Brògeal: “We’ve got bangers falling out of our arse”

From lockdown garden jams to supporting Paolo Nutini, Scottish folk risers Brògeal ride a Celtic revival.

Words: Jake Hawkes.
Photos: Jennifer McCord.

It’s a good time to be Scottish folk band Brògeal. Riding a resurgent wave of traditional Celtic music but blending it with their own indie sensibilities, what started as a bit of lockdown fun has quickly spiralled into something much, much bigger. “We’re supporting the Wolfe Tones in Finsbury Park and Paolo Nutini, with TRNSMT festival in the middle – and that’s all in the same week!” laughs guitarist / vocalist Daniel Harkins when asked about their future plans.

It’s a far cry from what they expected when they first got together in a garden in the Northern Scottish town of Falkirk, just looking for something to do to pass the time. Before that, each of the members had been in various bands ranging from indie to punk, but a shared loved of both Scottish and Irish folk music led them towards trying something different.

“Lockdown was good for us,” acknowledges Daniel. “We just sat there and wrote tune after tune until we were allowed back out of the house, so we came out to a time when a lot of bands were just getting started, and we were absolutely raring to go with 26 songs under our belt.

“That said, we started this back when there wasn’t a lot of Celtic music about, so it’s all come as a bit of a surprise how much it’s blown up. Ireland and Scotland seem to be reinventing their culture in a positive way because of the political climate in both countries – people are feeling the spirit of it all in their bones. That’s not to say we’re making music in an antagonistic way; we’ve just always been brought up listening to the Wolfe Tones and the Dubliners and stuff like that, so when me and Aidan [Callaghan, the band’s vocalist / banjo player] got together it was always gonna sound like it does. But when the boys jump in on it, it’s different again because we write the music as indie songs, but with the instruments we play, there’s a fresh sound.”

If lockdown was good timing for the band, their luck has continued. Their recent self-titled EP was released just after a huge support slot for fellow Celtic folk act Mary Wallopers, which saw them playing sold-out thousand cap venues across the country. It wasn’t exactly a bad way to introduce themselves to a wider audience. Whether as a result of this newfound audience or just word of mouth about the band themselves, the EP felt like a real milestone in their journey thus far. 

“The timing’s been pretty good for us ever since the start,” acknowledges Aidan. “Coming off the tour with the Wallopers, we really had the wind in our sails, and it’s all lined up really nicely. People have been buzzing about the EP too. We’ve shipped records out to America and Japan, which is huge for us. Even just the feeling of holding it in your hands is like a mad fantasy, it doesn’t really feel like it should be happening. A bit of imposter syndrome there maybe – but fuck it, the tunes are class!”

With increased success comes bigger stages to fill (not least the Finsbury Park slot we mentioned earlier), a transition which bands can often struggle with. Couple that with playing in a genre more traditionally associated with cramped pubs than stadium tours, and you’d forgive Brògeal for being a bit nervous about what’s to come. Don’t worry though, they’re not. “Every night’s Wembley,” says accordion player Sam MacMillan with a grin.

“It’s all come as a bit of a surprise how much it’s blown up”

Daniel Harkins

“It always works. If there’s alcohol involved, it works,” laughs Daniel. “We’ve got pub songs, but we write them as a five-piece in quite an anthemic way, so I think they suit those big stages. If the stage is bigger, it just means you have to be bigger. You’d think we’d be nervous because we’d only done smaller shows and we were walking out to like a thousand people, two thousand some nights, but we just fucking revelled in it.”

This touches on another key facet of the band – they write and play their own songs almost exclusively. Celtic folk as a genre is traditionally built on covers and reworks of old songs, with the Dubliners, the Wolfe Tones, and The Mary Wallopers all performing a mix of old and new. Brògeal’s decision to instead play their own material is one that wasn’t conscious but is key to their identity as a band. “We like playing covers, but we’re songwriters,” explains Daniel. “We like writing our own songs; we enjoy that process of bringing material to each other and feeling it all click together when you work on it – you don’t get that with covers.”

“Listening to old folk songs, bits of them get passed around,” adds Aidan. “You listen to one song, and you hear another, and you can hear that they’re based on the same tune or the same story, so there’s a bit of license there for us to use themes from other folk songs without covering them wholesale.”

“I think it stems from our backgrounds being in rock bands and punk bands,” says bassist Euan Mundie. “You have to play your own stuff in those genres, you can’t come on stage and just play classic punk songs. I would also say that we’re talking about it now as if we think about it a lot, but it’s all very natural. For us, it makes sense to play our own stuff because all our songs just fall out of us. If a song doesn’t stick immediately, then it doesn’t stick – it isn’t some laborious process.”

“Nah,” says Daniel with a laugh. “We’ve got bangers falling out of our arse.” ■

Taken from the July 2024 issue of Dork. Brògeal’s self-titled EP is out now.