Truth, Justice and a Little Bit O' Swagger

"It's been the worst day - since yesterday" - Flogging Molly, Swagger

An Interview by Jaysen Buterin

There are some people out there who when they think of Irish musical culture, they think of the perfunctory well-oiled machine of Celtic step-dancing. Riverdance, Lord of the Dance, that sort of thing. If this is what you think of, then that's fine, but folks, I'm Irish; most of us don't dance like that ever. There is another side to the musical culture, one as equally as compelling. Take away the Jackie Stallone headbands, the Pirates of Penzance flowy outfits, replace the Evian bottle with pints of

Guinness, and instead of gracefully dancing as one - start pushing, shoving, bouncing and dancing around each other, all in a small confined space. Now provide a soundtrack for said Irish rock-n-roll debauchery, and you've got the band Flogging Molly.

Flogging Molly's newest album, Swagger is a thirteen-track lamentation that encapsulates just some of the romantically tragic and persevering irreverence; all to the tunes of songs you can already hear while sitting in your favourite pub with some good friends and better conversation. Songs like "These Exiled Years", "The Worst Day Since Yesterday", and "Life in a Tenement Square", almost transcend its own Celtic-influenced, high-spirited, soul-driven rock and roll. Led by accented lyrics, and a musical dervish of Irish traditional music and contemporary influences, Swagger is hauntingly addictive and endearing in its simplicity.

I was fortunate enough to be able to sit down with Flogging Molly after a recent show, particularly with singer-songwriter/acoustic guitarist Dave King and various members of the band and discuss their music, their culminating tour, their latest album, and of course...Guinness.

It just wouldn't be a Flogging Molly piece if Guinness weren't mentioned significantly, and during our time together we mentioned it, drank it and even noticed it's juxtaposition with keen fashion sense. It should also be noted that the silly words that appear in [brackets] well those are there in place of the expletives that Dave is fond of using which I share a penchant for as well, however, my editors do not.

OFF!: Obviously you're a tough band to categorise. Some say you have no precedent; I've heard the comparisons to the Chieftains, to the Pogues; even Irish punk rock with a little James Joyce thrown in to boot. How would you guys define yourselves, or do you even bother to label it anything other than Irish drinking music?

Dave: Well, I think with a band with seven people in it, there's a lot of influence in the band. I write the lyrics and stuff like that and this is really the first time in my life, playing rock-n-roll, being in a band that I can actually still express myself, and still have it be a band. A lot of times you can't do that because you are a band. For example like in Fastway, when I'd write the lyrics in Fastway, it was like it was a banner. Now Flogging Molly is a name, it's a banner, but I can still get out every issue that's been in my head for the last many odd years. To me really, it's an exercise - it's an exercise in singing what you believe in and still being a great band, and I've never really had that before. I'm in a very fortunate position, so as for what category you would put us in, that's not even an issue for us.

OFF!: But a lot of music critics have to be able to comfortably label something, you know? Audiences need that description, that ephemeral little one line that is supposed to encapsulate a bands entire sound - I didn't know if you guys had run into problems with that or not.

Dave: Well you know, when I think of what we do, it all stems from the fact that we all have a passion for honesty. Like punk music for example, to me, is an attitude - any breed of music should be an attitude, you know what I mean? It's how you do it, or even what you do with it. You know the Dubliners? They're a great a punk band?

OFF!: So are the Dropkick Murphy's!

Dave: Oh well, the Dropkicks, of course. But when I talk about the Dubliners, I'm talking about five guys standing up there with acoustic guitars and they're still a punk band in my eyes. It's their attitude, it's the way they do it, and Flogging Molly, I mean, basically we're just a bunch of guys that...we're really a melting pot of a lot of different cultures but the one thing that we all have is passion and that's never going to change. It's not my job to categorise what we do. It shouldn't be anybody's job really. I mean hell we just got voted best punk band in Los Angeles - we were up against all these real punk bands and we won it, I don't know how or why, but we did. It just goes to show you that we've got fiddles, accordions, mandolins, tin whistles, and we still did the Warped Tour and we stood our own and we did what we had to do.

OFF!: I wanted to ask you about that, have you guys ever played anything like the Warped Tour before? Since the Warped Tour obviously has the associations with mostly punk rock/ska bands, I didn't know if you'd ever been in front of that type of audience before or not?

Dave: We've never done anything like that before and it was a really great experience for us. With honesty comes a lot of belief. If you're honest and you believe in yourself because you're not lying. There's no closets that are [flippin] half-open and [stuff] like that. I think we knew that we would definitely have something to say. I mean, we used to walk on stage during Warped and the kids would just go, "What the...." - they'd be looking at their mates, going, "fiddle, what the [fudge]?", and we'd start playing

and you could literally see them look at each other and just go "[Fudge] yeah!!" I think any energy, once it's honest, is a positive energy. That'show we got this tour here with the Bosstones, and we met a lot of good friends there, a lot of good people. It really surprised the hell out of us!

OFF!: What were you guys expecting going into something like the Warped Tour?

Dave: I was expecting that we wouldn't really know what to make of it, which was okay with me because I don't care. When we write a song, it's for us and nobody else, you know what I'm saying? We're not out here to aim to please people, we're not. It just so happens that we've elevated ourselves to the position where we can have fun and I think the audience can see that, and they can capture that fun. I think that what happened on the Warped Tour was that it taught me to not ever doubt the open-mindedness of people, especially young people. Because they're the ones that label music and after the first couple of gigs I realised that. We were just going to go out there and not worry about what they think, because I knew what they would think. They're not so close-minded that they're like, "Yeah, impress me you [flippin] [guy]!", which is what I was led to believe they'd be like and they're not like that at all. It all boils down to we're just a great [fulminating] band, and we do what we do and the rest I don't care about really.

OFF!: Back when I was living in Cape Girardeau the best mates that I made were Irish, the Kestersons, they're like my second family and I know they're great story tellers, so I was wondering what some of the stories were behind your songs, like "Grace of God Go I"?

Dave: I remember being a young kid back in Ireland and I can't for the life of me, think of the name of the TV show but I remember watching it and what it involved was traditional Irish musicians sitting around in a square

and you'd see these little old guys in their scali caps sitting around singing. Just the power of the voice was incredible and I originally wrote, "Grace of God Go I", on guitar and then when I went to record it, I didn't need that. I needed the honesty and the nakedness of that piece. In Ireland a lot of people couldn't afford instruments to play so the power was in the voice, whether it be James Joyce's voice, or whether it be whoever's voice, the power was in the silence. With "Grace of God" I just wanted to say about myself, well, I can be a very bitter and negative person and I don't think I want to involve the rest of the band in that. Like right now

I'm writing a poem about Dublin which I want to be on the next album and that's a completely different thing, spoken word, and I would like to try something like that and not be afraid to do that.

OFF!: What about the song, "Far Away Boys"? It's a chilling narrative, but I was wondering the story had any historical background or maybe personal significance for you or not?

Dave: Well with "Far Away Boys" Bob is the mandolin player in the band and he played banjo on that, and this is not a word of a lie Jaysen, when we recorded that song with Steve Albini, the vocals and the acoustic guitar, and all the instruments are completely low, and I'll never forget, I was sitting on a stool, Bob was below me in a chair playing the banjo, and in between vocal pieces I was telling him what to play, and I did the same thing with the drummer, George, and that's it. I mean, lyrically it's a song where I know nothing about working on the railroad, which the song begins with "Well I worked on the railroad, for t'pence a day", but I do know about hardship. I just transplanted myself into the body of a man working on the railroad, even though I've never worked on the railroad, I've worked in many, many dodgy situations and I felt very angry about certain situations and "Far Away Boys" just came about like that. I just sat around at home playing the chords, and was like, "Well I worked on the railroad,

for t'pence a day / I drank down one penny, the other I'd save" and I do that all the time Jaysen, I drink my money away. So I started to just get into that, to just get in there, you know? I mean we all fight our wars even though, for example, "Worst Day Since Yesterday" - "Though these wounds have seen no wars", I still have wounds, we all have wounds, even though I haven't been in a physical battle, we all still have wounds. "Far Away Boys" to me, I mean, I look at the lyrics and I have to admit, I go sometimes, "[Gosh] did I just write the line "Someone said it was Christmas, but not a tree was in sight / the only thing growing, was my will to die".

I mean, I'll tell you a little story Jaysen, I used to see a shrink all the time, I think it was going to Los Angeles, I think the sun affects your brain, I don't know. I was just about o get this band together, we all started to meet each other and stuff like that and we all had a great camaraderie, like I was just not going to be in a band with these people, but they were going to be my friends. I went to see my shrink and I was on my way after that to rehearsal with the boys...and girl, and I brought my guitar into the office, into the session with me. So he sees the guitar, and he knows I'm a songwriter or whatever and he asks me to play him a song.

So I played "The Likes of You Again" for him and he said to me, "You know what, you're never going to have to come see me ever again." He said, "the hairs on the back of my neck are standing up right now, this is what you have to do with your life." And it took me the best part of 20 years to be honest, all my life I've been a liar. I'll tell you a story, you see my father passed away when I was ten and I used to convince kids, well, my father pumped gas for a living, and I used to convince kids that he owned the gas station that he pumped gas in. It's been a hard battle for me to come to reality in, in the sense of what I write....

OFF!: You know, the Young Dubliners had a tour sponsoured by Murphy's have you guys tried to get a tour sponsoured by Guinness?

Dave: Every interview we do, every review we do, well, everything we do, Guinness is mentioned.

OFF!: Well it has to be, it's nectar of the gods.

Dave: It's our culture, just like Bushmills.

And regretfully dear readers it was here that the rest of the interview quickly spiraled down hill to a level of decadence and debauchery that can only arise from spending time with a band like Flogging Molly. Much Guinness was consumed, many laughs were had and a good time was shared by all, with special anticipation swelling for their upcoming Conan O'Brien appearance on Dec. 12. Swagger is indeed a disc worth adding to your collection, and Flogging Molly is a band vitally important to see live.