Interview: Lankum
Daragh Lynch talks Brian Eno, Krautrock and how his band ended up on BBC with Gary Meyler ahead of Lankum’s Live At St. Luke’s appearance….
The following article was first published by Cork’s Evening Echo on Thursday, 17th December 2015
“People were shocked”, expresses Daragh Lynch with incredulity when we speak on a dreary Monday afternoon. “When we were in the U.K. we had only one night off and we decided to go up to the local pub and play a few tunes to relax. People were like ‘you’re playing music to relax from playing music?!’ They couldn’t believe that we’d be playing just for the fun of it.” What our neighbours across the Irish Sea most certainly do comprehend is Daragh’s band, Lankum (formerly Lynched), especially their début album Cold Old Fire. Anointed “folk music’s hottest property” by The Guardian and invited to perform on BBC’s flagship music show Later…With Jools Holland in October, the Dublin folk foursome find themselves at the centre of something of a white squall of spotlight in Britain right now. Although some of the accompanying labels are beginning to grow irksome.
“To be honest with you, I’m getting a little bit irritated by how much they’re all concentrating on the punk angle”, sighs Daragh. “It’s true we’ve a bit of punk in us but it seems to be the only thing they’re interested in. Nobody’s talking about the fact that we’re into ambient electronica or early 1970’s German prog rock.”
The slow swelling notes of the accordion on album tracks such as ‘What Put The Blood’ and ‘Love Is Kind’ may be the prog-rock references to which he’s referring.
“Absolutely! I’m a massive fan of Brian Eno and lots of his tracks start off with one drone layer, adding another and another until it builds up into this amazing piece. All of us are into early Krautrock bands like NEU! and Kraftwerk who have 20 minute songs who keep repeating the same phrase. Then they throw in the tiniest little shift – in melody or whatever – and it becomes the most exciting thing in the world.”
Speaking of excitement, a day in the BBC studios with Sleaford Mods and Burt Bacharach must have been quite an experience. So how did the Later… appearance occur?
“That was just a very lucky thing”, reveals Daragh. “The U.K. tour was coming up so we sent CDs to radio stations, local newspapers; basically everyone and anyone! The show’s producer got hold of a copy and was very excited about it. I think he was most impressed that we had covered The Incredible String Band’s ‘Cold Days of February’. He was a mad Incredible String Band fan and he loved it. He came into our backstage room and chatted for a while about how much he loved the album. It was very flattering having someone like that being into what you’re doing but at the same time you don’t want to get too caught up in that. The same way you don’t pay too much attention to people saying you’re shite either.”
And it’s not just the media being moved by the music of Lynched. Audibly humbled, Daragh recounts a recent interaction that shows just how significant Lynched’s music has become to followers. “We played the Seamus Ennis Centre in Dublin a few nights ago and a fella sent us a message on Twitter afterwards to say he was too nervous to come up to us during the gig. He wanted to tell us that the song Cold Old Fire helped keep him alive for the past year and for that he wanted to thank us. We’ve gone through rough times as most people do and music is the big thing that has helped us through those hard times so it’s nice to know that music you’ve put out there into the world has done the same thing for others that it has done for you.”
For more on Lankum visit:
– Lankum and Buille play Live At St. Luke’s on 22nd December
– Tickets are €21.60 and available from uticket.ie
Update July 2020: At the time of writing Lankum were known as Lynched, derived from the surname of band members Daragh and Ian Lynch.
