The Cranberries' guitarist Noel Hogan has admitted that he was not anticipating world wide success and global fame following the release of the band's debut album, Everybody Else Is Doing It.
Following the arrival of this album in 1993, Hogan has stated that he was not expecting or even thinking about any huge success coming from it.
On the band's musical ambition, Hogan said, “We were quite limited. “But I’m glad there was a naevity to it. If I were a really good player, I’d have tried to make things a bit more lavish – it may not have worked".
While the album was not a roaring success overnight, it began to make headway after tracks like Dreams and Linger became huge hits in America. A year later, 1994's album, No Need To Argue firmly put the band on the map, thanks to Zombie, giving them the unexpected tag of "grunge icons".
“We were probably the most surprised of anybody that it took off the way it did", Hogan said.
Speaking about how Dreams and Linger came about, Hogan explained: “I was in my bedroom at my parents' house, coming up with those bits and wondering, ‘Is this a song?’ I was so new to playing; my knowledge was very limited. After a while of learning other peoples’ songs, I’d try to make up my own stuff. That’s how a lot of those songs came to be".
“When I think back to the very simple opening part to Linger – the picked D chord that falls into the rest of the track – these were the very best things I could do at the time".
On No Need To Argue, Hogan added: “We were definitely a lot more confident; I think that comes across. The songs from the first and second albums were written around the same time, but I do think the second is a far more polished and mature album. We weren’t second-guessing as much".
“We had it for a long time – it might have been around during the recording of the first album. Dolores came in to the rehearsal room with it and started playing around on an acoustic. She was like, ‘I have this idea,’ and we all started doing our thing", Hogan said of their hit Zombie.
“It just seemed that we could do no wrong at the time! Every song we released did really well, and the album was selling more and more. It was a time when people sold a phenomenal amount of albums; and thankfully for us, we were touring and really busy".
Following their initial split in 2003, The Cranberries reunited six years later and stuck together, until the unexpected death of lead vocalist Dolores O'Riordan in 2018.
This was described by Hogan as a "bitter pill to swallow".
“It was. It’s a hard pill to swallow that it was the end, but I think it’s right that we did. Thankfully, Dolores had started writing what became the last album, In the End. Those vocals were meant to be demos, but she was such a strong vocalist that they were perfectly fine to use on the album", he said.
Hogan also shared these kind words on O'Riordan: "Dolores is gone gone six or seven years – but you hear the songs and it’s like they were released yesterday".
Despite this, Hogan insisted that the band were far from finished: “The songs being played as much as they are is amazing. You’d think after 30 years they’d be fading – so we must have done something right".
“I deliberately haven’t done anything in years. But Mike (Hogan) and I are playing a festival in Ireland, performing Cranberries songs with an orchestra. We’d turned it down a few times, but decided to do it now for the fun of it. Fingers crossed, because it’s been a few years. I’m hoping the orchestra will do a lot of the heavy lifting!”.
