Flogging Molly–A Lollapalooza 2008 Interview
I spoke with Dennis Casey, guitar and vocals for the band Flogging Molly, this weekend at Lollapalooza in Chicago.
Doing media work at Lollapalooza is absolute insanity. You set up all these interviews ahead of time with different bands–and though you might have some concept of what these people look like from photos and even having possibly seen them live either earlier in the weekend or earlier in life in general, seeing them up close, in the flesh, is an entirely different animal. Not to mention that the air above Grant Park is so filled with electronic interference–phone calls don’t go through, text messages pop up on one’s phone twelve hours after they’ve been sent. So, you either choose to stay put in one advantageous spot in order to try to spot the people you’re scheduled to interview, or you wander around in a daze attempting the same.
I saw Dennis from afar, looking a little lost, but purposeful. Tall, lanky, dressed all in black but for a red cross on his shirt jacket, on a 90 degree, humid Chicago afternoon, bald head topped with a hat. Though I was intrigued by this guy, I really had no idea he was, in fact, the man for whom I’d been waiting to speak to about Flogging Molly. Then, improbably, a phone call came through from Flogging Molly’s press contact, telling me to look for a tall, lanky guy dressed in black, and bald. It was a bad connection, and I thought he said, “He’s Italian.” I’m from Chicago. I AM Italian. You tell me someone is Italian, and bald, and all I’m going to picture is a tubby guy in an untucked silk shirt and fantastic shoes, eating pasta and sipping chianti. I will not, under any circumstances, picture anyone who looks anything like Dennis.
But I, as usual, digress.
According to their bio on their official site,
“We’re not a traditional band,” explains Dublin born singer/songwriter, Dave King. “We are influenced by traditional music and inspired by it, and we put our own little twist on it.”
“If it didn’t have mandolin, accordion, fiddle and whistle, it would be punk rock, and if it didn’t have guitar, bass and drums, it would be traditional Irish music,” King admits, adding, “You can’t be bothered being labeled.”
Flogging Molly has been around since 1997, and has since held true to that refusal to be labeled with one particular sound description.
St. Patrick’s Tour, how did that come about?
Every year, we have to play somewhere on St. Patrick’s Day. Fans always want us in their city. We’d play in a different place every year, until we thought it’d be better just to make a tour of it. We do it every year now, we call it Green 17.
How do you choose where to play on the 17th?
It’s funny–it depends–the venue, the promoters–people think NY, Boston, Chicago, but there’s always other big bands playing in those cities then. Lately, we’ve been playing in Phoenix. That city has really taken to us–we get played on the radio all the time like any other big, huge band. It’s hard to play an outside venue on the east coast in March. Phoenix has a great outdoor facility. It’s such a big day, so many people want to come–you don’t want to play some small club. You want to have as much room for as many as possible.
What was it like playing Coachella this year?
It was an honor to do it. I’ll tell you, it was something else. You know, I had dreams my whole life–but I never imagined we’d ever be playing something like Coachella. It’s huge–it’s such an honor to play there.
When you’re playing festivals, do you check out other bands? What does that do for you?
Hell yeah! Europe does these all the time–we were over in Europe for two months. You’ll be backstage with System of a Down, Radiohead, it’s amazing. You go to the smaller stages, check out new bands…aside from the performance itself, that’s the best part.
Do you sense a difference in the audiences at festivals vs. club shows? How do you address that?
We don’t change anything. People are there to have a good time. Promoters will put us on–we’ve played first thing some times and there’s 30-40,000 people there going crazy. Our band gets people going–there’s something that really works between the band and the audience.
You’re based in LA but you’ve recorded in Ireland. What led you to decide to do that?
Nobody lives in LA anymore, actually. Dave, our singer, moved to Ireland–we write where Dave lives. We followed him there, wrote in a little garage in the Irish countryside–it was a fantastic experience. We recorded at this little studio called the Grouse Lodge–in the middle of nowhere, with this little pub attached to it.
Dave really spearheaded the whole thing.
What are you working on now? Float was just released in March, so I assume you’re touring.
Touring. That’s it.
I’ve read that you, as a band, don’t want to be labeled. What does that do for you? Are you freed in a way?
I never considered myself as an artist. That’s for like Da Vinci…
Labeling…it’s like asking someone what kind of person you are. Music is deeper than that. The lyrics and what they’re saying. If you label yourself, that’s what you are. Life changes you. Music is the same. To label is so limiting.
So, you’re at a smaller, more independent label then?
We’re with Side One. We started with them when they were first starting out–it was just two guys, Joe and Bill. We’ve grown together, we’ve built a relationship after 10 years. It’s a personal relationship–I can call up and I don’t have to go through some secretary or something–I just call them up–I have their cell phone numbers, their direct numbers . With major labels–there’s more pressure. We don’t have that. We do what we want. You trust each other–things are working, why change it? It’s perfect.
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Flogging Molly plays the kind of music that leads one to let loose–the passion with which they play, the passion they feel for their music, is evident, and it’s that kind of give-and-take between performers and audience–the feeding of one another–that makes them work so well, especially as a live band. Their energy and that of their audience is one of those pleasant and powerful vicious circles that are so rare.