The Dropkick Murphys interviewed by Christine Leonard-Cripps

Blowin’ sunshine up yer arse!

The Dropkick Murphy's new bagpiper Scruffy Wallace of Calgary brings the boys back home

The Corral Bagpipes and punk rock – they go together like leeks and potatoes, and few know this better than Scruffy Wallace, a bona fide hometown hero and the official piper for the Dropkick Murphys.

Rising through the ranks of fandom to ascend the stage with the band that he has long admired was the ultimate dream come true for this hairy-stemmed Calgarian. Now he has the pleasure of showing off his talents and (what’s under) his tartan to the city he knows so well.

"We’ve been touring like crazy," says Scruffy of the Murphys’ hectic schedule. "But even if I did complain – nobody would listen. We recently played in Scandinavia, and it was just awesome. They have the most beautiful women over there. They seem to breed them, and metal bands, by the dozen..."

"I’m good friends with Jay Bentley, the bassist for Bad Religion, and we got the chance to play alongside them while we were in Europe. I’ve always been a fan of their music – they are the godfathers of punk. Jay and I spent some time hanging out and decided it would be great to do a tour in the fall. I didn’t even ask anyone, we just booked it!"

Of course, if he did bother to ask, no one would listen. But put him onstage in a kilt and hand him the bag and people will listen, especially when his unique instrument is paired with the irreverent yet nostalgic, Celtic pride-centred rock of the Dropkick Murphys. Combining elements of the old with the new they create a distinctive, ear-catching sound that is at once as stimulating and soothing as a warm pint of Guinness at your local pub. And that’s just where you’ll find ol’ Scruff – polishing the bar with his elbows at The Ship and Anchor or The Castle and waiting for you to drop in and buy him another round.

"We’ve always loved playing in Calgary, it’s never run-of-the-mill. We’re continually changing up our set-list to keep things interesting and fresh. We haven’t had much studio time but we have added covers of The Who’s ‘Bob O’Reilly’ and Minor Threat’s ‘Minor Threat,’ which is fun."

Scruffy continues. "We pack an average of 28 or 29 songs per set – that’s an hour-and-a-half, with me playing on about 60 per cent of the numbers, but people are always complaining that we didn’t play for long enough, or didn’t get round to their favourite tune. I’m out of breath after playing four or five songs in a row, maybe it’s the oxygen deprivation talking, but I think that’s a lot, especially when we’re all so sweat-soaked and look like we’ve showered in our clothes." 

DROPKICK MURPHYS perform Thursday, September 28, 2006

by Christine Leonard

Originally published September 2006 in FastForward Magazine.

Bad Religion Interviewed by Christine Leonard

Good God! How Bad Religion endures 

Introducing the new ugly Americans

They say the West is the best and if you’re talking about the sunny beaches and smoggy vistas of Southern California you may not be far wrong. Of course, for Bad Religion’s bassist Jay Bentley you could as likely be speaking of his wet, yet wondrous home in Vancouver, B.C.

As a founding-father of one of the greatest political punk bands ever to grace the stage, Bentley has rocked out in more countries over the past two-and-a-half decades than he dares (or cares) to recall. Still his inexhaustible spirit and love of good music compel him to continue creating memorable songs and to travel as far as necessary to spread the good word and the good vibrations wherever and whenever possible.

Bad Religion’s penchant for seeking out like-minded individuals and kindred spirits has led to a monumental tour which will see the band team up with the union-boosting, whisky-downing Dropkick Murphys in what promises to be a punk rock extravaganza of mosh-worthy proportions.

"This tour has been in the works for a couple of years," Bentley explains of their latest venture. "We’re always looking for bands that are doing their own thing and have something different to offer, and I kept running into the Dropkick Murphys’ piper Scruffy (Wallace) all over the place. We played a festival together in Europe earlier this year and had a great time, so we had to make it happen. He’s from Calgary and I live in Vancouver, so what do you know – we decided to do a cross-Canada tour together. We can’t wait to get out and play! Canada is a great market; the people here really love music. The market in L.A. is so jaded and the Germans just don’t care anymore."

Speaking of jaded, it’s not unusual for a band to be whisked through a pan-global tour without seeing much of their host nations beyond the airport and the venues in which they perform. While Jay Bentley admits that the experience of performing live hasn’t changed much for him over the past decade, he has noted encountering a relatively new air of hostility and reproach when it comes to declaring his own U.S. citizenship.

"Whenever we travel through Europe I’m always awed by the sense of history," he recounts. "On a personal note, the first person I encountered on our very first trip to Germany came up to me and said ‘I love your band, but I hate you!’ I was taken aback, and then he said ‘I hate you because you’re an American.’ I understand it that people in other countries despise America. That’s the true beauty of travelling to other places. You can see firsthand how their culture deals with these issues on a daily basis. I value that global perspective and being able to see how the decisions George W. Bush and his friends are having a negative impact on the rest of the world."

Clearing the decks and taking stock, the Bad Religion crew decided it was time to jump on the "Live in Concert" DVD bandwagon. But, as with all of their ventures, their penchant for perfection soon took over and their long-awaited concert video Live at the Palladium morphed into an all-consuming project that took far longer than anticipated to complete.

"It took a long time for us to finish the DVD," Bentley explains. "When we first started putting material together it was just for fun, that’s how we start most of our endeavours. We thought we’d do a live recording and throw it out there. We worked on it more and more and it just kept on getting better. We’re really pleased with the result."

Weathering the slings and arrows of outrageous popularity, Bad Religion has experienced many more highs than lows over the course of their career, but they have always remained steadfast when it comes to using their music as a force for social change. Furthermore, the band’s stalwart lead vocalist Greg Graffin has made his PhD thesis on religion and evolution, dubbed "the Cornell Evolution Project," available for purchase through the band’s website.

Constantly "raising the sonic stakes," as they put it, Bad Religion has never shied away from confronting the issues, it’s the machinery that drives those issues that has long been their nemesis.

"The thing about Bad Religion that hasn’t changed is that we still really stick with doing what we like, except these days we’re allowing ourselves more freedom," says Bentley of the band’s in-studio esthetic. "We used to have this strict rule that if we can’t play it live we won’t do it in the studio, but that’s so limiting. Now we say – let’s see what’s available to us and use it. As long as I don’t have a foot pedal, I know I’m not fucking with things too much."

By now, putting it all together comes naturally to Bentley, Graffin, guitarists Brett Gurewitz, Greg Hetson and Brian Baker and drummer Brooks Wackerman (such a good name for a percussionist). It seems inevitable that they will continue to produce great music with an even greater message for many years to comes, of course, it has been two years since the band’s last album, the amazing The Empire Strikes First, was released for public consumption. When can we expect another installation in this exciting saga of vocabulary-exhausting, lyrical and musical masterpieces? What has Bad Religion been cooking up in their L.A. studios lately? Bentley lays his cards on the table.

"What have we been up to in the studio lately? Nothing, nothing, nothing. We call it a hiatus. Relaxing? No – terrifying," he laughs. "I always thought of the band as a group of poker buddies or drop-in hockey guys – if we’re available and into it we’ll get together and play when we can. If we don’t get together for a while it’s no big deal. But now we’ve got too many side-projects blooming everywhere, and that’s a sure sign that it’s time to get back to work."

Bad Religion performs at The Corral - Thursday, September 28, 2006

by Christine Leonard

Originally published September 2006 in FastForward Magazine.

Bad Religion: The Book of Caffeine and Naivety

Bad Religion emerging
from the valley of shadows

by Christine Leonard

BeatRoute Magazine, no. 70, October 2010


Having added terms such as “rectilinear,” “Diogenes” and “entropy” to the punk rock lexicon, the band that wrote the book on anti-establishmentarian hardcore has come to a personal crossroads. With some fourteen studio albums ensconced in the hallowed halls of music history, So-Cal rock legends Bad Religion must face their own music and address the burning question they posed to the world so many years ago: quality or quantity?

“It’s always a good thing to venture into new territory. We like to hit the reset button once and while,” affirms founding member and bassist Jay Bentley. “We’re always looking to the next project because we view every album as a plateau: making this record took us into the unknown and that was a huge learning experience. Whenever we put our heads together over a record, things inevitably come down to the question, 'How do you define power?' There’s always going to be another punk band out there who’s louder and faster and is bound and determined to try and prove it. We’re more concerned with sharing ideas. That conveyance can be achieved in many ways and in the end, those interactions are the longest standing. Even things that seem diametrically opposed to one another can be quite powerful."

Fuelled by a lethal combination of “caffeine and naivety,” Bad Religion set off album number fifteen with a bang. Bassist Jay Bentley, along with bandmates singer-songwriter Greg Graffin, guitarist Brian Baker, guitarist Greg Hetson and drummer Bruce Wackerman, celebrated guitarist Brett Gurewitz’s 48th birthday in true punk rock fashion by heading into long-time friend and collaborator Joe Barresi’s studio to lay down some tracks. The ultimate result of their labour of lush, The Dissent of Man, resonates with three decades worth of political unrest and social turmoil with a peppering of midlife pith thrown in for good measure.

“The days of the late nineties were about the deepest valley we ever entered as a band,” Bentley admits. “There were moments when we thought quitting might be justifiable, but going through that experience of being humiliated made us appreciate all the things that we’ve been given in life. That was the point where we knew that we either had to dedicate ourselves completely to the craft or just stop doing it all together. In times of doubt, it’s often best to move along from your comfort zone. If you settle in, you’ll never know what’s out there waiting for you to find it.”

A fitting follow-up to The Empire Strikes First (2004) and New Maps of Hell (2007), both also produced by Barresi, The Dissent of Man is an album that can stand on its own merit despite being dubbed a thirtieth-anniversary release by some punk rock pundits. As far as the band is concerned, this new effort is a fresh attempt at getting closer to the truth behind the fleeting human interactions that motivate them to create their indelible audio art. From the bleak urban unrest of “The Day That the Earth Stalled” to the cathartic mockery of “The Devil in Stitches,” it is abundantly evident that Bad Religion has spent the past three years thumbing the scales in their own favour without short-changing the little guy.

“I believe that we’ve struck that awkward balance between ego and taking pride in our work,” postulates Bentley. “Truly, we are humbled that anyone even pays attention to what we have to say. Finally, we’ve just settled into this area of gratitude and as we move into the future our focus is placed on pure enjoyment.”