Sometimes you have to catch someone at the bar and do the interview.
I’ve known Mike Ireland for a while now and we had talked about doing this for months, so after a quick round, we stepped outside and spent five minutes on it.
He’d just wrapped another run with I Am The Avalanche, and the first thing we talked about was the tour.
“It was incredible. So much fucking fun.”
Simple answer, but coming from a band that’s been around for more than 20 years, that means something. Most bands don’t make it that long, and the ones that do don’t always sound like they’re still having a good time with it.
Ireland does and means it, I have no doubt.
He didn’t come up through Richmond originally. Virginia Beach first, then a long stretch in New York, about two decades, which is where a lot of this story really took shape. Like a lot of musicians from that era, New York was the proving ground. Touring, recording, figuring it out as you go.
Or in his case, maybe not quite figuring it out at first.
“I didn’t really know how to play guitar back then,” he said, laughing.
“So you faked it till you made it?”
“Yes.”
“Wha? How did you get in this band?”
“Because of my looks,” he said, deadpan, before laughing it off. “My kicks and stuff. I look cool on stage.”
It’s half a joke, but it’s also not.
Now things are different.
“I know how to play guitar now. Sort of,” he said. “And it feels good to play the songs, to play them well.”
That “sort of” feels intentional. Less about mastery, more about staying loose, honest, and above everything, the songs are still the point.
And somewhere in the past 20 years, New York stopped being the center of things. Not in a dramatic way, just in the way life tends to shift.
“I love it. Wanted to raise my kid here,” he said about coming to Richmond.
And that’s how you end up with a guy who’s spent years touring now pouring drinks around town, then heading back out on the road when the band calls.
The band’s latest record, The Horror Show, just came out, their fifth full-length. It’s the first since Dive in 2020, which landed at the worst possible time. They had a full tour lined up, maybe more, and then everything shut down.
“We had pretty much a world tour booked for that record, and then COVID hit, and then that all went to shit. But we worked really, really hard on that record. We’re proud of it. It just kind of slipped through the cracks,” Ireland said.
That gap, about six years between albums, wasn’t planned, but it gave this one a different kind of weight. Ireland describes it as heavy, personal. A lot of loss, his and frontman Vinnie Caruana’s, worked into the songs.
“It’s a very harrowing album that’s very deep, personally, for me and for our singer, Vinny,” he said. “He experienced some extremely profound loss during the writing of this record, and I experienced a lot of loss as well, but in a different capacity. And that shows on the record, but there’s little beams of sunlight in there too.”
That balance has always been part of what makes the band work. There’s always something pushing back the other direction.
Like most bands that make it this far, the lineup has shifted over time. Some members don’t tour anymore, others have been around long enough that they’re not really “new” anymore, even if they weren’t there at the start. Either way, Mike considers all of them family.
Still, Ireland didn’t hesitate when talking about where things stand now.
“The band is better than it’s ever been.”
They’ll be back through Richmond on June 14, supporting Thrice at The National. New York and Boston are always fun shows, he said, but Richmond is on the top of that list too.
“I’m excited for Richmond, man. Going to be a great show.”
Before wrapping, he threw out his favorite local spots without me asking, Bamboo Cafe, The Locker Room, Patrick Henry Pub and Get Tight. It’s a his short list, and honestly, it could be my short list. All great bars.
But there’s no grand narrative here about reinvention or comeback arcs. It’s just a guy who’s been doing this for a long time, still doing it, but now doing it from Richmond. Playing shows, raising a kid, working behind a bar, and writing songs.
And then getting back in the van when it’s time. Sounds like a great life for a solid dude.
We wrapped up and rolled back in for another round.
Main photo by Steve Levy
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