“I’m gonna be big”: Charting the evolution of Fontaines D.C.’s sound
“My childhood was small,” yelled Fontaines D.C.’s frontman in ‘Big’, the opener to their 2019 debut album Dogrel, “But I’m gonna be big.” Five years later, Grian Chatten has certainly made good on that promise. Half a decade in, they’re one of the biggest guitar bands in the world, but how has their sound changed since their first record?
When Fontaines arrived on the post-punk scene in 2019, Speedy Wunderground was king. Their single series curated the best of the best in the genre, from Black Midi to Squid, so it made sense for Fontaines to link up with the label’s producer Dan Carey for their debut. As a result, the record captured the sound of that era; frantic guitars, sarcastic, talky vocals, that dry production style that somehow made it sound as if Chatten and co. were right there in the room with you.
But it wasn’t the sound of London-based post-punk that the band were capturing on Dogrel. Fontaines hadn’t formed around the Brixton Windmill scene like many of Speedy Wunder’s signees, rather, their sound was intrinsically linked to their home in Dublin, Ireland. The record was firmly rooted in the city that made them, with references to the Lotts and to the Liberties. Even the title took its name from a form of Irish working-class poetry. Chatten proved himself to be a kind of poet himself, rhyming and relating the everyman experience in song.
Dogrel was excitable, swept up in fervour, and so too was its album roll-out. Fontaines released single after single after single, unveiling seven of the album’s 11 tracks ahead of its full release date. They couldn’t get it out quick enough. It was as if Fontaines had set out to prove Chatten’s declaration that “none can pull the passion loose from youth’s ungrateful hands,” and audiences responded accordingly.
The stage had been set for Fontaines to assume the position of the UK’s most exciting new guitar band—a position they quickly reaffirmed with their sophomore offering, A Hero’s Death, just over a year later. Chatten got to work on a follow-up before he was even done with Dogrel, penning new lyrics while he listened back to their debut. It’s a process that makes sense when you listen to the record, which seems like a natural progression from its predecessor.
A Hero’s Death spotlit Chatten’s literary lyrical style once again, but this time allowing it a little more space to breathe. They swapped their punky sensibilities for a slightly softer sound on tracks like ‘I Don’t Belong’ and ‘A Hero’s Death’, while Chatten looked to find meaning in a life that can often seem empty. It wasn’t quite as punchy as their debut, but it was a more coherent project, an album intended to be released as such rather than a series of singles compiled into a record.
By 2022, the Dubliners were ready to try something new. Skinty Fia would mark the most dramatic change in their sound yet, as they infused their take on guitar music with newfound gloomy, electronica. Guitarist Conor Curley described the record to Far Out as more “layered” and “lush,” at odds with the “choppy” sound of their debut. He also acknowledged the presence of some slightly more off-kilter influences ranging from Primal Scream to My Bloody Valentine guitarist Kevin Shields.
Chatten’s ever-catchy songwriting still sat at the centre of Skinty Fia – the second single, ‘I Love You’, provided some of Fontaines’ most singalong-worthy lyrics yet in a rambled verse about half-cut pride. His preoccupation with his homeland remained the focus, too, giving the album its name and its opening track. But now it was surrounded by a dynamic daintiness and darkness, infused not only with the sound of Dublin but with their new home in the English capital—a reckoning of the two, of sorts.
The record was even more intentional than its predecessor, but it was straying further and further from their roots—the sound that made them. Now, this trajectory comes to a head as they tease their fourth record, Romance. Beyond changing their sound, Fontaines have completely changed their style for this album. They’ve swapped polo shirts and fitted jeans for neon shades and bright pink hair in a new look that would make you assume they make pop-punk rather than post.
Fortunately, their changing sound doesn’t yet reflect their garish wardrobe. Earlier in the year, ‘Starburster’ provided us with a first glimpse at Romance, a panic-inducing track which features intermittent and intense gasps for breath from Chatten over a pulsing drumline, proving perhaps the first track in history to use an inhaler as an instrument. The frenzied feeling of their early work is still there, as is that intrinsic catchiness, but we’re a long way from Dublin now.
Inhalers, their finest and most considered music video to date, new clothes for a new era, and a swaggering air of confidence all imply that they’ve reached a sense of assuredness to be able to go beyond making great songs and, instead, craft fully-realised artistic projects (watch out for Chatten in more videos to come).
The band’s distance from their hometown is further emphasised on nostalgic album closer ‘Favourite’, on which Chatten asks, “Did you know cities on return are often strange? Yeah, and now every time you blink you feel it change.” There’s a feeling that Fontaines’ trips back to Ireland are becoming less and less frequent, and references to the country becoming sparser and less specific in their music as a result. They are realising that your roots are always there whether you tend to them or not.
It’s not just their lyrical focuses that have been altered as they’ve grown, though. Their sound has transformed completely on ‘Favourite’, too, which sees them abandoning the punk ethos of their beginnings entirely in favour of some fairly straightforward indie rock, a fact even reflected by their new pedalboards. The melodies and lyrics are still imbued with Chatten’s golden touch, but now they’re more blissful than biting. It feels like he’s reflecting from afar rather than up close. Perhaps having gotten his fix of indulgence with a solo project, he’s happy to let the words be subsumed by the melodies they create for the more casual listener.
Some might make the argument that Fontaines have lost some of their authenticity, losing their punky, propulsive roots to newfound neon aesthetics and wistful indie, but it’s more that their growing distance from their roots can be felt in their music. They know it, too, and they’re playing on it as they roll out Romance, acknowledging that they’ve become as big as they once intended, and that perhaps their youthful spark has changed as a result.
