Dave King

Looking at the red-haired, freckle-faced kid on the front cover of Flogging Molly’s ‘Whiskey on a Sunday’, it’s hard to imagine him growing up into a long-haired heavy metal singer or leader of a traditional Irish/punk band. But that’s exactly what he did.

Dave King grew up in a working class home in Dublin. From an early age, he was continually exposed to music, from the traditional songs favored by his family to the music he heard on the TV and radio, and the few albums he could lay his hands on. Dave’s interests ran from the train track rhythms of Johnny Cash to the sounds of The Clash and David Bowie. In his restless teens, he grew to love groups like Thin Lizzy and eventually Dave scored a gig as vocalist with British heavy metal band Fastway. The group was his springboard to success, and allowed him to live out fantasies of playing Madison Square Garden. But all that glitters is not gold, and King became disillusioned with Fastway’s direction. He quit the band, relocated to America and reemerged with the short-lived Katmandu. As the 1990’s began, Dave King was back at the bottom of the musical food chain, performing acoustic sets at the very same Los Angeles clubs he was being paid to clean. But his change of circumstances forced Dave into some serious introspection, and it was there that he discovered a newfound determination and the songs that ultimately, as King says, “saved my life.” Slowly, Dave gathered around him the members of the band that would become the most rewarding of his career – emotionally, creatively and commercially. That band is Flogging Molly.

Taking a cue from great Irish band The Pogues, Flogging Molly combines its divergent influences into a hearty Irish brew - a pint of bitter, shared with a friend who knows where you’re coming from, because he’s been there too. Flogging Molly’s everyman ethos is rooted in singer/songwriter Dave King’s upbringing in Dublin, Ireland; the band’s music a spirited fusion of classic country, traditional Irish folk and punk rock attitude.

Todd Seely of The Fuze was able to sit down and talk with Dave King recently. Flogging Molly was co-headlining one of a few late summer festival shows, before launching into a North American tour of clubs and universities in the Fall. Dave was keen to talk about the new DVD, the band as a live act and overcoming his fear of returning to play Ireland after years away from home. Grab a pint and read on. The first round’s on me….

It’s kinda funny how all this got started, when I first contacted your publicist about doing the interview. I had gone to see Gary Moore over in the UK - something I’d wanted to do for a long time - and I came back, and I was talking to a friend of mine about it. Somehow the subject of Gary’s ‘Emerald Isles’ DVD came up. After mentioning the live footage where you joined Gary onstage, my friend says “Well, you know Dave King is now singing with Flogging Molly.” That was news to me. So I reconnected with your music only a few months ago, initiated contact and it all just kind of worked itself out from there.

Cool. I haven’t seen Gary in a long time.

No?

No.

Not to knock Fastway and the style of music you were doing back then, but Flogging Molly’s music seems much more alive.

Well, you know I was very, very young in Fastway, and I’ve never really been into any particular brand of music. I just liked music in general, and I was listening to, like, the Sex Pistols at the same time. Every kind of different music I would listen to, you know what I mean? And it just came about that I left Fastway for all the right reasons. You know, we did a soundtrack for a movie (‘Trick or Treat’) in Hollywood, and I didn’t agree with it. And they said “Well, we’re going to do it.” I said “Well ok, if you do it, I’m gonna have to leave the band. This is not what I want to do.” I don’t want to write songs especially, not for -- I want to be able to stand up and say onstage proud to sing what I write that, you know what I mean? I felt like I was losing my control over that. Flogging Molly is just a real thing, you know what I mean? It’s sort of like an epic story of a man who has to leave home, you know, and doesn’t realize how much home means to him until he leaves it. It’s a lot about life. It’s a celebration, you know.

‘Whiskey on a Sunday’ is your most recent release, and it’s a 10 year retrospective DVD/CD. I am reminded that the band’s original calling card was a live album, and it seems like the stage is really where you are most at home. So, why do a documentary instead of a concert film?

Umm, because I didn’t plan it. Doing the DVD wasn’t my idea. I’m a music man. But then the opportunity came up that this film guy Jim Dziura was gonna follow us around. It was very subtly done, in a way. I mean, you knew he was there sometimes. A lot of times, you didn’t.

Like a fly on the wall.

Yeah. And I think, personally, it was good for me, as well, to see other people in the band being interviewed and seeing how they felt about certain things. I just think it’s a very interesting concept. There’s seven people in the band. That’s a lot of people. I mean, I remember when I was a kid listening to music. I would long to know a little bit more about David Bowie or Marc Bolan or people like that, and it just interested me to see that, you know what I mean?

Yeah.

And it’s the honest-to-God truth as well. It’s one of those things where, for me personally, there’s a lot of (pauses, thinking) -- on my birthday, actually, last December, myself and Bridget (Regan, fiddle) brought my mother to my father’s grave. She hadn’t been there since he died. So that’s what I wanted to do for my birthday. I thought “You know what? A lot of the songs are about my father, and I’d like people who have bought Flogging Molly albums to maybe see where a lot of that source is from.” You know, see the actual -- I know it’s a gravestone, but that’s where it comes from. I think a lot of it stems from not having a father for all those years, and writing about loss. And for people to see where that loss comes from - visually as well as emotionally. I thought I wanted to do that. And I’ve never wanted to do anything like that before.

So you think it helps people to make that visual connection with the music?

Yeah. I mean, it was a big day for me. It was a great day. My mother had a great time. It was pretty sad as well, but that’s life, you know what I mean? That’s what this band is all about. It’s about life…about celebrating the good and the bad.

One of my favorite moments on the DVD is a revelation that a lot of your influence comes from Johnny Cash. That boom-chicka-boom-chicka-boom And when I went back and listened, a lot of those songs do have the feel of a song like “Wreck of the Old ‘97”…

Yeah.

…which is a great, driving song. I hear a lot of that in your music now. Do you have any desire to cover any of Johnny’s songs?

No, not really. We do sometimes.

You throw one in the set sometimes?

Yeah. I mean, now and then George (Schwindt, drummer) will start playing, and we’ll just start playing a Johnny Cash song. Umm, yeah, Johnny Cash, to me, is the original. To me, he’s everything, you know. It comes again from my father. Two albums my father bought me when I was a kid was ‘Folsom Prison’ and an album called ‘Dubliners: Live at the Gate Theatre’, an Irish pub band. Both albums are live. So, there’s something going on there, looking back after all those years of separation. I’m now in a band that is predominantly a live band. We make our living on the road. We travel all the time, and it’s funny that the first two albums I ever heard were live albums. Speaking of which - Thin Lizzy ‘Live and Dangerous’! Live albums are great inspirations for me.

I want to go back to Fastway, who we mentioned a few minutes ago. They’ve just come out with a remastered version of Fastway's ‘Waiting for the Roar’, by the way.

Yeah?

When you left the band, and maybe even after your stint with Katmandu, did you think “Well, now what? That may have been my one shot.”

No. No, I didn’t. There was always something digging in the back of my mind. I wasn’t doing something right - and that was the ‘X factor’. I mean, I was not doing it for all the right reasons. And that’s the only reason you should do it. I was wrapped up in a situation where I -- ‘cause you’re young, you try to please people, you know? And I wasn’t pleasing myself. So, after Katmandu, I said “Fuck this. That’s it. I’m goin’ to pick up my acoustic guitar, no matter how badly I play it, and I’m gonna write songs for me, and me only.”

Do you ever miss playing that style of music?

No. No, ‘cause I can go to a Karaoke bar every now and then and scream my head off (laughs).

That’s true (laughs). Did you evolve naturally from the hard rock style you were known for into your solo songwriting, or did you decide “I’m gonna make a clean break from it and start anew”?

Well, when I started writin’ songs for myself, there were some really, really good songs. Did I have much direction? I’m not too sure about that, you know? And I think the catalyst for me was 12 years ago. I met Bridget. I was doing a show at Molly Malone’s, and she came up to me and said “I play fiddle.” And I had a violin player in the band. The way she said that to me was “I play fiddle.” She didn’t say “I play violin.” I said “You play fiddle?” She goes “Yeah.” So the next day - I think it was the next day - I went over to her apartment and sat down and she started playing. I was like “A-ha!” And what it did to me was it almost brought everything that I dreamt as a child right into my face. And it came to me. Now this is in hindsight, I’m saying this. Looking back on it, it‘s like “You know what? I physically can’t go back home right now. Maybe I should go back home musically and take what I’ve learned being away from home just see what happens. And I think if I wasn’t in Fastway or if I wasn’t in Katmandu or any other band that I was in, it wouldn’t sound like this.

What were your solo shows like before you brought the band together?

I was in the coffee shops, you know, little pubs and stuff like that.

Acoustic, maybe you with one other person?

Yeah, maybe just me on my own. It was very terrifying because it was completely the opposite of what I was doing in Fastway and all that, you know.

Nathen (Maxwell, bass) and Matt (Hensley, accordion), I believe, are the two of the group that have played for the least amount of time. What was it like watching them not only find themselves as musicians, but find themselves within the context of the group?

Well, Matt is one of those people that, everything he does, he does to full capability. He’s unbelievable. He’s got such a way of dealing with his life and the way he does things is really off the sleeve, you know what I mean? Whether it be skateboarding, whether it be tennis, whether it be – anything. Playing the accordion. He fuckin’ plays with every ounce of energy that he has. And even before I heard him play the accordion, I asked him if he wanted to be in the band. Because I could tell. I can just tell that his heart was in the right place. And Nathan’s the same. Nathen was just a kid. I mean, he was 17 or something like that. It was like you could tell he had the passion. They had the energy, and it’s been great in that sense, you know, watching the whole thing blossom.

When you record an album, do you do it as a band, or do you do it piece meal?

No, we do it as a band. We rehearse for a few weeks, then we all go into the studio and try to knock ‘em out as quick as possible.

Tell me about the acoustic songs on ‘Whiskey on a Sunday’. “Laura” had only previously been available on the live album, and then you redid some other songs from ‘Drunken Lullabies’ and ‘Within a Mile of Home’. Why redo those songs instead of using the opportunity to do some new material?

Well, the opportunity came about to record in the studio acoustically. The studio was too small for anything else, so we literally just sat down and people were like, “Well let’s try this one.” We’d usually just start playing them at different speeds, different tempos, different arrangements, and they all just fell into place. I think I could have done lots of new material, but to me, I’m so passionate about what I write. I just don’t want to throw anything out there. I’m very private about the finished product. ‘Cause I’ve done, I think, so many years of stuff that I wasn’t happy with, you know. Everything that I do from this band, Flogging Molly, I want to be able to, when I’m 80 years of age, sit down and go “You know what? I’m proud of everything that this band did.” We don’t take ourselves too seriously. We’re just a rock and roll band, but at the same time, we know what we have is very special to us, and it’s not a throw away thing. I mean, I’m not prepared to like say “Ok guys, I’ve got this song. It could be great, but I don’t know.” Until I feel it, until I’ve worked through the kinks in it and the energy in it, I really don’t. Like, even at the moment, I’m telling the band a few of the songs that I have written for the next album. And they go “When you are gonna get them out and play them for us?” I’m like “Eh...it’ll come, it’ll come.”, you know. I just have to be very…they are the things that saved my life. And I just want to give back to them what they give to me.

People have really embraced the things you sing about.

It’s life, you know. It’s the good and the bad.

It seems like Flogging Molly is a young band with an old soul.

Yeah, that’s a great way of putting it. A great way of puttin’ it.

That’s what it comes across. And I get a retro vibe from the imagery that you guys use for the album covers, and the photos on the website. How much thought goes into the image that you put out as a band?

Honestly, what you see is what you get. I mean, the only thing that a lot is put into is the music. We write about everyday life and it’s like goin’ out for a beer on a Friday night after doin’ a week’s work. You put the ol’ suit on as well, go out and have a few pints…you know, that’s basically what we do. Dressin’ for going out and having a good time and have a few beers with your mates. That’s it.

You’ve basically just described the photo inside the ‘Swagger’ album, with all of you sittin’ around the table at a pub.

Yeah. I mean, for seven people who didn’t know each other before they were in a band together, we’re very, very close. Very protective of each other. I think it shows on stage. I mean, it’s not an act. None of it is an act. It’s just the real deal. That’s what’s been very -- that’s when you know you’re doin’ -- I mean, the whole thing with this band is the minute the seven of us started playing for the first time, right? “It was the Worst Day Since Yesterday”. I’ll never forget it. That’s not a fast song. It’s a slow song. The energy in the room was electric. The static was bouncing off the walls. I’ve never felt it before in my life. And ever since then, it’s been like that. Something bad might happen, as things do. And then something good happens, too. There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes, I suppose, be it managers, record company, you know, all that. But from the band’s point of view, you know we belong to each other. We belong together, and that’s all that we do.

People will know this next man’s work whether they realize it or not - how did Shepard Fairy become involved with the artwork for the new Flogging Molly DVD?

Well, there you go. I was in Ireland at the time. I got a phone call to say that Shepard Fairy was involved in it, and we were like “Holy Mother!” He knew Matt from skatin’ days, you know.

Oh, he already knew Matt?

Yeah, they knew each other. And he was a fan of the band, apparently. And so, there again it was a simple thing that just came about.

When I realized that he was the guy that did the art for the Andre the Giant ‘Obey’ sticker campaign, I began thinking about ‘Obey Molly’ - little shamrocks everywhere. Bus stops, light posts…

All over Melrose or in Hollywood.

Yeah.

On bus stops everywhere, yeah.

How funny. Well, you guys have been hugely popular on the Warp Tours, which are great for exposure. And I noticed a lot of the tour dates you have set up in the summer are for festivals. Do you really like the intimate shows, or do you like reaching more people at once?

Well, variety is the spice of life, you know. It’s like last time we were playing in San Diego, we were playing this club of about 2,000 people, and tonight we’re a little bit different. You know, I think for a band that tours as much as we do, it’s good that it changes all the time. Like, we’re gonna go to Europe in a couple of days and start all the festivals over there. We do all those and they we come back to America do a few club shows. So, I mean, it’s like there’s a lot of variety in what we do, and I think it’s important.

I didn’t see any Irish dates.

No. No, that’s something now that definitely is gonna have to happen. I mean, I’ve gotten so many people emailing from Ireland, goin’ “Well, why don’t you play here?” But it’s hard for a band with so many people, ‘cause it would mean we’d have to bring the bus over from England and do all that shit. The thing is, because I couldn’t go back to Ireland ‘cause of the Green Card thing, I lost a lot of ground there. But I live there now.

You split time between here and there?

Yeah, yeah. And, myself and Bridget spend a lot time there, so I’m meeting a lot of my old friends over there who now work for MCD and all these production companies. In fact, they’re trying to get a tour together right now. So, yeah, I’d love to - it’d be 360 degrees, wouldn’t it? It would bring the story home.

I was wondering if maybe you got a lot of feedback on the website or from fans that wrote in that were giving you shit for only going home in song.

Uh, yeah. It’s also terrifying, too. The first show we did in Dublin was in Whelans, and I’ll never forget it. It came to me on stage that it was an unbelievable show. The crowd was goin’ ape shit, and I was like it dawned on me - if anybody knew what I was talking about, it was these people. It was my home people. And I just didn’t realize that. I was afraid of what they might think of what I did. And I’m not like that with anybody else. I don’t give a fuck, you know.

But the people there have been to those places and experienced those things, so yeah they’re able to relate on an even more personal level.

So, you know, I’m gonna have to go. I gotta get into my suit.

I’ve got one thing to wrap up with. What is your drink of choice?

Guinness.

Any close seconds?

No. There’s a pub down the road from where I live, and they’ve got one of the best pints of Guinness I’ve ever had in my life.

Cheers, Dave.

Thanks very much for the interview. It was a pleasure.

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