B i o g r a p h y (by Liam Martin)
Dublin five-piece Fontaines D.C. have strong ties to their native city, which they translate into abrasive vocals and driving percussion with a healthy dose of melody. Debuting in 2019, the group rose quickly to international success, evolving their sound on 2020's A Hero's Death. Their third album, 2022's Skinty Fia, topped the charts in the U.K., Ireland, and Scotland. Heralded by the single "Starburster," Romance arrived in 2024, showcasing even more ambitious sonics and a future-dystopian theme. It again took the band to the upper reaches of the U.K. charts and picked up two Grammy nominations. All five members of the band met while attending Dublin City Music College. Grian Chatten (vocals), Conor Deegan III (bass), Conor Curley (guitar), Carlos O'Connell (guitar), and Tom Coll (drums) attended the same class, and gravitated toward each other in the first few months. They had all previously been in other bands, but their chemistry together as musicians persuaded them to leave their former groups and form the Fontaines. They named themselves after a character from The Godfather, but were soon legally challenged by a band from L.A. with the same name; as a result, they added D.C., which stands for Dublin City. They organized their first tour in 2017 after the release of their debut single "Hurricane Laughter." Doors soon began opening for them, and their live reputation grew. The following year saw three more singles, "Boys in the Better Land," "Chequeless Reckless," and "Too Real," all of which were featured on the group's Dan Carey-produced debut album, 2019's Dogrel. Working quickly, Fontaines began writing a follow-up just six months after the release of their debut, decamping to Los Angeles to record A Hero's Death. Produced once again by Carey and released in July 2020, it made the Top Ten on a number of prominent charts and netted the band a Grammy Award nomination in the U.S. It also marked an evolution in the band's sound by featuring more prominent vocal harmonies and psychedelic elements. A 2021 live LP, Fontaines D.C. Live at Kilmainham Gaol, bridged the gap as Fontaines and Carey prepared their third album. Taking its name from an old Irish saying, 2022's Skinty Fia became their first effort to top the charts at home and in the U.K. The following year, Chatten released his debut solo album before rejoining the group in the studio. Around the same time, Fontaines D.C. joined forces with Massive Attack and Young Fathers for the 2024 charity song "Ceasefire," in support of Médecins Sans Frontières' work in Gaza and the West Bank. The track "Starburster" arrived in April 2024 as the lead single off the group's fourth album, Romance. Released that August, the album found the group working with producer James Ford and embracing not just a more sophisticated, stylistically diverse sound, but exploring Japanese manga-influenced themes of futurism and dystopia. It reached number two on the U.K. Albums chart and cracked the Billboard 200. It also garnered the group their first Grammy nominations for Best Rock Album and Best Alternative Music Performance for "Starburster."
' Cello Song Full Way Round I Saw Light One Rocket To Russia Stranger The Black Angel's Death Song The Cuckoo Is A-Callin’ Twinkle (Skinty Fia Sessions) Winter In The Sun
Non Albums Tracks
' Cello Song (Nick Drake) Strange face, with your eyes so pale and sincere Underneath, you know well you have nothing to fear For the dreams that came to you when so young Told of a life where Spring is sprung So forget this cruel world where I belong I'll just sit and wait and sing my song But while the Earth sinks to its grave You sail to the sky on the crest of a wave
Full Way Round (Leftfield feat. Grian Chatten / This Is What We Do LP) Could I get served over here, please, hello You'll wait your turn young fella I've been the full way round Crucified the city in a crisscross cabby With my head and my tongue hanging out I've been the full way round Crucified the city in a crisscross cabby With my head and my tongue hanging out Down as the onus upon us Filing out to execute the jury I told you not to hurry (I'll do it for you Judy, yeah) I open the bonnet now Not unlike a local bishop's collar out the gate He says that's why he's late (A real gentleman) I've been the full way round Crucified the city in a crisscross cabby With my head and my tongue hanging out I've been the full way round Crucified the city in a crisscross cabby With my head and my tongue hanging out Down as the onus upon us Filing out to execute the jury I told you not to hurry I'm calling, sick with worry It's Judy talking sharp when she's always thinking dirty Relationship is flirty We're crashing in the early I'm gearing out the parties, I go wander ‘til 1:30 I'm murky as you please sir, I wanna- ah murky I got needs, I got needs, I got needs, rosary beads I don't think our water got it, got it on her knees I've been the full way round Crucified the city in a crisscross cabby With my head and my tongue hanging out I've been the full way round Crucified the city in a crisscross cabby With my head and my tongue hanging out, yeah Down as the onus upon us Filing out to execute the jury I told you not to hurry I'm calling, sick with worry It's Judy talking sharp when she's always thinking dirty Relationship is flirty We’re crashing in the early You're not out here to hurt me Even if it’s in your genes But I'm knowing that my dying Is a fixture in your dreams Don't disturb me, my arrows for the clergy But for the breeze against my back And all the world will know my fury But you're not out here to hurt me Even if it's in your genes But I'm knowing that my dying Is a fixture in your dreams La la la, la la la And you're not out here to hurt me Even if it’s in your genes But I’m knowing that my dying Is a fixture in your dreams La la la, la la la The world's floating around All safety netted and square and all peculiar Powered back then by the other Brushing their nerves upon the pine slip Until a fixed and very easy novelty Then it's men in heels I'm sex-driven for a strange second boy And don’t let it rouse in the boat I was in a cab They took me from East to West, more or less Or maybe from North to South Either way, the cab drew some important line on a crucifix I asked the driver was he wearing And he turned the radio up against the question Yeah, just leave us off anywhere here, please
I Saw Light (Kae Tempest feat. Grian Chatten / The Line Is A Curve LP) Beginning with an ending in mind, I took a minute Saw too much ahead of my time Came away laughing, blushed Carton crushed Everything was unfastened Rush In the stifling air of a thin little moment Rush Can't keep my focus My skin's your skin Vivid as a memory fading by the minute Screaming your name like I was afraid you'd be in it Your truth to me. Clutching at straws. Don't know you Never even met you Pause I put my pen down and started to drift I stopped living Stared at the grass at the edge of the cliff I saw women Heart is a yellowing brick Deadset on a wish that can nеver exist A transition I want to be is but I'm isn't Ambition kicks mе awake and says, dress I was looking for the door All I found was your flesh, your flesh, your blessed dismembered hands are sand I'm stranded I want to be thrown against the wall By a tall cold dickhead With a morse-code accent That I can't look at Without starting something I'll regret Everything's beautiful I digress I saw light in the buildings at night I saw light in the windows as I passed them by On the river, on the ledge, on the bridge On the side of your face at the bar It went dark, I saw light I saw light in the buildings at night I saw light in the windows as I passed them by On the river, on the bridge, on the ledge On the side of your face at the bar It went dark, I saw light Tapped out a few laughs on the summer's grass And in all the sky's many merry blues I read one thousand words Of pretty good news And now heliotropes around your light gather And they chatter and chatter and they chatter Make insipid remarks about things that matter 'Till they don't anymore 'Till they don't weigh a crumb Until the caring in you is surely done Until dead is every one of us floating about Between good bookie odds and two for one on stout So live it all out In lust of a stage Where you were busy trying to trap the heart on the page Having scenes arranged into your bones And happily arranging yourself to be alone Believing happiness to be a train that just doesn't stop for you A pain but a friend that doesn't pretend A pain but a friend that doesn't pretend A pain but a friend that doesn't pretend I saw light in the buildings at night I saw light in the windows as I passed them by On the river, on the bridge, on the ledge On the side of your face at the bar It went dark, I saw light I saw light in the buildings at night I saw light in the windows as I passed them by On the river, on the bridge, on the ledge On the side of your face at the bar It went dark, I saw light One (U2) Is it getting better Or do you feel the same Will it make it easier on you, now You got someone to blame? You say one love, one life When it's one need in the night One love, we get to share it Leaves you, baby, if you don't care for it Did I disappoint you Or leave a bad taste in your mouth? You act like you never had love And you want me to go without Did I ask too much? More than a lot You gave me nothing, now it's all I got We're one, but we're not the same Well, we carry each other, carry each other You say love is a temple, love a higher law Love is a temple, love the higher law You ask me to enter, but then you make me crawl I can't be holding on to what you got When all you got is hurt One love, one life It's one need in the night One love, we get to share it Leaves you, baby, if you don't care One One Rocket To Russia Well, I don't really like it when you look that way You know, you're always coming over to my place but you never stay You're not a mean dirty woman, but you know I feel that way So, I don't really like it when you look that way Something's on your mind but you just won't say Are you a mean dirty woman and you know I feel that way Well, I don't really care about your diamond ring See I’m more about the fire and the smoke it brings Like you're on a rocket to Russia, your shit don't mean a thing She's just coming over from the sunshine state Just to listen to the people in the sanity parade Oh, your a big dirty woman, you know I feel so bad La la la La la la Well, I don't really like it when you look that way You've got a backseat look, I saw you in it yesterday You're a mean dirty woman, and I know you feel that way So, I don't really like it when you look that way You've got a backseat look, I saw you in it yesterday Yeah you're a mean dirty woman, you know I feel that way
Stranger (Hinds feat. Grian Chatter / Viva Hinds LP) So I would like to live outside my head sometimes Just sometimes 'Cause it feels like, I feel like hell Please, tell me how to live, tell me there's a way 'Cause all I wanna play is white noise in my brain I'm a stranger to myself The day has come and stolen me from me Heart fades in a whisper Somewhere in my life I was cold and strong Melted for a song The night was made of glitter I'm happy to go on But all things fade Nothing stays 'Til you're looking in a mirror And what you see is strange, strange You're falling from your head You're falling past your words Do you now feel like home I, I'm singing to the beat The breeze of my own breath There's no one here to please An empty mirror frame I'm a stranger to myself Stranger to myself I'm a stranger to myself Stranger to myself I'm a stranger to myself I'm a stranger to myself Oh so strange, so strange So strange, so strange So strange The Black Angel's Death Song (The Velvet Underground) Myriad had choice of his fate Set themselves out upon a plate for him to choose What had he to lose? Not a ghost bloodied country all covered with sleep Where the black angel did weep not an old city street in the east Gone to choose And wandering's brother walked on through the night With his hair in his face on a long splintered cut from the knife Of GT The rally man's patter ran on through the dawn Until we said so long to his skull Shrill yell Shining brightly red rimmed and red lined with the time Infused with the choice of the mind on ice skates scraping chunks From the bells Cut mouth bleeding razors Forgetting the pain Antiseptic remains cool, good buy So you fly To the cozy brown snow of the east Gonna choose, choose again Sacrificials remain, make it hard to forget Where you come from the stools of your eyes Serve to realize fame Choose again And Rovermans' refrain of the sacrilege recluse For the loss of a horse with the bowels and a tail of a rat Come again, choose to go And if epiphany's terror reduced you to shame Have your head bobbed and weaved Choose a side to be on And if the stone glances off, split didactics in two Leave the color of the mouse trails Don't scream, try between if you choose If you choose, try to lose For the loss of remain come and start Start the game I che che, che che I Che che che, ka tah koh Choose to choose Choose to choose, choose to go The Cuckoo Is A-Callin’ Although the trees ungentle sway Reflect the temper of the day Just as lovely as you say Rain upon my hair is falling Stirred up as the river flows The clammer of the bar below Strings a man, his sentence slow "The cuckoo is a-callin" Now I know this bitter life may feel Ungentle & at times unkind It bares within itself the fear Of being someone else its fine but You my lovely friend have nothing But a spine, but a spine You'll surely take those jabs they throw and drink them like red wine You swine Twinkle (Skinty Fia Sessions) Waiting to be bled Turning tricks just like your mother Left my dreams for dead Making out with every other She is the air I breathe, not too pure for me She is the air I breathe, not too cheap for me She is the only one for me now and always She is the only one for me now and always She is the only one for me now and always She is the only one for me Hole right through her head I think I might be nothing to her "Sing it now, " she said Fuck, I might be here forever She is the air I breathe, not too pure for me She is the air I breathe, not too cheap for me She is the only one for me now and always She is the only one for me now and always She is the only one for me now and always She is the only one for me Ringing in my head Too clearly, I can hear you moving You talk sister fear You're gonna pay for all the hate I'm giving She is the air I breathe, not too pure for me She is the air I breathe, not too cheap for me She is the only one for me now and always She's the only one for me now and always She's the only one for me now and always She's the only one for me She is the air I breathe She is the air I breathe She is the one for me Winter In The Sun City boy reaches for the lonely heiress Shes got a fruit fly buzzing round her head And the boys are in a pack They're looking for some some liquor Coming up with ways to make daddy go quicker Showing off his dimonds to a down town girl Her eyes are like stars and they shine like pearls He gets a kiss of credit and a crank of the engine Ready now to give his dad all of his attention I want to see some other places I want a single resignation from the races I want to feel it, winter in the sun I want to feel my soul coming undone I want to go back home I want to sing with all the people I know I want to see them, go around pleasing I want to bring them to the show just to say hello The heiresses caught a column in the paper 'bout the poor She was startled by a picture of a kid laid on the floor She thought about her future didn't want it anymore So she threw it in the river prayed it never came ashore She pulled up in a limo and she'd [?] And throw herself into the ring with people from the scene As soon as people knew her as the one from Terenure Who wears her designer mittons while she's helping out the poor I want to see some other places I want a single resignation from the races I want to feel it, winter in the sun I want to feel my soul coming undone I want to go back home I want to sing with all the people I know I want to see them, go around pleasing I want to bring them to the radio show I want to bring them to the show and say hello Just say hello