Cranberries Writing New Songs As Reunion Tour Nears

Some new material is part of the plan for the Cranberries, but the reunited Irish band will work its way slowly to that point according to singer Dolores O'Riordan.

"It would be nice to come up with a new record. I don't see why not," O'Riordan tells Billboard.com. "They ideas are always there, so hopefully something will come out of it."

O'Riordan -- who instigated the Cranberries hiatus in 2003 and released her second solo album, "No Baggage," in August -- says that Cranberries guitarist Noel Hogan "has been sending me lots of music, and I've been continually writing." But she's cautious about guessing what will come of it. "It's one of those things where we have to see what happens when we get back together and start playing," O'Riordan explains. "There's no point in bringing out a crappy record. You want it to be really good, so hopefully the creative juices are flowing and the energies are right. We're all pumped and excited and we've got that hunger that we had when we first started out."

The Cranberries hit the road for the first time in seven years on Nov. 12 in Baltimore. The group's original lineup of O'Riordan, Hogan, his brother Mike and Fergal Lawler is intact -- "At the height of the Cranberries we made a pact that we'd never play as the Cranberries unless it was the four of us," O'Riordan says -- and will play 19 shows in North America through Dec. 7. O'Riordan says the group is looking at more touring in 2010, including stops in Europe, Russia, South America and other territories.

"A world tour would be really great," she says. "We're gonna give it a good crack. I say tour 'til we drop! We've been sitting on our butts for seven years, so it's exciting we're all into it and we miss it."

As for repertoire, O'Riordan says the Cranberries will play some of her material but fans can expect hits such as "Linger," "Zombie" and "Dreams," as well as some deeper cuts from the group's five-album catalog. "I toured in 2007, and I played the (Cranberries) stuff with those musicians, but the energy was different," she notes. "It didn't sound and feel the same.

"Anyone can play a song, but sometimes the energy people have when they wrote the song has a certain feeling you can only get from them. So I'm looking forward to feeling that energy again, the sound of the Cranberries."