Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed. The interview may be lightly edited for content and clarity.
Being about 1/6th Irish, I am a casual fan of Celtic punk music. Back in March of 2023 I checked out a live show from The Dropkick Murphy’s and one of the opening acts was The Rumjacks. As I said in my review of the show (which you can read here), they are similar in music style, but do their own take on the genre of Celtic punk and are far from a copycat of any other mainstream Celtic bands. They are about to release their 6th LP in February which follows up their 2021 LP Hestia, and go on a massive European tour, so we caught up with Johnny McKelvey (bass and backing vocals) for an edition of Roll of the Dice questions.
I am going to start out with the question you probably get a lot and have answered a million times. I’ve noticed some ska influences in your music and wonder if members of the band or the entire band are ska fans and is there a good ska scene in Australia? I mean Kevin Bivona of The Interrupters mixed your new album, you have to be ska fans.
Johnny – Oh we absolutely are fans of ska! Whole band with out a doubt. It’s kinda funny that amongst any band everyone will always have their own thing going on and bands and styles they like but there are always a handful of bands or genres that EVERYONE likes. Ska is one of them. Years before The Rumjacks ever started Adam and Mike both played in ska bands in their home towns. Haven’t had a chance to get Mike to bust out his trombone on a Rumjacks record yet but maybe one day hah.
I think it was in a way unavoidable to not at least have ska around you even while just trying to listen to the fastest, most aggressive punk bands you are discovering, ska was always there! Ska is fun, we love it and think it absolutely works in The Rumjacks.
As for the Australian ska scene, it was never huge by any means that’s for sure. Some good bands like The Porkers, Area 7 and The Resignators were doing quite well in the early 00’s and loads of smaller bands would pop up but it never really exploded. Bands like Melbourne Ska Orchestra and The Bennies are keeping the flame burning in Aus these days.
Having Kevin Bivona mixing Dead Anthems was an absolute dream! Super talented guy and just ‘got it’.
Ok, maybe that wasn’t the question you are sick of answering. For our readers that don’t know, the band was formed in Sydney, Australia, and I don’t think many people associate Celtic music with Australia, or maybe it’s just me, I’ve been to Sydney too and I don’t recall seeing many Irish pubs. How did the band form, and how big is Celtic music in Australia?
Johnny – Yeah, I totally get why at first people wouldn’t put the two together BUT for a bunch of reasons it did lend its self to always happening. There has always been large explosions of immigration of Irish, Scottish, English, etc people, so like anywhere, brought their music, art and culture. The Irish population and community in Australia is actually huge and has been thriving for quite a while. The likes of Adam and I both come from Irish immigrant families in the 70s/80s so we are an example of our generation growing up with Irish/folk music in the household. Like so many others it was just always around us from day one so Australia having a strong Irish/Celtic/folk influence isn’t as weird as you’d think.
The Rumjacks formed by accidentally meeting each other I guess. We lived in the same area of Western Sydney but all played in different bands at the time and by chance we started meeting each other. Everyone knew someone who knew someone, who would been keen to get the band going and it started that way. Few small lineup changes in the beginning then just set out to record some music and tour non stop.
I believe now the band (or some members) has relocated to Belfast, Northern Ireland, and a few years back added lead singer and songwriter Mike Rivkees who is from Boston. Is this correct, and what was the reason for relocating?
Johnny – This is true, these days we are all scattered all over the world. Australia is a great place and we found after a while it was just very hard to try push it as far as we wanted by staying ‘put’ in Australia. We started to get offers from Europe and USA and looked at the idea of heading abroad to expand the fan base and REALLY push this as hard as we could. Once we did our first European tour our eyes kind of opened to the huge scene that exists overseas. From there we kept returning and grew the band. Will forever love Australia but even from a logistical perspective, Australia is very far from well, everything. We had the chance to move abroad and make touring easier and more often so we took it.
Speaking of Mike, who I believe does a lot of the song writing for the group, is there more focus on writing songs that are good for live performances as opposed to what sounds good in the studio? The band seems to really get the crowd into the songs and sing alongs, so I guess what I’m asking is that the goal in the song writing to make more anthem style sing-along style tracks?
Johnny – Mike is an absolute machine when it comes to writing songs. He is always sending over demos or ideas and with out a doubt the first thing that stands out are the huge sing-along ‘anthem-like’ parts in them. Even then into the studio or further discussion, how the songs would sound live or how it would work with the crowd is always on our minds. Like I said, Mike is always writing songs and it wouldn’t be the only reason behind each song, a good song is a good song, but writing for the audience is a huge thing. At the end of the day you want that crowd singing along and screaming them back to you at every show.
I’ve only heard two songs off the new forthcoming album called Dead Anthems so far, and feels a little more hard rock to me with some ska on “Come Hell or High Water”, what do you want our readers to know about the new record?
Johnny – We basically have alway kept the same approach. No need to ‘re-invent’ our music, just record solid songs that don’t fucking suck. Put the effort in, work hard on the songs and the rest will sort itself out. We will always record the songs we love as a band first and foremost, and work our asses off in the studio to do each song the justice it deserves. Dead Anthems is just a great record with great songs. From rippers to the ska stuff, we just wanted to make a record we would want to listen to if it wasn’t our band that recorded it. Amongst our ‘scene’ there is an absolute sea of garbage out there and we didn’t want to put out a record that just floated along in that sea. That’s too easy.
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Likes fine beer and cheap cheese. He has been a DJ, sound mixer for commercials and television, and currently designs motorcycle parts. He also has a habit of creating pastiche style cover songs and changing the chorus to incorporate “Jeff” or “Sorley.” (sigh… it’s true – Jeff)
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