“What we’d like to do now really is to be independent and start our own label, I mean, we’ll go off and look for distribution deals,” Dolores O’Riordan told Pat Kenny via telephone earlier this morning on the Today with Pat Kenny radio show on RTE’s Radio One in Ireland.
“At the end of the day, we decided that we’d be better off just to walk away and do our own thing, and we were kind of advised (by our lawyers) to walk away” from what Dolores felt was a very neglectful relationship at Universal, she told Pat Kenny.
Dolores stated that the band would be putting their own personal funds into establishing their own new label. She says that the band isn’t concerned about the expense, since they consider it an investment in themselves. “I know, I mean, when you think about it, in the long term, down the road, at the end of the day, it’ll come out better yourself. You know, when you’ve made your record deal anyway, you only get a percentage as an artist. At the end of the day, we believe in ourselves and we have a very strong fanbase around the world that have been with us for years. And since the birth of Molly two years ago, we’ve sold over three million albums between ‘Wake Up and Smell the Coffee’ and the greatest hits. I mean, that’s a lot of albums, so we believe in ourselves and our fanbase are very loyal. So we want to do it our way… And it means being the captain of your own ship and it means not having to put up with somebody who doesn’t give a toss and being stuck in a situation where you feel like you’re there for security.”
Dolores also implied that although the material itself will be produced under the new label, the band will look for several different distribution companies to manufacture and distribute the new material, separated by regions of the world. “Our problem is that we were signed to Universal New York, so that was it, you know? We didn’t have a record deal in Italy, we didn’t have a record deal in France, we didn’t have a record deal in Asia. You see, our deal was with America and that was that. So that was kind of a problem as well, ‘cos most of our success three or four years has been, like, in Asia, the album went #1 in the Asian charts, and it went Top 10 in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, places like that, you know? But if you don’t have a label there, working, representing you, you’re kind of out there on your own doing it. You’ve got the big guys back in New York just sitting there, not doing anything, and we’re out there working really hard and we just feel like they’re not supporting us.”
“So at this stage, it’s not a situation of ‘them’ and ‘us,’ or ‘they’re all bad guys,’ a lot of them are good guys, you know what I mean, but it’s just such a mess on the inside that we decided that at this stage, that we decided we’d be better off just to walk away. I mean, we’re not compatible anymore.”
Talking specifically about the music scene in the United States, Dolores admits that she has ben consciously concentrating on Europe in the past few years. “We still sell out big audiences (in America), we still sell ten, fifteen- thousand seaters, or maybe even twenty, but since the birth of the kids and stuff, I’ve been concentrating more back on Europe and stuff. And like I said, there’s such a kind of a major weird thing happening over there with hip- hop and stuff that the rock-and-roll bands aren’t really being pushed over there. I know we’re not the only band that feel like this, there’s a lot of other bands that feel kind of like, ‘What’s going on?'”
Dolores said that the band had made several written attepts to MCA to state their interest in leaving the company. MCA’s first response, months after the first letter, stated that they wanted to hold on to The Cranberries. After yet more letters and poor response on MCA’s part, The Cranberries’ management sent their last letter on Monday (the 20th), stating the band’s resolute intent to leave company. MCA has still not sent an official reply.
Finally switching subjects after discussing the break with Universal, Dolores additionally revealed that the tentative summer dates with The Rolling Stones have been confirmed. “It’s an honor to be able to open up for such a legendary band,” she commented. The Cranberries will open for a total offive of the Stones’ tour dates this summer in Europe. Dolores also revealed that there are currently unconfirmed plans for The Cranberries to tour with Matchbox 20 in the United States, but those plans have not yet been confirmed.
“So life is good, it’s looking good, I mean, it might look bad from some people’s point of view, but from my point of view, it’s brilliant, it’s a new day and it’s a new start,” she concluded, and we think most fans who have been following this situation will certainly agree.
To listen to the full interview, click here to go to RTE’s Today with Pat Kenny site and click on Thursday’s show. Dolores’ interview begins at the 1:48 mark.
Zombieguide will have more on this developing news as we know it — watch this space!
Source: RTE’s Today with Pat Kenny