BLAGGARDS!!
They're all a Bunch of Blaggards!

The Interview
by chaotic_structure

As I was preparing some interview questions for your band, I naturally went to your kick-ass site to read about you.
C.S. - Can you explain to me what a blaggard is, and why you chose it as your name?

Patrick Devlin - In Ireland, the older people would call the kids - blaggards when they were misbehaving. Instead of calling them scumbags or deviants, they would say Blaggard instead of using the real curse word.

C.S. - You're from Ireland and currently living in Houston, TX, yet, the other members are from Minnesota, New York, and Boston. How did you come together as a band being so spread out as you were?

P. Devlin - I was playing every Wednesday night at a club in Houston and Chad found me there. I was performing Irish standards that I spiced up a bit so I could stomach doing them. Chad liked what he heard and we hooked up. Then Turi found me via the Internet and she brought Brian on board.

C.S. - I noticed you have a Standards CD already out. You seem to all be songwriters. Do you have some new stuff that you are working on?

P. Devlin - Yeah, everybody brings something completely different to the group. We are all working on an album at the time. Whiskey in the Jar is probably the most popular song that we do and will be on this new album. The majority of this new album is going to be original.

C.S. - Do you think it was fate that you ended up in a part of Texas that was starving for just the music that you had been playing? Or is that where you saw the need and stepped in to provide it?

P. Devlin - I was slow to pick up on the fact that Houston didn't have this venue of music offered in the area. As soon as I noticed that Irish music was missing, I stepped in and did a solo gig at a local pub in Houston. Chad came to listen and heard the "metal" and it was just me and an acoustic guitar. The Dole was my first group. I got a group together and we had a great night and then I fired everyone after the show. It was a great experience but it gave me an idea of how to do this stuff and keep people's attention.

C.S. - So you fired everyone after the first show! Now that's a story and a half right there! Did you just blindside them with that decision?

P. Devlin - Well, it would've blindsided them if they had been sober. Probably today - if they sobered up, they wouldn't even remember they were in the band. I called these people up out of the blue and sent them tapes of the songs that we wanted to do and we learned the songs in my house in a circle and then once we got on stage - it was my first time to ever play on a stage with a band, and I had my back to them. Nobody knew the keys of the songs, nobody bothered to learn the songs, and they were completely lost when we did the show.

C.S. - So from that point on - there were no auditions for the current group Blaggards. Everyone just gravitated to you and it formed around you.

P. Devlin - Exactly.

C.S. -Where did the motto - "Mama Like" - come from?

P. Devlin - I said it a few times - when someone would throw in something to a song that I liked and everyone thought it was funny coming from me.

C.S. - Yeah, you are the big guy in the group, aren't ya? You are the tallest one. Come on - Say it for me!

P. Devlin - Well it's sort of hard to do just out of the blue but it sounds something like (growling and lower voiced) MaMa LIKE!

C.S. - Did you have a musical family growing up in Ireland? How involved in the music scene were you while you lived there?

P. Devlin - Yeah, my father was self-taught and sang ballads. When we would have parties at the house he would get up and play the piano and he would sing. He had a much better voice than I do. I always thought he had had lessons - because he could play very well. He would sing these songs - traditional Irish songs. He didn't try to sound like any folk artists - he had his own style.

C.S. - Are you married? Children?

Devlin - I've been married to the same woman and she hasn't kicked me out. I have two children ages 7 and 2 and yeah I did everything the right way. I got married and settled down first and then I formed a rock and roll band.

C.S. - Excellent - she loved you too much to kick you out by then.

P. Devlin - Yeah that and I can pick a lock quite well too. (laughter)

C.S. - Tell me you DON'T wear the roadkill hats! LOL! Is that really a hobby of yours making hats out of roadkill. :-)

Devlin - I have one of those Davy Crockett raccoon hats and I wore it one time and I think some one just told a little fib about my actually having a hobby collecting roadkill. I'm actually the only vegan I know that eats meat.

C.S. - Hmm. That is unusual - I don't think I've ever met a vegan that eats meat!

Devlin - Well, actually - I love meat. In fact, I'm not even sure if I eat vegetables!

C.S. - Ohhhh! You were pulling my leg! Now I know what I'm dealing with. (laughter) Maybe you should get a dead armadillo off the road and turn that into a skull cap!

Devlin - I'll write that down. I like that.

C.S. - What do you do for relaxation or intense fun when you aren't playing music?

Devlin - I like to drink a lot of coffee and try to walk straight.
I have two kids so my relaxation is - "Daddy - how high can you throw me?" You know? My family - we are all nocturnal. My daughter is two and she'll go to bed with me sometimes at 2 and 3 o'clock in the morning.

C.S. - Do each of you in the band have your own separate lives outside of playing together? Or do you hang out together pretty much all of the time?

Devlin - Yeah - very seperate. Very seperate now. It started off we tried to get together a lot but now Turi teaches a lot and Brian teaches as well - so it gets difficult to get together. And of course my main job is being a daddy. Being with my family is my day job.

C.S. - Well, does Chad have a day job?

Chad - I do websites, newsletters, print publication.

C.S. - I noticed that you had a rockin' mullet at one time. How long ago did you have your mullet and what happened to it? I'll admit it - I actually had a mullet in the 80's for a brief time. ;-)

Chad - Yeah - everybody that I knew had a hairstyle like that, but you know, I don't remember anyone ever referring to that style as mullets.

C.S. - I don't know when that term started being used for that hairstyle. I actually had to do some research to see what the term Mullet meant. I actually had a mullet at one time because I went on a hair-cutting frenzy and ended up getting it too short on top.

C.S. - Your personal website is full of all sorts of artistic interests? Does talent run in your family?

Chad - Well, thanks. Yeah - actually I do. (Devlin interjects - HUGE amounts of talent) Actually there are very few people in my family that have taken art seriously, or studied it as a career. Both of my parents are very creative and exposed me to a lot of good music when I was a youngster. Actually, the music thing, I just kind of stumbled into that.

C.S. - I noticed that you taught yourself the guitar? Is that right?

Chad - Yeah, well, I had a few lessons.

C.S. - On your site you mentioned that "Turi fell from the sky" - So it was a chance meeting?

Chad - Well, she actually found Patrick's website for the Patrick Devlin band - She had just recently moved into town from Madison, Wisconsin where she was going to school. There she was good friends with a band called the Kissers - We played a show with them here in Houston. Turi was looking for something like this type of music and when she did a search on the Internet - she found Patrick.

C.S. - So when you all came together - did you have similar backgrounds or did you have to learn all new music?

Chad -Yeah, I didn't know anything really about Irish music before this band. Yeah, I thought I knew a thing or two about the Pogues, but realized I didn't. But I just thought it was really fun stuff. It was more than that - Patrick is just a great guy to work with. We just hit it off very quickly and I realized it would be very nice to be in this band and I'm quite picky.

C.S. - You guys have such a tight sound and when I realized you had only been together for a couple of years, I was very impressed. What attracted you to Irish Rock. Was it once you heard Devlin?

Chad - I really wouldn't have done it had it not been for Patrick Devlin prior to meeting him. This is what I tell people that have just heard about it; that don't know anything about this type of music. People generally think - ah, it must be some of that world music kind of thing. But it's not really. It's great party music.

C.S. - Well, you have developed a loyal fan base. I noticed there are folks that just follow you around and can't seem to get enough of ya!

Chad - I can't tell you how much that means to us.

C.S. - Do you have time for a romantic relationship?

Chad and Devlin - (laughing)

Chad - No, I really don't have time for that. I don't have a relationship.

C.S. - So you being a songwriter, how much of the material is generated by you and how much by the others?

Chad - Actually, we all contribute pretty equally. Patrick of course, provided the core, him being from Ireland and all.

C.S. - Quite frankly - I see everyone in this band come as strong players with strong convictions about what they do. Is it the art of the songs or the cheer of the crowd, or pure desire that drives you to your best for this group?

Chad - It's all of those things. If we weren't doing it - we would be insane.

C.S. - Do you have any big tours coming up?

Devlin steps in - Yeah, we are just about to go back to New York. We've been up to Phillie, Boston and New York for St. Paddy's Day celebrations. Houston is not a great scene musically - so we end up going to play gigs in Corpus Christi, Austin, Dallas, San Antonio - so we play out a lot.

Patrick Devlin - We are playing in Dallas - The Dubliner on Greenville Ave. on Labor Day weekend on September the 3rd.

C.S. - Great! I hope to be able to make that trip and see you guys. So are Turi and Brian romantically involved?

Patrick - Yeah, Turi is very involved with uhm, (asks Chad - he is a guy?) (laughter) Yeah, Turi is heavily involved with a guy. And Brian is heavily involved in looking. He's on the prowl.

C.S. - Well, maybe after the interview is posted, he'll turn a few of the heads he might be interested in.

Patrick - Yeah, he'd like that. If you say he's tall and bullet proof, he'd like that too.

C.S. - Well, it's been an honor to interview you and we at the Bluedoodle wish you the best and believe that you'll go far.

Patrick Devlin - Well, thank you so much and I'd like to say thank you for the questions. It's the first time we have actually been challenged to think about our answers. (laughter) Thank you for your spark.

C.S. - Thank YOU for the MUSIC!


The two band members not present were Turi and Brian. Both of them were teaching classes that night. What I did manage to find out though is that Turi is nearing the end of completing her Masters in the Performing Arts and Brian is currently working on his PhD of Performing Arts.
Speaking of Turi - it seems she was born to play the violin. She's quite impressive. One can sense her dedication and love in her playing. I'm not sure she realizes just how many young women will see her as their dream musician.
Brian is very well educated in the field of music. I was very impressed with his credentials.

The ingredients that each of these players bring to this band, makes it a mighty, "good, Irish stew".

C.S.Well, I really dig what you guys are doing and I'm gonna be keeping my eyes on you. We at the bluedoodle wish you all the luck and we thank you for the interview.

Read what others have to say about BLAGGARDS

To hear some of their music - go to their BLAGGARDS MySpace site.

© 2006
chaotic_structure - pen name
deborah leeson
(email - deborahleeson@yahoo.com)