I/we met up with Nathen Maxwell, Dennis Casey and Robert Schmidt from Celtic punk band Flogging Molly talking about their new album, festivals and Ireland.
Nathan Maxwell of Flogging Molly at Z008Music101: You played like you all had the time of your lives! How was it?
NM: Great fun!
I mean it seemed like everyone out their was having a bad day I had a bad day so I Thought throw out a few beers and started a party.
M101: What do you think about the atmosphere of British festivals?
DC: It’s good it feels different to the way all the coachella and lollapalooza festivals are run. But Coachella still is a great festival.
M101: What has it been like producing your new album in Ireland?
DC: We worked on it in a small place between Dublin and cork
NM: We were in the middle of nowhere in a recording studio in a village which had a pub, local shop and post office. There was also like a mile long supply of Guinness.
M101: What are you all up to next?
NM: Tomorrow we fly out to Greece to Athens to play the rockwave festival there on the saturday then we continue with our tour which started in the states.
M101: I heard you played with Joe Strummer of The Clash, What was that like?
NM: I remember having a smoke with his band and when i met him my right hand usually gets really clammy. so I put my hand out for him to shake which he took then wiped his hand down his trouser leg. It’s an experience I will never forget.
M101: You seem to have a broken hand how did you do that?
NM: I punched a wall. I can’t remember where I did it, but I was really pumped up with adrenaline and stupidly punched the wall and thought ouch! It really sucked for the first two months It was broken.
M101: Thank you for your time, enjoy the rest of the day.
After I'd finished speaking with the band, I hung out with Nathan. After singing 'Guns of Brixton' by The Clash with him I got on to seeing the rest of the bands as bad weather caused an absolute downpour over the festival.
Having the chance to see parts of the main headline act The Hives as well as small bands such as Electric River, the festival turned out to be really good fun.
One punter told me this “Usually at festivals your always really on the ball about going to see the bands you want to see and going from one to the other and then getting really tired and heading to bed after the main act has been on.
"But what has been great about this festival is that it’s really been fun to just mess around for three days and not have to worry about going to see the headline group you want to see”.
Apart from all the mayhem caused and problems which are clearly just lack of money and inexperience it seems like ZOO8 didn’t turn out to be as bad as all the media have put it. Personally I will be delighted to try and come back next year for ZOO9 if there is one.
