BACKSTAGE AT TRNSMT WITH THE SCRATCH | INTERVIEW

Opening day of TRNSMT 2024 and those arriving early doors are in for a rare treat as Irish band The Scratch make their Glasgow Green debut over on the infamous King Tuts Stage. Taking the stage just an hour or so after the gates opened (1.10pm), The Scratch present their unique blend of Irish Folk music infused by authentically metal roots. Presenting a naturally spirited stage presence with ear worming rhythm, The Scratch were well worth the early arrival.

Once the dust had settled on the opening set of the day, we headed backstage to catch up with lead vocalist/percussionist Daniel Lang and guitarist Conor Dockerty for some much needed ‘Craic’…

INTERVIEW | THE SCRATCH

Anne: So you played the King Tuts Stage earlier today, how did it go?

Daniel: Yeah, yeah. It was good craic. Everybody was getting burnt alive out there but it was a good turnout. Considering it was early, it’s a work day and it was a very young crowd. Doors had only been open an hour or so.

Anne: You’re no stranger to big crowds though, are you? Finsbury Park last week with Wolfe Tones…

Daniel: yeah, they’re good craic those guys 

Anne: And Glastonbury?

Daniel: Glastonbury was great! It was a long day though as we did two sets. We clashed with Shania Twain so I’m amazed we got anyone! Then we played a set a midnight at Shangri La and it was banging. It was top.

Anne: Was that your first time at Glastonbury?

Daniel: Yeah it was. We were surprised to see anybody with energy at midnight on Sunday! Fair play to them.

Anne: That definitely wouldn’t be me anyway!

Anne: For those who are unfamiliar with The Scratch though, your sound can only be described as a fusion between traditional Irish folk and Metal music. Tell me, how did that come together?

Conor: Ah, kind of by accident really. We were in a metal band for 10 years or so and that came to an end. We were starting to get into folk music, some of us were getting into traditional Irish folk music. So Jordo (guitarist) and Lango (aka Daniel) starting jamming acoustically, learning covers and stuff like that. In the first jam they wrote an instrumental jam and it was sort of half trad-buzz, and then we took a section from our metal band, put it on the end of it then thought, ‘ah, this actually works’. So it was very much by accident that these two things just work together.

Anne: But it does, it really does work!

Conor: hopefully! (laughs)

Anne: As a band you appear to be doing really well though and have been touring a lot more in America?

Conor: yeah, well we’ve done 2 tours in America now and we’ve done like 3 of the UK. So it’s kinda neck and neck.

Anne: What are the American crowds like? Are they mad for it? Will they start a pit?

Daniel: well they’re no Scottish crowd, I’ll tell you that much (laughs)

Anne: I was actually going to ask, are they better than the Scottish crowds?

Daniel: no, no way! To be fair, Glasgow’s always been amazing, all the times we’ve been here.

Anne: better than an Irish crowd??

Conor/Daniel: oooohhh ahhh (motioning hands to indicate half way)

Anne: I’m asking difficult questions now!

Daniel: But yeah, America’s great. Obviously it’s a different energy over there but they are mad for music and they do like a bit of Irish buzz, you know what I mean so yeah…

Conor: yeah it’s good, it’s been a good experience playing over there.

Anne: I was actually chatting to the guys from Brògeal and I was was telling them they need to get over to America! They would do great there!

Daniel: oh yeah we know them…anything rowdy…anything Irish..

Conor: anything with a diddle dee dee (laughs)

Anne: So your last album Mind Yourself, how was the reception to that?

Daniel: Yeah, it’s definitely gave us a step up in terms of popularity, so it did what it had to do in that sense. It was a lot different to the stuff we did before that so I don’t know how it was received by the people who have listen to us for a while. It was a bit of a transitional album for us trying to figure out how to fit amplifiers into the sound more. We were trying to figure out what we were, as in our sound. It was a long process and we’ve learnt a lot from it so we’re now looking forward going into the next album using the knowledge we gained from that process.

Anne: You have quite a collection of music though – especially for a band who started out just 6/7 years ago??

Daniel: So we started in 2016…

Anne: But you do have quite a back catalogue going…

Conor: Actually a friend of ours – Tim from the Dropkick Murphy’s – pointed that out recently. He went, “I went on your page and jeez, you’ve released a lot of music”, and we have to be fair. Our thing was at the beginning was like, just put stuff out without any sort of promo, build up or anything, so we got to put out a lot in quite a short space of time.

Anne: With everything being online/viral these days, do you feel you’ve gained a lot of traction through your visual presence online – videos, social media etc?

Conor: I think it’s been a bit of a ‘slowly but surely’ sort of process with us. I don’t think we’ve had any big viral moments.

Anne: Yeah, so not necessarily viral but through your music videos and live performances which really show your personality.

Conor: Yeah I think the live shows have been the biggest thing. We’ve played a lot of gigs in the past few years and we thought that was our strong point at the moment. Let’s get out and play as much as possible and it’s been the most beneficial thing for us.

Anne: So what’s your plan for new music then?

Daniel: In terms of new music, we’ve already started writing it. We’re well into writing this next album and we’d like to record it at the end of this summer. It’s all getting heavier.

Anne: Ooh, so is it getting heavier??

Daniel: Aye, yeah…I think the metal has well and truly crept back in at this point.

Anne: Is the metal winning then?

Daniel: Ah yeah, the metal is winning at the minute. Once we figure out how to incorporate the amps and once we stop being afraid of the amps. I think we were so precious about the way The Scratch were initially – it was all acoustic and all about the craic. It was all about sounding traditional and keeping the Irish so we were hesitant to sway and devient too far from that. But we had a producer on the last album who told us just to cop on it and go for it.

Anne: You only really get one shot?

Daniel: Yeah you just gotta do what you gotta do and there’s a lot of metal within us that’s dying to get out. We’re leaning much more into it this time around, so we’re buzzing for it.

Anne: Speaking of metal though, if you could write one album of all time. What would it be?

Daniel: Arrghhh…it’s a tough one, isn’t it? Let’s go with The Black Album, Metallica! Lets take that one, if I wrote The Black Album we’d be comfortable to say the least.

Conor: I would agree, I would probably go Metallica – Master of Puppets. But as a guitar player it would be Pantera – Cowboys From Hell. I would have been pretty comfortable with that guitar wise I had written it.

Anne: Good answers! You’re spoilt for choice really.

Anne: So when can we next see you guys live then? Any tour plans?

Conor: We’re in the Netherlands tomorrow and then that’s us – this is the end of a four week stint pretty much. Lots of festivals and a handful of support slots, so it’s been pretty busy. We’ve a few weeks off now then August is kind of busy with festivals. Reading & Leeds, Boomtown, Beautiful Days, Mosley Folk Festival…we’re doing a bunch of UK stuff then a couple of Irish dates, some European things then back to America in October with the Dropkick Murphy’s. Then maybe we’ll do some smaller Irish gigs when we get home. We’ll probably do a headline UK tour next year.

Anne: Final question! Finish this question…the best thing about Glasgow is…?

Daniel: White Russians!

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