Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Soaring Down Under: An Interview with TIM BRENNAN of DROPKICK MURPHYS

Transcript

Soaring Down Under: An Interview with TIM BRENNAN of DROPKICK MURPHYS · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey everyone, this is Tim Brennan from the Dropkick Murphy's.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Wonderful great to have you.
• 0:05
  Speaker 3: The drop Kick Murphy's will be touring Australia very soon
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: with the Alkaline Trio. Are you guys excited about that
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: long ass flight that you have to take?
• 0:13
  Speaker 4: Yes? Super excited the long flight.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: That's that's honestly what I'm looking forward to the most
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: playing shows.
• 0:21
  Speaker 4: Who cares? You know what I mean?
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: What I love to do is sit on a plane
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: for more than a day.
• 0:32
  Speaker 4: It's my favorite thing to do.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: I'm six and a half feet tall, and I would
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: say five feet of those are legs, and so my
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: hips and my knees always feel great.
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: Yep.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: I love sitting in those tiny seats. They seem like
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: they try to put more and more of them on
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: the plane every time we get on one. Yeah, it's
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: going to be top notch. But I'll tell you all
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: joking aside, the flight is the worst. But at least
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: once we get off that plane, we're in such an
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: amazing place as Australia.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, thank you.
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: So you guys haven't been here and I think over
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: a decade, is that right?
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Twenty almost twenty eighteen we were there for I think
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: we I think we literally played like four.
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: Shows in twenty eighteen in Australia.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Oh wow, yeah, yeah, I remember that flight.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: I bet you do. Always fun.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: We're clearly excited to have you back here because some
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: of your shows are already sold out and you guys
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: have added some more shows as well, I believe.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's going to be a couple of cities where
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: we're playing two nights in the same place, which is lovely.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah awesome.
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: And what made you guys choose our client trio as
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: you're support acts.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Actually, the last time that we did anything with Alkaline
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Trio was in Australia.
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: I think it was the No Sleep Till Festival.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: So we weren't like an Alkaline Trio Dropkicks tour, but
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: we were on one of those Australian tours where you know,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: we're traveling with everyone every day, and so getting to
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: see them and just hang with those guys was a pleasure.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: And it's been a while since we've crossed paths with them,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: so it's going to be super exciting to get to
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: see them every night and hang with those guys.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah awesome.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: And you yourself, did you grow up listening to traditional
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: Irish music from a young age or was that something
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: you got into yourself as you're older.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was always around. My parents weren't big music listeners.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: They listened, they had you know, like they listened to
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: the same thing that everyone's parents listened to at the time,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: you know, like Springsteen and Billy Joel and stuff.
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: But my parents aren't.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: My family isn't from like a musical background per se,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: but traditional Irish music was on a lot. My mom
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: always loved it, and then my grandparents were big into
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: traditional Irish music.
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: For whatever reason, I took to it.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: I always liked it as a kid, and then when
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: I got older, when I became a teenager, I was
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: still into it enough that I started wanting to learn
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: how to play it, and so I started getting my
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: hands on some of the weirder Irish instruments like tin
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: whistle and stuff like that, and figuring that out when
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: I was like fourteen. And the thing that changed everything
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: was I had an English teacher in my high school
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: who introduced me to the Pogues and brought me my
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: first post cassette. And like it sounds like hyperbole, but
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: like it totally changed my life. I mean obviously, like
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: you know, the drop Kick Murphys wouldn't exist if it
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: weren't for the Pogues, obviously, and and it's what sort
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: of supercharged my interest in wanting to learn how to
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: play traditional Irish stuff, and so that, like, as far
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: as influence and everything, it can't be understated how important
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: the Pogues were to me. Yeah, and and then around
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: the same time, that same English teacher brought me the
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: first drop Kick Murphy's record, Do or Die and was like,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: I know you like punk stuff and you like Irish music.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: I think you might like these guys, and so yeah,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: so that same teacher who turned me onto the Pogues
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: also gave me my first drop Kick Murphy's album.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: What an awesome English tea.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Poper awesome correctly, And I stay in touch and he
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: comes and sees us when we're in his town and stuff,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: so it's great.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: Nice, Oh that's so lovely.
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: And yeah, again he sounds like an awesome English teacher.
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: I wish my English teachers were like that. That also
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: answers part of my next question, because did you start
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: off playing the drums when you were younger getting into
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: music and then you've transitioned obviously into playing like the banjo,
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: tinpipe and all that.
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, that happened.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, drums is my first thing. I still play
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: the drums very often. All the bands that I was
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: in growing up, I always played the drums, and I
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: think for whatever reason, I just kind of took to
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: like sitting down with different instruments and being able to
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: get my head around them. So it started with the drums,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: and then you know, my brother had a guitar, so
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: I sort of started fiddling around with that, and and
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: that's always just kind of how I've been for whatever reason,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: and just sort of pick up a new thing every
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: once in a while and and and see if I
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: can get anything out of it. But yeah, so I
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: guess it was just an overall interest in learning how
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: to play a variety of different instruments.
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: That that got me there. I suppose.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: Awesome.
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: And how did you also get your start in the
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: Dropkick murphies? What you I read I think somewhere that
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: you were working on a walk tour doing Yeah.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So when I was when I was a
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: kid in bands playing drums, I was from Connecticut and
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: then my band would play shows with this this other
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: band from Massachusetts all the time, and in that band
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: there was this guy named Markarel. He and I were
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: both like fifteen at the time, and we were both
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: young guys in bands with older, older guys, and so
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: he and I hit it off and started hanging out
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: when we would play shows together. And then when he
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: was seventeen, he ended up joining the Dropkicks as the
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: lead guitar.
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: Player, and so he and I.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: A couple of years after that, he and I reconnected
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: and started getting together and playing music, and he sort
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: of he realized that I could I could play accordion
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: and tin whistle and a couple other things, and at
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: the time, the Dropkicks were lurking looking to sort of
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: expand the sound a little bit.
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: And so I was going to school.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: At the time, and I remember he came and picked
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: me up after school one day. We were going to
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: hang out, and he said that he had told the
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: guys in the band about me and that that it
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: was pop that maybe I would get to go and.
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: Do something with them. So they called and they asked me.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: They were about to go on the Warp Tour in
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: two thousand and three, so they called and asked me
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: if I wanted to come out and sell merch and
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: then also play. So basically I would I would sell
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: merch all day and then when the band, when Drop Kicks, played,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: I would run over the stage and play a song
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: or two on accordion or tin whistle or whatever, and
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: then I would run back to the merch tent and
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: sell shirts the rest of the day.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: My god, that was Was that amazing for you? Like,
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: was that a were you all struck or was it
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: just like.
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, No, it was great.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: I mean I was twenty years old, and you know,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: I had, like I said, I had always played in bands,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: but never done any real touring. You know, we would
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: go to we would go to sort of nearby state
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: to play shows and everything. But that was the first
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: time I got to like go on the road, and
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: so yeah, I was. I was super excited about it.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: And then yeah, and it was I mean it was
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: a three month outdoor summer tour, so it was it
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: was tough, but you know, I, like I said, I
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: was twenty, so I was very resilient at the time,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: and I had a great time. And then ultimately that
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: led me to joining the band full time.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: So Yeah, great, awesome, that's so cool.
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: And can you tell us anything about the set list
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: that you guys have planned for the Australian tour.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: Will it be newer stuff, older stuff.
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: All sorts?
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, all sorts of stuff. I actually just came from
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: rehearsal before this we put out you know, I mean,
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: technically we've put out three records since the last time
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: we were in Australia, as far as Turn Up that
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Dial in twenty twenty, and then we did the two
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Woody Guthrie albums, so we've got we've got a handful
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: of new songs to play, and then on top of that,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: we're headed into the studio shortly after we finished this
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Australian tour to do a new album.
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: So we've got stuff.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: From the very first things we ever did up until
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Turn Up that Dial, which we didn't get to do.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: We haven't gotten to do any of those songs in
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Australia yet, all the way to brand new stuff that
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: nobody's even heard yet.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: So that's so exciting.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: And what music do you yourself like to listen to
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: at the moment.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: It really does run the gamut to circle back to
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: the pogues there this was the time of year that
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: I was given that cassette tape back in the day.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: So always in like November December, I'm always heavily listening
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: to the Pogues just because it's got sort of a
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: nostalgia thing to it as well. But apart from that, oh,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: the new Nick Cave record I've been listening to so much,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: and then that of course made me go back and
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: listen to older Nick Cave stuff that I love that
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: I haven't gone into in a little bit. What else
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: I don't know. There's all all manner of things that
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: I'm listening to. That Nick Cave record is probably the most.
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: Recent thing that I've that I've been listening to a lot, though.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, awesome, God to love Nick Cave.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: All right, Tim, Well, thanks so much for your time.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: We can't wait to have you guys here. Is there
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: anything you'd like to say to your Australian fans before
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: we finish my pleasure?
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah? We we.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: I just you know, we're so looking forward to to
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: coming down and seeing everybody. We're going to be soaking
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: up the last bit of warmth that we can since
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: our our weather is turning to cold now as yours
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: is turning to hot. So we're just so happy to
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: be able to get back down there to play a
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: bunch of songs for everybody. Come out to the shows
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: and we're going to have a great time. And then
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: after that, keep your eyes and ears open for new
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: stuff on the horizon.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: Wonderful. We can't wait for it.
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: And make sure you pack like a lot of shorts
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: and shirts. It is really hot.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: I'm sweating, so what I've heard, I've been told to
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: pack all the shorts that I own, So all.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: The shorts and any thongs if you've got thongs.
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: Oh, plenty of those.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, wonderful.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Tim, of course, have a good day you too,