Mud Wasp – Interview – Thanks for Asking!
By Staff on June 13, 2025
Mud Wasp – Interview – Thanks for Asking! – by Liam Sweeny.
RRX: We all get a little support from those around us. And we also can be impressed by our fellow performers. Who do you admire in your community, and why?
MW: I admire the people and places giving me an opportunity to share my new music like this publication! People who book music seem to be pretty risk averse so I appreciate the following places taking a chance on me and my new project. I’ll be at the Unihog in Hoosick Falls, NY on Sunday July 27th 1-4 pm, Berkshire Busk on Saturday August 23rd 6:30-8:30 in Great Barrington, MA, Glenville Reformed Church October 4th 2-3p, and Wolf Hollow Brewing in Schenectady, NY for a special fundraiser Sunday October 5th 1-4 which will have a band backing me.
RRX: A band is a business. A business of love, but you got to work for it. Let’s pretend, instead of a band, you all owned a business. What would it be, and why would it be good?
MW: I would be an organic produce and native plant farmer. I am very into gardening and spend a lot of time at my community garden plot in Troy, NY maintaining my no till organic garden. The name Mud Wasp comes from the native mud daubers (wasps) that are attracted to the native plant garden in the front of my house. I am constantly advocating for people to grow their own food and turn useless lawns into native plant gardens.
RRX: Cover art is cool. It shows listeners what the artist thinks the album is all about. Because music can be felt visually. If you had to give the public a visual image that you think they would see and just “get” your groove right away, what would it be?
MW: I think a mud dauber drinking a Guinness playing a banjo with other musicians around it would be a pretty apt image. My new album, Folk Craic Volume 1, features some of my DIY art that I carved on a printing block and hand printed on each album. Since physical albums seem to be becoming obsolete (no CD players in new cars!) I hand make each album so people can leave with a little piece of art.
RRX: Artists, musicians, we immortalize. We set it in stone. Is there anyone who has passed that you feel you have immortalized in your work? If so, can you tell us a little about them?”
MW: I am very influenced by The Pogues. I try to convey the similar Irish Punk attitude of Shane MacGowan (of The Pogues) who passed away a few years ago in my work. My Uncle Bill Kenneally, who also passed away a few years ago, is immortalized in my work. I think the first concert I ever saw was his band playing St. Patricks day at his house for a family party. A lot of the Irish songs I play now I heard back when I was first starting to play music and only now many years later do I appreciate them.
RRX: Stereotypes are a bitch. I mean, aside from the really bad ones, you have cultural stereotypes about everything, including music. Would do you think is the stereotype for the music you play, and how far are you away from it?
MW: Right now I would describe the music I am playing as Irish Folk Punk. Collectively I do not know if there are stereotypes but there certainly are for each one of those genres individually. I try to break away from stereotypes by doing music in my own way and creating music I want to hear. I feel I am breaking the mold of what a guitarist is expected to do in Irish music by playing the melodies in an aggressive flatpicking style. My singing style is also one that is generally done over a kind of irish rock band but i want to do it over acoustic music.
RRX: Our style comes from the extension of our influences. It’s like an evolution. We’re influenced, and it inspires us to influence. What can you say about your influences, and what you feel you’ve done with their influence as a musician or band? Have you extended their work?
MW: I have spent a lot of time playing/studying flatpicking and Django Reinhardt style guitar. More than 10,000 hours if you believe in that sort of thing. Now I believe I am subconsciously influenced by these styles of playing. Recently I made a decision to embark on a new musical journey learning Irish songs and tunes. In Irish music I am very influenced by The Dubliners, The Pogues, and The Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem. I like to think I am contributing to this musical genre by giving my own take on these centuries old songs. When I flat pick the melodies on guitar or banjo and sing in the voice I would use in a loud pub I am creating music I like to call Folk Craic.
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