The Real McKenzies

The Real Mckenzies are one of the pioneers of the Celtic Punk Rock movement. They have been playing their brand of brash, in your face, drinking tunes for just about 20 years now. With a cross Canada tour wrapping up and a month long trek across Europe in the very near future they are happy to announce a new acoustic CD as well as a limited edition DVD release. I had the chance to sit down with guitarist Dave Gregg and talk of things from the recording process to why their relationship with Fat is flourishing nicely.

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Dwayne: First you name and what you do in the band?

Dave: Dave Gregg and I play guitar

Dwayne: How is the tour going so far?

Dave: It’s only western Canada. After tonight we all go home and prepare for our next trip to Europe which happens here very quickly.

Dwayne: You’re based out of Vancouver right? How was the whole Olympic experience there?

Dave: Yeah kind of. I don’t think any of us were there to be truthful. I think we were in Europe. Or maybe we weren’t but I don’t live in Vancouver. But we did watch the hockey on TV.

Dwayne: At the beginning of the tour you guys had a couple nights in Whitehorse in the Yukon. How was that experience as that is a stop not very many bands make?
 
Dave: For us that’s the third time we have been up there. It’s a community of maybe 30,000 people and it was fun; people seem to like us up there. There was actually a wedding reception in the bar we were at the first night. They had way too much food so we ended up being given about 5lbs of smoked salmon which was really good – that was nice! It’s a small town and it has all the complaints a small town has to offer ….isolation sometimes is good for the entertainment side of things.

Dwayne: Do you find that when you go to smaller communities that they seem to appreciate it more than the larger cities who see a constant influx of touring bands?

Dave: Not necessarily but in Whitehorse’s case we have some fans up there now. In my case I have a friend who just played up in the Yukon and played 6 shows up there. So he was playing in people’s living rooms as well as playing in Whitehorse and Dawson City. To play 6 shows in the Yukon you are getting into some very small places. Which is fun; it’s not like playing BC Place or Giants Stadium. It’s an aspect of the entertainment experience that I am happy to have.

Dwayne: On your albums you guys have a great mix of original songs mixed with traditional songs. How do you decide on which ones to cover?

Dave: The process is slow, cumbersome and convoluted and usually boils down to the last thing that was said at a meeting is what ends up happening. Like there are lots and lots of traditional songs to choose from but I can’t say that there is a real method or logic to it. It’s usually the last thing to be blurted out in a drunken haze. That’s what ends up happening.

Dwayne: You guys play in Europe at the large festivals and then play to smaller crowds on club tours. Which one do you personally prefer?

Dave: It’s all good. It’s a different thing. The show in a small club for a 100 people is a different experience then being on the big stage at sunset on a Saturday night playing for thousands of people. It’s true that we do both and they’re both fun but they’re different. The pacing of the show is just going to be different. What Paul says in-between songs and the timing is just different. I enjoy them both. Obviously the big ones pay better than the small ones but in terms of what you’re doing they can both be challenging and rewarding. Music is a work in progress, you never really reach your destination, you’re always going somewhere I will probably play another 100 little clubs and I hope I play another 100 big festivals to 100,000 people.

Dwayne: You guys have a long relationship with Fat what do you think is the reason that is has lasted so long when a lot of bands seem to jump from label to label?

Dave: The good thing about those guys is that they are honest people. When you get the statements, the numbers are accurate. We don’t make a ton of money but at least we can be comfortable knowing that what they are doing for us they are doing the best job that they can. We aren’t the biggest band in the world but they take our records and they distribute them and the money comes back and they distribute that accordingly and I think they are being fair about it.  They aren’t fucking us.  So that’s the foundation of a good relationship.

Dwayne: Where you know they will push your stuff and they believe that you will do your part.

Dave: Yeah, we are fulfilling our side of the bargain. We make new records and go out and play and encourage people to buy those records. They’re a record company – that’s how they make the money to pay their staff. We do our part, they do there part; they’re nice people – fun and honest. So I think as long as they will continue to have us we will definitely stay with them!

Dwayne: Speaking of new records… You guys have a new live acoustic record coming out.

Dave: Yeah, it is live. Recorded in Berlin last August. We did 3 nights at a club called the Wild at Heart and recorded all of it. It’s taken a while sifting through it trying to find the best stuff. I think the CD is 20 songs. We played 35 songs a night, so we had 105 songs to sort through. I can’t say we put a lot of time into mixing it because it’s a live record, it is what it is. We didn’t go into the studio with a big bottle of turd polish and try to make it something that it wasn’t. You still have to listen to all the versions and pick the right one and then narrow it down to 20; pick the best of the best. Whatever makes a good record.

We are releasing a DVD of those shows as well which I think are 29 songs. That’s going to be a limited edition. I think we are going to make 1000 in the European format and maybe 200 in the North American format and we will sell those on the road and perhaps sell them online. Once they are gone though they are gone.

Dwayne: Why the decision to do such a limited run of the DVDs?

Dave: There is this weird group of people in the world called collectors. So ya know if they are paying attention they will get a copy; if they don’t then they are going to have to hunt around for it later on.

Dwayne: Is the new album going to be available on vinyl as well?

Dave: Yes it is going to be out on vinyl as well.

Dwayne: I have to admit I am one of those collectors….

Dave: Yeah, well being involved in music for the past 30 years I know those people are out there. I meet these people that have copies of singles that are put out in like 1978 and I know for a fact that there was only 500 or 1000 of them. I’ll meet some guy in England and he has a copy of that single now how the hell did he get it? I don’t know …..

Dwayne: Either paid a whole bunch of money for it or just got lucky.

Dave: Yeah, probably not. A lot of the stuff are things they have tracked down through record swap things. So the packaging is going to be unique; it’s going to be a DVD which is that funny size. We are going to put it in a sleeve that is for a 7 inch vinyl. So the DVD will sit down in there. It comes in a folded paper cover that folds out to a poster and you get a sticker set, a patch, and also a folded up poster. It’s not a calendar but a year from when we did the concerts from that time next year.

Dwayne: When can we expect to see the DVDs for sale?

Dave: Some time in April. We are going to sell in on the next European tour.

Dwayne: Do you think when a band does a live record it captures more of what they really are? With all the flaws and screw ups and all.

Dave: I have only made one studio record with the Real Mckenzies, which was Off The Lease. It was my first experience recording with them. It’s no secret that I do not care for how that recording was done. They know it and now the world know its. I have recorded plenty of records in my life and a studio record can be done in the style that Off The Leash was done. Where a guy goes in and does his parts and then the other guy comes in and puts head phones on and plays to those parts and he plays his parts and so on as so forth. You build it like that layer at a time. You can also make a record in the studio which is essentially a live record where a band goes in set up there gear, mic it up. You say rolling, which is from the olden days when a tape machine was rolling but they still say rolling even though its digital, and then you play and that’s a studio record too. You play it in a studio and it is what it is. You can go in afterwards and tweak some stuff and that’s just the way I prefer to record.

Off The Leash was not done that way. It’s a fun record and people like it and there are some moments on it that are good. I am hear to tell ya though those moments are not moments that we shared together all in a room at the same time. They are moments that were created after the fact. Its one way of doing things.

Dwayne: For the longest time that was how I thought you recorded a record.

Dave: The great ones did it that way…. I don’t know if you like Led Zeplin or not, they’re not my favorite band in the world but their recordings speak for themselves! Those are some of the best recordings ever done. They played all at the same time. In the same room, looking at each other playing the song and I think the material reflects that. There is a certain flexibility that comes out of that. You are not just executing a part, you are playing music you know. If you get an itchy nose and you take you hand off your guitar that’s on the recording.

Dwayne: I appreciate that so much more hearing the flaws and the missed parts just make it sound so much more real.

Dave: The flaws are so insignificant. The other side which is you can find moments of brilliance there when you are there with everybody. It simply will not occur when you do the cut and paste recording. You will never be able to look into the eyes of your bass player and say wow did that just happen. It just doesn’t work.

Dwayne: So any final words to wrap this up?

Dave: Nope! (laughs)