Changes every day, in every possible way

Call her contrary. No sooner had Dolores O’Riordan announced a September tour for her summer-released second solo album “No Baggage,” than she declared that her solo dates were canceled. Or rather, swapped for a tour with her band, The Cranberries.

“I’ll just go out with the boys and we’ll play the old songs and we’ll slap together the new songs,” O’Riordan says casually, a few weeks before the Irish pop band was to hit the road. The Cranberries had been on hiatus since 2003, when O’Riordan once again put the band on hold for personal reasons. Prior breaks came after she suffered a mental breakdown, and then she took time to have children. This time, her stepmother’s terminal illness took priority over career.

Actually, it makes more sense to just call O’Riordan spontaneous. The 38-year-old Limerick native has long-shunned professional obligations that drain her spirit.

“Having obligations can make you feel mentally sick. It’s just stress, isn’t it? When I was younger, it was like the band got so big, so quickly. It was ‘do a tour through Christmas, do a tour in January, do a tour in spring.’ And I was like, ‘Yes, yes.’ I kept signing yes, I’ll do it and I couldn’t back out. Now I don’t sign too much ahead; don’t plan too far ahead. Take it easy and see how you are,” she advises.

“Go out for six weeks and if you’re OK, grand, then go out and do another six weeks,” she says. “Don’t sign your life away, because you don’t know how you’ll feel in six months.”

Wednesday, Nov. 18
NOKIA Theatre Times Square
1515 Broadway at W. 44th Street
SOLD OUT