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 Float On
Flogging Molly’s Irish Eyes Keep Smiling
by John B. Moore
The day devoted to green beer and soda bread has come and gone, but when it comes to taking part in a Flogging Molly show – an event riddled with empty bottles of Guinness and kilted rednecks mulling about - it’s almost like like St. Patrick’s Day all over again.
The routine is a familiar one for the Dublin-by-way-of-LA Irish punk band. For years now, Flogging Molly has been bringing their annual pre-Paddy’s Day music fest all across America. The fact that they’re playing in the “New South” rather than “Southie” seems to make not a bit of difference. For Flogging Molly co-founders Dave King and Bridget Regan, they’re just glad to be playing the type of music they want to play.
King and Regan invited us on their tour bus recently to talk about the tour and Float, their brilliant, career-defining new record.
How long ago did the tour start?
Dave: I believe it’s been about four weeks.
What was the idea behind starting the Green 17 Tour?
Bridget: Well we wanted to go to 17 cities leading up to St. Patrick’s Day, which is March 17th, as you know.
Was it your intent to bring along different styles of music?
Dave: Yeah, for example we’ve had three different opening acts on this tour so far, which is great.
Bridget: What ended up happening is that we swapped out openers every couple of weeks, so there’s something different.
Dave: We actually have a band from Japan starting on the tour tomorrow called the Cherry Cokes, and they’re an Irish traditional band for lack of a better word.
Bridget: The opener tonight, The Mighty Stef, has been with us for two weeks and they’re friends of ours from Dublin. They’re a great band, and of course we also have The Reverend Peyton, who is excellent.
Are you surprised at how well the U.S. audiences have embraced your sound and the type of music you play?
Bridget: I’m surprised any audience has embraced us.
Dave: You know we’re a really, really good band and we write really, really good songs and that’s the main thing, first and foremost. We really believe in the songs and when we’re on stage it’s like a celebration of that and the energy feeds off each other. But it is a surprise, yeah.
Did you get a lot of strange reactions when you mentioned you were going to start a band blending traditional Irish instruments and music, considering you come from a hard rock background?
Dave: No, it never occurred like that. I met Bridget like 14 years ago and we started playing music together, but the songs just developed into the way they are.
Bridget: It was just an opportunity to do something that we like.
Dave: Personally, I got sick of playing that type of music (metal) because it was all run by major record labels. I had a very hard time with major record labels and we knew instantly that we weren’t going to be dealing with them with this kind of music. We knew we definitely wanted to write music that we were interested in.
Bridget: You’re not allowed to do that with a major. They just want to control every aspect of what you are doing, including the creative aspects. As an artist, how can you be expected to do that?
So as a label, has SideOne Dummy been pretty easy to deal with?
Bridget: They’ve been a really good fit.
Dave: They don’t call and ask us what we’re writing or working on.
Bridget: They’re on the same page as we are. They do their job, we do our job, we meet in the middle and that’s it. We do what we want, and we like it.
How did the two of you meet?
Dave: We meet in Molly Malone’s (in Los Angeles), where we first started.
Bridget: Eventually that’s where we all – every member of this band– met.
Dave: For me, I remember when I first heard Bridget playing fiddle. I physically couldn’t go back to Ireland at the time because of problems I had, and it was almost like mixing what was known to us with traditional elements. But the chords that we write are no different than any of the chords any other bands would use. It’s just that we’ve really gelled it together. Over four albums now, I think we’ve really developed Flogging Molly’s sound.
Bridget: I was asked earlier today what bands are you compared to and why, and it’s like the obvious one. We’re always compared to The Pogues, but I honestly think we’re chalk and cheese – it’s two completely different sounds, in my opinion. But because what we do is so different from what everyone else is doing, it’s probably the closest thing that anyone can come up with.
Dave: Don’t get us wrong: Bands like The Dubliners and The Pogues have as much to do with our influences as The Clash or The Smiths and Bob Marley. Everyone in this band has hugely different tastes.
Bridget: Shane McGowan is an absolutely brilliant songwriter…
Dave: Genius.
Bridget: … and he has this just crazy unusual voice. But Dave is the exact same thing, just in a completely different way.
Let’s talk a bit about the new album. Was that written in the U.S.?
Dave: It was written in Ireland. People ask about the theme a lot and the lyrics especially, and I think going back to Ireland and writing the lyrics there was sort of like a homecoming. It was a good one, because when I left Ireland it wasn’t a great place to be– [there was] lots of unemployment and the war was still raging in Northern Ireland– and now it’s the opposite.
Bridget: It’s prosperous…
Dave: … and it gives you hope. I never thought I’d see in my life a time that the country would turn around in such a way.
This was the first album you’ve recorded in Ireland. Was there a different feel versus being in some studio in LA.?
Bridget: Well, sure, but a lot of it was the studio we were in. It was absolutely amazing. It’s called the Grouse Lodge, and it’s like an old Georgian estate that they’ve converted into a studio. It was all of us living together. We had our own pub, which was great, but also pretty dangerous. The album was an absolute joy to make. I think I can speak for the entire band when I say we had a lot of fun and an absolute blast.
Dave: We’d eat together every day.
Do you think you’ll record in Ireland again?
Dave: I think we all said that as we were leaving. We’d love to come back here.
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