Flogging Molly is a band that has built their success without the help of mainstream media, radio or MTV.  Despite not having the “marketing push” that other bands get, Flogging Molly has embraced the DIY ethos and garnered a rabid fanbase through non-stop touring and maintaining an unparalleled work ethic.

By taking traditional Celtic music and blending it with abrasive punk rock, Flogging Molly generates a sound that is both unique and descriptive of their Irish roots.  The band has come a long way from the days of an in your face record like Drunkin’ Lullabies and will release their latest installment entitled Float in early March.  While Flogging Molly has 11 years under their belts together, Float is the band’s best example of maturity both lyrically and musically.  The record is a rollercoaster ride maintaining much of the high-energy punk rock, but also blends melancholy emotion into the mix, making Float the band’s best work to date. 

Flogging Molly, rounded out by singer Dave King, Bridget Regan on fiddle and tin whistle, Dennis Casey on electric guitar, accordion player Matt Hensley, bassist Nathen Maxwell, mandolin player Bob Schmidt and George Schwindt on drums, spans a 20 year age spectrum within the band, but it has not and will not slow them down.

We recently caught up with accordion player Matt Hensley who told us about what keeps Flogging Molly moving forward and how excited he is about Float.    

Popular Underground Magazine: You guys are on the Green 17 Tour right now, which is in its fourth year.  Tell me a little bit about that.

Matt Hensley: We just decided why don’t we do our own tour?  Kind of go around the country and build our own thing, like slowly build a tour so that it gives us an opportunity to bring other bands out that we like and it’s not just Flogging Molly.  It starts to live a life of its own.  We own the fucking rights to it and everything else.  When we first did it, we were going to do it with Guinness, but Guinness has since then dropped out, but that was the plan.

PUM: Flogging Molly hasn’t hugely been embraced by the mainstream, but you do have a pretty huge following.  What would you attribute that to?

Hensley: A combination of a lot of different things.  One, we have a really hectic tour schedule; we’re always on the road.  I think our music stands out, our lyrics stand out and at the end of the day we’re all genuine fucking people.  We’re not rockstars, more like working class guys playing music.  I think what we sing about and what we’re about and how we handle ourselves as a band combines to [the fact] that we’re real.  It’s not just a load of crap.  I think that the sincerity is self evident so I think people are attracted to that.  I am [attracted to it] when I see someone who’s honest and I can get behind them.

PUM: Let’s talk about the new album Float, which comes out March 4.  Tell me a little bit about what went into it from your standpoint. 

Hensley: We recorded it in Ireland, which is probably the biggest thing about that record.  The reason we did is because our last records have always been recorded in big cities; Chicago for two of them, L.A. for one of them and I used to live in Chicago, the band as a whole has a lot of friends in Chicago, so we have a lot of distractions.  When you go ahead and record a song or two and then go out on the town and it’s five in the morning and you’re loaded somewhere and you’re trying to record the record the next day, whatever.  There’s just a lot of distractions because you’re very easily accessible.  So we got out into the middle of no where in the middle of Ireland and all got together and we lived it and breathed it, ate it and drank it.  All you did all day long was think purely about the music.  It’s probably one of the best recording experiences I ever had.  You’re just so focused.  Music is very slowing, it’s emotional and if you’re in an emotional state, it’ll sound better or it’ll sound rougher if you’re in a good one or a bad one.  We were all in a really good place.  We had our own little pub at the studio.  You could work all day, play music and then play more music at the pub and pour yourself a pint when you wanted. 

PUM: The record definitely has a different feel to it from song to song.  Some are up tempo and some are more melancholy type songs.  How did you guys make it a cohesive fit in the end?

Hensely: It just kind of is.  There’s a lot of songs that we wrote and little ideas that didn’t make and you’re never going to hear, but the ones that you heard finally made it to the cut that we felt were strong enough.  As a band, Dave is the leader and he write all the lyrics, he brings it all to us and we mash it all together and a song will come out of it.  I’m proud of this record.  I think it’s our best record to date by a long shot.  Playing music and recording music are entirely two different kinds of things.  I think the band as a whole is becoming better at the art of actually recording our sound.  We’re a live band.  Our sound is live.  For us, our best spot is live on stage.  It’s hard for us to record this kind of energy we give out when we’re playing live and put it on a record and make it translate.  That’s not to say our records are shit, but I think we’re more of a live band.  This record out of all the records I believe comes closest. 

PUM: Obviously, there are a lot of different elements to Flogging Molly as far as instruments, layers, etc.  Is it pretty much a natural fit at this point; getting everything to come together instrumentally?

Hensely: Not really man.  You’d be surprised.  It all falls off pretty easily.  We’ve been playing with each other so long that I almost kind of know what the mandolin player is going to do, the fiddle player knows what I’m going to do; we all kind of have a sense of how it’s going to go.  Like on this record, me and Bob, the mandolin player, would specifically work out spots that would make the most sense at the time with the instrumentation, including Bridget also, you know, all the “ins,” the accordions, mandolins, violins.  All of the ins got to get coordinated because there is so much to use there, why not give it the most.  Like have parts that stick from another.  In the old days we’d all just crank the fucking riff, all of us, all at the same time, everything we had so it was just like a mush [or] a wall of sound.

PUM: Do you have a favorite song on Float and why?

Hensley: “Float” for sure.  I just love that song.  It’s a slow melancholy one.  It’s not a fucking rocker or anything, but even though it’s not, I think it moves you.  Every time we play it, it moves me.  The words are very simple.  I don’t know.  Something about that song just really moves me.  It’s a good time and it’s a good time to play.

PUM: What do you hope to achieve with Float?

Hensely: We came to the table going, “Okay, we’ve got to write a record.”  We’ve had our fair share of, “we’re this or we’re that or we’re not a good enough band;” all these different things.  It was really important to us to write a record that could hopefully stand the test of time.  You’re right, we’ve had no real record success.  The mainstream pretty much ignores us and even though we can definitely compete, we’re right there with the bands that do get that kind of love.  I don’t know if that’s good or bad.  I don’t want to make it in that sense and then have everything we’ve worked for disintegrate because we’re a bigger band and somehow we’ll lose what we stand for to begin with.  I’d rather we stay right where we are right now and not lose that hardcore love. 

PUM: That’s a pretty humble statement.

Hensely: But at the same time, I’ve also learned my lesson.  When I first got into this, we just wanted to play as hard as we could.  Almost anti-successful and I’m also not that way either.  I’m not going to be afraid of success.  There’s a lot of people when you do become successful, some people are happy for you and some people are kind of sad for you.  They say how you sold out because you’re successful and I’m not having any of it.  I used to hear people talk that kind of shit about Green Day or Rancid and I can tell you that those guys kick fucking ass.  The reason that they are so popular is because they make unbelievably good ass songs and they stand the test of time and they’re good fucking dudes.

PUM: What do you think drives the band?

Hensley: I think what drives the band is just feeling like we’re doing something real and something special.  I don’t mean that in a “we’re something above everyone else,” I just believe that what we’re doing affects people and it touches so many people in a good positive way that even if it affects our own personal lives in a negative manner, than the bigger good be done.  A lot of us have kids and are married and stuff.  It’s pretty hard, we do a lot of sacrificing to be on the road.  On the same token, I’ll meet a mother who has lost a son in Iraq and he loved Flogging Molly more than anything else.  He’s got a tattoo or on his tombstone is a big Flogging Molly cloverleaf and I get those E-mails and talk to those people all the time and it’s like, “You saved my life almost.”  I’m not trying to tell you that “Holier than thou,” I just feel like when the whole world’s coming down, Flogging Molly is doing a lot of good.  Regardless of Flogging Molly or not, I think music is a great healer.                    

PUM: In looking at your tour schedule, you guys are going to be on the road for a long time.  Like from now to June 5^th.  You’ll hit Japan, Australia, England; what’s it like for Flogging Molly in those countries?

Hensley: Australia has been good.  Japan has been awesome.  I mean the shows are awesome, the country is awesome.  You get treated so well there.  It’s unbelievable.  It makes anywhere else, like how you’re treated, kind of pale in comparison.  It doesn’t really matter where you are on the scale of things.  It’s not like only the Red Hot Chili Peppers get the love treatment, which I’m sure they do.  Their demeanor and just their culture in general is respectful.  Australia has been really good to us too.  Half the culture is built on Irish criminals and old shit so there’s definitely a fondness for Irish music in that country and having a couple of drinks.

PUM: Bands have told me before that fans in other countries seem to embrace the bands a little stronger than they would over here.

Hensley: I think our American fans are just as strong as any fans.  I believe we’re really lucky being in Flogging Molly.  Flogging Molly fans are pretty hardcore.  Almost to the point where it’s like, “Damn, I don’t want to look bad to bands,” where all the fans really want to hear is just us and they’re not going to give anybody the time between.  We’ve got some pretty great fans that are 100 percent behind us. 

PUM: I think it’s also pretty rad that you guys are ending that tour in Ireland.

Hensely: I think so.  It makes a lot of sense considering the way the record was made and everything else.  We’re going to end the tour where we made the record.  I think it makes cohesive sense.  I will definitely be hung over the night after that. 

PUM: That said, what will you guys be doing on St. Patrick’s Day?

Hensley: We’re actually playing in Phoenix, Arizona.  It’s not like Boston, New York or Chicago, but Phoenix treats us really well.  We actually get a lot of radio play there and lots of love.  For us, playing St. Patrick’s Day without sounding crappy, we’re generally going to go to the highest bidder or the people that really talk the most.  It’s been Phoenix for two or three years in a row now.  They’re just down for it.

By: Adam K. Zakroczymski III - Senior Editor / Founder

Photos By: Lindsay Hutchens

Read the review of Float here