Metal Rage have had the unique chance to talk to two members of a living legend within the punk or even the rock scene in general: The Dropkick Murphys. Drummer Matt Kelly and Guitar Player Marc Ornell sat down with MetalRage reporter Napalm Lex, next to a smelly stable in Schijndel at the Paaspop backstage area to talk about Touring, horse shit and the forthcoming album, [b]Blackout[/b]. [b]How are you doing?[/b] [b]Marc[/b]: Fine except for the fact that this place smells like horseshit, haha. It's everywhere man. [b]Welcome to Holland, I would say.. Let�s start this interview. I know that your current tour hasn�t been going on too long, but how are the responses so far?[/b] [b]Matt[/b]: Yeah, this will be our fourth gig on the tour, it�s a short one but we are looking forward to it. [b]You started off in Europe, right?[/b] [b]Matt[/b]:: We started in Dublin, which was phenomenal. Then we went off to England to play The Mean Fiddler in London. We also did a gig in a really old church in Colchester, known from the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty.. It was really cool, a lot of history there. Now we are here in Holland and we�ll be doing the rest of the tour in Europe, about another week. The Astoria was really cool to play by the way, because it is a well-known place. [b]So playing festivals such as this. I get the feeling it�s not your bag, since I�ve seen you play a couple of festivals last summer, and I got the idea that you missed the contact with the audience, am I right?[/b] [b]Matt[/b]: Yes! I think you�re right. Because normally on tour we play clubs that have no barricade, and if there is one it�s close to the stage so you can climb on stage if you come see us, or give the microphone to a kid or something like that.. [b]Marc[/b]: It�s more intimate in a club, for sure. But the festivals are kinda cool because more people can come to see you, you know? It�s important to do, for people to hear your name and music. [b]You also play Hardcore and Punk festivals, what do you enjoy the most? The tight scene hardcore festivals or the mixed festivals like this with techno music, pop music and everything?[/b] [b]Matt[/b]: Well it�s a double-edged story, because if you only play the one-scene festivals you�re only going to get so big. And that�s okay for some bands I think. But to us this is also great, the crowd�s always going crazy, but on the other hand you can�t get close to the fans and make it the all for one, one for all party we are usually like to have. So there are pros and cons. [b]Marc[/b]: It�s cool, because this kind of festival with boybands (Kane �red) you get a wide variety in your audience with different kinds of people, you know. We like playing for the hardcore kids too.. But it�s either way. [b]Matt[/b]: And it�s always good for record sales.. [b]Is it also a bummer you can�t invite people on stage during festivals?[/b] [b]Matt[/b]: Hopefully can invite kids on stage tonight. It makes it more fun for us. Maybe some bands think of themselves as larger than life or something, but we�re just assholes who like playing music. And the same as the people out there. Too bad not every band thinks like that. [b]Let�s talk about Blackout, the new album. What do you think of the result?[/b] [b]Matt[/b]: The cover�s pretty sweet, haha [b]Marc[/b]: We�re happy with it. We wouldn�t put something out if we though it was shit. But yeah, I�m pretty psyched about it. [b]Matt[/b]: I think it�s not as much traditional stuff as Sing Loud Sing Proud, our last album. It�s more straight up punk. The folk is still in there in a couple of songs, but it�s more Punk, Rock N Roll stuff. [b]A bit of a change back, then?[/b] [b]Matt[/b]: Yeah it�s more or less a step back to the older sound. [b]A conscious choice?[/b] [b]Matt[/b]: It�s what came out when we wrote the music. [b]Marc[/b]: We felt like writing punk.. [b]Did you spend a lot of time writing and recording Blackout?[/b] [b]Matt[/b]: We took a bit of time off since the last tour, besides doing a couple of festivals here and there we didn�t do any steady touring or anything so that gave us about a years time. When we were at home we were in the practice space every day. [b]Marc[/b]: It was a little rickety at first, because we had been playing together for so long not writing anything. But after a while we got more comfortable with it and we really got started with things. It all came pretty natural. [b]Matt[/b]: We�re pretty happy with it. By the time we are in the studio we�ve got most of the album written, except for one or half a song maybe. We recorded nineteen songs for Blackout and put fourteen or fifteen on the record. That�s how we do it, we have a big amount of songs and pick out what flows the best. We always have kind of an idea of what we want it to sound like, it�s all planning we don�t just head for the studio and start recording. [b]Will you be playing a lot of new stuff tonight?[/b] [b]Matt[/b]: We only have an hour to play that�s a little less than we normally play. But I think we�ll be playing four or five new songs of the new record. [b]Marc[/b]: Yeah you gotta keep the old stuff the kids know I think.. [b]So the last European tour did you get time to experience some of the culture or was it more just hanging backstage?[/b] [b]Matt[/b]: Well we have a lot of friends in Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany which we get to hang out with, that�s always nice. I went into Brussels and Bruges with my Girlfriend. I enjoyed Paris and London. Cool cities. But even just walking around a festival and watching people can be fun. The crazy longhairs at some of these festivals, that look like they�re from twenty years ago with the leather pants the boots and real pirate shirts. It�s fucking sweet haha. We enjoy doing that. [b]Marc[/b]: We actually got a �Box Test�. That�s really sweet. What we do, is take an empty box and place it in the middle of the festival ground at a place where there are not too many people. Then we just sit back and just watch. You see the drunk dudes going �FUCK YEAH IT�S A BOX�, kicking it and shit, haha. We just sit and watch how long they go on and entertain themselves with a box, hahaha. [b]Matt[/b]: Yeah it�s nice to see how much fun a box can bring to drunk music fans. [b]Marc[/b]: Metal heads love the box, man, hahaha. [b]Matt[/b]: You are having a great afternoon, you are entertaining them.. You make everybody happy, it�s a win-win situation. haha. [b]A great idea for all our festival visiting readers, I�m sure. I�ve seen you perform a couple of times, and it�s the same atmosphere every time. Everybody goes totally ape shit during your concerts; do you have an own definition of why your style is so popular?[/b] [b]Matt[/b]: People are stupid I guess haha. I don�t know really. Maybe it�s because our set has different styles of songs in it that creates different moods I think. It�s a wide variety of styles that you play for a wide variety of people. [b]Marc[/b]: We�re a party band, everybody loves to party. [b]Is there going to be a time that you want to add a new ingredient to your music?[/b] [b]Matt[/b]: I think that since the beginning we�ve always had an open mind as to what styles we play. In the old days we played the Boston Hardcore style songs, later we did kinda folky songs, Oi! stuff. Kind of a variety of punk and rock styles. I think we�re expanding on that, it will be more of all of that, not just adding one or two things. We won�t be doing Rap songs or anything. We�re not interested in going along with the trends, fuck trends. A trend�s a trend. They�re there for a year and then disappear. Why not set the trends instead? Just play our version of Rock N Roll. [b]Do you have any plans in the short future, any split CD�s coming up or anything?[/b] [b]Matt[/b]: Not really. There�s going to be a limited edition 10inch with a couple of songs of the new album, it�s not going to be big or anything. About five hundred copies, in the States only. More of a promotional disc. [b]And concerning touring?[/b] [b]Matt[/b]: We�ll be doing a big tour in the states, and we�ll be coming back to do more festivals in August (Lowlands?? �red). After that there�s going to be more touring through clubs in the US and Europe for Blackout, after that Japan, Australia, New Zealand.. Hopefully South America, who knows. [b]Touring is the big thing for you because you really are a live band I think?[/b] [b]Matt[/b]: Yeah it�s hard to capture I guess but yes, in the studio you just play and try make it sound alright. But it�s when you see us live you get the whole package. [b]Marc[/b]: That�s why we released a live album. Because you just have to experience the atmosphere during one of our shows. [b]A live album is always nice but actually being there is the best, seeing skinheads hand in hand with metal heads, singing your music as one.[/b] [b]Matt[/b]: I agree, and it�s very cool that we can create that special atmosphere. It�s an honor to see people out there enjoying your music, it�s an even bigger honor to come to another country and see that people know your music, and going crazy for you. Fuck man, I grew up poor in a shitty little town you know and here we are. [b]Surrounded by the smell of horse shit in Holland..[/b] [b]Matt[/b]: hahaha yeah you�re right not much has changed [b]Final question: Now that you are such a success, is there still something you want to achieve?[/b] [b]Marc[/b]: We�ve already achieved it I think. [b]Matt[/b]: Yeah, but more touring is always great. I�d like to get to South America, maybe play more in Eastern Europe, South Africa, who knows. Malaysia, maybe China.. Places I�d never been able to see if it wasn�t for the Murphys. This band has shown us the world. But we�ve pretty much achieved what we wanted so far, we�ll just be going on with what we are doing and enjoy ourselves. (and sarcastic: ) spread the insanity, hehe.