Grian Chatten discusses how elements of The Beach Boys influenced the new Fontaines D.C. album
The Dublin band Fontaines D.C. has discussed how The Beach Boys have influenced their upcoming new album.
The group, set to release A Hero’s Death on July 31st, has finalised the eagerly anticipated follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2019 album, Dogrel.
Discussing the formation of the new material, frontman Grian Chatten commented, “It’s inspired by the stillness of the sea” he said in a new interview with NME. “Kinda like later Beach Boys”.
He added: “I’m not saying we’re anywhere near the Beach Boys in terms of harmonising or singing or anything like that, but we’d sing a capella a lot in the back of the van, practice harmonies and figure out how to arrange them properly. We tried to put the Beach Boys cloak over absolutely everything we did in America, as you do when you’re starved of context.”
Chatten went on: “I really lived inside that song ‘Your Summer Dream’, a simple early Beach Boys tune [from 1963]. It’s beautiful; it sounds like a daydream captured in sonic form. We daydreamed a lot; we were trying to escape what was around us and were listening to much more immersive music, music that had lefts and rights and corners and different streets. We wanted to make something a bit more subversive.”
‘Your Summer Dream’ is something of a lesser-known gem from The Beach Boys and offers a delicate and heartfelt glimpse into the softer side of the band’s early 1960s work. Nestled within the tracklist of their 1963 album Surfer Girl, the track stands out as a tender reflection on youthful romance set against the idyllic backdrop of a perfect summer day.
Unlike the more exuberant surf anthems that The Beach Boys are often associated with, ‘Your Summer Dream’ is a ballad that showcases the group’s ability to craft evocative, emotionally resonant music—a skill that can be naturally linked to Fontaines D.C. The song is characterised by its lush harmonies—one of the band’s trademarks—arranged with a subtlety that underscores its gentle mood. The harmonies are beautifully layered, creating a warm, enveloping sound that feels as comforting as the memories the lyrics evoke.
Chatten, continuing to explain his admiration for the band, added: “[The Beach Boys created] a dream-like, lying-back-on-a-lilo daydreaming sort of feeling we wanted to capture.
“The thing about Brian Wilson and other people like Lee Hazelwood that really appealed to us when we were in the mood for escapist art was that they had a thoroughly built-up fantasy world that they’d quite fully realised in a sonic format. We talked a lot about the fantasy of our world and how we wanted to bring that to life.”
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