Congratulations on the new album. I've been spinning the advanced copy on repeat; it’s got me hooked. I imagine with the themes of the album, For The People, it's not a coincidence that it’s coming out on July 4th - US Independence Day. You know, global release day is always on Friday and only lines up with the 4th of July about every seven years. So, tell me about how this all worked out, the development of it, and when the ideas started rolling in.

Before this album, the last two things we released were two acoustic records [2022’s This Machine Still Kills Fascists and 2023’s Okemah Rising] that utilize the lyrics of Woody Guthrie that we'd put music to. Even when we were doing that, or in the midst of doing that acoustic record, I think we knew that the next Dropkick record that came out was going to be louder and harder than any of the previous stuff. So that was always exciting to me. I'd already started writing music at that point and then just sort of kept on stockpiling things.

After we put out those Guthrie albums, when we finally got together to go into the studio and record, it was the middle of last winter or the beginning of last winter. And, you know, the political climate over the past couple of years has gotten fairly tense, to say the least, I suppose. Dropkick has always been a band speaking to the interests of blue collar people and working class people. That’s sort of something that's on the forefront of everyone's minds, with the current political climate. I think it would be difficult for Ken [Casey] not to have most of his lyrics centered around that.

There’s definitely a lot of questions being raised, politically speaking, about where the sort of common decency has gone. I think this is probably the most excited I've been about a Dropkick record coming out because musically speaking, there's a lot of way different stuff on this. So it's kind of over the last couple of years been in development.

When did you nail down the Fourth of July release date?

You know, that actually wasn't super long ago. I think we announced that we were putting the record out only a month before the street date, which is sort of out of the ordinary. Normally there's a good three months of run up to something like that.

I think a lot of us sort of dig the idea of--not that this is a surprise release because we announced it a month ahead of time--but like the way that people consume music these days and me being a massive music fan, I kind of dig the like “surprise release thing” or at at least the like, “We have a new album coming out” and it comes in way sooner than you expect it to. I really like that idea, but, yeah, I don't think July 4th is coincidental.

The themes are captured well in the video for the first single “Who’ll Stand With Us?”, which is tied in nicely with the artwork. You got the artwork done by Shepard Fairey, which is pretty incredible. I mean, probably the most iconic designer alive today, or certainly in the top five. What can you tell me about that?

When I heard about that, I couldn't believe it. I mean, obviously, the Andre the Giant OBEY, which started when he was a RISD student. He was going to Rhode Island School of Design at the time when that was first popping off. So there's the New England connection there. And then, of course, the Obama HOPE poster. So to have him even say anything, it's unbelievable. It’s incredible that he agreed to do that for us. I think it ties in well with just the whole sort of climate of things. And the message we're trying to get across with this album.

You've touched on the broader political themes of the album, but there's also the kind of personal tributes, which I like. The more comical tribute to Fletcher Dragge and then the closer, which is a bit of a tearjerker, “One Last Goodbye,” your tribute to Shane MacGowan. I guess it's been some time that has passed now, but tell me about your reaction to his death and any kind of reflections you might have on Shane MacGowan.

I got more texts when Shane passed away than I've ever gotten for any birthday or anytime I might have been congratulated [laughs]. So growing up, I got into the Pogues when I was like 14. I went to this high school where the teachers had either taught my dad and had been there for 50 years or they were fresh out of college at like 22. This English teacher showed up and he was like 22 or 23. I was not the best student in the world, and pretty introverted. But if you were to get me talking about things that I was into, like music, I would never shut up. He was kind of hip to the fact that I was into music and I played in bands and everything. So he and I started chatting and I was also super into traditional Irish music. He one day showed up with a dubbed cassette of the Pogues’ album If I Should Fall from Grace with God.I would walk around with a Walkman at school and that thing never left the Walkman. I became absolutely obsessed like right out of the gate.

Somewhere along the line, he actually brought in Do or Die, the first Dropkick’s album. He’s like, “I think you'll really like these guys too.” So the same English teacher introduced me to the Dropkick Murphys.

The Pogues dominated my musical life for the better part of 20 years. I know everything about them. I know everything about every fucking song they ever recorded. Like, just everything. Shane meant an awful lot to me. I had the opportunity to meet him a couple of times. We toured. We did a Christmas tour with the Pogues in 2005. My side band opened for the Pogues two nights in Boston back in 2007, maybe 2008, when they came through.

What band is that, by the way?

Me, James Lynch, the other guitar player, and our former guitar player, Marc Orrell had Gimme Danger. We were just like a sleazy rock and roll band and the Pogues had us open two Boston shows. So I thought about Shane MacGowan every day, all day, for a very long time.

When he passed away, you know, obviously it wasn't completely unexpected, but I was bummed, like everyone who was a fan. So getting to do that song [“One Last Goodbye”], I saw an opportunity to really try to try to get it right and pay a solid tribute to a guy that all of us in the band held in such high regard.

One sort of trivia point about that song: The outro of that song is a traditional piece, where we had our friends, The Scratch, sing in Irish on it. That's a song that me and my mom and my brother were obsessed with when I was a kid. That happened to be the song where at the end of Shane's funeral, as they brought his casket back down to go out the church and to the cemetery, that's the song that they played when they brought his casket down the aisle. So to have that as the outro to our tribute, I thought was a good little sort of easter egg. I could never say enough about that guy and what he did for me, musically speaking.

I appreciate that insight about the outro--that it’s in Irish--because I was listening to it last night. I was like, holding my computer up to my ears thinking, “Is there something wrong with me? I can't understand it.” [laughs]

It's funny. We're at rehearsal the other day where we're just blasting through all the new songs and Ken was like, “Now the question is, what do we do at the end of the Shane song?” Because if we're singing it, it's going to be like we've learned it phonetically. But we'll make it happen. Maybe a couple of us will go to night school and start learning how to speak Irish and then we can, we can really be authentic about it. [laughs]

So the plan, as of now, is you're going to go for it.

Yeah. When we're in the States, hopefully we can get our boys The Scratch out. I mean, we did like two years of touring with our friends, The Scratch. They are an amazing band from Ireland. I'm assuming we'll rope them in again and then make them come out and sing it every night.

You talked a little bit about your education and playing in bands pretty early on. How did you get on the path to becoming a multi-instrumentalist?

My brother and I, we don't come from a hyper-musical family. My parents listened to music very casually, sort of the way that any parent does, I guess, like listening to the radio and stuff. For whatever reason, my brother and I really took to music and I think on the same Christmas, we each got our first instruments. For whatever reason, we both sort of caught up fairly quickly. I started realizing that I really liked the process of bringing home something new and figuring out what to do with it. Because I was listening to so much Irish music and the Pogues at the time, when I was like 14 and 15, I started picking up things. You know, you could buy a tin whistle at a music store.

I was in a band with a kid who we practiced at his parents’ house, and I saw this box in the basement. I knew it was an accordion case. I knew that it hadn’t moved from where it was the whole time I had been coming to this kid’s house. Then one day I said, “Is it okay if I take that home?” and he said, “Yes,” and so that's how I learned how to play the accordion.

So just sitting there listening to Pogues records and trying to play along with stuff. It was basically through being exposed to different types of music that I started picking up different instruments here and there. And then that ended up being fortuitous and lucky for me because that's ultimately what got me to be asked to join the band.

You joined in 2004?

2003. I just hit 22 years because the first tour I ever did with the band started in the beginning of June, or maybe the second week of June.

Take me back 22 years to around the time you joined. Because my hindsight perception is Dropkick was on this kind of, like, linear growth trajectory, getting bigger every year until around that time. And then all of a sudden it was like, “Tessie” and “Shipping up to Boston” and The Departed and Jonathan Papelbon running in from the bullpen and then it was like exponential. Dropkick Murphys exploded. But I don't know if that's actually accurate. What did it feel like?

It felt so steady, to be honest. Like slow and steady. When I first started in the band, first thing I ever did was Warped Tour, and that was pretty cool. That sort of festival style. And then, you know, we were still playing pretty small clubs. Especially in retrospect, we were still playing pretty small clubs. But every time we would go through a town again, we would be in the next room or something, you know what I mean? Like it just sort of slowly started building and building.

And then when we started doing a lot of these bigger European festivals, we would get on Reading and Leeds or something. We would play at 2:30 in the afternoon. And then the next time we’re on it, [we’d play at] 4:30 in the afternoon, and it just sort of really slowly and steadily grew.

So at no point for any of us did it feel like a sudden bang of everybody knows who we are. Obviously the closest thing to that would be The Departed thing. But even with that, we're all such idiots that, you know, it didn't really occur to us what was happening.

Luckily, we're all sort of in the mindset that if we weren't on the stage playing the show, we would be the guys sweeping the fucking place up at the end of the night. At no point to feel like this sudden boom. But you know, it started. There's little points along the way I remember. I come from a giant Notre Dame football family. Notre Dame started playing “Shipping up to Boston” and then subsequently like “The Boys are Back” and my family went fucking nuts.

There were little moments like that where I was like, “Jesus…it’s catching on” and then it's not just a Boston thing anymore. But yeah, ultimately to answer your question, it felt very slow and steady, which I think is nothing but positive.

And am I correct that the first recording you did was, “Tessie”?

Yeah, that's right.

I'm just curious, there hasn't always been the perception that punk and any kinds of sports can go together. Occasionally you'll have a band like 10 Yard Fight or Slapshot or something, but that’s punk people who like sports, not sports people who like punk. I remember Me First and the Gimme Gimmes trying to play at PNC Park for a Pirates game and getting laughed out of the stadium or more like booed out of the stadium. So, was there the confidence that you could transcend that divide or was there ever any hesitation? Because it seems like Dropkick Murphys have been embraced wholesale in Boston sports.

You're right. You know, I've not really thought about that, that’s actually a good point. I think it never seemed super weird to us because although we're musicians, a lot of us also were sports guys. Ken and [drummer] Matt [Kelly] would die for the Bruins. And Ken is super into the Red Sox and everything. I grew up in a big college football and college basketball family. So I guess we never really questioned. There wasn't a sort of, you know…because it all stems back to like high school days where there's like the jocks and then there were theater kids. But we never really felt that sort of separation, I don't think because we were a bunch of guys who played music, but we're into sports as well. It never felt weird to us. But then again, I never thought about what it might feel like for other people. But it didn’t feel like too big of a swing for us. I mean, before Ken was known around Boston as the singer for the Dropkick Murphys, he was known as the guy that used to make his own hockey fight VHS tapes.

Did not know that. That's quite the notoriety.

Yeah, yeah. That's how he got his foot in the door.

The original art form. [laughs]

Yeah, exactly. [laughs] Sometimes when we play in Boston, we’ll play some of them on the screen.

Do you by chance know Darius Koski from Swingin’ Utters and Filthy Thieving Bastards?

Not personally, but we've done shows with them. Ken and James and Matt and all those guys, when the band was originally starting, it was pretty much to play Swingin’ Utters covers.

I was just curious because I think he plays a lot of the same instruments as you.

He does, yeah.

I talked with him many years back about how he incorporates that into touring and he was like, “Well, I basically don't. I just bring my guitar.” So what about for you? Do you bring your whole arsenal on tour or are you selective or what's your approach to it?

No, I mean, I suppose it depends. I have the advantage that I have to play up to half the set on accordion. So I'm always sort of up to speed on that. Then we have a whole, as you said, sort of arsenal of other things that have to be played on stage that are always around. So I'm absolutely fiddling with those weird things. I don't know that there's anything crazy that I leave behind because luckily I'm in a band where like, you know, a lot of that stuff is needed. I'm fortunate enough that I'm always surrounded by these weird fucking instruments, so I can kind of stay up to speed on them.

Gotcha. You've got the upcoming US tour with Bad Religion starting later this month. How did that come about?

Initially, we were going to do a tour with Flogging Molly and then Dave from Flogging Molly had some health issues, so they had to drop out. Luckily Bad Religion was at the ready to step in. We did a tour with them of Canada, like 20 years ago now so we're super excited to be able to do it again.

What's the extent of the tour schedule?

You know, that's a good question. I'm not big on looking at it ahead of time. I think it's kind of like a fairly cross-country thing. We make our way out to California, but we're starting around the Northeast and everything. So I think we're running all over.

Right on. My math might be a little off, but is next year the 30th anniversary of Dropkick?

That's right.

Anything special planned?

We've got some stuff in the works. Nothing that we can talk about yet. But yeah, we've certainly got some things coming down the pipeline for the 30th anniversary. We have to. What fucking band’s been around for 30 years?

And playing a lot more than once a year or something like that.

Yeah, not in separate dressing rooms and everything.

I guess Bad Religion is a good model for how to do it right.

Yeah, obviously. I mean, they've been around so much longer. But obviously I was slightly joking when I said who's been around for 30 years. There's plenty of bands that are out there. But what shitty punk band from Quincy's been around that long?

Here’s a hypothetical scenario: If you could pluck one band from like the local Boston scene, or Quincy, out to Worcester or wherever and take them out on the road, who would you like to showcase?

That's a good question. There's a lot of good bands. Boston's always good for a lot of good bands. It's hard to say. There's one of our greatest friends, he comes out and he'll sell merch for us sometimes, his name is Sal. He has this band called Rebuilder. You remember the Get Up Kids, obviously--they're very, like, early 2000s Get Up Kids-sounding and undeniably catchy and fun. They're a great local band that we see up there everyone once in a while. It’d be great to play shows with them.

Tthere's a lot. We have a great friend, Cody Nilsen, who has an amazing sort of, I hesitate to call it alt-country, but that sort of leaning. He opened the show for us at St. Patrick's Day this year. He and I actually did a record together, I produced a record for him. It's not come out yet, but hopefully it will at some point in the near future because it’s phenomenal. I'll certainly let people know when that's coming out.

So last question, you went to [the Roman Catholic] Assumption University, you did a stint at Assumption, is that right?

Yep.

Thoughts on an American Pope? Is this a good thing? Is it just more American imperialism? Is it good to have someone like this outside of government to represent Americans? What do you think?

I don't know. It's hard to say. I mean, truthfully, I kind of tuned out after I realized that this wasn’t like one of the “Da Bears” Guys. I was really hoping when I heard “Chicago Pope,” I was really, really hoping for a [in a thick Chicago accent] nice Midwestern, you know, progressive kind of Pope guy, there. So once I realized that he wasn't George Wendt with a mustache and glasses, I kind of tuned out, to be honest. But, you know, I don't know, who's to say.

Alright, appreciate that. Appreciate your time, and again, phenomenal work on the record, and hope it’s a wonderful tour, as well.

Absolutely, thank you.