JAMES STRECKER: Please tell us about one or more projects that you have been working on or have recently completed. Why exactly do they matter to you and why should they matter to
FINNY MCCONNELL: I am writing a new Mahones album now (untitled), I am putting together our 30th Anniversary Best Of album and also working on our Live In Hamburg album that we recorded in Germany on Friday the 13, March 2020, on the final night of our European Tour before the plug was pulled. We did get in 30 shows in 10 countries in Feb and March, so we were lucky.
These projects are all very important to me for celebrating The Mahones amazing 30 years as a band. I am very proud of what we have done and accomplished all over the world and I want everyone to enjoy the very best work of our career. All songs on the 30th Anniversary album were handpicked my me. All my favourites.
JS: How did doing these projects change you as a person and as a creator?
FMCC: The old stuff in the back catalogue was great to hear again and go through. I brought back many amazing memories from over the last 30 years. The new album is in the very early stages, so I am just excited to see where it takes me again. Every album you make is always an exciting new adventure, and now I just have to make it great and keep on the tracks!
JS: What might others not understand or appreciate about the work you produce or do?
FMCC: Some people assume we are an east coast folk band like Great Big Sea or something like that (p.s. I love Great Big Sea), and don’t come to the shows because they do not like Celtic music? Then when they finally do, they see we are more like The Clash and The Pogues and apologize for not coming earlier and say they LOVED IT and come to every show after. I just think people should. never assume. Just support live music, go see the bands and artists and leave if they suck. That’s what I do. When they are bad, I do the Irish goodbye and when they are great, I am in the pit!!!
JS: What are the most important parts of yourself that you put into your work?
FMCC: I just try to make all The Mahones albums and concerts amazing. We give 200% all the time. 10 or 10,000 people in the crowd, everyone gets the best show!!!
JS: What are your biggest challenges as a creative person?
FMCC: I think the hardest thing to do is to come up with fresh new ideas, without leaving your musical genre and pissing off all your fans. I have found a way to mix my love of Punk Rock and Irish Celtic music together, so it really works great for me right now. The Mahones Black Irish Album was the one where I really found The Mahones sound.
JS: Imagine that you are meeting two or three people, living or dead, whom you admire because of their work in your form of artistic expression. What would you say to them and what would they say to you?
FMCC: I would have liked to have met David Bowie and talk to him about songwriting and fashion. He was absolutely the best. Maybe also it would nice to travel back in time and meet Bach and Mozart and find out how the hell they wrote the music they did? I would have also liked to meet Grant Hart from Husker Du and help him and try to get healthy again and get back on top. I really hard to see people die slowly from drugs and bad health reasons. Heartbreaking to see. Such a great loss.
JS: Please describe at least one major turning point in your life that helped to make you who you are as a creative artist.
FMCC: I can really go back to when I was little child in grade 3 at school in Kingston, Canada. I was invited onstage by the Rick Fondell Funband on the Island Queen boat. I got up onstage to play and sing The Beatles song Rain (I love that song) with them and never looked back. I knew this was what I wanted to do then and there. I now wanted to play live concerts and make albums.
The second time was when I moved to England in 1985 and leaving my band The Filters in Kingston, Ontario (with Gord Downie and Rob Baker who would soon form The Tragically Hip at Queen’s University). When I first got off the plane in London, England, I went straight to Piccadilly Circus and bumped into The Clash in the now gone Regent’s Palace Hotel. I knew then I had landed in the right city to start my professional music career. I am a huge fan of The Clash!
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JS: What are the hardest things for an outsider to understand about your life as a person in the arts?
FMCC: I think people sometimes separate being a professional musician and a “real job”, which I find quite funny. I have been in The Mahones for 30 years now and it is my only job. I just work very hard to keep it going. Musicians do not retire.
JS: Please tell us what you haven’t attempted as yet that you would like to do in the arts? Why the delay so far?
FMCC: I have attempted most things on my list now. I have done a double concept album (The Hunger & The Fight, the first in Celtic Punk), and I have recorded more records and done more world tours than most musicians in the music business these days. I have also done loads of collaborations with other musician’s and played guitar for British punk legends UK SUBS on tour. The Mahones just did our first acoustic UnPlugged album (only took 30 years) which was then released in March 2020. I am not sure what to do next. Any ideas for me?
JS: If you could re-live your life in the arts, how would you change it and why?
FMCC: I would not play Irish music next time. I would do a different style to explore new things. That said, I am very happy being in The Mahones and love my artistic life now.
JS: Let’s talk about the state of the arts in today’s society, including the forms in which you work. What specifically gives you hope and what specifically do you find depressing?
FMCC: I love the fact we can record at home and release our music worldwide now. That is a beautiful thing. The only problem now is we no longer get paid for our music like we used too, so it is very hard to make any money these days. You have to go on tour and sell merchandise to survive in this industry today. That is just the way it is now. I may just release singles in the future. The Mahones have already made 21 albums, so I don’t even know if we should make any more these days. The future is unwritten, as Joe Strummer would say.
JS: What exactly do you like about the work you create and/or do?
FMCC: I like my work because I always try to be the best at what I do. I love the challenge, and the rewards. I have very high standards, but I like to keep one foot in the gutter to keep it real!
JS: In your creative life thus far, what have been the most helpful comments you have heard about your work?
FMCC: We quite often hear from our fans and read online in our reviews that we are one of the best in the world in the Celtic Punk, and that we are one of the hardest working bands. I like that!
JS: Finally, what do you yourself find to be the most intriguing and/or surprising things about you?
FMCC: That I never give up. I never take no for an answer to follow my dreams and I believe you can do anything you want to. Just do it!!!!