because usually songs like that, when you’re sober in the middle of the day, you’d probably be too conscious to talk about stuff like that. So, when I wrote ‘Zombie,’ I remember I’d come home at night when I’d been out partying for three or four hours. And I had this guitar music and I remember I started singing it and I was quite edgy as well… It was kind of something that was way deep down inside my soul and I was kind of, you know, too embarrassed to talk about it in sobriety. So that came after a social kind of thing as well. When you’re really reflective and relaxed, as I said for me sometimes I have a glass of wine and my heart opens up and I start writing better. I mean, artists use things sometimes to write and find a deeper part of their souls and usually all those tracks came after, you know, a bit of a social thing. The New York song came after our gig in New York, the first gig [in New York that] we did since September 11th. And it was a brilliant show, I mean the New Yorkers were amazing and it was amazing to be there, to be back there, you know, still a beautiful city and the energy was brilliant.”
Dolores then revealed about how she wrote the song, and even seems to reveal the first known lyrics from the song. She continued, “But then we had a few jars afterwards and I went back to my hotel room and I was on my own and I put on the music that the boys had recorded at soundcheck. I turned it up and looked out my window and I started writing, like, ‘I look across these city streets, my heart is cold as it beats.’ And I started thinking about it, you know, and then I just started writing down my thoughts. So, it just happens without thinking usually.”
And after Dolores mentioned “jars” about half-a-dozen times, the host couldn’t help himself and said, “I have to get one of those jars! … We only have Corona down here though.”
“I love it! It’s my favorite beer,” responded Dolores, “with a little bit of lime!”
While they were on the subject, Dolores gave out her recipie for her favorite alcoholic treat. “I have one for the Mexican people, ‘cos it’s very hot here in Mexico, a suggestion from Dolores! Get a watermelon, okay? Make a hole in the top. Pour a bottle of tequila into it. Put it in the fridge and then the next day when you have a party, slice it up, and when you eat it, you get wrecked off your head! (giggle)”
View some pictures from today’s interview below and don’t miss Dolores’ cute ponytail!
(Pictures no longer available)
