Hey, this is Pete from WXAV 88.3 FM in Chicago, and we are honored to have the drummer of the legendary Boston punk rock band, the Dropkick Murphys, Matt Kelly, on the line, talking about Ride Fest, which is taking place this weekend here in Chicago. Matt, it is our honor to welcome you to WXAV. Oh, jeez, I've been in a direction like that, man. I'm the honor of all mine.
I'm a measly drummer. Don't worry about it. My pleasure. You're too humble, too humble.
But thank you for joining us. Like I said, Ride Fest is this weekend, and Dropkick is playing Sunday night at 5.15. What can we expect from Dropkick this Sunday at Ride Fest? Well, it's what it is, man.
Anybody who's seen us knows that pretty much almost every show is different. We'll probably be writing the set list an hour or two beforehand, like we typically do. Make sure we're playing something different from the last time we played in Chicago. So it's pretty much everyone's guess what we're going to be playing, including ours.
Awesome, awesome. Yeah, it's never canned banter between songs and never the same old, same old with us. So not doing our own horn here, just saying that we like to keep it interesting for the crowd and for ourselves. And you guys do a great job with it.
I've seen you guys live about five times, and each time is unique, and it's different, and it's fantastic. Thanks very much. That's what I like to see when I see bands. You never know exactly what to expect.
Yeah, there's certain things that you do expect, but then I can't believe they play that song. I love having that feeling. So I think that's speaking for everybody in the band as well, so we write a set list, like, let's try this, you know. I got to real quick share this story with you.
You guys played House of Blues probably like five or six years ago, and you had the Chicago Police Department's Bagpipers come out, and you did your rendition of Amazing Grace, and it was freaking awesome. And it was the last time I ever moshed, because after that, like, what will ever stop being able to say you moshed to Amazing Grace with the Chicago Police Department's Bagpipers at a Dropkick Murphy show? That's an amazing story. It's all because of you guys.
So, but yeah, this Sunday, Riot Fest, 5 o'clock, 515, actually, don't miss Dropkick Murphys. They're going to bring it blood, sweat, tears, and rock and roll. Now, Matt, you have been with the band almost as long as Ken Casey has, since about 96, 97. And you've seen the band progress, you know, throughout the years, both musically and personnel-wise.
How is the band, you know, today versus where it was now, Spirit State, almost 20 years ago? Well, I mean, we can play instruments a little better. And it's funny, because it's odd, because the band we saw, when we were four pieces, it was Ken, Rick, Mike, and myself. When we were playing shows back in the beginning, we were playing with bands like the Ducky Boys and the Vigilantes.
And 18 years later, James from the Ducky Boys and Jeff from the Vigilantes are in our band. You know, we played gigs at home with them at Rask Eller and stuff, and other small places, and then toured with both bands. And it's just funny that now, you know, James has been in the band since about 1999 or early 2000, and Jeff's been in the band for like six or seven years now. It's crazy, it just shoots by.
But, you know, personnel-wise, we've grown into a seven-piece band. You know, we went from a four-piece to like a dual guitar band, and we added backbikes, and we added, like, you know, people who could play things like the mandolin and the whistle and stuff. All the stuff that were on the first and second records, but we could never really duplicate live. We wanted to kind of push the boundaries of that stuff.
And that's how we ended up with a seven-piece band, full-time guys who would play that stuff on stage. So, yeah, it's, I mean, music, I think it progressed, you know, where we're, you know, you're doing it for so long, hopefully you learn to, I hate to sound like a, you know, express yourself better through music. You know, you went through, you know, we've expanded on all the different styles that we've played since the beginning. You know, early songs, you had songs that were inspired by bands like Slapshot and the F.U.
and Gang Green, like Boston hardcore stuff. And then we had also songs like Far Away Coast, which is that way, very irate-y. And, you know, then you had, like, kind of, like, 1982, you know, British audience vibes, like, you know, like, Gauntlet, a couple albums. And I think we've expanded on all those styles within the parameters of how we sound.
So, I think that, as we've progressed in those sort of ways over the years. Your latest album, which is fantastic, it's called Signed and Sealed in Blood. You know, it's really, you can see the growth of songwriters for you guys, really, on this album. What's your approach now for how you write your music?
Has it changed over the years as compared to, like, let's say, Do or Die? Well, that's, oddly enough, a lot of songs in Do or Die were kind of, you know, you had a few songs that we've been playing with, playing for a couple years since the band formed. And then a few songs that we literally wrote as we went to the studio. And with Signed and Sealed in Blood, we kind of took a similar approach.
We've been playing a few of those songs, like the song Rose Tattoo, the song My Hero, the one or two others. We've been playing those songs a little bit here and there. And so, it's kind of like, in the same way as it was with Do or Die, where we were just kind of playing these songs live, and they were sort of coming together live. And then we'd run down the studio.
And then there were songs that we just literally wrote as we were going to the studio. And they just clicked. So, bookending six other albums with kind of being a bit more meticulous with our writing. This last album, Signed and Sealed in Blood and Do or Die, we took a very similar approach.
Just like, you know, let's make some big epic songs that we'd like to hear. That's awesome. That's awesome that they've kind of, like, it's come full circle almost done. In a weird way, yeah.
And, like, not that we don't want to write big epic songs we want to hear on every album, but it just seemed like after writing so many albums, being so, putting everything under a microscope, like, on going out in style, which is a bit of a loose concept album. This was just more, like, not freeform, but, you know, it was more just kind of fly by the seat of our pants kind of thing, which is definitely, I guess, talking back to the early days of, you know, Do or Die and the Bulls and the Dash EP and other stuff like that. And, like, it's an energetic record, and we love playing the song live, and they all work live. And you guys are really, you're a live band.
I mean, when I first got into your band about 12 years ago, I was always told, see them live, you can't capture the energy on a CD with their live show. They're just so much better live. I think it's actually better to see you guys live sometimes because there's just that energy, and you guys really feed off of the crowd. What is it about live, performing live for the band that really gets you guys, like, moving and gets the crowd jumping up and down?
Well, I mean, first of all, we're doing what we love, and we're doing it as, you know, for lack of a better term, a job. So it's like, you have the greatest job in the world, but we're pretty excited, you know. I mean, my dad's going to be 64 this year, and he's been a musician, you know, for 40-whatever years. And we're playing in bands, and it's something he's always wanted to do.
My brother's a musician, and it's becoming more successful, but it's something he's wanted to do. All the relatives, you know, they killed me in the position that we're in. And I know how lucky we are to be here, and I think everyone in the band knows how lucky we are to be in the position we're in. We've all slugged it out in, you know, small bands and, you know, garage bands and stuff, and it's dear to us that we can go and play a show and play songs that we wrote, and people go bananas for it.
Growing up, listening to bands like, say, ACDC and The Who and, like, you know, The Stones and Zeppelin, and, you know, and then later on, the punk stuff, it's all about, it's just the best medium to see a band, to experience a band live. That's how it is. Music is to be played live. A recording came about because people love seeing the band live so much that they want to hear it every time.
It's not vice versa. Where it's what it's become today, it's like, people want to go see live what they hear in the record. It's kind of foot-flopped completely because, you know, music is an organic thing. It's, you know, where, you know, granted people are, there's not much playing going on these days as far as, you know, you can play a note or fire into a microphone in the beginning, you know, you go in the studio and go through Pro Tools and it comes out a song.
You know, you get auto-tune, auto-tune a gastric air-passing that comes out a song. For us, it's always been very important that the live circuit is, the live experience is the way it is, what it's about. You know, it's, that's how we came up, that's how, you know, bands that we used to go see as kids, that's how we came up, that's important. We're kind of trying to pass that along to people.
Yeah, you sell a million records, it's awesome, I'm sure, you know, but the fun is, I guess, the egalitarian experience of, you're coming to see the band, but you're also part of the show, too, because, you know, the more involved you are with our show, the better the show is going to be for you and for us, the reciprocity of energy. We're giving it everything, the crowds are giving it everything, and, you know, at the end, we invite everybody on stage, typically, you know, as a show of, you know, we're leveling the playing field, it's not us on some pedestal, you know, we're not a foreigner or Elvis Presley up there, we're just a bunch of people who play music, and you're a bunch of people who are there to see us, so it's just a party, it's a party experience, and that's what we want to convey, and I think that's what we do convey. I think I'm going to have a really hard question for you. You mentioned earlier that you're really big into hardcore, and you're big into OI.
If there's any kid out there listening that wants to get into those scenes, what bands would you recommend they go and check out? As far as hardcore goes, I mean, you want to start with the real stuff, you know, your bad brain is probably the greatest, but then, you know, there's modern stuff, always speaking from a Boston perspective, we have easy pictures, bands like the Boston Strangler, who are amazing, Rival Mob, who are another awesome band, a bit more New York-inspired, but also great, for the worse, and then there's, you know, there's bands, there's a band called Creed, C-R-E-E-E-M, as opposed to the power tree over the 60s, and there's Olivia Nation, there's so many good hardcore bands around at this moment, playing real hardcore, not playing whatever, watered-down heavy metal-sounding form is these days, and then as far as OI goes, there's so many bands, I just saw a band in Boston from Paris called Lion's Law, amazing, but then you want to start with the classics also, Cockney Rejects, Cock's Barrett, the business, early business stuff, the Foreskins, and then modern days, I mean, there's a million bands around the scene, especially in Europe, it's huge, you know, they have, you have evil conduct, you have retaliators, it's like, this is such a big way, I'm trying to throw a pile on my head here, yeah, they're just all coming out, yeah, yeah, you know, I mean, if you're not afraid to listen to the bands in other languages, it's kind of intersect, Camerasi Lens, both from France were amazing, you know, Sledgehammer from Japan, there's so much out there, and especially with YouTube, it's so easy now, you can just kind of look these bands up and check them out, it's so much easier when we were kids, damn it, yeah, yeah, you're absolutely right, it is, it is, we're a part of a network, we're a college radio station here on the south side of Chicago, and the name of the organization is called College Radio Day, and basically what we try to do is we try to get individuals that don't listen to college radio to tune in and check us out, from your perspective, both as a music lover and fan, and as the drummer of the Dropkick Murphys, what impact has college radio had on the music scene and then also on the Dropkick Murphys? I mean, first of all, in Boston, we have a great college radio, they're always playing, they're playing most obscure, cool stuff, pretty indicative of a few stations around here, but as far as college radio, I got my teeth, I had a friend who was going to Pittsburgh State College in Pittsburgh, Mass, and I got in with a bunch of records, and we spin records, I don't know who was listening, if anybody was listening, but, you know, and that same station is also how I actually got into a lot of underground music, some guys who were older than me would have radio shows, like punk radio shows, and, you know, punk and hardcore, and then other metal radio shows at night, and, you know, you tune in, you know, hit your tape recorder on record, and you just have these songs about these bands, you just listen to these tapes, I think it's, I think college radio can be a tastemaker for a lot of younger people who are just forming their tastes in music, because a lot of times, and most of the time, I hope, there's no format on college radio, except, you know, you have to drop the station ID here, and the commercial there, but at the same time, you can play pretty much whatever you want, so it's, a lot of times, college radio is a reflection of maybe what's happening in a local music scene, version music scene, underground music scene, in any given city, and I think that, you know, young people or even old people who are just, you know, are sick of the typical format of, you know, dominating companies who are playing the same junk over and over again, they want to hear something fresh and different and new, they can tune in to college radio, and, you know, they'll hear stuff that they, they never even thought they had. Yeah, they're fring though, yeah.
Gary and Wolf Metal or something, you know, like, even satellite radio is becoming formatted, you know, where it used to be a pretty cool, like, open sort of free-for-all, now it's become very restricted and rigid, and you hear the same freaking song over and over again, so college radio, I think it's very important, and it gets to get students into, you know, self-communications and all that, it's a win-win thing, I don't know, as far as the drop kicks, I mean, that's definitely, I remember stations around, college stations around here would be playing us very early on, us in band, in the kind of street punk voice scene in Boston, back in the mid-90s, you'd have all these bands, they'd be playing them on radio stations, and it would show, because you'd play shows in the Middle East downstairs, there'd be 400 kids for, like, a matinee with all of the bands, you know, so, and it just, you know, by word of mouth, by college radio, which is basically word of mouth on steroids, I think, you'd say, it kind of helps the local music scene in that way, and, you know, bands coming, you know, small bands coming through on tour, college radio conveys, first of all, show information, you know, granted, there's the internet these days, but show information, you're hearing new stuff by these bands, you know, even if you're not looking for it, which on the internet, you sort of have to look for the same, look for bands, you know, whereas on the radio is given to you, so it's, I think it's super important, and it definitely, growing up, it was, it definitely helped shape my, my taste and, you know, interest in different music scenes. Well, Matt, thank you so much for your time, Dropkick Murphys, this Sunday, right at 515, you don't want to miss it, they're going to blow your eardrums with some great Irish punk rock music, Matt, anything in closing you'd like to add? Yeah, I'd like to say, call Colin McQuillen, rest in peace, my brother, you'll be missed, and also, if people are interested, we have the dropkick of a charity, it's a charity organization called the Clada Fund, official certified above board, fun a lot of good things for people, it's C-L-A-D-D-A-G-H-F-U-N-D, cladafund.org, if you want to check that out on the interwebs, and thanks everybody for listening to my Psycho Battle and support college radio. Matt, thank you so much again, it's cladafund.org?
Yes. Awesome, cladafund.org, go check it out, Matt Kelly, Dropkick Murphys, thank you so much for your time. Thank you, have a great one.