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Dropkick Murphys Blue Collar Music By Matt Bettinelli-Olpin The DKM Cocktail:
Enjoy cautiously. This concoction will have you sweating like a stray dog, shouting ‘til your throat burns, and dancing around like a punk rock prom queen. Why? Because these days, Dropkick Murphys are hands-down the strongest drink in town. |
Since they formed
back in ‘96, the seven-piece, whose fourth LP, Blackout (Hellcat), was released in
the summer of ‘03, have stomped their way around the globe on something like a
musical crusade. Along the way, they’ve left their indelible boot print on a
generation of bruised and willing ears with their splendid mess of styles and influences. A DKM show is no
normal show--it’s an experience. They wear their blue collars high, sing with pride,
and scream with urgency. Their songs encapsulate the working class voice, and their fans
accentuate the strength of unity. According to their web site (www.dropkickmurphys.com) ,
“In the true spirit of punk rock we view the band and the audience as one in the
same; in other words, our stage and our microphone are yours.” The band is the
audience. The audience is the band. So grab a drink,
fight your way to the mic, and let your throat burn, burn, burn. |
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Matt Bettinelli-Olpin: What role does the audience play? Ken:
I always wanted to be in a band, the same way I always wanted to be a professional hockey
player or baseball player. It was just another thing that was cool to do, but never
thought I was eligible for, talent-wise. It took me a long time to figure out you don’t
need much talent to do this. I wish I’d figured that out earlier. I started to go to
shows in the early ‘80s, the Boston hardcore scene, with bands like Gang Green and
DYS, and the seeing punk hardcore shows in a small club, up close, made me want to be a
part of it. Matt:
Are you hoping someone going to your shows feel the same? How would you hope someone would
react to your music? Ken:
It’d be cool if they decided they wanted to start a band after hearing us, but maybe
we’re just an hour and half that some one can come blow off steam and forget about
the rest of their life and work and school and all that crap, and just have a good time
and not worry about the rest of the outside world. If it’s nothing more than that,
that’s cool, too. Matt:
Is your music a product of your environment…of Boston? Ken:
I definitely think so. I don’t think what we do could come out of many other places.
We come from a unique place--not to say there aren’t other places like it and not to
say people from other places can’t identify with it, but it’s just a unique mix
of societies. We’re an American band, but we’re from a place of heavy Irish
descent and that obviously is a big part of our upbringing and our introduction to Irish
music. It’s that mix of that life with kids that were into American punk and
hardcore. A band from Ireland or another part of the country might just sound like an
Irish band, but it’s that unique mix of the two lifestyles we were brought up in,
going to American hardcore shows, but living in neighborhoods where you couldn’t
escape the influence of Irish music. |
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Matt:
Do the blurred genres ever cause issues booking shows? Ken:
We’ve played family style Irish festivals with people sitting on picnic blankets, and
we’ve played with the most brutal hardcore bands and everything in between. Matt:
How was the increased radio play changed the band or the shows? Ken:
It just kind of happened. We’ve really only had radio play in about four cities in
the country, so… we have such a solid fan base that it really doesn’t seem to
have changed it. Maybe in L.A., we might play to 1,000 kids, and maybe there are 200 more
now. That core audience is still the most present. But what happens with us, the kids who
hear it on the radio and might just know the one song, they come along and see how
passionate the rest of the audience is, and it makes them want to go out and buy the old
records and really be into the band. Ken:
From the first time we sold out a club that holds 400 kids and went on to play the next
biggest club that holds 600 kids, we already had people saying ‘I don’t like
‘em anymore, they’re too big, they sold out, they’re not my band.’
Every band that’s getting a larger audience has that element that leaves them, it’s
unfortunate. I know for us, we stayed true to what we do. If someone wants to not listen
to the band, I don’t think we’ve given them any reason, but that’s up to
the listener to decide. |
Matt:
What’s the role of politics within the band? Personal, social, or otherwise? Is there
a collective belief structure that holds the band together? Ken:
We come the background we come from, and we definitely write a lot of songs that deal with
social issues and blue collar upbringing and union politics and that’s evident in our
songs, but we try to leave it that. Nobody likes a preacher, so we just write songs about
what we believe in and you don’t have to agree with us to listen to the music. Matt:
What role does the punk rock community play as an alternative to mainstream music and
mainstream media? Is it just another outlet? Ken:
It’s an alternative. It’s like, ‘mainstream music is shoving crap down my
throat, I don’t want to buy into it.’ This gives people another avenue to find
out about bands and find out about music. Matt:
Where does the name come from? Ken:
Dropkick Murphy’s was an old rehab place in Boston in the ‘40s and ‘50s,
before fancy detoxes, where drunks would go to clean up. It seemed appropriate. |
Matt:
Is alcohol as big a part of the band as it appears? Ken:
Not really. That name was taken, partly because we play drinking songs, but also it’s
Boston history. But for every song we’ve wrote about the pleasures of alcohol, if you
really read the lyrics, a lot of the songs are also talking about the negative pitfalls of
alcohol. But with the nature of drinking music, a lot of times you can write a song that’s
saying negative things about alcohol, but people still take it like ‘yeah, I’m
on a sinking ship, but I’m gonna enjoy it while I’m going down.’ Even our
most dreary, negative song about drinking is sung as if it’s a party song. That’s
the irony there. Matt:
How’d you get to be one of the few bands to record a song with unpublished Woody
Guthrie lyrics (“Gonna Be A Blackout Tonight,” on Blackout)? |
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Ken:
Woody Guthrie’s grandson is a punk rocker and he told his mother, who was in charge
of the archives, that we share some of her father’s beliefs and that we might be a
good band to take a stab at recording some of his lyrics. He has thousands and thousands
of pages of lyrics that have never been put to music, that have never sent the light of
day. A lot of people have never even read them, but I got the opportunity to go down to
the archive in New York one day and spend about eight hours reading thousands of pages of
lyrics. That day was the highlight of being in the band, for me. Picking up these original
pieces of paper, sixty years old, and reading these pieces of history was pretty
incredible. Matt:
What’s the hardest part of being in the band? Ken:
Being away from home, definitely. We’re all unbelievably grateful for the
opportunity, we’re also torn, like ‘what the hell is going on? Why am I all over
the world, when I’m used to being home?’ We’ve been given an incredible
gift and opportunity, but at the same time, you’re saying ‘my god, the Red Sox
are playing the Yankees and I have tickets and I’m not there and all my friends are
there. And I want to be home with my wife and daughter.’ It’s definitely two different worlds
colliding. |
Matt:
What the best part? Ken:
Playing live. It’s what we strive to do and that’s what we enjoy the most,
however, that’s what takes us away from home. You’re talking about a guy who
never really got out of Massachusetts, and now I’ve been to four or five different
continents playing music, so I’m extremely grateful for that. Matt:
What are your hopes for the band? Ken:
We’ve already achieved every goal and then some. I’d like to just be able to
attain longevity. That’s what separates the band from being memorable to just another
band. Can you continue doing what you’re doing? We’re not looking for any highs
or any lows. I don’t want to sell five million records. I just want to keep the loyal
fan base we have now happy and keep making the music the music that makes them want to
come to the shows and take part. |
