Everybody has had that moment in life when they’ve had to choose between doing the right thing and doing the easy thing.
For trad-metal Irish band The Scratch it came last summer, when the controversial punk duo Bob Vylan were dropped from Radar Festival, in Manchester, in the aftermath of their “Death to the IDF” chants at Glastonbury.
The Scratch were likewise booked to play Radar: should they stay or, in solidarity with Bob Vylan, should they go? Stepping away from the festival was the easiest decision they ever made, according to Daniel Lang, the band’s singer and drummer.
“It felt like the right thing to do. It was a no-brainer for us, having the colonial history we have,” he says.
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“If it was Ireland that was in Palestine’s position, we know for a fact Bob Vylan would have done the same for us. It was the right thing to stand in solidarity with them. It’s no shade on the festival. They were put in a very tough position. I’ve a lot of respect and love for the people that run that festival.
“We had to stand in the corner of the artist. Touring today is very hard – the costs that come with touring are astronomical. You’re getting squeezed from every angle. Venues are expensive to rent; they also take a cut from your merch. And now they want to decide what you can and can’t say on stage. Where do you draw the line? We felt it necessary to stand with the artist on this one.”
The readiness of Bob Vylan and the Belfast-Derry rap trio Kneecap to advocate on behalf of Palestine has made them the target of pernicious forces in the music industry, which have sometimes manoeuvred behind the scenes to silence them (including a campaign to have Kneecap removed from Glastonbury). The solution, The Scratch believe, is for musicians to join forces and speak out.
“It will continue to be that way unless artists unite in a way that has a significant pushback on these people that are pulling strings in the background. I hope to see more of it. At the end of the day, they’re not going to make any money without us. I’d love to see a world where artists band together and push back on issues like this. We should be allowed to say how we feel and stand up for our beliefs on stage.”
Lang is speaking over Zoom in advance of The Scratch’s release of Pull Like a Dog, their brilliantly bruising and eardrum-bothering third LP. Where the group have previously punched up their folk music with heavier elements, on this one they go metal with a vengeance – as they spell out with the single Gladrags, which features Rage Against the Machine-style riffs and vocals that Lang delivers in a pummelling bark.
They borrowed the name Pull Like a Dog from the rowers Gary and Paul O’Donovan, who coined the phrase after their silver medal at the 2016 Olympics, in Rio. “We loved everything about it and how it related to what we were going through – it just fit,” says Conor Dockery, the band’s guitarist. “It was the first time ever that the album title was set before it was finished.”
The Scratch are a marriage of two genres that shouldn’t really work together. They emerged from the Dublin metal band Red Enemy, and for the past 10 years they have argued, against all logic, that mosh pit and folk session are perfect bedfellows. They are surely the only band in the world that could play the Download heavy-metal festival, at Donington Park in England, and Temple Bar Tradfest, in Dublin, in the same year.
“The band has walked that line since day one. In the last couple of years we’ve started to fit better at metal festivals, rock festivals,” Dockery says. “The fact we can still come back and hold our own in a space like Tradfest is class. That’s a part of the band I’d never want to lose. It’s mad that that’s possible.”
The Scratch go one further on the new album, which at moments sounds like Metallica jamming with Planxty or Korn gatecrashing Céilí House.
“We were always searching for ways to make the instruments we were using sound heavy,” Lang says. “After our second album we did a lot of work on that side of things. By the time the third album had come around we had sorted a lot of that out. It was the first time we had the tools to make the heavy record we wanted to make. We wanted to get it out of our system.”
At its best, Pull Like a Dog goes off like a jet engine. It also has space for social commentary. On the single Pullin’ Teeth they take aim at Irish people’s tendency to skate by on charm, especially abroad (“so smug and busy ... he’s an Irish man, though”).
“It’s kind of having a jab at the fact that Irish people are so loved everywhere we go, and sometimes I feel we get a pass for that reason and some people get away with murder as a result, acting the b*****ks,” Lang says. “Oh, he’s Irish, sure it’s grand. That is what we were getting at, essentially. You write lyrics, and often the lyrics hold a mirror up to yourself – I’m having a go at myself at the same time. We’re all guilty of being a b*****ks at times.”
The Scratch formed in Dublin but come from all over: Dockery is from Celbridge, in Co Kildare; Lang and the band’s bassist, Cathal McKenna, grew up in Monaghan; and Gary Regan, also on guitar, is from Lucan, close to the Kildare-Dublin border. Still, they are embedded in the capital’s music scene and have witnessed first-hand its cultural defenestration, which reached a tipping point with the recent clash about noise levels between the London-based Hoxton hotel group, which has just opened a hotel in Dublin, and Yamamori Izakaya, the bar and venue nearby, on South Great George’s Street.
“It’s a bridge too far, the fact that a lot of our venues are being replaced by hotels without acknowledging the fact that Irish nightlife is a significant source of income,” Lang says. “To ignore that, to take and not give back, is getting people’s backs up. I’m glad to see [the protests], and I hope we carry this momentum forward and keep it going. It’s a long game but one that is worth playing.
“It put a smile on my face to see a PA being set up outside the Hoxton and a full-blown session taking place. I was away at a wedding and watching it on Insta, pissing myself laughing. It’s such a funny way of pushing back – but also a real thorn in the side of the Hoxton Hotel.”
The Scratch are one among a generation of Irish groups weaving trad into intriguing new shapes. As well as Kneecap, who blend bodhrans and hip-hop beats, their peers include Lankum, who apply the sweep and musical complexity of prog to folk.
All three feature on the soundtrack to House of Guinness, Netflix’s recent historical epic – an atrocious glob of Oirish nonsense, but one elevated by a banging soundtrack spotlighting a who’s who of on-the-up Irish acts, including Shark School, Fontaines DC and Gurriers. “It seemed a no-brainer for us,” Dockery says. “It was great what they did. All the bands and artists they featured, it was class.”
If folk has become more political, it has also gone mainstream, with groups such as Amble and Kingfishr ushering in a new era of mass-market traditional music. Kingfishr in particular have been ubiquitous in the past year – and while they sound nothing at all like The Scratch, Lang is cheering them all the way on the back of Killeagh, their megahit.
“The amount of graft it takes to be as consistent as they have been ... To get where they are is absolutely amazing,” Lang says. “I’m so happy for them. They’re sound as f*ck. Being in a band, I know how much work it takes. Their social media is firing on all cylinders. They’re out touring. In between gigs they’re playing house shows. They’re playing constantly.
“They are starting to see the fruits of their labour, and it’s a lovely thing to see. Killeagh was the most listened-to tune of 2025 – it’s an absolute banger. I’d like to think every Irish artist loves to see another Irish artist do well.”
We’re speaking the week U2 release a new protest-rock EP on which they tackle issues such as the rise of fascism in the United States and the conflict in Gaza. Among artists of The Scratch’s generation U2 are a bit of a Marmite affair, loved by some, loathed by others. Where does Lang stand on them?
“I wasn’t aware of [the new EP]. I haven’t had my finger on the pulse of U2’s goings on for a long time,” he says. “I can say I do like some of their tunes. Where the Streets Have No Name is an absolute banger. But I haven’t followed them closely.”
Pull Like a Dog emerged from a period of uncertainty for The Scratch, triggered by the departure of its founder member Jordan O’Leary in 2024. Losing a friend and colleague was a blow – though his bandmates appreciate that everyone has their own path to follow.
“You get to a point where you start realising that, being in a band, it’s tough. As well, you grow older; you start to grow apart,” Lang says. “You start to want different things. It’s the natural course in that regard. We wanted to keep going full throttle. Jordo was in a different place, and that’s fair enough. It was tough, but we had to decide if it was something we wanted to pursue without him. We decided to go for it.”
Pull Like a Dog is released on Friday, March 13th
