Exclusive Interview with The Saw Doctors' Leo Moran | Artist News

FFA caught up with The Saw Doctors during their current UK tour. Here is an exclusive interview with Leo Moran, founder member, song writer, and lead guitarist with the band.

FFA: How did you arrive at the name of The Saw Doctors?

LM: The story goes that someone who worked at the local sawmill was very lazy, so the Boss decided that some motivation was required and presented him with a white coat – from that day onwards he was known as 'The Saw Doctor'. Mind you, the person who originally told me that tale later denied it … but there was Guinness involved in the telling!

FFA: Your music is a celebration of Irish culture – but you also pick up on all the ‘Oirish’ clichés too … is humour an important part of what you do?

LM: Absolutely – it’s our natural state - we don’t try & be too serious – it doesn't seem to suit us!

FFA: But there is a serious element of course?

LM: Yes - We’ve always had that kind of balance but we’ve become better known for the upbeat & humorous side of things. We’ve always had songs taking the subject matter more seriously like Same Oul’ Town, Hope We Meet Again, and Irish Post, but it seems to be more visible to people when we are more upbeat & humorous.

FFA: Colin Scott, the Festival Director of Guilfest, suggested that FFA talk to you about Michael D Higgins, the Irish President. The Saw Doctors once wrote a song about him ‘Rockin in the Dail’ … what triggered all that?

LM: Michael D was a lecturer at my college in Galway and I’ve known him from the early 80’s. He was Ireland’s first ever Minister for Arts & Culture – when he was given that job he had a little homecoming in Galway and that’s when we wrote that song.

FFA: Is there a danger in aligning yourselves with a politician?

LM: I know him beyond all that… he has always been a great supporter of human rights…he stands up for the underdog…. It goes beyond normal politics for me. It is a personal believe that the man does good things rather than what party he’s in, he stands up for the right things.

FFA: The Saw Doctors are extremely successful in the States; How does the whole Irish thing impact and have you widened the type of audience you attract over the years?

LM: Irish Americans were our natural seed audience…. They were the only people who knew we existed when we went over first of all – but after 80 trips we fit into a lot of different areas now – we play the major rock venues but also Bluegrass festivals ! Whilst any band abroad is seen as representative of their home culture the majority of people over there just accept us as a rock band with songs they like.

FFA: Do you tailor your act for different countries? … Different parts of the UK?

LM: No Not really. We don’t change our show…. We find audiences similar wherever we play. There is the odd song in the repertoire that is more popular in different countries, but that’s down to the degree of exposure it gets locally.

….We have found that Leeds has been the most hectic show of the last two tours… I would say that in Britain the more north you go the more boisterous the show!

FFA: Your latest single is a version of ‘Downtown’ featuring Petula Clark. What’s the background to Downtown?

LM: Like most good ideas - we stumbled across it. We have a song called Hay Wrap where we can insert just about any song we like! … either for local relevance or because we like it! ….for instance at a recent show in Birkenhead we inserted some of ‘Oliver’s Army’ because Costello was from there. We’d started playing ‘Downtown’ and our Producer knew someone who knew Petula and she said that she’d like to sing along – so that’s how it happened.

FFA: What are you planning for 2012?

LM: We have a big tour in the States planned early in the year – and then we normally tour the UK around April.

FFA: Any festival appearances?

LM: We hope to get as many as possible…. festivals are our way of making new friends. Other bands have more radio and music press than us… so festivals are our way of meeting new people.

FFA: You’ve just started a UK tour - what do you do in the downtime between gigs?

LM: We live on the tour bus every night & drive to the next gig… so during our days off we just tend to have a good wash & a lie in! We are quite lazy really!

The Saw Doctors latest single 'Downtown' is out now!