Kneecap caught up with NME backstage at Glastonbury 2024, where the Belfast rap trio told us about their love of Fontaines D.C., a dream duet with Lewis Capaldi, plans for new material, and an apology to actor Paul Mescal. Watch our video chat with the band above, and check out the full interview below.
The Irish language band caught up with NME in between their two explosive sets at the festival, with one first thing Saturday morning on Woodsies and the other at 1.30am up at Shangri-La’s new Peace stage.
Both were packed, and the latter saw them invite Park Stage headliners Fontaines D.C. frontman Grian Chatten out to perform their collab ‘Better Way To Live‘ from their acclaimed 2024 debut album, ‘Fine Art‘.
We had a quick chat with the headline-grabbing trouble-starters to talk about who they’d been hanging out with backstage, the critical success of their upcoming self-titled film, and what to expect from their next album already in the works.
NME: Hello Kneecap. How have you been this past few weeks since we last spoke for the NME Cover?
Mo Chara: “It’s been too long. I think I’ve seen you more than my own family recently.”
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Sorry about that. Are your family nice?
Chara: “Not as nice as you.”
But you guys managed to pull off an 11.30am set. Was that a struggle?
Chara: “Aye, fuck – that’s an early one. I don’t think I’ve every been awake that early at a festival. They say that officially, that tent holds 6,000 people – and it was packed. I’m no good at judging crowds, but I’d say there were one million people there.”
You’ve been getting a pretty good chant going for “your sniffer dogs are shite” at these shows…
Chara: “That was actually a last-minute decision. We made that decision on-stage. We were trying to tell our graphics guy that we’d decided to change the song, but he nailed it and he was amazing.”
The album has been out for a few weeks now. Do you feel like it’s helped people get a better understanding of Kneecap?
Chara: “We’re not trying to be understood, we’re not there to be this band that people dissect. We’re just making tunes. There’s a certain new level of professionalism to this album, obviously with Toddla T producing it and stuff. I just hope that people see there’s a progress and that it’s going in the right direction with sound and production. I hope that’s all people take away from it – that we’re getting better.”
The movie has been universally acclaimed so far. How does that feel, given that it wasn’t planned?
Móglaí Bap: “We love the movie, but we weren’t sure if it would ever go beyond Belfast. It’s very colloquial. It’s kind of like Trainspotting in that way. Then we went to Sundance and got the audience award. It’s similar to our music; people just get the energy and the craic out of it. I don’t know think Americans know what a tout is, but it didn’t stop them enjoying it.”
DJ Próvaí: “Obviously we loosely took some ideas from Trainspotting and stuff, then we had Irvine Welsh who wrote it coming out and saying it was the best film he’d seen in fucking years or something. That’s massive praise for us. Obviously we’re a music band we’re doing fucking acting jobs that we’d never done before and people were dubious about whether or not we were going to make it as fucking actors; but go see it.”
And Próvaí, you had your day in court recently?
Próvaí: “Yes, we’re taking the British political system and government to court. They have a case to answer after they withdrew funding that was granted to us. They overreached in their job [in denying Kneecap £15,000 to travel to SXSW]. We have a case in the High Courts coming up in November.”
Bap: “It’s not about the money – it’s a bad precedent to set for art in general. It’s like some sort of USSR-type government that says, ‘You can create art as long it aligns with our political ideologies’. We are, not by our own choice, part of the United Kingdom, and we pay taxes, and we think we deserve to have as much of the funding that’s available to other touring bands.
“I think they’re in a bad position – but then the Tories are in a bad position in general. Hopefully Jeremy Corbyn can come back out on top. We were in his son’s CBD shop. Good shit! It’s good for your anxiety.”
This is all good material for album two, right?
Bap: “Yes, we’ve started off in the studio with Toddla T and we just want to follow on with this album and do a trilogy. We love the idea of a concept album. Storytelling is a massive part of Irish culture, and that’s why we love to intertwine all of that into the music. We’re going to continue on and do an even better album. Hopefully this time, Taylor Swift won’t beat us to Number One!
Próvaí: “We got Top 40 in the UK and Number One Independent Album in Ireland just ahead of Lankum, who are good friends of ours. It’s great to see Irish bands are flourishing at the moment. We went to see the Fontaines last night – what a fucking gig. It was fucking amazing. They’re flying at the moment.”
Bap: “We’ve been hanging with Fontaines. We got backstage in The Park, we got some drinks, it was cool. We met Matt Smith and Lewis Capaldi. He’s a big Celtic fan like ourselves, so it’s been nice to connect.”
Could there be a Lewis Capaldi collab on the way?
Bap: “Maybe a big Celtic symphony, when they eventually finally win the European Champion’s League we’ll do a song.”
We’ve also seen Paul Mescal walking around, have you?
Bap: “Oh yeah? I want to apologise to Paul Mescal right now for questioning his Irish. Paul, keep up with the Irish! You’re a legend, we love you and I love your jean shorts.”
Chara: “I want to just clarify there. We weren’t giving out about Paul Mescal [with comments they made about him speaking Irish last year]. Somebody asked us, ‘What do you think of the Irish being sexy again?’ We were like, ‘It’s always been fucking cool, it’s always been a thing, that these families in rural places kept the language alive – then the whole place just fucking exploded when Paul Mescal spoke in Irish. Fair play to him! It wasn’t against him, it was against the media. We love you Paul! We apologise. Let’s get a pint.”
Other than playing, what are you looking forward to getting up to at Glastonbury?
Chara: “We’re going to see Lankum and basically all the bands we see at home!”
Bap: “Our first gig at 11.30am and our second is 1.30am, so I think we’re going to join a union for bands and artists because I don’t think you should have 14 hours between gigs. That should be illegal. Our manager is on overtime here trying to keep us sober – and he’s doing a bad job!”
Kneecap’s self-titled movie is released in the US on August 2 and in the UK and Ireland on August 23. They’re touring throughout the UK, Europe and North America for the rest of the year.
Check back at NME for the latest Glastonbury 2024 news, reviews, interviews, photos, rumours and more.