The passionate intensity of post punk prophets
When the news broke on Friday that Fontaines DC had cracked the UK top ten with their debut album Dogrel, there was euphoria among fans of a class of Irish music that slaps listeners awake rather than lulls them to sleep.
To put Fontaines DC’s achievement into context, the album released in February by Irish stadium-staples Picture This only peaked at number 54 in Britain and hasn’t been in the Top 100 since.
Fontaines DC are simply the most exciting Irish indie band in years. To see them not only vie for the Irish No.1 spot but for a top five placing in Britain should be a cause for national celebration. More so because singer Grian Chatten belts out post-punk songs such as Boys In The Better Land, Big and Too Real in his untamed north Dublin accent. I’m not sure when the voice of Irish youth has last sounded so authentically Irish and yet still been embraced as enthusiastically beyond these shores. ‘We wanted to have an authenticity that people could see and to prove it within ourselves,’ guitarist Conor Curley tells me. ‘You start wearing a mask if you don’t... We want to prove that we can have our own voice and carry that across the water and everywhere else.’
Many of the gigs on their upcoming UK and US tours are sold out but the quintet’s first gig in a small Dublin venue just over two years ago was attended by just 22 people. What they have achieved since then is based on a reputation for intense, incendiary live performances.
‘We’ve released a few singles, but the album has only just come out, so we know the attention we’re getting is because of the kind of gigs we play,’ Curley says.
‘I relish the shows as much as any of our fans; it feels that almost anything could happen.’
Frontman Chatten’s stage presence brings to mind the late Ian Curtis of Joy Division and Dara Kiely of Girl Band. The latter is another Irish band who confounded expectations about modern Irish music. Curley agrees that the Girl Band had a profound influence on them and other exciting Irish bands such as The Murder Capital who are also on the cusp of a big breakthrough. That propensity to make noisy, angular music palatable to the point of intoxication is something all three bands have in common.
‘People often say we are part of a post-punk revival. There is nothing in our music that is revivalist. I know that the lads in The Murder Capital think the same way,’ he says. ‘Our line of thinking stems from Girl Band. Those lads were also being completely themselves. That to me was when the air caught fire. When we travel to America and other places, we often get asked about Girl Band... I’m really glad they have a second album coming out this year. They should be role models to any young band.’
Curley who is originally from Monaghan, Skerries-native Chatten, Madrid-born guitarist Carlos O’Connell and Mayo drummer Tom Coll are all 23. They and 24year-old bassist Conor Deegan met while attending the BIMM Music school in Dublin. And it seems Fontaines DC have been influencing the next wave.
‘I was talking to a guy in a pub and he told me he was at BIMM and in a band that cover Boys In The Better Land,’ Curley says. ‘I was shocked. When I went to BIMM, there was nobody at that time rushing to do songs like that.’
Fontaines DC are at the vanguard of a new wave of vital, attitude-adjusting bands saving popular Irish music from banality and mediocrity. Picture that.
Fontaines DC’s debut album Dogrel is out now on Partisan Records. The band play All Together Now festival at Curraghmore House, Waterford on August 2.