STREET DOGS

Interview with Mike McColgan of the Street Dogs
by Jason Walsh

In the middle of their "State of Grace" tour, the Street Dogs descended on a little beach club in Virginia Beach called "The Jewish Mother." With Time Again and Flatfoot 56 supporting them, as well as VA Beach's Jackmove, the guys from Boston and Texas have been busy this year: playing the St. Patrick's Day weekend at Shamrock Fest in Washington DC, releasing their fourth full-length album, "State of Grace," touring the summer on the Warped Tour, this current US headline tour, which will be followed by a European Tour with Flogging Molly. From the comforts of the band's sweet , vocalist Mike McColgan took some time before his set to talk about the record, the tour, the future, and address some real world problems that are affecting us all. And no, I didn't ask him any questions about the Dropkick Murphys.

JW: First of all, how are you doing?

Mike: Awesome. This tour has been amazing. The record's doing really well. It's good to be back doing a headlining tour of the United States. Just having a great lineup with Flatfoot 56 and Time Again. Being on Hellcat Records is great. You get to play and say and do what you want and go out on tour and they support us so it's fucking great.

JW: So those guys have been treating you pretty good and kind of giving you a lot of free roam to do what it is you guys want to do as a band?

Mike: Yeah, absolutely. When we did "State of Grace" for Hellcat, the newest record that's out now they basically said go and make the record you want to make and they're very excited about it. They like it a lot. It's a record where we stay true to ourselves but just push the parameters and the envelope a little bit and try to challenge ourselves, y'know, as musicians. As a singer, it was definitely challenging moreso than anything I've ever done. I'm really happy about the release and how it's doing and how people are responding to the songs.

JW: You had the producer you had with the last record.

Mike: Ted Hutt.

JW: He kind of gave you guys a different direction as far as what you were doing with this record.

Mike: Yeah, I mean, he immediately said when we first started that, y'know, we're not making another "Fading American Dream," "Back to the World," or "Savin Hill." We gotta progress and do something different and I believe in that. I don't believe in making the same record twice and I think the proofs in the pudding. The thing is doing really, really well and we stand behind the songs. I feel like on this record there's no filler tracks. We worked up a lot of songs for this thing, like thirty-some-odd songs. We whittled it down to ten and one cover, "Into the Valley" (The Skids). I'm proud of it.

JW: So from front to back...

Mike: Yeah, yeah. There's no regrets. We went over every lyric, over every guitar take, bass take, drum take, every vocal take, every backup vocal take, y'know, with a lot of attention and scrutiny. I feel like it's doing really well.

JW: And I remember when I talked to in DC (March 2008), you guys were like, well it's done but we got a lot of stuff we got to go back and redo, fix and tweak, and get it exactly to where you wanted it to be.

Mike: Absolutely.

JW: And you achieved that place where you wanted it to be at?

Mike: Yeah, because the best thing I'm hearing from fans is, yeah, it's different and I love it, and they point out five, six, seven songs. That's great when that many songs are pointed out by fans. Usually, it's anywhere from two to four that are picked up. So, I feel very good about that. That's generally been the sentiment I'm getting from fans, y'know, when we go across the nation and I'm hanging out at the merch table before or after the show.

JW: You guys did the Warped tour over the summer, doing this headline tour now, and you're going over to Europe with Flogging Molly?

Mike: Time Again, Skindred, us, and Flogging Molly.

JW: That's the lineup?

Mike: Yeah.

JW: Why can't I be in Europe? That's a great lineup right there. How'd that come about.

Mike: Eastpak, the backpack company, has a tour that they do every year in Europe and they asked Flogging Molly to headline it, they asked us to do direct support, they asked Skindred and Time Again to come along. So, to go back out with Flogging Molly for us, it's a no brainer. We get along really well with those guys, we share some fans, and it's just going to be a great experience.

JW: You're in Virginia Beach. I live over in Norfolk. You're basically in the largest military installation in the world. You got a lot of military men and women in there. We're seven years from 9-11, three trillion dollars into these wars, five thousand lost in the two fronts. You got a lot of folks who might be leaving soon. What's the message you send out to them?

Mike: Adhere to your training, be safe, and I'm grateful for your service. I don't let my personal politics enter into the equation when that's presented to me. I just have a lot of respect for people in the uniform. I served before. I have some level of identification and point of reference with it.

JW: As a touring band now, with the way the economy is going, has it been difficult for you guys. Are you seeing gas prices affecting hitting the road. Hotels, I mean obviously you have a good setup here, so you're probably not staying in hotels every night.

Mike: From the top of the ladder to the bottom of the ladder, from the biggest group in the land to the smallest group, it's affecting everybody. It's clear attendance is suffering for all bands because the first thing that suffers when the economy is struggling is the arts. People aren't going to go out and see shows or go to movies or go to games.

JW: They're going to buy groceries.

Mike: Yeah, absolutely. Food and shelter comes first. We have to some degree seen the effects of it but so far I'm kind of surprised at the turnout considering the times. We're grateful for what we have and the people that are coming out to see us. We're seeing a lot of heads for sure.

JW: So, you're getting a lot of turnouts at the shows.

Mike: Yeah, I mean, moreso than I anticipated. Some of the biggest financial institutions in the United States have just gotten bailed out, the jobless rate is really high right now, and I mean, it could just be the tip of the iceberg for all we know.

JW: With this kind of music, traditionally, from the early days of punk rock until now, this kind of a venue is a place for a lot of these kids that are here and the older folks like us, to come out and just, whatever stress is going on in our lives, to get it all out, and get back to work on Monday.

Mike: It's a communal thing. There's immunity there. There's a basic unspoken understanding that we're here to take a break from that crazy world outside and share this time together to have a good time and let loose some frustration. That's what it's always been about.

JW: And this is a positive place to do that.

Mike: Yeah, I mean I like it. I mean, we'll play anywhere. I'm not going to say this or that, but ultimately the small places are better suited for us but our whole thing is to just get our music out to people. I want to have as many people as humanly possible listen to it. At the end of the day, the small, packed sweaty rooms is where we like to excel.

JW: It's an intimate setting.

Mike: Yeah, yeah, it's great. It energizes the band when people are that close to you. It's like having another member in the band.

JW: It's not like barriers and you're up on a huge stage. People are all together in a gathering.

Mike: It's amazing. Coming up in Boston, that's how it was too. Some of the fondest shows in my memory are small rooms that are packed.

JW: Very cool. Last thing, it's an election year. Might be a big change coming up this year.

Mike: I hope so.

JW: Might not. So, what do you think? Just thoughts.

Mike: I really feel like you have two options and one is more of the same and one is a more progressive route. I feel like economically things are really, really bad and we need a change.

JW: Sounds like a slogan.

Mike: Yeah, we do. We need a change. It's clear, in my own personal opinion, we need a change. I'm going to vote for the more progressive candidate, the younger candidate. I feel like that's just my own personal decision. People can exercise their own right to pick who they want and I respect that. That's the cornerstone of democracy. That's where I stand on it, y'know. I just want people to vote, engage in the process. Don't bitch and moan if you're not voting.

JW: Exactly. And, in a lot of cases, a lot of people are not so much voting for but voting against and that's kind of carried over from the past few elections.

Mike: Yeah it has. A lot of people have just checked out of the process entirely.

JW: And that's not going to do any good.

Mike: No, it isn't.

JW: Everybody's voice matters.

Mike: Everybody's voice matters and if you think this stuff doesn't affect you and you're outside of its scope, I got news for you, it affects you. It really does if you look at the big picture.