You are reading an interview with Real McKenzies
conducted by Dan Claydon on 11 May 2004
I did this interview whilst Neck were soundchecking before the gig with Misfits at the Camden Underworld onthe 16th of February, the interview was originally intended for use in a cd magazine but it was taking too long..
Gamefoe: Hi, who are you and what do you do in the Real McKenzies?
Paul: I’m Paul and I play lead guitar in the Real McKenzies
Gamefoe: What made you call yourselves the Real McKenzies?
Paul: The name the “Real McKenzies” is actually named after the cheapest scotch you can buy in Scotland, it’s called the Real McKenzie.
Gamefoe: When you first started the band, was this the intended direction?
Paul: What do you mean by direction?
Gamefoe: The bagpipes and…
Paul: K, I’ve only been in the band for 5 years, but since I’ve been in the band it’s taken a much better direction. And that’s no lie. Yeah this is what we’ve intended to do
Gamefoe: What’s ceilidh? [note: pronounced ‘kee lee’]
Paul: Ceilidh, its Gaelic for party, like a party that doesn’t stop for weeks even years depending on who you are or what you do.
Gamefoe: You’ve played with the Bay City Rollers, How’d that come about?
Paul: The..?
Gamefoe: *clears throat* the Bay City Rollers.
Paul: oh.. the bay city rollers, I wasn’t in the band when that happened. But yeah they did, I don’t know but they did a show in Vancouver and somehow this band ended up on the bill and it only seems fitting, right?
Gamefoe: heh
Paul: and I guess these guys hit it off quite well and the singer of the bay city rollers Les actually is still a bit of a slut and he had like six girls in his dressing room… and all that kinda stuff.
Gamefoe: How do you feel about being constantly compared to flogging molly and the dropkick murphys?
Paul: the only sense it makes to me is that the celtic thing, but other than that the DKMs have a bagpipe and that’s where the similarity ends. I mean if you listen to the music, tell me how it’s the same.
Gamefoe: do you find it sort of….[searches for right words] erm.. drives people away from listening to you because they expect you to sound like flogging molly or the DKMs?
Paul: well.. I don’t know. That’s up to them. If they want to assume that without looking into it then that’s their own decision. You know what I mean? Like, personally I don’t give a shit about that. I really don’t. Flogging Mollys are completely different…*crash of drums as NECK setup the drumkit* I think we might want to step on in here *walks into bar area*…. that doesn’t bother me.
Gamefoe: And so onto the next question, if you had a pub brawl with you, dropkick murphys and flogging molly who would win?
Paul: Well we’ve already been in a brawl with flogging molly *laughs* and therewas no winner, we all just ended up getting drunk together and well I’m not gonna lie to ya I think we could probably pummel the shit out of everybody.. there are some nasty guys in the band.
Gamefoe: Explain what happened with flogging molly, please?
Paul: Ah we tried to take their Irish whiskey, they tried to take our scotch and one thing led to another and we were throwing deli trays round and round at each others heads and the walls. That actually sort of did happen with Nathan, the bass player from flogging molly, and Paul, our singer, but it was all in good fun. It was in Austria and it was over a bottle of Hungarian schnapps. Well actually we’ve done a little mini tour with flogging molly before and they’re really really good friends of ours. There’s a lot of respect between both bands.
Gamefoe: how do the Scotland bands respond to the real McKenzies sound?
Paul: they love us. And if you follow us up to Glasgow tomorrow you’ll see that for yourself.
Gamefoe: was that a surprise to you?
Paul: I wasn’t sure what was going to happen the first time we played there but I kinda knew that. It’s funny because in Scotland no one has even ever asked ‘are you guys even Scottish?’ They don’t give a shit, they just love it! They think it is great that we are donning the kilts, and playing the pipes. They know the songs because they have the songbook cos they had to sing them in school. Ya know? They think it’s awesome.
Gamefoe: …your not wearing a kilt..
Paul: not right now.
Gamefoe: Are you going to change into..
Paul: oh yeah! Absolutely.. And I’m not going to wear underwear!
Gamefoe: rock!
*laughter*
Gamefoe: are there any plans for a new album soon?
Paul: well right now we are in the middle of a 7 month tour, we’re one and one half months into it. We just released an album last April on Fat… or Honest Dons and we are gonna be writing and recording after this, which will be over in the summer. We’ll be back here to do the festival tour at the end of august.
Gamefoe: Will it be similar to the last album or…?
Paul: It’ll be… well I don’t know we haven’t written it yet! So I can’t tell you
Gamefoe: …
Paul: why? Did you hate the last record?
Gamefoe: nah I loved it!
Paul: cool, oh right will probably be much the same then.*laughs*
Gamefoe: best gig ever and why?
Paul: best gig ever and why… oh man I don’t know, there has been so many good gigs I cant put my finger on it. We just did two shows in east *drumming blocks out country..* and we did Zagreb, and Budapest about two weeks and they went off. They were so good. First time ever that we were in Croatia, it was amazing. Those are the good gigs that come to mind right now.
Gamefoe: Finally, because we are running out of tape.. what are the three biggest influences in your life, and why?
Paul: in rock? In music?
Gamefoe: in anything.
Paul: er, speed, booze, and women.
Gamefoe: good time to finish about now... cheers!
Paul: Cheers.
Gamefoe: cheers.
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