When you started off as a band, did the different styles of music you used blend well? Actually, in the band's inception, Kenny wrote Barroom Hero, and that was the first original the band wrote, with bagpipes and stuff, and he was wondering if people would really the "Pogues vs. Ramones" kind of thing. When the song was released, it was just the opposite; it wasn't a matter of whether or not people would get it, it was just like "wow, holy sh*t". So it was always what we were about. We've always had a Celtic-punk influence; there's always been a Celtic influence in our punk. Which separates us from other bands, because we go out of the boundaries of rock and roll. If you weren't touring on the scale you are now, would you still be playing basement shows? You know, it's not even a matter of not playing basement shows because we're famous....maybe to our fans we're famous, but I mean we're not on TV, we're not in movies or commercials. So aside from being around a club where we're playing, we're not really recognized anywhere. In my hometown, where I live in New Hampshire, no one cares, and it's great. I can walk around, and no one knows who I am. They'll be like "oh, that's Al. He's got some band I think". So to answer your question, basically, this is what we do. This is our job. We all have wives and families, so to do the DIY kind of thing and make money, it really just doesn't work. But as far as playing the every now-and-again basement show, we really just can't do that anymore because there are so many kids that can't get in to see it, then you're dealing with all these disappointed people, and that's a drag. Believe me, I've done my time with the basement shows, the attic shows, the shows where the stage catches on fire. I've played an East German prison before. We showed up, and these guys were pushing a giant 40-foot iron gate open, and it was an old East German Communist Prison. So I've played some pretty weird places before. But as you get more and more popular, you just naturally start playing bigger and bigger places, which we've been fortunate enough to do. Where do you get the influences for your songs? Well musically, each song is different. On the new record, we've got songs that are leaning towards the ballad kind of thing, then we've got songs that are just straight up punk/hardcore, that kind of thing. So each song is different, it really depends on what type of story is being told in the song. And I think that's reflected in the music, it kind of bonds together. As for as what we write about, we write what we know about, we'll write about personal experiences or something like that. We're basically just playing honest music, and singing what we know about. Do you think the wide age gap between members has impacted your music? Not in an adverse way, I think it's actually great. The younger members have given the band a real shot in the arm, because there's definitely something to be said for the spirit of youth, which has been fleeting with me unfortunately, as I get older. It's great also because I look at Mark, our youngest guitar player. He was 17 when he was playing his first tour with us, which was in Japan. He had just been working at Blockbuster, and had to quit high school. So I was thinking about the bands I was doing at that age, and I can't even imagine what I would do if a band came to me and said "do you want to go to Japan?" But for me, being the older guy in the band, I like to see the younger guys like Mark get the opportunity that he's had. A lot of local bands, both in Rochester and in other cities, often list DKM as an influence. How does that make you feel? That makes me feel great. It's great when someone writes something like what we've written, it's great to influence someone in a positive way. It's one of the reasons why we're doing this, it's to bring our music and bring what we think is important, to other people. After your career with DKM, what do you want to do? Well, I would like to stay in music, I would like to do music as long as I can. I've been singing in bands for 18 years, this is the first one where I've done just this and nothing else. Before that I was just unloading trucks. So, I'll probably be unloading trucks again, but hopefully not, because I'll be older and weaker, but I'd like to be doing music. I'd like to be able to say I'm involved in music somehow, but who knows? I could be dead. Five minutes before a show, what's going through your mind, and are you nervous or excited? Very nervous. I'm always nervous, especially because this is a new record, and a lot of these songs we've never played live before. So we're nervous because we're hoping that the fans will like it. I'm always nervous before a show; I'm always excited to play, but I always get butterflies before I go on stage. It helps the energy level of the performance. If I'm not nervous before a show, there's definitely something wrong with me, I'm probably sick or dead, because I'm definitely always nervous. Do you have a favorite song to play live? Well, last night was the first night we played a lot of the songs off our new record live, we'd obviously practiced them (somewhat), but some of the older stuff I've been singing differently now. I guess Rocky Road to Dublin or Which Side Are You On? are 2 of my favorites to do live. AOL recently ran a feature claiming that concerts aren't safe. What's your view on that? I think that our concerts are safe. I think we make as much of an effort as we can to keep things calm...(at this time, two other journalist who have been waiting outside for an hour trying to find Al come on the bus, there is a little confusion, but all is well). Now where were we? Concerts being safe... Yeah, I think we try to make our shows safe. I think that since bands are on stage and have a view of the audience, if they see something going wrong, I think a band could say "Hey, get him up" or something like that, I know I try to do that for the kids. But you take your life in your hands every time you leave your house. I think there are some bands that don't even care about their audiences, they just get on stage and do their thing or whatever. When you're on tour (or off tour), what do you do to kill time? Sleep. I try to do a little bit of exercising, but I'm a lazy guy. I try to get my wife to come out every two or three weeks, I try not to be away from her too much. I try to see the cities that we're in, when it's freezing cold we just stay on the bus. If you could be on a tribute album for one band, who would it be for? I would love try to sing a Tom Wait's song, but I've never really thought about that before. We've done a few before; we've done a Rose Tattoo cover, we've done an Iron Cross cover, I think I've counted 37 songs that this band has covered total. I think right now we're doing Fortunate Son, which is a cool song. Finally, how do you feel about the whole Napster controversy? You know what? I saw Dennis Miller a few weeks ago, and Dave Grohl (from the Foo Fighters) was on, and he made a really good point, which I totally agreed with. That was that music should be free. You pay for the jewel cases, the notes, the stickers, all that junk, but music itself should be free. You shouldn't have to throw a nickel in your radio every time you want to hear Metallica. For a band like us, who are relatively small, it just helps us, because there's so many people out there that have heard of us, but haven't really heard much of our music. I really believe that Napster enables people a unique opportunity to preview music, and then go buy it later. I think a lot of kids that live out in the boonies that can't go out to the city to record stores really gain from it too. I think it helps a lot, and I don't think it hurts anybody. And another thing that Dave Grohl said that I think is really funny and really true too is that when you sell 50 million records, and you've got millions of dollars in the bank (this is a reference to Lars or Metallica), then screw you! You know, this guy has millions of dollars in he bank, and he's arguing over pennies. He claims these people are stealing from him, I mean, how much money do you people need? I can see if you're "Bo-ditily" or something and people are making money off of your songs, then that's just bull. When it first came out, I was kind of against it. But I thought about it more, and I think that you should have the chance to listen to something before you buy it. And granted, some people will go and never buy it, but I think most people do. But since it looks like they're shutting it down now, I don't really think it matters.