Flogging Molly plays 2013’s Soundwave Festival here in Australia. They were a band at the very top of my list once the line-up came out. We caught up with Nathen late last week. This is a band to put on your ‘must see’ lists!
Mark: Hi, Nathen, how are you? Where are you calling from, I know you guys live all over the US?
Nathen: I good thanks, I’m currently in Columbus, Ohio, where Flogging Molly is playing a concert. We were in LA last week, but I have been living in Denver for the past six years, Dave and Richard live between Detroit, where Bridget is from, and Ireland where Dave is from.
Mark: Does that make things logistically difficult for you?
Nathen: Well, we have a good travel agent! We only really rehearse once a year to get ready for a tour, and then we get together to write and record records, so it’s not really necessary for us to live in the same town.
Mark: It looks like you are about to start, a pretty extensive tour of the States.
Nathen: Yes, we’ll all go to Detroit a couple of days early, and get the act together and pull a few old songs out of the hat, and work on some new ones before that tour, and then in the middle of that tour we head on down to Australia.
Mark: The big news for us is that you are coming over to play the Soundwave festival. There is one thing I wanted to clear up, which is a bit of an anomaly, it says on all the local publicity that you are playing all the dates for Soundwave, but, I can’t see the Perth date up on your website.
Nathen: As far as I know we are doing all Soundwave dates, I might be wrong, but I am just stoked we are doing a festival in Australia, and if there is anything extra, that will be fun too! It’s been several years since we have been down there, our last tour of Australia was just fantastic! I am actually shocked that we haven’t been back there sooner.
Mark: Yeah, you have a lot of fans here and people talking about you being on the bill on the forums, so there’s a lot of expectation. One thing that has always stood out for me about Flogging Molly, especiallywehen you look at musically similar bands like say The Pogues, maybe The Dropkick Murphy’s’ is that Flogging Molly has that point of difference where the lyrical content is very relevant to a lot of people. Your last album, was about a lot of the changes that have gone on in America, since the economic system collapsed, is that something you consciously see as part of your mission or part of your sound?
Nathen: Yeah, we all come from working class backgrounds, and when we were writing “Speed of Darkness” most of us were living in the US, and being Americans you couldn’t help being affected by the state of the local economies, and the state of the world, it was all around us. For many of us, our family members were affected negatively, I don’t want to speak for Dave, who wrote all the words on that record, but I know personally that we have always been proud of our working class roots and we communicate that as clearly as we can.
Mark: Yes, I think it really struck a chord with a lot of people, especially over here. How was the show with ZZ Top recently?
Nathen: That was a blast!! It was great to support a legendary band like ZZ Top; it was a different crowd, not a Flogging Molly crowd, so it was a challenge, we love playing for new people! We just did our thing and did our job at the end of the day, and had a good time.
Mark: You seem to be at your best as a band live, you have three live albums, and one of the best DVD’s I’ve seen over the last few years “Whisky in the Morning”, which is a must see for anyone out there. Do you think the band is more comfortable in a live setting?
Nathen: Yeah, we do love recording, any opportunity for us to get together and create is fantastic, but, the nature and the soul of Flogging Molly, is performing live. We didn’t form in a studio; we formed in a bar, where we used to play every Monday night! That’s just the nature of what we do, back in the old days we would get up on stage and play a concert and then walk over to the nearest bar, get out our instruments and play again! That’s what it has always been about for us, the experience and the connection to people.
Mark: Tell us the story about how you joined the band, as I have always liked that story!
Nathen: Well, I was a young, punk rock musician, looking for the real deal, and to be part of something I could believe in, I wasn’t looking to be part of an Irish, punk outfit. My father pointed me in the right direction, and said you have to check out this bass player, Jeff Peters, who’s playing in this great band. I was seventeen years old and had to sneak in the back door, watched them play, and got to know Dave, the singer, and he said, hey, I believe you play the bass guitar, what do you think of the band? I said, I thought you were great, and he said, do you want to be in the band? I said, absolutely, I’d better start practising more! It was a very special feeling, as they were my favourite band in LA at the time, and all of a sudden I was asked to join them.
Mark: That is every young musicians dream, and here you are still playing with them today. Was that at the Molly Malones venue or somewhere else?
Nathen: Yeah, that was at Molly Malones. That was where the name came from. After I was asked to join the group, the original band had put together a live recording, so when the band regrouped there would be something to help promote the band. I was actually there helping, and my father got the microphone behind the green door and we rebuilt the band from there, so I felt like I was there from the beginning. That was in 1996, and the band officially claims to have formed in 1997.
Mark: So, you were there right at the start.
Mark: As far as new material is concerned, how far away are we from a new release?
Nathen: We are actually in the process of putting together a new release now, and then I think next year, after Australia, I think the band is going to take some time off to create a new album. Who knows, the creative process, is what it is, we never rush to put out a new record. I know how Dave works, and how we all work, on the road, there’s not a lot of writing going on, so we do need time off to be creative.
Mark: That’s great, looking forward to it. Does Dave talk about his previous bands, Fastway and Kathmandu?
Nathen: Yes, over the years, I’ve heard many stories!
Mark: I have the Kathmandu album, and I’ve loved Dave’s vocals on that over the years! If you could have been a fly on the wall, for any recording, of any album, at any point in time, what would it have been and why?
Nathen: Oh, God, I would love to have been part of the first international Bob Marley and The Wailers record, “Catch a Fire”, that they recorded out of Jamaica, I would have loved to have been around that atmosphere. From what I have read, it was before they became international superstars, just the intensity of what I can imagine that would have been in those recording sessions, I would have loved to be around.
Mark: Yes, it would have been amazing. I spoke to Ziggy Marley, a couple of months ago, when they released the new DVD, and that was his answer as well!
Nathen: Did he really! That makes me very happy!
Mark: My final question, which we also ask everyone, is what is the meaning of life?
Nathen: What is the meaning of life? Brotherly love!
Mark: That is a great answer. Strangely enough that is, pretty much the same answer, as Ziggy as well!
Nathen: The next time you speak to him, tell him he has a soul mate, in Flogging Molly, and that we should hang out!!
Mark: Thank you very much, It’s been great to talk to you, and looking forward to seeing you here in Australia.
