Today, the Dropkick Murphys have announced that they will be releasing their 10th studio album, Turn Up That Dial, on April 30th via their own Born & Bred Records. The record is available for pre-order here.
Across 11 tracks on Turn Up That Dial, Dropkick Murphys have chosen to celebrate the simple pleasure of music, and the relief from worry that you can get when you simply hit play and turn up the. music. “On this record, the overall theme is the importance of music, and the bands that made us who we are,” explains Dropkick Murphys founder and co-lead vocalist Ken Casey. “We just hope [the album] takes people’s minds off their troubles. We’re so fortunate and grateful to be in the position to share a little happiness in our own way. Our gratitude levels are off the chart. 25 years ago, somebody bet me 30 bucks I couldn’t form a band with three weeks’ notice to open for his band. As kids, we’d never been out of New England and here we are – we’ve made ten records and have been all over the globe. If there’s a message to this album, it’s ‘put your fist up and play it loud.’”
The album was born and put together while the band was hunkered down at home during the pandemic, as the band essentially found themselves without work for the first time in 25 years. They worked out of Q Division Studios in Somerville, Massachusetts with longtime producer/collaborator Ted Hutt, and recorded Turn Up That Dial in shifts of two band members at a time. For the final weeks of recording, Hutt ran the sessions via video conference from his studio in LA. For background vocals, the guys set up separate mics in five different rooms so they could all simultaneously sing safely. “We were all looking at each other out the window, at least,” recalls Casey.
On top of the album announcement, Dropkick Murphys have also shared the first single, “Middle Finger,” which can be heard below. Co-vocalist Al Barr spits out the verses with an evil, tongue-in-cheek grin, as the track explodes into the chorus, “I could never keep that middle finger down.” Not one to shirk responsibility, Casey offers this reflection: “Thinking of my younger days, I made things a lot harder for myself than they needed to be – and still pay for some of those mistakes now.”
As previously announced, Dropkick Murphys will perform some of the tracks from the album when they virtually reunite with fans around the world for their Dropkick Murphys St. Patrick’s Day Stream 2021…Still Locked Down to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on Wednesday, March 17 at 7:00 PM ET / 4:00 PM PT.
The free streaming online concert – with no in-person audience – will be simulcast worldwide here and will feature Dropkick Murphys performing socially distanced on an arena-sized stage with a full LED screen and a brand new video show.
