Credit: Deborah Sheedy
Words: Linn Branson
Dublin post-punk/garage rockers Fontaines D.C. have turned 2018 into something of a breakthrough year after debut single 'Liberty Belle', followed by 'Hurricane Laughter' and the double A-sider, 'Chequeless Reckless'/'Boys In A Better Land'.
Now, as they whip up a storm out on the road with Shame, they unveil another new single, the raw-edged and propulsive Dan Carey-produced 'Too Real', which sees a physical release via Partisan on December 21.
Building over repeated instrumental breaks in between layers of propulsive guitars and vocalist Grian Chatten's demanding delivery as he spews out “Is it too real for ya?”, the song works to the kind of climactic end that leaves you feeling exhausted, but fulfilled.
"I’d been reading a lot of poetry, specifically Preludes by T.S. Eliot — he makes your mind drift off into romanticism, and then quickly snaps it back into reality," says frontman Chatten, "and I remember I shot out of my chair and wrote down just the first line ('None can pull the passion loose from youth’s ungrateful hands'). Then when I came to the band with all the rough lyrics, our bassist Diego interpreted it as connecting to the sort of surrealist, idiosyncratic cyclical structure of Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake — where the first line is immediately engaging, you’re dropped right into the story, and then the ending leads right back to the beginning again. That’s something we wanted to capture in the video as well, which begins and ends with a wake scene.
"So the circular nature of the song and video reflect the circular nature of the book, but also in a sense the surreal repetition of life. I think something strange happens to your soul when you experience something that you’ve already experienced before. We’re always longing for every step in life to be a new, developmental one. To accept that some things stay the same, something cracks within. That’s where surrealism comes in. The song’s chorus is accusatory, and also we wanted to be able to look people in the eye from on stage and sing this to them."
If you haven't put down a few quid on this band making 2019 their big year, do it now.
Currently on tour with Shame with their own headline dates in London, Brighton, Manchester and Dublin later this month/December sold out, bag your tickets quickly for next year's UK/EU run.
JANUARY 2019
12 Coventry Central Library
13 Milton Keynes The Craufurd Arms
14 Southampton The Joiners
16 Luxembourg De Gudde Wellen
17 Groningen Eurosonic @ Vera
18 Amsterdam Cinetol
19 Dresden Ostpol
22 Kraków Klub RE
23 Warsaw Poglos
24 Berlin Schokoladen
25 Cologne Privat
26 Hamburg Molotow
29 Stockholm Obaren
31 Oslo Revolver
FEBRUARY
01 Copenhagen Ideal Bar
02 Aarhus Tape
05 Basel Kaserne
07 Besancon Generiq Festival
08 Grenoble La Bobine
10 Dijon Generiq Festival
APRIL
11 Bristol Thekla
12 Leeds Brudenell Social Club
13 Manchester Gorilla
14 Glasgow King Tuts
16 Nottingham Bodega
17 London The Garage
18 Brighton The Haunt
19 Diksmuide 4AD
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