The Scratch – Guinness Cork Jazz Festival

STRICTLY OVER 18s

Dublin quartet The Scratch are set to release their James Vincent McMorrow produced album, Mind Yourself, on November 3. The first taste of this diverse and thrilling collection, Trom II- A Slip in the Wind, can be heard now.

The Scratch are a four-piece band that sound like no one else you’ve ever heard before, featuring Conor Dockery (guitar, backing vocals), Cathal McKenna (bass/backing vocals), Daniel Lang (cajón, percussion, lead vocals), and Jordan O’Leary (guitar, lead vocals). Like all the great progressive musicians, they turn music on its head and pour their hearts and souls into their art to forge something original and new.

Musicians making the time-honoured leap from acoustic to electric are well-documented, but The Scratch did it the other way round. Prior to The Scratch, they were a “full-blown metal band” called Red Enemy, who released an album and toured the UK and US. After Red Enemy fizzled out, they swapped the electric axes and amps for acoustics. The fledgling band found their feet jamming in their kitchen, creating freewheeling, intrepid music, which is laced with humour, honesty, devilment, and an overwhelmingly positive spirit, refreshingly free from the constraints of a recording studio or rehearsal room.