Kneecap

<p>“<a href="https://www.kneecap.ie/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Kneecap</a> was born out of this need to represent the identity of young people who speak Irish in the city, an identity a lot of people around the world wouldn’t know exists,” says <strong>Móglaí Bap </strong>of Irish hip-hop trio <strong>Kneecap</strong>. “When I was growing up, you wouldn’t have seen the language on mainstream radio or BBC1 or in the cinemas, so as a teenager it wouldn’t have been that cool to speak Irish. So Kneecap was part of pushing that boundary and seeing what we could do, and also having a bit of craic, as we say.” </p><p>In the lead up to their powerful new album, <em>Fenian</em>, Móglaí and bandmate <strong>Mo Chara</strong> joined me via Zoom for an in-depth discussion of their history. They talked about how the project evolved from being something they did initially for laughs and to get free tickets to festivals into a part of their larger fight against the marginalization of the Irish-language, of which they’re native speakers, and their desire to raise awareness of the harms caused by colonialism worldwide. We also discussed their childhood: Moglai’s memories of hearing his mother play traditional Irish music on her concertina, Mo Chara’s teenage experiences learning <strong>Oasis</strong> and <strong>Stone Roses</strong> songs on guitar at a Belfast youth club, how they found each other within the Irish-language community and started making music together, and how their approach to Kneecap has evolved since then. For the uninitiated, in addition to listening to <em>Fenian</em> and their previous album, <em>Fine Art</em>, I also highly recommend watching the biographical film <em>Kneecap</em>, which is funny and dramatic and poignant and a mix of fact and fiction, starring the band as themselves.  It’s awesome and it’s available on <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81956594" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Netflix</a>, <a href="https://tv.apple.com/nl/movie/kneecap/umc.cmc.17xv1206brfig197zgrnuz24l?l=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Apple TV</a> and beyond. </p>