The Scratch

“Close your eyes and pull like a dog,” was the answer once given by Irish Olympic rowers Gary and Paul O’Donovan in a 2016 interview, when asked to describe their game plan for an upcoming race. The phrase – previously non-existent – caught on and has since become cultural shorthand for the straightforward tenacity required to do pretty much anything.

For Dublin-based four-piece The Scratch, the phrase came to represent a collective headspace going into their forthcoming album – titled Pull Like A Dog, scheduled for release on 6th March 2026 via Sony Music Ireland. “It’s just another way of saying ‘send it’ and see what happens,” Daniel “Lango” Lang (cajón, percussion, lead vocals) explains. “It’s a motivating phrase we needed, at the time, to inspire a bit of gusto.”