Formed in 2015 by two Scottish sister,s Brèagha Cuinn and Onnagh Cuinn outside of a small whiskey village called Tomintoul in the Highlands of Scotland, Bratakus have been fiercely DIY since their inception. Following the release of their incendiary Final Girls, Tokened and Turnstile singles earlier this year, which marked their first recordings for Venn Records, Bratakus have today released their new album Hagridden, the duo will also be heading out on tour in the UK and EU in support of the album.
Despite Bratakus’ staunch resistance to mainstream music industry practices, the young band quickly built up a following and the duo found themselves being booked for live performances in countries as far away as Japan. Support slots for bands like Propagandhi and Discharge followed and helped the sisters turn into a ferocious live combo. If there was ever any doubt that a punk band could pull off not having a live drummer, these two sisters are here to prove you wrong. The isolation of their surroundings made it impossible for the duo to find a drummer in their small hamlet, let alone the neighbouring villages, that were mostly inhabited by Highland cattle.
“We programmed some drum tracks, plugged in for our first practice and instantly it just felt like we already had a band, so we’ve been playing like that ever since! What started out as a logistical issue now feels like a big part of our identity and we just love playing as a two piece.” (Brèagha Cuinn)
Heavily influenced by the garage rock scene and bands like The Distillers, The Donnas and X-Ray Spex, Bratakus went on to perform their first ever gig at a fundraiser for the Glasgow Rock ‘n’ Roll School for Girls in the Glasgow School of Art. From that moment, Bratakus were a real band, and with that, Screaming Babies Records was born. Unlike other record companies, the imprint would be a family run DIY label, not only a platform for Bratakus to launch new music but also a place to revisit their father’s catalog, Angus Quinn of the influential Scottish Anarcho punk band Sedition. No publicists, no streaming services, no photo shoots, just straight up word of mouth, limited edition vinyl releases, and anti-establishment anthems for generations old and new.
“Our Dad was always in punk bands when we were growing up, so we were raised in the DIY scene. When we started the band, it just seemed like the most natural step to start the label with him and put our own releases out. He thought of the idea of calling it Screaming Babies Records after the Crass lyric because our logo is a screaming baby.” (Brèagha Cuinn)
Fast forward to the start of 2026 and the band are thrilled to be finally getting Hagridden out into the world. They originally recorded the album themselves some three years ago, then lost everything they’d worked on when their laptop broke. From there they just decided to make a fresh start and go back into the studio again to finally get it finished, emerging with ten songs of essential and beautifully cathartic punk rock. Lyrically, the album’s ten sharp songs cover a wealth of subjects close to their hearts; feminism, animal rights, media brainwashing and how normalised sweatshops have become in our society are all tackled on Hagridden with raw, raging vocals, barbed-wire guitars and pounding rhythms. Whilst the band still play live with programmed drums, Hagridden features live drums for the first time.
“We decided to call the album ‘Hagridden’ before we even recorded it, but it’s been a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy because so many barriers came up when we were trying to get it recorded and released that it turned into a bit of a nightmare, so the next album might be called ‘Smooth Sailing’ to avoid cursing ourselves again. It definitely sounds way better than the first version, so in a way I’m glad it worked out this way, but we were so gutted when it happened. Our first record is all programmed drums, and that’s what we were planning for this album too. We actually recorded every song with a drum machine, but our producer Tommy Duffin played with us and drummed on the album. He recorded our first album, so it was great to work with him again.” (Brèagha Cuinn)
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