So good live… they bring the HOUSE DOWN
The Scratch sure can put on a show – which carries through to their new album
‘McMorrow said, “I’d love to produce your next album”. We were on the same page’
The Scratch
To attend a gig by The Scratch is to witness one of the best live bands in the country right now. Six years of slogging up and down the highways and boreens of Ireland has earned them a huge following and tightened them into a powerful proposition on any given night.
Daniel ‘Lango’ Lang (cajon, percussion, lead vocals); Jordan ‘Jordo’ O’Leary (guitar, lead vocals); Conor ‘Doc’ Dockery (guitar, backing vocals) and Cathal McKenna (bass/ backing vocals) mix the energy of heavy rock with the melody of trad and folk.
I’ve watched skin and hair flying at shows such as those at the Olympia, Vicar Street and Electric Picnic. A few nights after I spoke to Lango, lead singer of the Dublin band, their headline show at Cork Opera House had to finish early due to a safety barrier at the front of the stage becoming ‘compromised’. It is appropriate then that the band’s new album is called Mind Yourself. Produced by the slightly unlikely figure of James Vincent McMorrow, this is their second studio album and first on a major label. It captures that live energy while allowing emotional depths to be explored.
‘James ran into Doc and said, “You were in Red Enemy,” the metal band that we were all in before The Scratch, and he said to Doc, “I love the album”. It caught Doc off guard. It turns out James was a massive metalhead when he was younger,’ Lango says.
‘When [McMorrow] was asked to curate an Irish showcase gig in the Barbican in London, he invited us over to play. We hung out with him that night. Then later that evening he said, “I’d love to produce your next album”. We were a few pints in so we didn’t think much of it but he followed up a few days later. We soon realised we were on the same page and that he was what we were looking for.’
Red Enemy had run its course by 2016 and Lang, O’Leary and Dockery took to busking. They were videoed during the Rory Gallagher Festival in Ballyshannon in 2017, the video went viral and led to invitations to play festivals and Whelan’s in Dublin. What started as ‘a bit of a laugh’ has led to a topthree album and sell-out tours at home, in Britain and Europe.
‘The band was founded on a bit of craic. We took our previous band really seriously and ran ourselves into the ground,’ Lango says.
‘We stumbled across this sound and started busking it. It took us a good while to add words and when they did come, it was just about having a laugh. We’d never sung or written any lyrics before. But as we’ve gone on we’ve written more serious songs. There are ones on this album.’
Songs with titles such as Blaggard, Cheeky Bastard and Another Round point to their craic-at-all-costs approach but, as Lango indicates, when they do ‘serious’ they hit the spot with a rare potency. Shoes, written by Jordo about the effects of addiction, is devastating.
‘James said that he would like us to pivot somewhere a lot softer,’ Lango says. ‘I had heard the song because Jordo had it for what might have been a solo project and we pulled up his demo, heard it again and we all agreed that we had to it. We tried to do it as a full band and Doc said, “You go in and do it on your own, Jordo”. He did and it was so moving and authentic we all ended up crying in the control
room. Even though it is quite a departure from what we normally do, we knew it deserved a place on the album. We’re looking forward to introducing it as a bit of a contrast to what we normally do live.’
Both the band and McMorrow have pulled off that rare feat of truly capturing the essence of a great live band on an album.
But catch them on their upcoming shows to see The Scratch in their natural environment – and there is good news for those Cork fans, disappointed at the curtailment of the Opera House show, with the announcement of a gig at City Hall on December 30 – a non-profit show, with tickets at half price. On social media posts they’ve cheekily offered, ‘Let’s try this again shall we?’
Oh we shall, both in Cork and everywhere else.