You may have noticed the famous Boston-bred Celtic punk rock band The Dropkick Murphys on the news or in your social feeds recently, namely for band frontman Ken Casey sharing his unfiltered opinion about the state of the world.

Casey’s opinions don’t come as a shock to bandmate Tim Brennan, who plays a number of different instruments for the band. The classic punk credo of ‘fight the power’ was on the minds of each of the members when they started work on their most recent album, For The People.

“The last thing we did was put out two fully acoustic records, where we took these unheard Woody Guthrie lyrics and put our own music to them,” Brennan shares in a call with Celtic Life International. “We knew that the next Dropkicks record had to be louder and harder than any of the previous stuff. Bearing that in mind, when I started writing music for the new record, a lot of it was intentionally heavy and dark.”

And he is characteristically clear on the source of the darker inspiration for the music. “The world got turned upside down, politically speaking – especially in the US. When Ken started writing his lyrics, it would be difficult for him not to address the political nature of everything that’s going on. It was a perfect storm.”

Brennan has been a member of the Dropkicks for decades, but he isn’t a founding member. In fact, the person he attributes to setting him on his musical path was also the one who introduced him to the Dropkick Murphys in the first place.

“When I was about 14, my English teacher in high school took a shine to me for whatever reason,” Brennan recalls. “He taught me how to play the tin whistle, and he introduced me to the Pogues and Dropkick Murphys and all sorts of stuff. When I was about 20, I linked up with the Dropkick guys, and now I’ve been in the band for about 23 years.”

Such sublime synchronicity is not lost on Brennan.

“It seems like hyperbole, but he changed my life. I still talk to him. He and I are still very good buddies; we talk all the time, and he’ll come and see us when we’re in his area. I owe a lot to that guy.”

One of the songs on the new album, One Last Goodbye (Tribute to Shane), paid homage to another one of his foundational inspirations.

“Shane MacGowan of the Pogues passed away two winters ago. To do a song in tribute to him was something that we knew we wanted to do…”

Brennan admits this new album has some of his favourite material that he’s ever made with the band and includes songs that he is incredibly proud of.

“There are a couple of songs, like Bury the Bones, which is an Irish tune, but it’s a different-sounding Irish song, and Fiending for the Lies, that don’t sound like anything else the band has ever done. There’s another song called Streetlights that’s probably my favourite Dropkick Murphys song that we’ve ever made. There’s a good amount of great stuff on there.”

But the obvious single for the album, Brennan admits, is prototypical Dropkick fare – one that calls on all of us to meet the moment we’re living in.

“There’s a handful of very different-sounding songs on this new album, but Who’ll Stand With Us? is not one of them. That’s a very classic Dropkick kind of song. It was one of the first ones that we put together before going into the studio. Everybody knew exactly what it was supposed to sound like.”

Ultimately, the album sends the trademark “Dropkick” message of defiance against the entrenched powers that be. “I think it’s asking the question of all of us who spend all of our time working and trying to do the right thing: who is going to be there to support everyone who’s trying to do what’s right in the world, when it seems like the only people really getting the breaks are the billionaires and politicians? We’re all in this together, and who’s going to – quite literally – stand with us, and for what’s right?”

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