DROPKICK MURPHYS (Eng.)
– Hello and first of all, thanks for taking the time. To start, please explain us what is the band currently up to.
We are on tour, our first of the year…today we are in Nottingham England
– You have just released your new album, «Signed and Sealed in Blood». Do you still feel that excitement during the first days to see how the feedback for the album will be or did you feel that just back in the day?
It’s always a lot of fun to see how our fans react to the new songs that we play each night. Certain songs catch on much quicker than others and it’s an interesting process figuring those things out. We’re just excited to be playing some new songs!
– This new record comes out just a little over a year after your previous effort, «Going out in Style», was released. Why such a short time? Did the four-year break you took recharged your battery?
Four years seemed like an awful long time to us. We had a pretty significant lineup change that had us focusing more on playing the older songs as opposed to writing new ones. We had a great experience writing GOIS and just sort of kept on coming up with new ideas after we were all done with that record. We were excited about the prospect of giving people more new songs in a shorter period of time.
– Throughout all your years of career you’ve managed to bring a refreshing sound to the old school Punk. Is it easy to bee faithful to yourself and don’t loose that spirit during all these years?
At this point in our career, we are fairly certain of our identity, and the thing that keeps moving forward, I would say, is the musicianship. We’ve learned a lot about songwriting and actually crafting a piece of music over the past few years. Our good friend and producer, Ted Hutt, has given us great guidence over the last few years. I like to think it shows on this new record…
– On your new opus you’ve shown that with songs as the beautiful «Rose Tattoo». How did you come up with the idea for the video?
I think the idea was to show a literal translation of the lyrics…pictures of a way people choose to express what means the most to them…getting a tattoo is fuckin permanent so that takes commitment. Whether its to family, friends, whatever it is.
– It’s quite related to the fact you have encouraged your fans to tattoo the new logo so just by taking a look to the cover artwork and the albums title, it feels like in some way this effort is dedicated to your fans. Is their support a bonus to keep on moving forward with the band?
We wouldn’t be where we are if it weren’t for this band having the most dedicated fans out there. For people to permanently put that artwork on their bodies…that shows their dedication to what we do.
– I would also like to how what are your feelings on technology. Back in the day it was harder to release an album and get some fine promo, and now there are maybe too many bands.
Yea there’s a lot of bands out there and a lot of people taking advantage of today’s technology to put music out into the world. I suppose that’s what it’s there for. Ultimately the music listeners will decide if something is worth seeing/hearing.
– You may have gotten a lot out of 17 years of musical career, but I would like to know with which band you would like to play you haven’t done it yet.
We’ve gotten to share stages with a lot of amazing people over the years and we just go on doing our thing, always being surprised by what we get to do…
– Time changes and also do trends and music genres, but bands as yourself have always remained there and are a huge influence for a lot of newer acts; has this ever has make you work under more pressure or is it just an honour and maybe bonus motivation?
We all know how lucky we are to be able to do this for a living. We just keep doing what we know how to do which is work hard and write dropkick Murphys songs. If we inspire anyone along the way, that’s amazing for us.
– And finally, what are your near-future plans?
Lots more shows all over the world. As long as people keep coming to see us and cheering us on, we will be out there playing.
