Lankum on losing Sinead O'Connor and the making of 'False Lankum'

Watch Lankum on losing Sinead O'Connor and the making of 'False Lankum' - NME on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00 Good morning Lancum. How's it going? Good morning to you. How are you doing? Good, great.

00:04 Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're kind of buzzing. Fancy seeing you here. Yeah, yeah, I know, fancy

00:08 seeing us here ourselves. We didn't think we'd be here. Yeah. So, let's just start from

00:14 the top. How does it feel to be nominated? Mad, bizarre, weird, scary. But yeah, good

00:20 at the end. Above all, good. Yeah, yeah, it's great. So four records in, why do you think

00:25 that this one captured people's hearts and imaginations the way that it did and got nominated

00:28 for the Mercury Prize? Yeah, it's mad. I think this is definitely the album that we feel

00:33 is closest to the musical vision that we've had for a long time. We feel like this is

00:38 the closest we've gotten to realising that vision. But also, kind of surprising that

00:41 you can... It's not like the more accessible albums that really got this far, but one where

00:48 we're just like, no, we're just doing exactly what we want. And there's definitely elements

00:51 of the album that aren't that accessible. So it's really amazing to see that an album

00:55 like that can make it to an awards ceremony like this. It's kind of heartening to see.

01:00 Well, each shortlisted record tends to kind of say something about music over the last

01:04 year. How would you describe the character of this record and what it tells us about

01:08 life in 2023? I think going in to make it, from the very beginning, we were very aware

01:16 that we wanted to make it incredibly dark, but also have a good contrast of really light

01:21 and sweet stuff. And kind of like, just a much broader spectrum of the human experience,

01:27 I suppose, and different emotional states or whatever. And what are you making of chances?

01:35 I think we're lucky to have gotten this far, to be honest. Yeah, yeah. We're not like...

01:39 Yeah, we don't have very high hopes of winning a round, but like 25 grand. It'd be amazing.

01:45 If you were betting men, who would your money be on, other than yourselves? If we were betting

01:48 on someone? I'd like to see Jockstrap, just because they seem like they're buzzers. Good

01:56 crack. And overnight, of course, we had the sad news of Sinéad O'Connor's passing. I

02:01 just wondered, what does she mean to you guys? I think kind of the same as most people in

02:08 Ireland, particularly from our generation. It's just heartbreaking, what kind of inspiration

02:13 and what kind of iconic figure. Completely unafraid to say what she thought and stand

02:21 up for things she believed in, even back at a time when it was a lot more difficult to

02:25 do things like that. And what is the rest of 2023 having in store for you guys? Gigs?

02:33 Yeah, yeah. The long inexorable slog of trying to figure out how to play our own songs in

02:39 a live setting, which is still a work in progress. How would you describe the experience of seeing

02:44 you guys live? The experience of seeing us live at a game? I've never done it, but I've

02:49 heard some people are into it, some people hate it. Come find out. Yeah, come and find

02:54 out. We're coming to a town near you. Congratulations and thanks for your time. Thanks very much.

02:58 Thanks.

02:59 Bye.

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