The band has gone through a lot of changes through the years, parting ways with several band members and taking on a bunch of new ones. What keeps the strong bond you seem to have with eachother?
When you tour together as much as we do you get close to people they become your family. Sometimes even familys have disagreements but you always remain close.

So the new album, Blackout, should be out within the next year I hear, what can we expect from the new material?
Blackout will be out June 10th, It's really good . It's more punk rock than the last album but not less Celtic. What I mean by that is there are a lot of fast punk songs that have the pipes or whistle and what not.

I read that you were producing the Street Dogs debut album. Whats it like working with Mike again? Can you give any further detail on that project?
I havent started working on it yet cause we are still finishing our record but its good straight ahead punk, rock and roll stuff. Mike quit smoking and his voice has gotten a bit higher which is interesting he still sounds the same but I think anytime a singer quits smoking there voice is bound to get a little srtonger.

I also read that you guys were supposed to be featured on the new Atticus comp. How did you get involved in that Side One Dummy project?
Wev'e known Joe Sib who owns Side One Dummy for a long time and he just asked us basically, we put a song from the new album the song is called "Fields of Athenry"

How do you go about picking the bands to open up for your annual St Patrick's Day Weekend Celebration?
We just try to get bands we know and like we havent played much in the past year so being able to hook up these bands with the show was long over due.

Rumors are flying around and supposed confirmations have been made… are you guys definitley confirmed for the entire Warped Tour?
Yes we are definatley doing the entire warp tour

Fans are obviously a huge part of the Dropkick Murphys and the amount of fans you have is a growing number, and you certainly seem to love giving back to your fans. What are your feelings about your fans and the people that are dedicated to supporting the Dropkick Murphys and punk rock in general?
They make it happen just listen to the live record. It gives me chills , the crowd is the best thing on that record. We have the best people in the world supporting us

To keep it short I will ask one last question… its a tough one though…
The state of punk rock has come to a startling climax with bands like New Found Glory, Sum 41, Good Charlotte, Simple Plan and so on and so forth. What is your take on the sudden rise in the popularity of punk?
I'm clueless, we just try to prove that ugly, non produced bands can also have success , maybe not sell millions of records but still have fans and tour and have a good time. Whats with that bass player for New Found Glory he's too Fat and Ugly to be in a big band