“We're trying to make traditional music more accessible” | DLÙ

The continuing emergence of exciting young bands keeping Scotland’s traditional music scene fresh and vibrant shows no sign of abating, with a forthcoming debut album by the band DLÙ. The Glaswegian five-piece, who call themselves a ‘modern trad fusion band,’ first made their mark back in 2018 when they won Celtic Connections’ coveted Danny Kyle award. 

When the founding members of DLÙ – Moilidh NicGriogair (fiddle), Zach Ronan (accordion), Aidan Spiers (guitar) and Andrew Grossart (drums) – greet me on Zoom, they’re clearly excited and impatient about the imminent release: “The album has actually been finished since January 2021 so it has been a whole year from completion to release,” explains NicGriogair. “Of course, most of that has been out of our control, but it doesn’t stop the frustration of just wanting to get it out there!” 

What differentiates DLÙ from bands such as Treacherous Orchestra, Niteworks and Elephant Sessions, who are all cited as being major influences, is their innate Gaelic-ness. The four met at Sgoil Ghàidhlig Ghlaschu, Scotland’s first all-Gaelic school, with bass player Jack Dorrian joining them later to complete the band’s instrumental line-up. “When we started playing music together, Gaelic music was what we had in common,” explains NicGriogair. 

Their name comes from the word dlùth, which translates as ‘close-knit’ – apt given they’ve all been friends since school. “We wanted something that even if people don’t speak Gaelic, they can pronounce it,” says NicGriogair, explaining that they removed the silent ‘th’ to help with the pronunciation (it’s DLOO, rhymes with glue).

A strong sense of Gaelic pride runs throughout the album: from the title-track ‘Moch’ (Dawn), to the tune ‘Donalda’s’, named after one of the school’s influential founders and former head teacher. Although largely instrumental, the album includes two songs featuring the vocals of another former schoolmate, Joseph McCluskey. “When we brought Joseph on board, there was no question about it, the singing was going to be done in Gaelic,” Ronan says. ‘Ràcan’ is based on a traditional Gaelic song and features impressive puirt à beul (mouth music) singing by McCluskey that he describes as being like Gaelic rap with a melody. 

“One of the main things we’re trying to do is to make traditional music more accessible and relevant because, for some people, traditional music is just boring old ceilidh music,” says Grossart. They nail their colours to the mast with the opening title-track that builds slowly around a soaring violin melody, underpinned by accordion, then accentuated by thumping bass, electric guitar and drums. The fast-paced rhythms and rock inflections contribute to the album’s contemporary sound and make DLÙ stand out from the more conventional trad outfits. 

As they look forward to their album launch, they’ll continue to balance band rehearsals while working on a variety of different jobs – from teaching music and Gaelic, presenting a children’s TV show on BBC Alba to pulling pints in The Park Bar, Glasgow’s popular Gaelic hub. Ultimately, of course, their dream is to focus on the band full-time. As NicGriogair remarks about the past year, “it just causes you to reflect on what it is that you really want to do, and we really want to make this work, so we’re going to do everything we can to make that happen!”   

Read the review of Moch in the Songlines Reviews Database

This article originally appeared in the March 2022 issue of Songlines magazine. Never miss an issue – subscribe today