Dropkick Murphys | Interview

Story by Jacob Fricke 

| Published Mar 1, 2011

Don’t question Al Barr’s convictions.

After a long hiatus from touring and nearly four years between albums, the Dropkick Murphys’ front man is ready to return to the road and tell a story he helped create.

After hitting the national spotlight with 2005’s hit single ‘Shipping Up to Boston,’ the band released another album and quietly entered an unplanned hiatus.

This ends as the band’s new album, Going Out in Style, drops today. It recounts the tale of a man named Cornelius Larkin, an Irish immigrant, and his quest for acceptance in the United States.

Gruff but talkative, Al Barr tells of balancing family life with touring, the one song they’ll never be able to escape from, and being on first name terms with Bruce Springsteen.


Dailyer Nebraskan: In what genre of music does the band fit?

Al Barr: I’d say we were a punk band first, when we started. A four piece that incorporated Celtic influences, but that was more heard on the studio records than it was live. We didn’t really have people in the band that did that; we didn’t know people in the punk scene that played those instruments. We’ve progressed to a seven-piece band over the years, and we found people that played bagpipes, accordions, tin whistles, banjos, and all the circus instruments.

DerN: The band is soon releasing their 7th studio album, Going Out in Style. How do you maintain inspiration for seven albums?

AB: That was the challenge with this. We always draw inspiration from our daily lives, our families, our friends, and daily struggles. All kinds, myriads of things, give us inspiration. The challenge with the 7th studio record was ‘how do we make the record the same, but different?’ How do we capture the essence of the band, but not have it be the same old stuff? We have been called the Ramones of what we do, and I take that as a compliment. But with the 7th studio record we didn’t want to bore anybody.

We wrote the first track, Going Out in Style, and we discovered that we had a character that was sort of living in that song. We thought it would be cool to have him live through the album, and have a thread that connected through the record. We based a lot of the writing on that, and came up with the character Cornelius Larkin.

Then there was the recording process. We did a lot of layering with this record -- we worked with a producer for the first time in 10 years. His approach was to layer the music, so it’s our biggest-sounding record as well.

DerN: With seven band members, is it ever hard for everyone to agree on a song’s direction?

AB: There’s songs on this record that I don’t sing on. Ken [Casey], our bass player and leader of the band, sings. There are songs where there’s no bagpipe. In our set, there are always songs where we go back to just guitars, bass, drums, and vocals. We look at it as a game: you sit on the bench, and you can get called into the game.

DerN: How did the collaboration with Bruce Springsteen on the album come about?

AB: We met Bruce, or Mr. Springsteen, I should say, in 2007. He came out to one of our shows in New York City. His son Ryan got him into the band, and he name-checked us a couple times in interviews. We knew that he was into the band, and when we met him he came to a show and watched the whole set. I guess he had a really good time.

When he came to Boston the following year, he invited us all to his show and our lead guitar player proposed to his wife on stage. We were comfortable asking him to be on the record, but we never thought in a million years he would actually have the time to do it. The worst he could say was no, so we just asked him. He said yes, which was a welcome surprise.

DerN: Your last album was released in 2007. Why was there such a long gap between releases?

AB: With almost every record that we’ve done, there was about a two year gap between all the records. Up until [2007’s] The Meanest of Times, we did a lot of touring. We’ve been touring pretty much nonstop since the band started, and we’ve never taken a break from that. A few of the guys in the band have kids, pretty much everyone is married. Since the last album, we had a year and a half of touring cycles.

We just felt like we had put so much material out there, and we thought it was time to spend some time with our families. Time kinda flies. We never said, “hey, let’s take three years before we put another record out.” That was never our intention. Instead, it was like, “holy shit, we’ve got to get on it.” We’d all been writing on our own, and we got together, shut everything down, and hit just the right process. We started in August and went right through December.

DerN: Are you excited to get back to touring?

AB: Definitely. It’s a double-edged sword, because you’re away from your kids and family. That’s a drag, but to go and introduce the new record to fans is really exciting. We’re stoked.

DerN: Your St. Patrick’s Day Shows in Boston sold out immediately. How do you balance fan expectations?

AG: This year we’re doing 5 shows in Boston. It’s our 11th year doing St. Patty’s Day shows, and they do always sell out. It’s become a tradition with our fans. They travel from all over the country and some from all over the world. We’ve had people come from as far as Japan, Australia, Germany, and Belgium. People come from all over. It’s crazy.

We’re really lucky. Our music translates everywhere we go. We have a pretty rabid core fan base wherever we go, and we’re fortunate in that.

DerN: Are you tired of playing ‘Shipping Up to Boston?’

AB: It’s funny: I’m really tired of rehearsing that song. The thing with that song was, we wrote it, put it out, and later on it went on to all these other things. People just get so fired up for that one, it’ s hard not to get caught up in their excitement. When I’m on stage, and I think it’s the same for the rest of the guys, from the first chord to the last drum beat we’re in it to the end. We’re not going out there to give 50%. We’re giving 110% every night. I get the energy back from the fans, I don’t even think about it when I’m on stage.

The song has been in a major motion picture; it’s been in the Simpsons, it’s used in major sporting events. It’s been used in so much stuff. That song has legs; it will outlive us all. The funny thing is that we never imagined it would turn into what it has. We’re not a band that goes for ‘hits.’ We’re not looking to recreate that song, we just do what we do. The song has been an amazing thing that happened, and I think the mistake that bands make is trying to recreate that hit. They change everything about themselves, and they forget there’s a lot more that happens with a song than just playing music.

DerN: The band confused some people with the album’s title; some think this is your swan song. Is there any truth to this?

AB: No. We thought of that when we were thinking of the title. But if it gets people talking, that’s always better than if they’re not talking about you.

We’re going to be around for a while. We’ve got a new lease on life with this new record. And we’ll see you there.