Dropkick Murphys: Shippin' Out of Boston

I had the opportunity to doa phone interview with leadsinger Al Barr from theDropkick Murphys on awindy Friday night. They aredoing a quick tour in Novemberfollowing an intensive year oftouring, but this time hitting abunch of cities not usually ontheir U.S. tour schedule. However, it seems we talked more about baseballthan the band.

SLUG: You guys have had a really great year, it's been really busy, you havea new record out, all sorts of touring going on. Tell me a little about this pastyear for you guys.
Al Barr: Yeah, we've just been touring on the new record, y'know. Well, nowit's 13 months old so it's not so new anymore. September we finished kind ofa year of touring on it and we're just getting ready to do a little more touringbefore Thanksgiving and the holidays. That'sabout it. Just been touring.

SLUG: What made you guys decide to dothis quick November tour and hit a lot ofplaces that you haven't been to in a longtime?
AB: Well, that's just it. We wanted to go outbecause we actually just closed down. Mywife's having a second child in Decemberand my son's birthday is in December andyou got Christmas in December. Kenny, thebass player and another singer in the band,he's got two kids as well and their birthdaysare in December. We shut down pretty muchfrom Thanksgiving ‘til the New Year so wewanted to get out there and hit some placeswe hadn't been in a while.

SLUG: Tell me about some of the highlightsof touring this year.
AB: We've been, y'know, all over thecountry. We've been to Europe a bunch oftimes. We've been to Australia and Japan,did Reading and Leeds, and a bunch ofother festivals this summer, so we were busy.

SLUG: So you guys got the holidays off. What kind of stuff are you goingto be getting into in the new year? You going to be doing any recording? Iunderstand you're writing a little, but that's probably something you guysalways do.
AB: We kind of try to write as you go so, that way, when you get to the pointwhere you're ready to start working on a new record you're not just cramming.You know what I mean? But as far as the new year goes, we're real excitedbecause we got the Big Day Out, which is a big festival in Australia, sowe're planning on going to Australia for about three weeks in January,and New Zealand as well. We really love Australia. We've been toNew Zealand only one other time and that was really cool, sowe're looking forward to that, y'know. This band has affordedus all the luxury of being able to travel all over the world andthat's pretty amazing.

SLUG: And that's got to be kind of a cool thing.When you first start in a band, you do some localtours, maybe you do regionals,then a U.S. tour, then all of asudden you guys are in a placewhere you're going to all theseplaces you probably never wouldhave thought you'd be going to.
AB: Yeah, it's definitely aprivilege to be able to go all overthe world and have people showup to hear you and hear yourband. It's a pretty cool thing forsure. It doesn't get much better.

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Comments on this article

Posted on November 7, 2008 by Christie

What do you mean, "the next time they hit up SLC"? When was the last time DKM hit up Salt Lake? 2003? It breaks my heart.

 

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