“We’ve always been on a quest for something with this band”: How The Scratch became rock’s eclectic top dogs

“I think it’s Paul McCartney…”

Gary Regan is urgently whispering to his bandmates in The Scratch. Having initially misheard their guitarist’s words as Irish football manager Mick McCarthy, their confused faces turn to disbelief as the bass-playing Beatle walks out of Fitzrovia’s Hobgoblin Music folk instrument shop to greet his four onlookers.

“He chatted to us for five minutes and talked about his mum being from Monaghan in Ireland,” says guitarist/vocalist Conor ‘Dock’ Dockery. Bassist and Monaghan native Cathal McKenna punches the air. An attentive Macca suspects he’s speaking to a band, which The Scratch confirm.

“He was like, ‘It’s a great thing, a band, isn’t it?’ It is, Paul,” Dock continues. “Lango invited him down to the pub. I think that was his cue to leave…”

The pub that Daniel ‘Lango’ Lang (cajón, percussion and vocals) mentions is London’s The Marquis, where Kerrang! find The Scratch ordering fish and chips, bangers’n’mash and chicken burgers upstairs. Having already put on an impromptu Green Day show in November 2023, the hearty Covent Garden boozer is hosting the first of two pop-ups that The Scratch have specifically flown over from Ireland for, teeing up the arrival of their third album Pull Like A Dog.

For comparison, their next hometown show takes place at Dublin’s 5,000-capacity Iveagh Gardens. The Scratch’s trajectory feels neatly poised, having conquered Reading & Leeds and Download between touring with Celtic companions Dropkick Murphys. Amidst these milestones, the day ahead feels like a time machine back to their formation in 2016.

“These shows are deadly when they’re good craic and packed,” smiles Lango. “I guess we play the kind of music that works well in environments like that. A couple of sweaty heads drinking pints and dancing around? You can’t beat it.”

“We played in a metal band for so many years, and you can’t busk and play on the floor of a pub with a band like that,” adds Dock. “It was all so new to us. I remember the freedom of showing up and being able to plug in your guitar, no frills, not even a sound engineer, and just going for it. People were buzzing. The novelty of not needing a big elaborate set-up, that was enough.”

Said metal band were Red Enemy, with whom Dock and Lango played, before abandoning that ship to start The Scratch. Feeling disconnected with the “peak tech-metal” of the era, they swapped downtuned guitars for acoustics and the double-bass drum for the cajón, launching their next project through a completely fresh lens.

“It felt like a happy accident,” reflects Dock. “We stumbled across something that sounded interesting and fresh to us. It became a bit addictive, exploring that for a while. It was very fundamental: open tunings, acoustic guitars. I was playing a box. Aesthetically, it looked weird, and to us, it felt fresh, so we couldn’t help ourselves.”

But you would not be reading about The Scratch in Kerrang! if they were simply a folk act. That metallic “DNA”, as Cathal puts it, has increasingly found a halfway house with their jig, from the brooding riff of Cheeky Bastard to the System Of A Down-esque madness in Pull Like A Dog. Recent single Pullin’ Teeth has a breakdown fit for a bar brawl. It opens their set at The Marquis, which is packed to the brim, as the faithful bounce from the get-go.

When Gary replaced Jordan O’Leary in 2024, that heavy heritage made for an easy sell.

“My other band played with Red Enemy a lot, and myself and Dock used to chat about certain guitar players that we looked up to and admired,” he says. “Brent Hinds from Mastodon, Lamb Of God, we were always chatting about their riffs. When the lads came to me, [I knew] we would definitely fit together as guitar players. And I love bluegrass as well, so there was that whole trad element.”

“How you gel – the ideals or morals – is a big thing,” adds Cathal, who joined shortly after the pandemic. “Being able to trust that [your bandmates are] being authentic, this is who they are, and they’re good craic – the music comes from that.

“You’re vulnerable in a jam, throwing out an idea in real time that you don’t know is going to be good. And being in a room that feels good is very important.”

As we squash ourselves into The Scratch’s van and head across London to Finsbury Park for show number two at The Faltering Fullback, that chemistry is still on top form, cracking jokes about Gary and Dock’s future ‘Flying G’ and, er, ‘Flying D’ signature guitars. Courtesy of the first-class hospitality at The Marquis, pints and cloudy ginger beer have been flowing all afternoon.

Despite being behind schedule by 30 minutes, the vibe is incredibly relaxed. Gary mock-grumbles about his last trip to The Fullback, where they prioritised Premier League football over an Ireland Six Nations match, leading the band’s resident rugby union expert Dock to discuss their hopes for the 2026 tournament.

Following today’s McCartney-gate occurrence, they recount tales of chance encounters with Dave Grohl and Metallica crew members, remembering they have an invite to the M72 Tour this summer.

About three times the size of The Marquis, there’s more space for the crowd to cut some shapes at The Fullback, and little need for Cathal’s acrobatics in search of a better vantage point. During Kerrang!’s photoshoot earlier, the bassist made an alleyway look like a climbing wall.

“I got up on the mantelpiece, and I could see bouncing and lyric singing, which I was impressed by,” he tells K!. “I need to do more yoga. There were a few times when I started to do the little Beach Boys swinging and [my bass] nearly took Lango’s head off…”

So, what does the view from the mantelpiece look like at a Scratch gig?

“The scope of people who listen to the music,” Cathal explains. “You’ve got the ZZ Top dads in the back, the denim jackets, there’s young ones, and they all coexist in a space that probably doesn’t exist for them anywhere else. All these different genres of people come together and have this big cathartic moment.”

“We’ve been told [our music] has pulled people out of difficult periods in their lives,” adds Lango. “We’ve all gone through those periods, and to have an impact on somebody to the point where they felt okay trudging on, that’s fucking class.

“Ninety-nine per cent of them are sound, as well. The worst that happens is some chap or girl absolutely steaming drunk, burning the ear off you. But we’ve all been that person, so we have a lot of time for that!”

It would be remiss to reduce The Scratch’s music to a lairy piss-up in sonic form, even if Lango’s vivid storytelling in their breakout single Another Round captures that precise spirit. On Pull Like A Dog, you’ll also find their most candid offerings to date, such as the unsettling Mother Of God or I Hope All Is Forgiven, a heart-wrenching acceptance of loss that you could picture soundtracking the end credits of a tragedy.

“The ethos is not to overthink it, and have the courage to speak about things that I would have been too afraid to speak about five or six years ago,” says Lango, who serves as the band’s primary lyricist. “[The voice] still feels like a new instrument for me. I’m growing in confidence and learning to enjoy it more. The goal is to keep exploring, because I still don’t know what my potential is.”

There was no obvious eureka moment that turned things around for Lango. Age, experience and a gradual acceptance that his emotions were valid are some of the factors that helped shift his lyric approach. While his bandmates and K! rip into him for suggesting that he was “winded” by a beer at The Marquis, Lango can soak up what he dishes out, but his ears are always open.

“I love having the craic, but I also love when somebody feels comfortable enough to open up to me, and I’m willing to go there with them,” he explains. “The more people I’ve met, I’ve realised how good I had it growing up. Talking about things that bothered or upset me felt silly and insignificant, like, ‘What am I fucking moaning about?’ It took me a while to realise that, regardless, I felt the way I felt, and it’s okay to speak about it. It’s okay for people to criticise that if they want, but the feelings that I felt are authentic and genuine.

“For a long time, we hid behind humour. I didn’t even hide – I wanted to write funny lyrics and be tongue-in-cheek. But there was a part of me looking to explore deeper feelings and wounds within me. I guess I was allowing myself to explore the full scope of my personality, lyrically. Eventually, I got there.”

Pull Like A Dog, a phrase coined by Irish rowing duo Gary and Paul O’Donovan at the Rio 2016 Olympics, has served as somewhat of a mantra for The Scratch over the past few years. With the wind in their sails, they are grabbing the opportunity “by the scruff”, having reached a fusion point between folk and metal that, truthfully, was always the goal.

“We do say it out loud,” reveals Gary, when asked if that shared mindset is unspoken.

“We’re really consciously learning to believe in ourselves a bit more on the regular, and trying to cast aside the default negative thoughts that sometimes plague our minds,” agrees Lango. “I don’t have fucking time for that anymore. I want to send it and keep a positive mindset and see what unfolds from me adjusting my attitude.”

“We’ve always been on this quest for something with this band,” says Dock. “A huge part of this band is sonically, how do we unlock and maximise these certain instruments? On top of that, you can’t compare it to anything – I don’t really have any references. It’s been a constant challenge, but on this album, we’re the most satisfied we’ve ever been. I think we nailed a lot of things that we’ve wanted to tackle.”

Finishing the evening at The Fullback, The Scratch showcase their mettle as a formidable live act, while the floor descends into sticky pandemonium. Every thump of the cajón during soundcheck is met with a massive cheer. There’s an even louder one when Gary teases the riff to Korn’s Blind. A feverish atmosphere is afoot, with one ultra-smiley punter dancing on a table as they take to the stage.

While tonight is a celebration of where they came from, there is an ongoing sense that the road must go on. One week ago, Lango and producer John ‘Spud’ Murphy were deep in conversation, intensely figuring out their next move. Although you won’t find many other bands that sound like The Scratch on planet earth, the ceiling remains limitless.

“I don’t think you’ll ever – nor would you want to – master something,” concludes Gary. “You constantly want to be striving to get better and learn new things. Where can you go with it? It’s endless.”

Pull Like A Dog is released on March 13 via Music For Nations / Sony Music Ireland. The Scratch tour the UK from April 23. This interview originally appeared in the spring 2026 print issue.

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