This Thursday, LA band Flogging Molly plays the Sound Academy. The septet has been around for a while — since 1997 to be precise — and is beloved in Europe and North America alike for their energetic traditional Irish infused punk (think accordion and violin meet electric guitar). Earlier this year, the Celtic punk rockers released their fifth studio album, Speed of Darkness. With the financial crisis as a backdrop, the band spent three years crafting their sonic two-cents. Bob Schmidt, Flogging Molly’s mandolin and banjo player, talks about church (kind of), changing record labels, and upsetting “Newfies.”
The Varsity: Speed Of Darkness has been out for a few months now. How do you feel about it at this point?
Bob Schmidt: I hadn’t really had a chance to listen to it much since we put it out. But the other day, I finally got to really listen to it and I’m very happy with the record. I think it’s one of our better works.
TV: How has it been received by your fans?
BS: The reception was really good. It’s been hard to gauge what it’s been like in America because we put it out in May and then spent the entire summer in Europe. But in Europe it’s been great. As far as the fans go, everybody that we have played for and that we’ve been talking to after the shows seemed to like it quite a bit.
TV: The album was written in Detroit and recorded in an old church in Northern Carolina. I would imagine that an old church setting could have quite an impact. Did the setting influence the sound of the album in any way?
BS: The setting had more of an energetic impact. This album was a lot about community and sticking with each other, helping each other through rough times, bringing our voices together and making ourselves heard above the media, spelling things out a certain way that may or may not be, reflecting on whatever your reality is. And so, we recorded it in a church, where, for thirty or forty years, people congregated, talked about their problems, and prayed together. This really infused the album with this sense of community, and [the church setting] helped a lot that way.
TV: What made you decide to release this album on your own label, Borstal Beats?
BS: We had a great relationship with SideOneDummy. But the thing is, when you do a record with a label, they own the masters to your recordings. We felt that, even after you get your advance, all your hard work is still owned by somebody else. Founding our own label was mostly just about being able to create things and keep them for ourselves: basically, to have complete control over the physical and the musical aspects of our band. We saved money for a long time to be able to afford putting the album together without taking an advance. You know, it’s just kind of a natural progression.
TV: You wrote the album during the peak of the financial crisis, when, overall, it seemed like the world was crumbling a little bit.
BS: Definitely. It’s still going on; it still feels like the world is crumbling.
TV: In that respect, what is the main thing you’d like people to take away from Speed Of Darkness?
BS: I think the main idea is hope, you know? Things have been worse than this before, and they’ll be worse than this in the future. There’s war and failing economies, there’s all this stuff going on that is really very modern, but the core thing is that we still have each other and we can still work together to change things. You can’t rely on the governments or anybody else to solve the problems of the world — it’s up to us to do it together. And that’s the hope. It’s all we have to do: stand together, make a decision and move forward.
TV: You have been together for well over a decade. Have the band dynamics and creative proces changed at all?
BS: I think when we first got together, Dave had all the songs; we all got together and learned them. They were solely his ideas. Over the years, it’s become much more of a collaborative way of writing songs. He still brings in the core stuff, but with time it has become much more of a band effort to bring the music together. And with time, band dynamics change and touring changes, you know? We all have families, we got married and have kids, and that definitely changed [things].
TV: But you still like going on tour, right?
BS: Yeah, absolutely.
TV: You’re just at the beginning of your North American tour.
BS: Yeah, we spent just a weekend in the States, and then we headed out to Newfoundland. This is the first time we’re able to do a true coast-to-coast Canadian tour. We tried to do one a couple of years ago, but we didn’t go to Newfoundland because we just couldn’t figure out how to get there at all. When we didn’t go to Newfoundland last time, the Newfies got really upset. You don’t want to upset the Newfies.
TV: Is there anything specific to the Toronto crowd?
BS: I would say one thing that we’ve learned playing all over the world is kids and music fans are the same, wherever you go. Everybody wants the same [thing]; everybody wants to have a good time, jumping around and forgetting whatever life problems they have for a while. There’s really not much of a difference between crowds from place to place.
TV: What’s coming next for the band? New album or a break?
BS: We’ll go to Europe in November and after that we’re doing the Green 17 Tour. Yeah, everybody’s been working hard all year, so we’re looking forward to a little holiday time with our wives and kids.
