Flogging Molly Bring Hope

In these troubled times, it's hard not to agree with Flogging Molly frontman Dave King when he says he hopes his band can help people forget the shit they're going through for a few minutes. King lovingly calls his band "a celebration of life" and hopes music can get us through the craziness of everyday life.

"Music has always been that way to me," says King, on the phone from a barber shop. "I hope that it's like that for everybody. I think it's the thing that carries us through times like this.

"I like singing songs about my dead father, but by Christ, he's dancing wherever he is right now. I would hope that what a band like Flogging Molly does is make people forget every now and then what we have to fucking deal with in life and, you know, just lift up your feet and have a good dance and a good sing-song."

There probably are a lot of people having a sing-song to a Flogging Molly tune now since last year's Float hit #4 on the U.S. sales chart. This was a first for the Celtic punk band, who've been together for more than 10 years.

Flogging Molly's sudden popularity may have something to do with their fan base, which spans generations. King says he's still surprised to see the variety of people who come to a show, but, at the same time, he says that's what music is to him.

"I don't really think it matters where you're from. Songs are songs. I only sing about what I know about, and that's just as much as the next guy. I just write and do the best I can.

"It was like that with my mother as well when I was a kid. I remember being a kid playing football on the street and my mother called me in to look at David Bowie on television.

"Music was never a barrier thing with me growing up. It was a thing that was encouraged, and I think that stayed with me."

King's Irish roots have definitely stayed with him. He moved to Ireland about three years ago with Flogging Molly fiddler Bridget Regan. Float was the first disc that the Irish-rooted band actually recorded in the country. King says Ireland's atmosphere really influenced much of what you hear on the album and what he wanted people to take from it.

"Lyrically, it was good for me to go back to a country that's so different from the country I grew up in. Like everywhere else, unfortunately, it's going through a pretty rough time right now. But in regards to the fact that we don't have a war going on over there right now, we finally have gotten our hearts and our brains and our arms around that. That was a wonderful thing.

"When I was singing songs like 'Requiem For A Dying Song' and 'The Lightning Storm' and 'Float,' it's all to do with that. There is hope. Although we find ourselves in situations that we probably shouldn't be in, there is hope. That's what Ireland gives me, is hope."

King won't talk about it yet, but he says Flogging Molly (completed by guitarist Dennis Casey, bassist Nathen Maxwell, accordionist Matt Hensley, drummer George Schwindt and mandolin/banjo player Bob Schmidt) have something up their sleeves for their next album.

In the meantime, you can catch Flogging Molly kicking up their feet during their annual Green 17 tour at these dates:

Feb. 15 New York, NY @ Hammerstein Ballroom
Feb. 16 Montreal, QC @ Metropolis
Feb. 17 Toronto, ON @ Sound Academy
Feb. 19 Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore
Feb. 20-21 Cleveland, OH @ House Of Blues
Feb. 23 St. Paul, MN @ Myth
Feb. 24 Kansas City, MO @ Uptown Theater
Feb. 25 St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
Feb. 27 Houston, TX @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Feb. 28 Austin, TX @ Stubb's Waller Creek Amphitheatre
Mar. 1-2 New Orleans, LA @ House Of Blues
Mar. 4 Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle
Mar. 5 Orlando, FL @ House Of Blues
Mar. 6 Pompano Beach, FL @ Pompano Beach Amphitheatre
Mar. 9 Richmond, VA @ The National
Mar. 10 Boston, MA @ House Of Blues
Mar. 11 Rochester, NY @ Walter Street Music Hall
Mar. 13 Atlantic City, NJ @ House Of Blues
Mar. 14 Washington, DC @ RFK Stadium parking lot (Shamrock Festival)