We are writing for ourselves, nobody else
Fontaines DC frontman Grian Chatten talks to about fame, politics and pressure as their second album goes on sale
but the sense all of your best work is in the future, that feels healthy.”
The shift in tone on A Hero’s Death was prompted by the band’s love of groups like The Beach Boys and Broadcast who create entire worlds with their music. “Those poppy chords – it’s sentimental, it’s heartache but it’s obscured by your inability to see it,” he says wistfully. “It’s almost like looking at a fireplace through teary eyes.”
If Dogrel was a love letter to Dublin, A Hero’s Death addresses a space entirely of their own making, prompted by a period of relentless touring that almost broke them.
“I really felt like we had no place for the last two years,” he recalls. “Our environment was constantly changing so there was a great sense of disconnection between ourselves and anything outside of us and the band.
“We wanted to create for ourselves a place we could write about – we didn’t have Dublin anymore. We didn’t have anywhere and I didn’t want to write about being in a van and being a successful musician.” Grian and the band are discovering that the price of success is fame – something that doesn’t sit well with them.
“I’m a little bit anxious about my place in Dublin,” he admits. “Dublin is obviously a relatively small city and I get recognised quite a lot now. I loved Dublin when I could live as a street rat, when I could drink cans on the street and do whatever I want.
“I could really feel like part of the furniture here, and obviously I can’t really do that as much now.
“I don’t really want to be ringing up celebrities and trying to hang out with them. It’s not my scene.” While the band have done their best to avoid the trappings of fame, they allowed themselves one run-in with a celebrity – Aidan Gillen.
The Irish actor, best known as scheming Littlefinger in Game of Thrones or ambitious Tommy Carcetti in The Wire, appears in the surreal music video for the album’s title track.
Their request came after Gillen asked for a ticket to one of their gigs.
“We were all fairly sceptical but he said ‘Yeah’ and he did it for a pint,” Grian chuckles.
But because of lockdown, the pint never materialised. Instead the band sent him a bottle of whiskey to enjoy at home.
Fontaines DC are a political band, unafraid to speak on subjects like Brexit, Irish politics and the power of youth – but life on tour has led to a disconnect.
Grian says: “The problem with all that for me is that I have been on the road for two years.
“I’m back to Dublin now and I feel that if someone was going to be asked about politics, there are probably maybe a million more qualified or educated people to ask at the moment.”
He adds: “I feel an awful lot of pressure when people ask me about Irish politics because I don’t want to misrepresent a country that I haven’t really set foot in for a while.”
Unsurprisingly, Grian is already thinking about the next album. What comes next for a band hell-bent on never looking back? “I’m not sure what kind of subject matter is looming,” he muses. “But I can feel something coming and I am reconnecting with traditional Irish music a lot more than I have over the last year.
“We became obsessed with a few Irish ceilidh bands and Irish bands in general.
“We took them with us on the road and we let them fill us up with nostalgia all around the globe.”