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METAL PULP AND PAPER: Hello Matt. So glad to be catching up with you. Thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions for Metal Pulp And Paper about the upcoming 2019 Aftershock Festival that you are slated to be playing at in Sacramento, California coming this October. Aftershock is a monstrous event for music fans and music lovers everywhere. It’s metal, it’s rock and roll, it’s more metal, and it’s more rock and roll. To sum it up, it’s a three-day event with three stages, with over 50 artists at the Discovery Park in beautiful Sacramento, California.
MATT KELLY: Hey, thanks for the interview!
MPAP: Are you geared up and ready for Aftershock?
MATT: Yup; we’ll be in the midst of a U.S. tour with Clutch, Hatebreed, and Amigo The Devil by the time we hit Sacramento, so we’ll be firing on all cylinders.
MPAP: Tell us some of the best things about being a part of a music festival, especially playing at one of this magnitude?
MATT: Well, I guess the fact that we’ll be bringing something slightly different to the table makes us stand out from all the double kick, tuned down, evil craziness. It works for us on crazy metal festivals in Europe so I think seeing the reaction of the crowd will be the best part.
MPAP: Explain to us what is a day in the life when you’re performing at a music festival? Do you go hang out with the other bands, mingle with the fans, or kick back and relax on the tour bus until it’s time to hit the stage?
MATT: It really depends on the festival and who is playing it. If we have 'brother bands' there, we’ll hang with them, but we’re somewhat insular; band and crew total about eighteen people, so we tend to hang with our bandmates and crew buddies. Also, everybody’s got a different way of dealing with huge crowds both backstage and out front. Personally, if we’re in a city, I’ll look for record shops, bookshops, clothing stores, or whatever. Later I’ll watch a couple bands if they’ve piqued my interest, but you’ll usually find me up backstage setting up, changing heads, tuning my drums, and all that happy day-to-day tour stuff.
MPAP: This year’s bill has Slipknot, Staind, Tool, Korn, along with many others, including Lamb Of God, Highly Suspect, Gojira, and Babymetal. Is there any group that you’re especially looking forward to watching from the side stage the day you perform?
MATT: We’ll see, there are a lot of bands to choose from. If Architects were on the same day as us, I’d throw an earball on them. Top-class fellas there.
MPAP: What’s in the crosshairs for Dropkick Murphys after the festival? What else do you have going on after that we should all know about?
MATT: We’re gearing up to write a new album, so ideas are starting to crystallize. We’ll take a couple weeks off after tour to get our lives together, and then concentrate on writing.
MPAP: On behalf of myself and Metal Pulp And Paper, thank you, Matt, for taking the time to answer a few questions. We look forward to what Dropkick Murphys does to finish out 2019 and beyond. Any last words for all your fans and all the Aftershock Festival maniacs out there that will see you in October? What do you want to tell them so they will go out and buy tickets and travel to California to see you and many others play live?
MATT: Yeah, to our fans: thanks for your years of support; we’d be nothing without you! To potential fans: come to the friggin’ show!
GET ALL THE AFTERSHOCK INFORMATION HERE: