The Vintage Spirit of FloggingMolly

Tue 4th Mar, 2008 in Features

When he first auditioned for Flogging Molly, guitarist Dennis Casey was all too used to being told to “turn it down” or “mellow out” when he played. With only a week to learn the songs Casey fronted up to a downtown LA rehearsal space determined to “give it everything he had”.

Flogging Molly were not floored by Casey’s blunt energy. For once the band gave it all back. “It was like a great ride at an amusement park. It was thrilling, it was exciting, it was fresh and new, it was fast and loud and passionate. Flogging Molly wants everything you’ve got, because that’s what we need and that’s what it takes and everybody does that in this band.”

This spirit powers an original mash-up of Celtic music and punk beats that have audiences flying all over the dancefloor. In 2000 Flogging Molly’s debut album Swagger sold 270,000 copies in the US. The figures improved with their 2002 release Drunken Lullabies and the 2004 Within a Mile of Home selling ¾ of a million copies total.

How did they start to climb this exponential escalator? “We tour all the time,” Casey tells me from a hotel room in Montreal, two hours pre-show. “That’s how we promote the band.”

Does that get dull? “Nah, the excitement is still there 100%. I mean, the waiting before a show makes time seem to drag. But especially with this tour almost sold out you are so fired up to go play, you just want to go.”

Maybe their method preserves the spontaneity? “We tour so much we don’t all have to live together anymore.” Each band member resides in a different city, and they only come together to record or tour. For their latest album Float the band rented a small house called Ralph’s Lodge in West Health on the East Coast of Ireland.

“We took a whole year and wrote and recorded in four different sessions,” Casey confirms. “When we lived in LA we met up to record and went to our separate homes. In Ireland we lived together, recorded all day, went to the pub, then all went home together.”

Did you fight?

“We’ve been a band now for over ten years, we understand each other, we understand how things work. Like anything else it has its up and downs. It’s like a family. You don’t always get along with everyone in your family, but there is this intrinsic thing that keeps us together and I think for us it’s the music.”

I ask if the method of recording perhaps influences the musical result. “In LA we would just do it all at once. We’d take one month and write the record. This time we’d do a session in Ireland, tour, break up then go home back to our families. Then we’d do a tour, have a few weeks off go back to our family. We hired a new producer Ryan Hewitt who got a different sound, a different vibe. And it’s been a few years since our last record and I think you can hear it in the maturity of our playing and the way we communicate together musically. I think that’s on there.”

How did Ireland affect the band?

“The stories and the ideas are different. There’s a song on there called No More Patty’s Lament and it’s sort of like a reply to Drunken Lullabies from our 2002 album, which is about how we keep fighting each other, and beating each other, and killing each other. No More Patty’s Lament is about how there’s peace in Ireland now and prosperity and it’s a different place.”

Flogging Molly have a minor history of political commentary: in lyrics, through appearances at events like the Rock Against Bush project and on their website, which features links to political organisations and humanitarian campaigns. – œI think with the state of the world I don’t see how any person who has any size audience wouldn’t say something that they believe, or point to something they feel needs attention.” This band is clearly not one to stay quiet or sit still.

To finish our interview on a high note, I ask Casey to describe his ultimate gig. “The line-up is Flogging Molly, AC/DC and then The Rolling Stones, and we’re doing ten nights in a row at Madison Square Garden. There’s an audience of older people, younger people – who cares – there’s every kind of person you can imagine.” It’s a spirit that’s getting on, but is still good to share.

Flogging Molly are embarking on the Float national tour of Australia in April.

9 April – Nighttrain Entertainment Complex, Adelaide
10 April – The Corner Hotel, Melbourne
11 April – The Corner Hotel, Melbourne (second show)
12 April – The Forum, Sydney
13 April – The Tivoli, Brisbane