Time, Healing and Experience Give Her a New Outlook

Sinead O’Connor always seems to be making a comeback, which may just go with the territory when constantly challenging the public’s attitudes with your music and trying its patience with your actions.

O’Connor is one of the seminal influences on ‘90s confessional pop, but her personal actions have frequently led to controversy--most notably when she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II on “Saturday Night Live” in 1992. The incident led to O’Connor--who has blamed the Catholic Church’s position on such issues as divorce and abortion for the child abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother--being virtually booed off the stage two weeks later during a Bob Dylan tribute concert in New York.

O’Connor resurfaced to warm applause in 1995 with a moving performance at the start of the Lollapalooza tour. But the singer-songwriter soon dropped off the tour, complaining of pregnancy-related illness and other personal problems.

Now she is back with an engaging new mini-album whose sweet, comforting tones are a long way from the confrontational stance of her best-known works. Titled “Gospel Oak,” the collection will be released today by EMI. O’Connor also plans to tour this summer, with an Aug. 16 stop at the Greek Theatre.

By phone from London, where the single mother lives with her two children (10-year-old Jake, by musician John Reynolds, and 15-month-old Roisin, by John Waters, a writer for the Irish Times), O’Connor, 30, spoke about the new album and its comforting outlook.

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Question: Why are you releasing just a six-song collection rather than a full album?

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Answer: With two children now, I didn’t know how long it would take to write enough songs for a full album, and I was uncomfortable about going too long between albums. It has already been two years since the last album and I thought it would be good to put something out, especially since I’m going to be doing some concerts this summer.

Q: How do you deal with the challenge of raising children and pursuing your career?

A: My plan is to only [tour] summers when my son is out of school. I wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving them. They’ve got to come first.

Q: Compared to your earlier work, there seems to be such a tone of comfort and hope. Do you think being pregnant when you wrote the songs was an influence?

A: Sure, probably more than I even realize, but I also think it’s just the latest step in a gradual process that began with my first record [1988’s “The Lion and the Cobra”]. I was writing about my childhood experiences, overcoming the anger and the pain.

Sometimes I go through phases where I feel I need mothering and that’s what I do with my songs. If you put them all together, my songs are like diaries of someone in recovery. The reason that they may get a little more hopeful over the years is that time helps. You grow away from the pain, hopefully, and one day you realize your upbringing is way behind you. You realize you are an adult now.

Q: In the first song on the album, “This Is to Mother You,” you seem to be talking directly to a child, but aren’t you also addressing the child or the fear in all of us?

A: Well, it’s a love song . . . and also a hymn. I guess it’s a song about myself. I wrote it to soothe myself, but, sure, it’s about the need in all of us. All you have to do is turn on the TV and see the need people have . . . from what’s happening in Rwanda to down your own street.

Q: Let’s go back to Lollapalooza. Why did you accept the dates if you knew you were pregnant?

A: First of all, the tour was booked before I had any intention of being pregnant. Later, I didn’t realize how difficult a pregnancy it was going to be. My first pregnancy had gone extremely well, but I got really sick during the second pregnancy. I also wasn’t in a very good state emotionally.

There were a lot of problems, even in terms of my relationship with the record company in America [EMI]. I got this message, whether it was actually given or not, that the company wasn’t interested in working my records because I was this publicity nightmare. And that bothered me. The company is now extremely supportive. . . . There have been some personnel changes, but at the time I don’t think they knew what to do with me.

Q: Given the passion in your music, is it safe to assume that music was one of the places you got healing or comfort?

A: Oh, my God, yes. Music is the only reason I’m alive. It was the answer to my prayers.

Q: Who are some of the artists that meant the most to you?

A: Growing up, it was definitely Bob Dylan. I got from his songs the same thing that makes music important in everyone’s life . . . the message that you are not alone. He may have been singing about his own life, but to me, he was singing my feelings and pain. The same with Bob Marley. You can sense from his music that he is someone who went through quite a lot and transformed himself . . . which gives you the hope that you, too, can find strength.

Q: What about “This Is a Rebel Song,” the song on the album about Northern Ireland? Is the title a reference to Marley’s “Rebel Music”?

A: No, it refers to U2’s comments before singing “Sunday Bloody Sunday” live [in the ‘80s], about it not being a rebel song. People were afraid to say they wanted the country back because it sounded like they agreed with the violence. I don’t criticize them for that, but I am trying to say you can be for getting the country back without believing in murder.