Born and Bred RecordsIn gearing up to record their new album 11 Short Stories of Pain & Glory, Dropkick Murphys wanted to change things up in a big way. To do that, they decided to get out of their comfort zone, leave Boston and record their ninth studio effort in El Paso, Texas.
"Not only did we go to El Paso, we went to a pecan farm 30 miles east of El Paso, right on the border," bassist and vocalist Ken Casey tells ABC Radio. "So there was really nothing to do except work around the clock, and that really kinda paid off a lot for us."
While you can take Dropkick Murphys out of Boston, it's much harder to take Boston out of Dropkick Murphys. Many of the songs on 11 Short Stories deal with local Beantown issues, specifically the city's struggle with opiate addiction.
The album also includes the song "4-15-13," which is about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Casey knew he needed to write a song about the tragedy, but wasn't immediately sure how do it.
"Part of it was too soon, part of it was, like, it has to be perfect," he explains. "Don't wanna be too somber to kinda drag people back into what we all went through, but not obviously make it like a heavy rock song. From a musical and a lyrical aspect, [we] just wanted it to...do justice to everybody."
Luckily, the song came together quickly and ended up being one of Casey's favorite tracks on the album.
"It's almost like I feel like there's a monkey off our back, like, 'Oh, we were able to that!'" Casey says. "'Cause I feel like if we didn't, I would've always felt like we were kinda cowering away from it."
11 Short Stories is out now.
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