Kilmaine Saints
In 2009, a Harrisburg-based Celtic punk band formed for the sole purpose of getting free beer. Now, they’re about to release their fourth studio album.
If all goes according to plan, the album will drop in mid to late spring, said Brendan Power, lead singer of the high-energy band, in an interview held, appropriately, downtown at McGrath’s Pub. But all might not go according to plan.
“Being an Irish band, we know what Murphy’s Law can do to you,” said Power, reciting the famous maxim that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
The group’s lineup has changed over the 14 years since bassist (and bagpipes and accordion player) Jon Heller teamed up with original drummer Mike McNaughton to form a new band to get free beer from Harrisburg bars on St. Patrick’s Day. The two founding members knew each other from being in the Harrisburg Pipe & Drum Band.
Turnover has fueled the band’s evolving sound.
“This is the best songwriting and the most diverse background of musicians we’ve had,” Power said.
It’s also Kilmaine Saints’ first full-length release without an outside producer. Band members are doing all the recording and producing at their own pace.
The band took the same approach on an earlier acoustic EP, which served as a dry run for this full album, said guitarist Erich Arndt.
“That’s just another reason why this particular album is so collaborative in nature,” said fiddle player Gary Eurice. “Not only did we all have such a heavy hand in the songwriting but then in the actual execution of getting the album done. We are all individually working on our own tasks.”
Formed on “good whiskey and bad intentions” as noted on the band’s website, Kilmaine Saints has seven members. Besides Arndt, Eurice, Heller and Power, there’s Bill Brown on bagpipes, bouzouki and whistle, Rich Lipski on banjo, mandolin and acoustic guitar, and Tommy Leanza on drums.
Only Power has true Irish roots. He was born in Ireland and moved to the United States at age four. His family still has a house and farm in the old country.
The band is named for a pub in Kilmaine, Ireland, close to Power’s boyhood home. A former band member whose family owned the pub suggested the name.
“We’re definitely not saints,” Power said. “So, it’s kind of an oxymoron to call ourselves that.”
Labor of Love
Much of Kilmaine Saints’ music fits into what Power jokingly calls the four categories of Irish music.
“I’m gonna fight somebody. I’m gonna drink and then fight somebody. I’m gonna sing a song about my family leaving and never coming home, and then we’re gonna sing a song about drinking and fighting somebody,” he said.
But there’s more to Celtic music than that. The songs tell stories of ordinary people and their struggles, sometimes funny and tongue-in-cheek, other times sad and poignant.
Celtic music, even the power punk that is Kilmaine Saints’ bread and butter, has a traditional base reflecting the land and culture from which it is derived, said Eurice, a fiddle player for 20 years.
“I think, instinctively, everybody at some base level loves Celtic music,” he said. “Anytime you are in a bar and a traditional Irish jig comes on, you see people look at each other and smile.”
The band isn’t full-time for any of the members, who have jobs ranging from computer nerd to product rep to painter to, yes, chemical engineer.
“It’s a labor of love,” Power said. “We hope to one day be rock stars by the time we’re 90.”
Several members came to Kilmaine Saints out of the central Pennsylvania punk band scene.
Tired of toiling in cover bands, Lipski responded to a craigslist ad the band posted seeking new members.
“I was drawn more to the harder edge coming from the punk side of it,” he said, citing Dropkick Murphys, a Celtic punk band that’s been around since the mid-‘90s. “These guys have kind of the same sound, so I thought it would be a cool fit.”
Arndt, of Hanover, joined Kilmaine Saints after filling in for a member who had taken leave due to a new baby.
“I’ve always been a pop punk guy,” he said. “This is just pop punk with all kinds of weird instruments.”
Between the new album and reopening of life post-COVID, Kilmaine Saints sounds like a band poised for bigger things.
“There are a lot of big Celtic festivals and Irish festivals around the country,” Eurice said. “We’re hoping the next album kind of breaks down those doors to get us a more national reputation.”
The band is planning a new video. A first-ever European tour—starting in Ireland, of course—could be in the offing. Plans for a trip to the old country fell through a few years ago due to the pandemic.
Kilmaine Saints also looks forward to plenty of live shows to plug the heck out of the new album.
“There is something to be said about the songwriting and how it sounds and the production on an album,” Power said. “But there is also a different experience to seeing it live and see the sweat that goes into it and the energy and the fun we have on stage, not only with the crowd but amongst ourselves.”
For more information on Kilmaine Saints, visit www.kilmainesaints.com.
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