The Cranberries 1991: Fergal Lawler Revisits the Band’s First Studio Steps

Transmission 313: Interview with The Cranberries

Before the distortion of “Zombie” echoed across global airwaves and the celestial reach of “Linger” defined a generation of radio, The Cranberries occupied a space of quiet, local tension. Emerging from the grey, economically stifled landscape of Limerick in the early 90s, the quartet, Dolores O’Riordan, Fergal Lawler, Mike Hogan, and Noel Hogan, forged a sound where post-punk melancholy met the airy, layered textures of dream-pop.

Title: Uncertain
Artist: The Cranberries
Release Date: 2026-01-30
Genres: Alternative Rock, Dream Pop, Indie Rock, Post-punk
Label: Island records, UMe
Description: Fergal Lawler discusses the 1991 Uncertain EP reissue, early influences, and recording with a teenage Dolores O’Riordan in this candid interview.

Their path began in this intimate, fragile, and hauntingly persistent space, prioritizing mood and sonic architecture over the aggressive polish of the mainstream. These early compositions captured a band building its own world within the confines of a rehearsal room, long before the industry took notice. With the reissue of their rare 1991 EP Uncertain, via Island / UMe, the band revisits a naive and unpolished version of themselves possessing the sharp songwriting instincts that would lead to over 40 million record sales and a permanent residence in the alternative canon.

Below is the conversation with drummer Fergal Lawler regarding those formative sessions and the evolution of the band’s sonic identity.

What were you listening before making music? What were your earliest influences?

Fergal Lawler: I think around the time the band started, it would have been stuff like The Cure, The Smiths, Joy Division, New Order, Depeche Mode, and Pink Floyd. That kind of stuff. I think those were the ones that we all locked on to a lot.

How does it feel to hear your 19-year-old selves on this record today?

It’s strange. It really is. When I listened back to it while we were preparing for this release, I was shocked at how young we sounded, especially Dolores O’Riordan‘s voice. You can really hear how young she is. It just brought me back to that time. We were so naive and innocent. I think it was maybe our third or fourth time in a studio, because we had done some demos previously. This was an EP, we were in a recording studio, and it was all fairly new to us. It was fun; we enjoyed it at the time.

What was the atmosphere like in the studio back in 1991?

Just an adventure, because it was new and we hadn’t done much recording. It was a new experience. I think it was great for us to be able to hear all the different layers and hear everything really clearly. In a rehearsal room at that time, Dolores would sing through a guitar amp—she’d plug her microphone into a guitar amp and it was kind of distorted—you couldn’t really hear her vocal clearly. To get into the studio and hear her singing properly, and then hear the backing vocals she’d do and the layers of different guitars and percussion, it was fantastic.

When I listened back to it when we were preparing for this release, I was shocked really at how young we sounded, especially Dolores‘s voice. You can really hear how young she is… we were so naive, really, and innocent.”

Which track on Uncertain best represents the “true” early Cranberries?

It’s hard to say, they all represent the early Cranberries, but my favourite personally would be “Them“, the very last track, because it has almost like a soundtrack kind of vibe to it where there’s loads of space, it’s really moody, and Dolores‘s vocal is incredible.

Were there any non-musical influences—like books or films—behind these songs?

I couldn’t put my hand on anything specifically, but at that age, you’re exploring everything and you’re taking all the influences you like from movies, books, art, and other musicians. There were lots of different influences coming in all the time. David Lynch movies were really popular at that time, so we’d have been big fans of that and early Coen Brothers stuff.

Is there a specific instrument or piece of gear from the Uncertain sessions you still own?

Oh, yes, actually. One second. I think I have it here. This. There’s a bell in there. It was my grandfather’s bell and I’ve used it in a few different recordings, but the first one I used it in was Uncertain. It’s also on the first album, I think it’s on a track in that. I always try and get it in there somewhere because it’s a really lovely sound.

To get into the studio and hear her singing properly and then hear the backing vocals she’d do and the layers of different guitars and percussion and stuff, it was fantastic.”

How did the local landscape of Limerick shape the dreamy sounds of the EP?

I think Limerick at the time had a lot of unemployment and it was not the prettiest city in the world at that time. There was a fighting spirit; people stuck together in Limerick to look after each other because we weren’t the capital city. It’s hard to put your finger on it, but there wasn’t much money around, yet there was a lot of community spirit. That mindset was in all of us, to look after each other and help each other out.

Did the political tension in Ireland at the time affect your creative process?

Maybe subconsciously. There was a lot of political tension in Ireland back in the ’70s and ’80s when we were growing up and you’d always hear it in the news, but it seemed like it was distant because it was up the North. You still felt it because it was happening in our country. It was something that resonated with a lot of people that grew up in that time because it just seemed so frustrating that all these people were dying and it seemed that there was nothing positive being done about it.

What was the hardest part about being a young band in ’91?

It was tough to get recognition. We played a lot to empty clubs for a good few years and then we made friends with a guy who worked in the university here. He was the events entertainment manager and he got us some gigs in the university and also managed to get us gigs in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Belfast, and other universities. That really helped. The struggling of playing to two or three people sitting in a club was tough, but those things are what make you resilient and help you to grow as a band, as tough as they are.

How do you handle the transition from indie kids to global rock stars so quickly? It didn’t seem to break you.

It was quick, but the fact that we had played all those clubs helped. Eventually, we started getting recognition and the clubs started getting fuller. We did a circuit where we did clubs for more than a year, then we came back and played theatres, and after theatres, we played indoor arenas. There were steps. It wasn’t like one day no one knows you and the next day everyone knows you; it was gradual over a couple of years. I think that was very important for us to have taken those steps. But it was still very overwhelming for four young people from a small city in Limerick to suddenly be all over the news and papers. It took quite a while to get used to that.

We played a lot to empty clubs for a good few years… those things are what make you resilient and help you to grow as a band, as tough as they are.”

Was there a single moment during the Uncertain era when you realized your lives were about to change forever?

No, we still couldn’t see that far ahead. We were just enjoying that moment, making an EP and going off and doing some small touring. It was a really fun time. It was one of the best parts of being in The Cranberries, really, because we were so young and innocent and we were just like, “Let’s go on tour and experience all these other new countries.” It was amazing.

While digging through the archives for this reissue, did you find anything you had completely forgotten about?

No, not with this. But we were talking about how it would be nice to hear some remixes done by Stephen Street, maybe. Uncertain is great and it sounds like it sounds for that time, but the production is a bit ’80s sounding. It would be nice to hear what Stephen did with those songs. We were talking about it recently and we asked him if he’d be interested in doing it. He said he’d have a listen to the EP and the tracks and see; maybe he will do a remix. It would be nice to hear his version of it.

There wasn’t much money around, but there was a lot of community spirit… that mindset was in all of us, to kind of look after each other and help each other out.”

Are you working also on other reissues?

I think there’s an Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? reissue coming out. There’s talks of doing something like a vinyl reissue of To the Faithful Departed again with some extra bits.

What’s your next project on the horizon for you and the band?

We’re talking about a live video we found that we had done in London. I think it was the Apollo, I’m not sure. Anyway, there was a live video that we released in around 1992 or ’93 and someone in Ireland came across the videotapes; there’s loads of extra shots and stuff. We might have a look at reissuing that and remixing the audio on it. The only other live video we have is a 1999 Live in Paris, and this earlier one, where we’re a lot younger, it would be nice to have a version of that.

Photso courtesy of Cranberries

Matteo Damiani

Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others