‘Angry, violent Irish band’

The Dropkick Murphys get more aggressive

INTERVIEW. After the unprecedented attention The Dropkick Murphys received when their track “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” opened director Martin Scorsese’s first Oscar-winning film, “The Departed,” the Irish punk band could have sold out. Instead, they self-released their new album, “The Meanest of Times.”  Guitarist and founding member Ken Casey explains why the band prefers to call their own shots.

You’ve always been a pretty successful touring band. How have things changed since being featured in “The Departed”?
We picked up a lot of real core fans. I think it’s just the nature of the connection of the movie to the band — it’s an angry, violent Irish movie and we’re an angry, violent Irish band. So, it’s not like you go outside the show and can clearly see, “Oh, there are the ‘Departed’ fans, the new crowd.” They’re the same as our crowd. A very common thing I hear from people is, “I heard of your band from ‘The De-parted’ and since, I’ve seen your band live three times and I bought every album.

After that success, why would you found your own label to release the next album?
We’ve always called our own shots on everything; we’re a very hands-on band. But with a record company, you don’t always have a say. Now, there’s nobody to fight and argue with. It’s not major stuff we’ve taken on, but it’s nice to have a vision and be able to follow it through start to finish without having to answer to anyone.

How does “The Meanest of Times” appeal to new fans without alienating the old?
We wanted to make a more aggressive record and almost take people by surprise. On our last record, in an effort to get more clarity and clearness in the music, I feel we lost some of that. We weren’t trying to get softer; we were just trying to bring out the instrumentation. On this record we said, “F-ck it, let’s just make it loud.”

For a track on the new album you brought in folk legend Ronnie Drew from The Dubliners and The Pogues’ Spider Stacy — who aren’t necessarily known for “loud” music.
Ronnie Drew watched our set when we played with the Pogues two years ago in Dublin. He came up to us afterwards and said, “I love your version of ‘Fields of Athenry.’ If you’d ever like to do something together, I’d be honored to sing with you.” ... At Westland Studios in Dublin I found myself in the control room hitting the button saying, “Ronnie, can you sing it a little more like this?” Then I said, “What the f-ck? ... Did Ronnie Drew just let me tell him how to do something?” I listened to his albums as a kid!.

Dropkick Murphys
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