With heavy Irish influences and a commitment to its East Coast roots, The Dropkick Murphys gained commercial success through their dedication to touring and performing. The Massachusetts-based punk rock band formed in 1996 and first performed at the Canopy Club in Urbana in 2008. The Dropkick Murphys will return to Canopy on Friday as a part of its Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day Tour. The Daily Illini got the chance to interview drummer Matt Kelly before the show. 

Daily Illini: The release of your eighth studio album, “Signed and Sealed in Blood,” is set to be released early next year. Can you tell us a little about that?

Matt Kelly: After our last album, “Going Out in Style,” we had more ideas and more we wanted to write — we just decided to get our ideas together and roll with it. We got our producer involved, filtered the writing, and got some great songs out of it. Our last album was a concept album with real heavy, deep stuff, and this one is not as tied together. We wrote 12 big anthems with big choruses. We’re really excited about releasing it.

DI: This will be your third studio album released on your label “Born and Bred Records.” What prompted the band to create its own label and how does it differ from the previous label you were signed with?

MK: Originally, no one wanted to put out our stuff, so we had to put it out ourselves. So, going into this label we had rudimentary experience. Our contract with Hellcat Records was up, and we figured, as we are a band very hands-on with decision-making, to start our own label. It was a risk, because if it were to fall flat, the band would have to take full responsibility. But with it, we have complete artistic control. We can be masters of our own destiny. Hellcat was great to us, but we felt it was time to take the next step and spread our wings.

DI: Each album you release gets higher and higher on the charts, with your last album debuting at number six on Billboard Hot 100. How did the band gradually gain so much commercial success?

MK: We base our success on the people who supported us, our fans around the world. Before any sort of commercial success, we had a solid fan-base of loyal supporters who would come out to see our shows. The most important thing is to please those people. Then came the awards, the movies (“I’m Shipping Up To Boston” was featured in the Academy-Award winning movie “The Departed”), which brought awareness of our existence to the mainstream audience. The success is many-fold, but it is our loyal fans back from ’96 and ’97, and exposure from the movies that help us most, along with lucky marketing and the Boston Red Sox.

DI: Bostonians often associate your music with the Boston Red Sox. Can you explain how this relationship with the baseball team came about?

MK: Dr. Charles Steinberg (of the Boston Red Sox) found the old Red Sox theme song in glory days of 1910’s, called Tessie. He wanted to bring it back to the team, and our friend and Boston sportswriter Jeff Horrigan helped them bring it to the Dropkicks. Tessie was originally about an old lady and her pet parrot, but we deconstructed it and pieced it back together in a rock and roll kind of way, in our style. People ended up liking it, and the Sox ended up winning the World Series that year.

DI: Your music has obviously been influenced by your Irish roots and your East Coast upbringings. How do you as a band meaningfully incorporate your heritage into your music?

MK: It just comes naturally in the way we write songs and lyrics. Irish folk is very uplifting and fun and jovial-sounding, but the lyrics are usually about famine, war, poverty. We’ve often done Irish folk tunes with our own spin, paying homage to that music. All of us either heard it or played it when we were younger. It’s in our make-up.

DI: In the past, the band has spoken out about making music in support of “the working class.”  Why do you think it is important for your music to represent this cause?

MK: There’s always this mentality that the working man is always getting screwed out of things, and it’s important to know that we’re a pro-union band, especially in Boston. It’s something we’ve supported since day one, and we think it’d be the ultimate sell-out to turn our backs on that cause. We don’t ever want to forget where we came from and where our roots are.

DI: You are currently on your “Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day” tour. How does this tour stack up to previous tours?

MK: Most of our tours are intense shows, and right now, we’re just trying to get places we’ve never been or have rarely played. We were just in Flagstaff, AZ, last night. We have a lot of people write to us asking to come here or there, and people are very appreciative we make it a point to go play those places. People get psyched, and we think it’s awesome.

DI: What is your favorite part of touring?

MK: My favorite part of touring is getting to meet new people, visit new places, try new beers. It’s the best job in the world. Obviously you’re going to miss your wife and family, but doing what you love for a living, not having to go back to warehouse or factory to work is a very lucky thing. We are very grateful and very lucky.

DI: What advice would you give aspiring musicians?

MK: On the grim side of things, have a backup plan. On the optimistic side, practice your ass off. If you think you’re good, remember that there a thousand people that could be better. You can never get too good at your instrument or voice or whatever it is. Also, try to listen to some music released before 1977.

Hannah can be reached at [email protected].