Flogging Molly

As I sat in the gallows of The Opera House waiting for my interview to start with Flogging Molly’s Bob Schmidt I couldn’t help but be a little bit nervous. I tried to relax myself by listening to the Street Dogs playing 15 feet above my head, but I just couldn’t believe that I was about to have a conversation with easily one of my favorite bands of all time. Two seconds into the interview I quickly realized I had absolutely nothing to be nervous about because the member’s that make up the band are truly as sweet as their sound.

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Lanny: Well allow me to start off with the most generic Tim Horton’s Coffee drinking, maple syrup sucking Canadian question. Is it cold enough for you?

Bob: It’s plenty cold! Ya! I live in Boulder Colorado. It gets cold there, but it doesn’t get this cold.

Lanny: Oh I thought you were from sunny California.

Bob: I grew up in LA, and I was born there, but my wife is going to school in Boulder, and I moved out there for her, and then, I found it beautiful there, so I stayed.

Lanny: Well now that the weather is out of the way, could you start by introducing yourself, and telling us what you are doing here in Toronto.

Bob: I’m Bob from Flogging Molly, I play mandolin and banjo, and we are playing The Opera House tonight for our annual Green 17 Tour.

Lanny: Could you give us a little background about the tour, and what it is all about?

Bob: This is our third year of doing this tour, and it’s just pretty much an excuse to extend St. Patrick’s Day out to a month. Just be able to have a good time with everybody in more than one city, in more than one night.

Lanny: Considering the style of music you play, the green 17 tours, is tradition a big part of what Flogging Molly is about?

Bob: Umm, yes and no. I think it is the root of where we are, but I think like everybody else we are trying to take tradition, and bring it to our own place. We bring traditional music into the modern era; you know bring the traditions and update them. Like I said we are rooted in it, and it is definitely important to us, but at the same time I don’t like to think we are chained down by tradition.

Lanny: You guys were supposed to be booked in the studio in January, did that happen?

Bob: No we actually went to Ireland, and we were writing. We spent three weeks in a little town called Black water Village, where Dave and Bridgette have a house, and we just kind of hatched out and wrote some new stuff. We will probably get into the studio late summer.

Lanny: Why Ireland? To influence the writing process?

Bob: Like I said Dave and Bridgette just got a house out there, and we were just trying to, you know, get away; and it is just easier for Dave to write close to his home. It didn’t interrupt his flow too much.

Lanny: Will you use the same producer Ted Hutt on the new album?

Bob: Ughh, I am not sure? I don’t think we have ruled it out. We just want to keep pushing the sound forward, and finding that balance between our first album and our last album. You know find that half raw, half precise felling.

Lanny: Will you be playing any new material on this tour?

Bob: Yes, we are playing three new songs every night.

Lanny: And how has the reaction been to these new songs?

Bob: It’s been good. People seem to really like it. I get complemented every night on them, so it’s feeling really good. It felt really good when we started playing them over in Ireland, and it’s nice to let them out, and start to breathe a little bit.

Lanny: Where has the most meaningful feedback come from about how a Flogging Molly song has touched someone’s soul?

Bob: That’s hard to say. We get so many people coming up to us, and said they have gone through a bad time. Whether their son died, their dad died, or their nephew died. We get letters from overseas, and have said the only thing that kept them alive in Iraq was our songs. That they just would have given up. I mean I feel lucky that we’ve been able to have an influence on people that way in a personal light. We get a lot of stories about that stuff, and it really means a lot to us, that we are able to do something that people can take to a really personal level.

Lanny: Do you find feedback is always important to an artist?

Bob: Ya ya, absolutely. Negative feedback is a good thing to get too. It helps you focus on what’s important in music. When people have gone through really crappy stuff, and they tell you your music helped them through it, it is a real meaningful thing to have happen.

Lanny: In the documentary the band released last year, what really touched me was how Dave singled out each of the band members, and genuinely praised the tremendous qualities of each of you as people, not musicians. Is that camaraderie what makes Flogging Molly stand out from other bands?

Bob: I think it’s a big part of it. I think it’s also what’s kept us together all these years, and definitely it’s what brings that fire to the performance. When you are up there with a group of people that you love, performing music that you believe in, well it makes it much easier to just let it rip, you know.

Lanny: Did the recent departure of Matt Hensley have a negative impact on the Flogging Molly machine?

Bob: Yeah. Matt is like a brother to me. This tour has been a hard adjustment trying to, you know aggh, besides just not having him on stage, I have never done this without him, and that end of it is hard. Also like every day we would all hang out together, and play cards at night, and do all sorts of stuff together, and not having him here is definitely been a difficult adjustment. I miss the shit out of him, but you know.

Lanny: I guess it’s tough when you are on stage looking over to the spot where he usually stood?

Bob: Yes I miss him up there. We got PJ out, who has been a friend of the band for a long time, and he’s got some big shoes to fill, and he’s trying and he’s doing a great job, but you know Matt’s the man. Like there is only one Matt Hensley before and after Flogging Molly.

Lanny: It’s got to be hard for PJ to come in and try to get into that performance dynamic, because you guys are so tight live.

Bob: He’s struggling with it, but he is keeping his head above water, so he’s doing good.

Lanny: Can you explain the element that Flogging Molly possesses that can allow you to play a show with a crusty punk band like the Casualties, and then go record a track with a country/folk artist like Lucinda Williams?

Bob: I think it’s the thing that started us off which is that I don’t think there is any limitations musically that we want, or are able to do. We have a good group of musicians, and because there are so many of us our influences are from all over the place. You know a crusty punk band like the Casualties makes it seem as though it’s only because they play fast and hard which makes them punk. Punk is so much more of a spiritual thing than a musical thing that you know a Casualties crowd will connect with us because we are legitimate at what we do. We are not trying to fucking flash haircuts, or say we are one thing and try to be; you know we just try to walk our talk. And it just doesn’t matter what kind of music you play. You can play across the boarder. A Casualties crowd could be just as eager to see Johnny Cash play country music. If you have got the balls to walk your talk you can live your life that way, and play your music that way I think it’s going to transcend.

Lanny: Is there any influential artist that comes to mind that you would one day be honored to write/record with?

Bob: Ya there are a shit load of them. I mean I would love to work with Bowie, Elvis Costello, Willie Nelson, umm Tom Waits, like there is a shit load of people out there that would blow my mind to work with.

Lanny: I guess we could sit here all night and list off amazing artists.

Bob: Ya exactly the list just goes on.

Lanny: Actually I have never really tried to get into much Elvis Costello, but I want to, I just don’t know where to begin. Could you recommend me a good album to start out with?

Bob: I think Blood and Chocolate is a great album. A good balance of his introspective stuff.

Lanny: He is on my list of musicians that I know I should have checked out by now, but still haven’t, you know.

Bob: A little mind expansion right.

Lanny: Watching the documentary the band released last year, it is blatantly obvious that music is your life’s work. Do you see a day where you may want to side step, and become more involved in production after this rock and roll life has beaten you to shit?

Bob: Ya, I would absolutely integrate it. I could continue doing this for the rest of my life, because I love traveling and playing live music. Everybody in this band does. If we wanted to be a studio band I would have gone to GIT, or Berkeley. But I would love to be able to help other bands find what their sound is, and be able to get that out the way. Other people have helped us realize what our vision is. I would love to be able to do that, and hopefully be able to keep this up at the same time.

Lanny: I have read recently that some members of Flogging Molly have been performing with solo artist Chuck Ragan. Where you involved?

Bob: I was. We did a tour with Bedouin Soundclash, and Jay the singer got strept throat, and his doctor said if you don’t stop singing you are going to die. So he had to take two weeks off, and get some medicine in him, so they had to bow out of the tour. Our management was on the phone with the label scrambling to find guys to come out with us. We were talking to Jesse Malin, Madcap, and the Briggs, all these bands that were just about able to do it, but it would have screwed their whole year. So then Chuck had just kind of been writing songs around home, and doing little shows, and we called him, and he had two weeks worth of work to do on a house, and he did it all with his wife in one day, just killed it. They then flew out the next day, and spent two weeks with us, and at the end of his set we got up and did a song or two with him. Just because it felt right, he asked us to do it, and we all could hear it going down. From that it just kind of grew. We did a benefit show a while ago with him. It was just George, Nathan, Matt, myself, and Chuck. He is just one of those guys that you would do anything for. There isn’t a more honest songwriter than that guy. He is just a stand up guy, and it was an honor to work with him.

Lanny: Will any more material come out of those performances, or was it just a one-time thing?

Bob: He has an album that he is going to release sometime in late spring or early summer. Just because of scheduling we weren’t able to get out there, but it could still happen. Nathan put down a couple of bass lines on it, and if I am able to get out there before it is done, I would really like to put some stuff down on it. But if it doesn’t happen I think he has a lot more in him, and anything I can do to help him out, I’d love to.

Lanny: He has such a strong voice; it just commands your attention.

Bob: He flew me out the demos for it when we were working on the benefit thing in LA. It’s just him walking up to the mic, and it’s just him and his guitar belting it out and it’s just a beautiful sound the same way Seeger, Guthrie, and all these guys and Springsteen and all those guys with just a mic and a guitar, and that’s all you need, Johnny Cash and this huge lineage of great song writer’s and singers, and he has definitely got that vibe.

Lanny: We all have heard about what a grind the Warped tour is for most bands. What is your mind set a week before you leave. Do you go crazy trying to take care of all your everyday human responsibilities? Post dated rent cheques, feed the fish, that kind of shit.

Bob: I think that way it’s the same as every other tour. You do that every time you go out on the road. In our band we are lucky we got good women at home who handle that stuff. In my household my wife definitely manages that kind of stuff. I couldn’t do it without her. But mostly what you are doing is buying things you only need on the Warped Tour like handy wipes, solar showers, and flip flops, blankets, travel chairs, that kind of crap, barbeques, and whatever else it takes to make the tour a bit more bearable.

Lanny: So basically just anything you would bring to the lake.

Bob: Exactly! It’s not unlike going on vacation with your family; it’s just sleeping bags and random camping crap.

Lanny: I have to ask what is a solar shower?

Bob: It’s like a bag with a clear window on one side and black plastic on the other, and you fill it with water and hang it in the 113 degree Phoenix sun all day, and it heats up so you get a hot shower, because a lot of time with Warped Tour showers, well let’s just say you would get a better shower in prison.

Lanny: Let’s say you could only bring 3 items on the warped tour with you, what would you bring?

Bob: Uuummm, you definitely need some kind of sport like a skateboard, or maybe if you can swing bringing a scooter, I think a towel is a must, and then I guess I would have to bring my mandolin.

Lanny: Absolutely, you have to have your tools right?

Bob: Exactly!

Lanny: All right, last question. You’re in a distinguished established band with a cult following, playing to audiences that come close to worshiping you. What is left in music that you have yet to achieve?

Bob: Like you were saying earlier there are still a lot of people that I would like to work with, and I still think there are a lot of kids out there who still haven’t heard of Flogging Molly, and a lot of adults who have never heard of us. The beautiful thing that I feel about this band as well as being able to play to a lot of divererse different crowds is also that we can play to kids and their grandparents, and they both get it. Sometimes it’s the grandparents kicking their grandkids onto it, and sometimes it’s the kids kicking their grandparents onto it. Being able to make that spread of three generations of a family connect over something, especially these days when it seems like people don’t connect to anything anymore. When we can bring families together like that, and give them something in common, and they are talking about it, and going to shows together, you know it’s a privilege to be able to do that. So I think there are a lot more families that we can bring together.

Lanny: Well I think that is the most honest, humble, and positive ambition I have ever heard from a musician.

Bob: We are lucky bastards. I don’t know what else to say.