“I’m grateful for every second of this,” admits Street Dogs singer Michael McColgan. He’s referring to the band’s summer-long stint with renowned punk festival the Vans Warped Tour in support of their fourth full-length State of Grace, but he could be talking about his musical career. “The people doing the real hard work are the ones doing the nine-to-five jobs, the students busting their asses to get degrees and people busting ass to put up stages at the venues. We’ve got it made. We’re lucky. We get to record, tour and write songs.”
Having been through the rock ’n’ roll wringer more than once, McColgan’s humble words weigh heavily. Putting in major time as a veteran of the first Iraq war and as original vocalist with Celtic punk heroes The Dropkick Murphys — leaving them at the end of the last decade to get his hands dirty as a firefighter with the Boston Fire Department — he’s seen his share of hard labour. Unable to deny the music in his soul, he inevitably returned to the stage with Street Dogs in 2002, a quintet dedicated to keeping punk — and music — rational, forthright and honest.
“With us, it’s not about latching onto the hottest genre or fashion. We’re not trying to reinvent ourselves to fit in. We just care about music and writing the best songs we can,” he says. “We believe in punk rock, rock ’n’ roll and folk songs. We really don’t give a shit about what’s going on around us. It’s about singing from your soul and meaning it. It has to be a part of you; an extension of the self.”
Initially only intended to be a one-off affair, performing a handful of shows and releasing their debut effort, Savin Hill, Street Dogs’ unpretentious music and engaging live show quickly earned them notoriety in the punk world. Compelled by fans to create sophomore album Back to the World, the band was once again revered as a driving force in punk rock, hand-picked for a variety of high-profile tours opening for the likes of Social Distortion and Bad Religion. Eventually, McColgan realized it was time to make a choice: maintain his day job or once again embrace music as his first true love.
“I couldn’t deny that I had to do this,” he concedes. “To be honest, you wrestle with the idea of pursuing a band full-time on a personal level. It’s an internal struggle, but the music and love of it is the guiding force. I guess we’ve made the right decision as far as doing the best we can with writing and touring. It was a big endeavour but it’s what we’re supposed to do. When you make that decision and accept it, it doesn’t take away any of the gravity or difficulty, but at the same time, if you feel that way in your soul, you have to follow it. Once it’s in you, it’s in you. It stays on your ankles and doesn’t let go.”
This down-to-earth mentality permeates Street Dogs’ bare-bones, four-chord punk rock, most notably on State of Grace. Their most refined effort to date, McColgan, guitarists Marcus Hollar and Tobe Bean III, bassist John Rioux and drummer Paul Rucker worked incredibly hard over the course of five months to bring the album’s 11 tracks to life, blending in the band’s inherent street-level sensibilities with a few outside twists.
“We worked ourselves to the bone with this album, no doubt about it,” McColgan says, adding that their presence on the Warped Tour has seen a dramatic increase in fans clamouring to hear State of Grace. “We stretched our sound and go to places we haven’t been before without losing who or what we are. This is our first record for Hellcat, which isn’t a feather in our cap, but when we decided to go full-time with the band on the second record, it was a leap of faith, and we haven’t looked back since. It’s a small label, but at the same time, they give back to punk and ska, keeping the focus on music, not fashion. If they believe in us, we made the right move. We’re grateful to be a part of that.”
