15 February 2022 The worst thing anyone could say to Mr Grian Chatten is that he's not really Irish. And in flooded the humanity again. It was just one of those things, he says. Theres a beautiful sense of sharing a secret with your mates again. I Love You Interview: Fontaines D.C. frontman Grian Chatten talks Like if Shane MacGowan told me that he liked one of my tunes I think I could just retire. Grian: his birthday, what he did before fame, his family life, fun trivia facts, popularity rankings, and more. Like I dont think I know myself as well as my friends. This summer, Fontaines D.C. will head out on the road to support Arctic Monkeys on their 2023 North American tour. Pink Floyd The Dark Side Of The Moon (50th Anniversary Deluxe Boxset), Live review! Subscribe to Uncut today and never miss an issue. The Pogues sang about this, too, in the deeply moving Thousands Are Sailing. Nowhere was this exodus more evident than in the New World of the United States of America. You tend to know what to expect from the blurb that accompanies a bands new album. You, the band, the music, this whole thing? It doesnt jar the way it looks at all, it just fits it. According to Chatten, Skinty Fia (titled after an old Irish swear meaning the damnation of the deer; see below for more on that) started coming together when members of the band were back in Dublin during the pandemic. My moms British and I was born in England and I moved over [to Ireland] when I was like two months old, and my dads Irish so its like Im made up of two halves. We could easily have written an album without having anything to say because we just love writing music. Fontaines D.C. are an Irish post-punk band formed in Dublin in 2017. Aside from what you bond over what do you and your bandmates disagree about? Im trying to kind of convince my girlfriend to come out and enjoy this its like adventure, you know what I mean? The debuts bracing, direct punk has been replaced by something more textured and woozy, inspired by 90s hauntologists Broadcast and the psych-country of Lee Hazlewood. As an Irishman living in London, Grian Chatten deals with a lot of bullshit. I want to live in the world of the heart. A lot of the album is built upon that experience, that feeling. It was inspired by sugar and sunset.. Theres a sense of conspiracy when you have something you havent released, Chatten says. I dont know exactly what that is; its an abstract thing, but its like somethings over ya know. Frontman Grian Chatten talks fame, politics and pressure with Alex Greene Fontaines DC - Grian Chatten, Conor Deegan III, Conor Curley, Carlos O'Connell and Tom Coll. Fontaines D.C. frontman Grian Chatten has shared his debut solo single - listen to "The Score" below. YouTube playlist (Official). View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 2023 File release of "The Score" on Discogs. Three albums later, the parameters have changed. Im going to have kids at some point, he says, so this is my last chance to be the kid., Often are the times when he wonders how I went from writing a chord progression and expressing what its like living in Dublin to saying all these weird corporate one-liners [for American radio stations], you know? The thing about that you know, by the way, is that it does expect a response. They used to have really turbulent and loud arguments. Youre about to go on a US tour and to SXSW, what are you going to tell America about itself? Its just like family, everything they say has potential to annoy you but its up to you to take it like that. I have such a profound connection with him. Theres a story in the papers about a woman from Coventry in England. And for the first time in my life, family members were telling me how proud they were. I share the same beliefs as a lot of people my age, but I think that the way theyre developed upon or the way that theyre used and shared could be improved, he says. Im not interested in writing a straight-up love song. I think messages of artists often get lost in inauthenticity. Jessie Ware Solidifies Herself As Vital Dance Artist On Vibrant 'That Worldwide. Put it this way: Hed have to walk the streets naked to get himself noticed round these parts. Not that it cant survive fine without me, but I feel like Ive taken all this crap from it creatively, and then Ive just left. The track arrives with an accompanying video directed by Georgie Jesson. To Irish eyes, not to mention rational minds, the decision smacked of racism and xenophobia; to the top brass of Englands official religion, permitting the familys request was akin to sanctioning a potentially subversive political slogan on sacred ground. We were totally shocked by it, so we wrote the song [when] the family saw the tracklisting, which was published somewhere, they got in touch with us and asked us to send the song over. This is not calculated stuff, and neither is it obvious. It made the album a little bit more Irish because we coveted that which made us different., Despite that, Chatten likes living in London. Grian Chatten (Fontaines D.C.) - "The Score" I used to listen to his readings of Dubliners. Does Dublin feel like an ex-lover that you broke up with to see the world? Skinty Fia by Fontaines D.C. is out on 22 April. Bloomsday ), Despite the plaudits and packed venues, though, life was far from easy. Grian thinks a lot. Yeah we do, whatever comes first just as long as it has a kind of pointed feeling that we all chase down. Out of the fear of God people are more polite. (The decision was subsequently overturned on appeal. Skinty Fia is an expression that our drummers great auntie used to say. She was an old woman, she was called Margaret Keane. Theyd be roaring their heads off. Irish hip-hop? Credit: Eimear Lynch. ", "Achy Breaky Heart" was originally recorded in 1991 by The Marcy Brothers as "Don't Tell My Heart." The extended lag between surface success and actual material security, typical for any hyped young band, was taking its toll. Fontaines DC's Grian Chatten: It's hard not to be led by the mass I wanted to write a song called I Love You because I thought that it was a challenge that interested me to write a song about so kind of an ostensibly clich topic and attempt to make it interesting and my own, unique. Concert. Born in Cumbria, in the far north of the country, he moved to Ireland barely a month after moving out of the womb. I was basically too bollocksed all the time and the idea of a bed started to scare me more and more, he says. Nabokov She was an Irish-speaking person, like strictly Irish-speaking, exclusively Irish-speaking person. If people cant accept it or dont like it, then their band is gone. In other words: its not us, its you. Theres a kind of healthiness to writing during the day. Do you guys ever start with the music first and then build a story off that or is it the other way around? Upon researching for this conversation I learned Grian was supposed to have a sort of cool, mysterious, "don't give a fuck" demeanor and noticed in videos of performances that he would anxiously pace back and forth on stage between powerful deliveries of his lyrics. Fontaines D.C.'s Grian Chatten has shared his debut solo single, 'The Youre reminded that youre not where youre from on at least a weekly basis. You can follow Fontaines D.C. on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Grian Chatten, Conor Deegan, Carlos O'Connell and Tom Coll from Fontaines DC attend the Ivor Novello Awards 2021 at Grosvenor House on September 21,. It shows how fragile it all is., Naturally, with these pressures came intra-band tensions. Being away from home for an extended period of time meant that he didnt feel comfortable documenting its changes, and he says he would never write an album about shit coffee from petrol stations, so instead the band looked inwards. With a sound that recalls the tension and violence of punk forebears the Stranglers, and which keeps assured company with the very best of European alternative music Wolf Alice, most notably, and IDLES the idea that the Dubliners would be minded to play nice was for the birds. It saved him from himself. The tipping point, Chatten says, came in the throes of a particularly negative tour of Europe. Grian Chatten - The Score - Debtsingle. Its like if you have a sibling and one of the siblings is into art and the other sibling is into business, I think being in such close proximity with such differences, you become more aware of your differences, so in that sense youre inadvertently teaching each other things about yourselves. Eventually they said, Excuse me, sorry, can we get a photo with you? he recalls. Yeah basically, its a working class poetry. Grian Chatten | Discography | Discogs Does it stem from personal experiences as well? Yeah it was summer. And here we are, at last, at the real point of conflict for the singer in Fontaines D.C.: the writing and making of music versus its promotion and projection. Im very paranoid about staying the same. As Chatten speaks, there hangs behind him a framed picture of Shane MacGowan, the singer with the Pogues, who in 1988 sang about the imprisonment of six Northern Irishmen wrongly convicted of bombing a pub in Birmingham, Englands second-largest city. Their influences. Im curious as to what that would even sound like. The Score is out now via Partisan Records. There are no setlists by Grian Chatten on setlist.fm yet. Learn more about our Privacy Policy here. You could help us by adding a first setlist . I have this kind of strange feeling of guilt toward my leaving of Ireland. One inspiration was a charity-shop accordion that Chattens mother gave him for Christmas. A lot of the lyrics are about stories I identify with but arent necessarily personal. Im typically a quite reserved, shy person. April 25, 2023. To see a band like Arctic Monkeys stick together after so long and to continue to make albums that challenge the music around them and challenge the music theyve already made is inspiring.. And part of the reason that were robbed of debate is that echo chamber, that funnelling down to the right, funnelling down to the left. I think its interesting in this world where its incredibly important to be good, it just makes it very, very alluring to write from the perspective of somebody who doesnt want to be good or doesnt feel the need to pretend to be good. It drives me closer to who I am, he says. There are two sources of his feelings of alienation: Chatten getting engaged to his longtime girlfriend in August 2019, and the success of Fontaines D.C.'s debut album, Dogrels. The suspicion with which Fontaines D.C. regard such trinkets is likely a testament to their musical worth. Even getting used to the corners of a room, having use for a washing machine, knowing what the street youre going to walk down to get a coffee looks like. It becomes a lot less interesting. I think thats an unhealthy fallacy to perpetuate, Chatten says their own self-validation is more important. Not just mine, but a lot of families. It was inspired by sugar and sunset.. T&Cs apply, Words by Mr Niall Doherty | Photography by Filmawi, The worst thing anyone could say to Mr Grian Chatten is that hes not really Irish. Stalling for time, stalling for time. As frontman and chief lyricist of the Dublin post-punk quintet Fontaines D.C., Chatten has channelled life growing up in Ireland into his bands music, songs that take in themes of mental health, corrupt governments, religion and community. It just made sense. I like to believe that my world creatively is iron-clad and insular, says the man who puts all of himself into his songs, even when he doesnt mean to. It becomes contrived and superficial. Yeah to an extent. Recorded less than a year on from the release of Dogrel, A Heros Death seems to reject many of the elements that lured listeners towards its predecessor. It was put in my hands and then I was away for a couple of days, walking around the gaff playing with very little knowledge of how to play. Let The Roundup Begin: The Month In Hardcore. You hide in your cubby holes 4,000 miles away from each others beliefs.. And living in Camden? Like if you go to Boston, that expression of Irishness. But theres nothing borrowed from traditional Irish music within those groups. Theres a slight level of discomfort in being Irish in this city, he says. The van filled up with that old romance that we lost without realising. A monthly update on our latest interviews, stories and added songs. Send us your questions for Adam Granduciel! Three years later, things seem different. An impressively niche musical reference will probably be name-dropped at some point (We were heavily influenced by 70s Orkney Islands psych rock this time round). The opening song on Skinty Fia, In r gCrothe go deo, for example, is inspired by the true story of the death of an Irishwoman, Margaret Keane, in the English city of Coventry, and of the Church of Englands initial refusal to allow the Gaelic translation of the words In our hearts forever to be inscribed on her gravestone. , released this month, is already one of the most anticipated rock events of the year. I wondered about these things going in and realized during our talk how much they all made sense. Grian Chatten, lead vocalist for Fontaines D.C., has shared his debut solo single, 'The Score'. I remember when we played you couldnt move for American-Irish, the singer recalls. Chatten says he views the excursion as being my last chance of really living like a young person, the point after which he can no longer justify being an irresponsible git. Out on the road, Chatten savors the lack of good food, the late nights, living in a mess I love all that. But the clock is ticking on this kind of thing. Grian Chatten, bekannt als Snger der irischen Post-Punk-Band Fontaines D.C., hat mit The Score" gestern seine erste Solo-Single verffentlicht - und mit ihr ein nostalgisches Musikvideo vom Jahrmarkt. In many ways, his country defines him, as a songwriter, as an artist and as a person. Fontaines D.C. - Wikipedia Last week, we got an email saying that they really love the song, that its completely appropriate and that they played it at the gravestone.. Their recently . I think the people of Ireland need to look back into the past of Ireland with not reverence, but more understanding and more awareness and not reject it as something that belongs to an old and out of fashion generation because I think in the past lies the answer to the future for Ireland. Talking about the track, Grian explains, "'The Score' is a heavyweight bated breath of lust. Its that sort of pseudo-knowledge. Youd hear them really screaming at each other. Its a celebration of that flipping, from it being a bad thing into a positive thing. Stories play a big role in your songwriting. King Crimson's life in music as told in a series of exclusive new interviews. NET-A-PORTER.COM sells must-have luxury fashion from over 900 of the world's most coveted designers. Fontaines DC: Theres the great lie of the rock star who doesnt care what people think. afficher des publicits et des contenus personnaliss en fonction de vos profils de centres dintrt; mesurer lefficacit des publicits et contenus personnaliss; et. Im not really sure, Im still quite new to this ya know. Grian Chatten. I read that one thing that really brought you guys together was a mutual love of the Beat generation and you named yourselves after the Godfather character, Johnny Fontane. . For all that, Dogrel managed to be surprisingly anthemic too, with songs the barrelling Boys in the Better Land, the staccato shoutalong of Big that could as easily be belted out at closing time as assiduously studied on lyrics sites. fontainesband .com. On our last tour in U.K., it was a ritual of mine to listen to do you know the actor, Andrew Scott? Theres a kind of great sadness to that. The youth of Dublin and the youth of Ireland are politically activated now because of the Repeal the Eighth Movement, which allows women to get abortions. In a sign of the kind of stupidly obliging person I can be when Im nervous, the singer decided to try on a shoe that I didnt have any intention of buying. Needless to say, by this point those he sought to escape had joined him in the store; they too were walking up and down the aisles pretending to assess footwear. It felt very structured or something like that, and easy, Chatten says. I think if we all got caught up on what the future is without looking at the past, then were going down a very, very dark road. I think that the way people talk to each other here is vastly different than the way they talk to each other in Ireland, like people are a lot more content to be rude in a healthy way I think so far. How much of Ireland is still out of tune? Fontaines D.C.'s Grian Chatten shares debut solo single, "The Score" Absolutely. He loves the sprawling nature of the city and a part of him enjoys the sense of being an outsider. In it, the Irish five-piece warn fans not to expect a repeat of their acclaimed 2019 debut, Dogrel, and readily admit that its follow-up may kill the idea of the band for many. Last month saw Chatten appear on an edition of Sleaford Mods online talk show Late Night With Jason. And the people blatantly telling him: Go home., These experiences cant help but make their way into the music of Fontaines D.C., the band Chatten fronts specifically on the bands third album, Skinty Fia, out April 22. I think Yeats is a lot more heart on the sleeve, hes a bleeding heart. It comes in no new form ever. Because he knows his heart so well, hes doesnt need to tell you about it, he doesnt need to share it with you. The poetic Dublin post-punk band are back with a daring new album that might kill their fanbase. The YouTuber posted two Instagram photos announcing the proposal: One showed the gorgeous sea and blue sky that provided a romantic backdrop for the special moment, and the other showed the engagement ring on Grian's fiance's finger. MusikBlog - Grian Chatten - The Score - Debtsingle I mean, I am, I just think it would be really hard because I dont know how to write without that kind of duality or that tension or a duplicity almost. I think everything gets lost in inauthenticity. So our management did that. Im not really confronted with my actions as much as they are. The coffee that comes out of a big keg, like black beer. We could easily have written an album without having anything to say because we just love writing music. It worked. Funnily enough, it made me feel worse than when they were telling me to quit and get a proper job., Good for them. The new record broadens the groups sonic palette.