The Scratch have built a career around a blaring combination of traditional Irish music, heavy metal, and wildly distorted acoustic tones. It’s enough to stop anyone in their tracks – most notably Iggy Pop.
The rock legend gave The Scratch an honorable mention on his BBC Radio 6 show a few years back, calling their sound “righteous” before offering them an opening slot at his Dublin show in 2025 – an event described by the band’s Conor ‘Dock’ Dockery as “a mad buzz.”
The guitarist recalls: “Iggy was a big fan; a shining example of how you should behave and how you should give back to music. You’re never too old and never too far into your career to not be listening to new bands.”
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Their unignorable blend of roaring riffs and tasteful tunings – which Dockery and bandmate Gary Regan claim only work on their unusual Cole Clark True Hybrid acoustics – have seen the four-piece through three studio albums. Their most recent, Pull Like A Dog, dropped earlier this year.
Rewind a decade, and most of the group were already playing together in a metal band. Then, one evening, they detuned their guitars and began dabbling with an instrumental version of Gold, a song by the Irish band Interference. “It was specifically a cover by the late Glen Hansard,” Dockery explains.
“They started learning this song, and the tuning Glen had his guitar in was EBEEBE from top to bottom. They wrote an instrumental track and called me in to listen to it. I was just blown away – I hadn’t heard anything like it.” An EP, Old Gold, soon followed.
“Having a guitar in this mad open tuning was so inspiring,” he reflects. “Tunes were just falling out of us. We could see pretty early on that our music was connecting with people in a way none of us had witnessed in any other band.”
He says that tuning, now shifted down to DADDAD for vocal ease, still accounts for 80 percent of their set. The lineup now consisting of lead singer and percussionist Daniel Lang, guitarists and backing vocalists Dockery and Regan, and bassist Cathal McKenna.
They’ve made a few friends since their debut album in 2019. Celtic punk stalwarts Dropkick Murphys, in particular, formed a bond with the group, after they were semi-forced to welcome The Scratch on their European tour.
“We played with them in the 3Arena in Dublin,” Dockery recalls, “Then one of their tour bands dropped out in Europe. We were like: ‘We’ll do it, we’ll do it!’”
That led to an additional two US tours, and an unexpected feature from Murphys bassist Kevin Rheault on The Scratch’s track Pullin’ Teeth. “It hadn’t been released yet,” says Regan. “On the European tour with the Murphys, Kev came into our dressing room and sang the part just out of nowhere.
“He knew the words – they’re a bit mad. We said, ‘You might as well come and play that with us every night.’ So he did, then we asked him to jump on the recording. He sounds amazing on it.
“The Dropkick Murphys really got us going in America and I really credit them for that,” Dockery says, “They’re the loveliest people to tour with, and a super inspiring band.”
Regan joined The Scratch amid their US tour run, replacing previous guitarist Jordan O’Leary. Tensions were high: “It was very uncertain and very stressful, then you’re grieving in the middle of that as well,” says Dockery.
“But Gary brought energy, enthusiasm, talent – and friendship, which is important. There was hope again. Once he came in, we were ready to finish Pull Like A Dog.”
The guitarists contributed monstrous tones on the album, as heard in the stomping track Gladrags, which took some going over. They used their Cole Clarks run through a Quad Cortex, which they found especially efficient for the dual signal guitars.
“I remember listening to Gladrags and thinking: ‘Something’s off with the tone.’ It wasn’t sitting right with the riff,” says Dockery. “Our producer, Spud, came in one day and dialed something on the computer. I pulled up the Fortin Amp – used by Meshuggah – and then it all just clicked. Gladrags required a different tone to make it shine.”
He did try the song’s lead riff on an electric “for the craic,” but it didn’t feel the same. Both guitarists now have Jackson endorsements for any electric requirements on tour, but their acoustic devotion runs deep on the record, no matter how distorted it gets. That said, there’s one exception: a homage to their beloved Thin Lizzy.
“I’ll let you in on a little secret,” says Dockery. “The Horsefly solo was recorded on a Les Paul. But that’s the only part of the album recorded on a Les Paul!”
