Countdown to the Choice Prize: The Scratch on Mind Yourself

Originally published in Hot Press in November 2023:

Ever been to a Scratch gig? If you haven’t, you must. If you have, you’ll concur with the widely held opinion that they are one of the best live acts in the country. Charismatic and furiously energetic, they leave their blood, sweat and many empty pints of porter on stage.

For a taster, check out their Mia Mullarkey-directed video for ‘Blaggard’, the second single from their mighty sophomore album Mind Yourself. An inventive and succinct soundbite would be, ‘The Hives crossbreeding with The Dubliners’. But, in truth, when describing The Scratch, there’s a lot more to unpack.

Their second record is something different, a gutsy evolution that pushes The Scratch beyond the much-discussed Damien Dempsey, Dubliners and Thin Lizzy influences. Frankly, Scratch originality was always evident. After all, the sound of their debut album Couldn’t Give A Rats is a Frankenstein composite of all said influences, and therefore, something entirely different. Essentially, no other band ever fused metal and Irish traditional music so masterfully.

‘Trom II (A Slip In The Wind)’, the lead single from Mind Yourself, is a case in point. If you gave it the blindfold test, only the purest Scratch fan would guess it’s them, at least for the first half anyway. Squeezed cosily around a pint-filled table in Pipers Corner on Marlborough Street, to a man, they credit much of their stout-hearted metamorphosis to producer James Vincent McMorrow. So, to get started, how did that collaboration come about?

“We did a TV show on RTÉ called Soundtrack To My Life,” vocalist and guitarist Jordan ‘Jordo’ O’Leary explains. “James was hosting an episode and he picked us to do a song, and we were on his radar after that. He asked us to do his Imagining Ireland show at the Barbican in London.

“We were out for pints later that night, chatting about how we wanted to record our new album live, and he said that he wanted to produce it. We did three sessions with him in Black Mountain Studios. It was fucking great, so we booked four week-long sessions there. He is confident and methodical, and gave us much needed confidence at the time about our approach.”

Guitarist Conor ‘Dock’ Dockery elaborates.

“I was on a video shoot of his, shooting behind the scenes stuff for the director,” he says. “And at the end of the day, he comes up to me and says, ‘You were in Red Enemy’, which was our old metal band. I’m thinking he hardly knows Red Enemy and he says, ‘I love that record.’ Turns out he was a big metalhead growing up.

“When we started working with him, we realised we had lot more in common with James musically than we would have presumed. He encouraged us to be ourselves and if the metal side of things wanted to come out, lean into it. He loves what he does, he was there ’til the death every night. An incredible hard worker, he’s where he’s at for a reason.”

The Scratch. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

Mind Yourself possesses a wall of sound that comes haring at you like a runaway steam train.

“Most of it was recorded live,” Jordo outlines. “We were in a room facing each other. Lango (vocalist and cajon player, Daniel Lang) was in a smaller room with the doors open. We could still see him, but he had a baffle, so there was a bit of separation. All of our gear, all the big amps were out in another studio and they ran lines to it.”

“The room was just the acoustics,” adds Lango. “It meant that if we recorded something with amps and decided to hear it acoustically, we had that luxury, which was James’ idea.”

“That informed the writing,” says bassist Cathal McKenna. “You’d do a take and have a listen – people share opinions, you change stuff, and then you can literally just go back in there. And if you got a good take, it’s ready to go. Everything’s isolated. And if you want to do overdubs on top of that, everything’s clean, and you can do all that stuff.”

Mind Yourself is firmly on Scratch Mark II Terra Firma.

“There was a lot of fear about changing so much,” Lango says. “And one of the many great things that James brought to the table was, ‘You can do what you fucking want’. We’re very proud of it now and also excited about writing going forward.”

“This album is transitional for us,” says Dock, “in terms of going from a more acoustic-based, Irish-leaning metal background. This is sonically heavier. A lot of the album was unfinished going in, which was a first for us.

“We knew we wanted to evolve sonically. We wanted to explore that Wall of Sound you were talking about, we wanted to explore how far we could push the instruments, how far we could push the guitars through the amps. But how were we going to do that? The set-up lent itself to figuring that out in real time.”

“The idea was,” says Lango, “that we wanted it to sound like a fucking bomb!”

Job done. Mind Yourself boasts mammoth songs, including ‘Blaggard’ and ‘Banshee’, that are going to pound the absolute bejaysus out of audiences. And without giving too much away (you’ll have to buy the record), ‘Cheeky Bastard’ contains an Oasis referencing chorus that is going to be howled by frenzied mobs the length and breadth of the country when The Scratch hit the road next month.

“Oh! That just reminded me,” Lango clicks his fingers. “Remember we had that idea of doing an 8-bit version of ‘Champagne Supernova’ as an intro into ‘Cheeky Bastard’?

Jordo laughs, “That was lost until now, you just saved the show, write that down quick.”

“It’s going to be all over RTÉ Radio 1!” Cathal jokes.

I sincerely hope so. Any song that contains lyrics about back to front geansaithe, jean shorts, Black Russians and Oasis is required daytime listening. Lango, writer of said future hit, tells me, “It’s based on actual events, it was inspired by a bunch of people. On our manager Eamo’s stag last year, we got introduced to a load of his mates, a group of legends and it’s inspired by what went on that weekend and things people said.”

Rats-era Scratch may very well have used ‘Cheeky Bastard’ as a lead single, but things are different now. ‘Trom II’ was chosen instead.

“We wanted to test Sony!” Jordo laughs,. “If you could pick any song from the album that isn’t the single, that’s the one we’re putting out first. I’m joking, we liked it, it was different.”

“We wanted to throw the biggest curveball possible,” Lango affirms.

Cathal admits, “We have to say in fairness, Sony said nothing.”

“Not to our face anyway”, Jordo laughs. “I’m sure there was a few ‘fuck sakes’ in the office, but the whole album is different.”

Let’s talk Sony.

“We signed with them during the summer,” Dock says. “The conversation started when they got their hands on the album in April. Barry O’Donoghue heard it and just reached out. We were looking for a label to give a proper push behind the album – we’ll have three music videos released before it even comes out. We’d never have been able to do that before. And it’s been picked up by a Sony label in the UK as well, so there is a whole campaign happening over there.”

Meanwhile, the band’s Ireland & UK winter tour includes two dates at Vicar Street (the first date sold-out in less than a day).

“It’s a venue we’ve always wanted to play,” says Dock. “So to get to do two gigs there will be memorable stuff. That’s the venue, isn’t it? We’ve just seen so many great gigs there. But it wasn’t an overnight thing, we’ve built up to it, playing all the other venues in the city. We’ve been fortunate, a lot of people come back to our gigs time and time again.”

“There’s a man from Derry named Damien Kivlehan,” grins Jordo. “He’s a pyrotechnics guy for big movies. He’s a legend and he shows up in the weirdest places. He turned up in America, just strolled into the green room and goes, ‘Well lads!’ There’s another guy, Greg McEntee from Tullamore, who drives around to loads of the gigs. Fair fucks to them.”

• Mind Yourself is out now. 

The Album of the Year will be announced at the Choice Music Prize live event this Thursday, March 7, at Vicar Street.