Philly Irish rockers Barleyjuice a QVC hit

You came from a rock and roll background. How did you land on playing Irish music?

In the eighties I was trying to do what was popular, trying to do whatever people told us because we were desperate to get a record. I was in a band in the nineties and we had record company support, so we had this opportunity to record a video in Scotland. I just fell in love with the bagpipes and the Celtic spirit.

From there, everything rose up and I just really got into the melodies and the spirit of the music. Of course, by that time I was old and ugly and didn’t care much for a record deal.

After putting “The Irish Collection” together and looking back at all the band has done before, how did it make you feel and what does it do to prepare you for the next album?

When we thought of this collection in deep terms like that, we were just trying to pull something out to sell on QVC. But then as we were going through tracks, we did say many times, “This isn’t who we are anymore.” 

Then in the process the best tracks were strung together, and I sort of fell in love with who we were again when I listened to it for the first time.

As for what is next, we joked that maybe this is the peak and we should disappear. We thought our last album (“Bonny Prince Barley”) was like our “Revolver” and we are feeling that with the 15 songs we have written become our “Sergeant Pepper.” We are aiming big!

For more information on the band, log onto www.barleyjuice.com

​
Nster.com