Young Fathers on the legacy of ‘Trainspotting’ and why ‘it’s always shite being Scottish’

Young Fathers have discussed how they came to write the ‘Trainspotting 2′ soundtrack song ‘Only God Knows’, and responded to Ewan McGregor’s legendary monologue about how ‘it’s always shite being Scottish’. Watch our video interview with the band.

The Mercury Prize-winning Edinburgh hip-hop trio’s track for Danny Boyle’s sequel lends itself to the emotional climax and ending of the film. Speaking to NME at the Ivor Novello Awards in London, the band said that the song came about entirely organically.

“We did it when we were out in LA,” Kayus Bankole told NME. “It just felt like it fit the whole vibe of the film, so we gave it to Danny [Boyle, director], and he put it just at the end sequence bit of the film. That’s it – it stands alone with the film.”

Speaking of the lyrical inspiration behind the song, he added: “It was just vibes in the moment – it was the first thing that came to us when we were recording the song. It felt right and we just went for it. There was no pre-meditated agenda, it was just ‘this is how I’m feeling at the moment – let’s fucking go for it’.”

Respoding to Ewan Mcgregor’s legendary monologue from the original film in which he declared that ‘it’s shite being Scottish’, Alloysious Massaquoi joked: “It’s always shite being Scottish, isn’t it? In Scotland we say ‘you’re not supposed to do this because you leave it to these people to do, then as soon as something good happens you say ‘ah, that’s not very Scottish is it?’

Bankole added: “Who gives a fuck anyway? We’re human beings and it doesn’t matter where you’re from.”