Your music is hard to pin down. Rock? Country? How do you describe it ?
I call it southern music because southern rock has a pigeonholing effect. When people think about southern rock, they think about Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers. That's the mental picture that people conjure up. It can be a little bit limiting. Since our music incorporates, just like theirs does, traditional folk music, bluegrass and blues, we say southern music.
You've been described as too country for rock and too rock for country.
I think it has been pretty fair. We took on that burden when we started. It is not an issue. It fits with what we do. As far as radio goes in the United States, that was a good excuse for people not to play our music.
The argument over what is rock or what is country gets ridiculous. It becomes a tired argument. At the end of the day, we’re just two guitars, bass, drums, keyboards and vocals. It sounds what it sounds like. The people who are our die-hard fans don’t care. They just want to hear the music.
Is there much of a difference between American and European audiences?
We've had a few European tours. I was really surprised how the European audiences really listened and really take in everything, every solo, every lyric and every note. They are really appreciative. American audiences can be that way, but sometimes it will get a little louder. It seems to me that people in Europe really listen.
A lot of southern music has its origins Ireland. Was Irish music an influence on your growing up?
Absolutely, my dad was a bluegrass singer and I grew up listening to bluegrass. Many of those ballads come directly from you guys. Bill Monroe, who was the great architect of bluegrass, was a genius at incorporating blues and gospel and Irish folk ballads and those beautiful songs about tragedy and murder. It was great. It is a hugely important element of what we do in a roundabout way.
You've been on the go for 14 years, but you had to wait until your last album, The Whippoorwill, before making a major commercial breakthrough. How did that happen?
Our fanbase grows every year and that's from non-stop touring. Things happen and cause a pop. There's a cable channel here called Palladia and last year, or the year before, they started airing our first DVD, Live at the Georgia Theatre. They would play an hour-long version of the concert – that was huge since we don't get any radio play.
Palladia is about to air our second live DVD as well. That, and touring and social media, is a great tool as far as letting people know that you have a product coming out.
Tell us about your new album Holding All the Roses, which will be out early next year?
Yes, it is produced by Brendan O'Brien. It is fabulous. It is definitely going to make our rock'n'roll fans happy.
What did O'Brien bring to the party?
We wanted to work with Brendan since we started the band really because previous to him working with AC/DC, Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen, he made our favourite rock records of the late 1980s and 1990s such as The Black Crowe's first two records, Raging Slab and The Four Horsemen. Those records are just furious, they are incredible. We thought that Brendan O'Brien would get what we do, and boy did he. He had a sit down with us in Los Angeles and I think we knew right away that it would work.
What makes him such a good producer?
He is such a great musician first and foremost. He is one of the best guitar players you will ever hear. He has a great understanding of song, that's his job to tell you whether his song sucks or not. He brought an excitement to the sessions that we had never seen before in working with different people. He is very passionate about his music – and impatient at the same time – and it made for great tensions. We had a blast. It was a great experience.
It seems a lot of the best producers are ballbreakers?
Part of his job is to drag the very best performance out of the band that he can – and he did.
Your reputation as a live band goes before you. What can your Irish fans expect?
Send them home sweating as they say, that will be our goal.
Blackberry Smoke play The Academy, Dublin, on Wednesday, October 15th
