Lankum: ‘If microphones are put in front of us, we are going to talk about Gaza’

The Dubliners had already helped to push the boundaries of folk music, and were at the vanguard of Ireland’s latest trad wave, but the release of their fourth album, False Lankum, in March 2023 moved them on to a whole new plane.

In the 15 months since, the band — fronted by Radie Peat and comprising the Lynch brothers, Ian and Darragh, and Cormac MacDiarmada, as well as producer and de facto fifth member John ‘Spud’ Murphy — have had the time of their lives.

It’s been difficult to keep up with all the awards and accolades. In March, they won the Choice Music Prize, becoming only the second act, after Jape, to win the gong for best Irish album twice. They also bagged best album and best act at the RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards.

False Lankum featured prominently in all those end of year polls, with Guardian critics naming it their album of 2023. The band were also shortlisted for the Mercury Prize, the long-running award that seeks to honour the finest album released in the UK and Ireland in any given year.

The buzz around False Lankum and the people who made it has barely abated, but Peat, MacDiarmada and the Lynch siblings — who join the Irish Independent in a popular Phisborough pub — say it’s difficult to work out just why this album, rather than any of their previous ones, has had such an impact.

Peat ponders the question and offers an apologetic shrug. “I’ve no idea,” she says. “We’re not in charge of that bit. You have a child and you send it out into the world and we don’t have any influence on that aspect of things. It’s obviously very flattering when it connects with that many people. Do we think we did our best? Yes. Are we honest? Yes. Are we proud of it? Yes.”

“We’re definitely genuine when we make whatever we make,” MacDiarmada says, “and I think there’s definitely an element where people really appreciate [artists] being genuine.

“It’s really heartening,” Ian Lynch says, “to see that the most non-compromising work we’ve done is the one to — and I hate this term — break into mainstream consciousness. It’s kind of mad because I thought this album would be the one that people would hate, the one that would alienate everyone.

“I think there’s a sense that people hear the music we make and think, ‘That doesn’t really sound like other music I’m into, but I respect that people are making it’. It’s good that in this day and age, you can be in a band, make the music that you want to make, and be completely uncompromising. We’re not kowtowing to any label demands or the music industry.”

The band have been on the books of seminal label Rough Trade for the past seven years and have nothing but good to say about veteran label boss Geoff Travis, whose his previous signings include the Smiths and the Strokes.

“Geoff is so passionate about the music and he’s totally genuine,” Peat says. “They’ve never pushed actual deadlines on us.”

It’s manager Cian Lawless who puts parameters on their recordings. “These things can go on to infinity [if there’s no hard deadline],” MacDiarmada says. “You can just keep on tipping away and fiddling around with mixes.”

Right from the start, from the days they were known as Lynched, rather than Lankum, the band have been famed for the intensity of their live performances. Some of their best have come in the wake of False Lankum, especially when touring Britain and the continent.

Darragh Lynch says he was especially thrilled to have got to play the Roundhouse, one of London’s most fabled venues. The Observer gave the show a five-star review: “More like an exorcism than a gig” went the headline.

Peat’s happiest moments on the road took place closer to home. She was especially taken with the Vicar Street shows — not just those played shortly after the album’s release, but the December 2022 concerts which marked their first gigs in front of live audiences post-Covid. I was at one of those shows and the intense performance matched the electric atmosphere.

“We had played shows [for TV and streaming purposes] that were not in front of a live audience,” Peat says, “and they just weren’t the same. It’s only when that audience is taken away from you that you truly realise how amazing that connection is.”

Vicar Street has seen some of Lankum’s best shows over the past decade or so, and it’s little surprise that they chose the venue in the Liberties to record a concert album. Live in Dublin will be released this month. The track listing includes Go Dig My Grave, the lengthy, otherworldly song that captures Peat’s vocal at its most haunting. It’s become one of those songs that stills all chatter and it can’t be easy for the singer to nail it, night after night.

When we meet in Hedigan’s pub — more popularly known as the Brian Boru — the quartet are just back from a pair of shows at London’s Hackney Empire. They say there were some technical gremlins on the first night, but they were happy with how the second one went.

Being on the road is especially challenging for Peat. Her child, Rúna, was born in February 2022, and it has been difficult being away for any extended period of time. The band have tended to tour in dribs and drabs, rather than one long drawn out period.

She says it has been challenging combining motherhood with the day job, but says she is reluctant to complain about it. “It’s not very compatible with being a touring musician. You’re not getting much sleep!”

For each member, getting to make music full time was the dream when they first started playing places such as Walsh’s in Stoneybatter and the Cobblestone in Smithfield — both on the northside of Dublin and a very short walk apart. They are venues that are fundamental to not just Lankum’s success, but also to the careers of such disparate folk acts as Lisa O’Neill, Ye Vagabonds and Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin. Dalymount Park, home of League of Ireland club Bohemians, is in the vicinity too. Although none of the four are devoted football fans, they nail their colours to the Bohs mast.

On May 15, Dalymount hosted a much publicised match between Bohs’ women’s team and the Palestinian national team. Peat was asked to sing Amhrán na bhFiann. “It was nerve-wracking,” she says. Irish-Palestinian singer, Róisín El Cherif performed the Palestine national anthem, The Fedayeen Warrior. The visitors won 2-1.

“It was an incredibly emotional night,” Ian Lynch says. “They handed out Palestinian flags to everybody in the stadium and it looked incredible.”

“It was special to hear their national anthem being sung,” adds Peat. Few Irish bands have been as consistent in their support for Palestine as Lankum have been. They have played several fundraising shows for Gaza since Israeli bombs started raining down in response to the Hamas attack on Israel of October 7. Peat’s other band, Oxn, will play a Vicar Street show in aid of Palestine tomorrow night. (Beside Peat, Oxn also features Katie Kim and Spud Murphy. The band have caused smaller ripples than Lankum to date, but the critical reaction has been largely euphoric.)

Lankum have been outspoken in their condemnation of Israel’s assault, so much so that a show in Germany was cancelled hours before stage time. “There’s a risk in speaking out, especially in places like Germany,” Peat says. “We got cancelled after the soundcheck,” Ian Lynch adds.

“I think that if you have a platform,” Peat says, “and you don’t use it to speak what you believe about this, then it’s a waste of a platform. I also think that having a platform to only promote your music or yourself doesn’t sit very well for me. It’s horrendous what’s happening and if microphones are put in front of us, we’re going to talk about it. It’s really that simple.”

“It’s important as well,” Darragh Lynch adds, “to keep the conversation in the public mind. Fatigue can set in. We see that with Ukraine.”

“There are a lot of conflicts in the world that don’t even make [the headlines],” Peat adds. “Yemen being a case in point.”

“Look at how journalists and media outlets have been targeted by the IDF,” Ian Lynch says. “There’s been a concerted effort to go after certain people and impose a media blackout. I’m sure Israel would love it if the Palestinians didn’t have the ability to document what’s going on and share it on social media.” (The Israel Defence Forces say journalists are not targeted, but it’s thought that at least 105 journalists and media workers are among the 36,000 killed since the war began eight months ago.)

Next weekend sees Lankum’s only Irish appearance of the year. Not only are they headlining the inaugural In the Meadows festival at the grounds of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin, they are also curating this one-day event. The line-up is impressive and eclectic and includes Scottish post-rock stalwarts Mogwai, English art rock band Black Country, New Road and veteran American indie outfit Mercury Rev. There are several esteemed Irish acts too, including multi-instrumentalist folkie John Francis Flynn and Choice Music Prize nominee Rachel Lavelle.

Darragh Lynch says the band are especially invested in the event, seeing as they got to hand-pick those taking part. The setting is bucolic and there’s always the allure of playing their home town.

Then, at the end of June, it’s Glastonbury. Lankum are no strangers to Britain’s greatest music festival and the Park Stage will be very much an Irish affair: Fontaines DC and the Mary Wallopers are also on its bill. After that, there will be some down time and the possibility that new material may get worked on. But, as Peat points out, the band have been so busy that very little thought has been given to a follow-up album.

All four say they would like to work together on a film soundtrack. “There are imposed limitations,” MacDiarmada says, “and that’s really exciting. Otherwise it’s a blank page and that can be daunting.”

Ian Lynch has already experienced the pleasures and pains of working to order for a movie. He was responsible for the soundtrack for the Irish horror film All You Need is Death, which was directed by Paul Duane and released in April. “I loved it, how music can help build tension. It’s such a collaborative process.”

The band have worked on providing music for a new theatre piece but can’t talk openly about it yet. “We were given a brief,” MacDiarmada recalls, “and collectively we weren’t really sure how we were going to turn it into something because [the brief] was so abstract. But it turned out to be great fun, probably because there’s a certain degree of faith [between musician and commissioner.]”

“We had to do a cover of a very well-known song,” Peat says, with a chuckle, “and it’s something we’d never have done.” For now, they’re keeping tight-lipped on what the song is but they say that when it finally emerges it will present Lankum in a completely new light.

Perhaps the Age of Lankum has only just begun.

• Lankum’s only Irish concert of 2024 is at the In the Meadows festival, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin, on June 8. A new album, ‘Live in Dublin’, is released on June 21