“He ripped a solo man”: How Grian Chatten surprised fans on Fontaines DC song ‘Death Kink’
I have always been a sucker for a five-piece band. More specifically, a five-piece band with a guitarless frontman. Someone unshackled from the responsibility of providing rhythm guitar and who can instead stand there, like an unwavering figure of charisma, letting the songs run through them. I’m talking the likes of Mick Jagger, Liam Gallagher, and, in recent years, Grian Chatten.
Before Romance thrust him into the global limelight as a sort of androgynous icon, he had always been a charming performer. Rugged and boyish in the first album, the sheer weight of his poetry fell heavy on the onlooking crowd before A Hero’s Death and Skinty Fia transformed him into the general of a post-punk army. He paced up and down the stage, wagging his fingers with frenetic energy and conducting the sea of chaos that would ensue in front of him.
He is the figurehead of the sort of onstage freedom I am referring to. As accomplished as he may be on guitar, to see him standing with the weight of any instrument hanging from him feels entirely at odds with his appeal. Similar to Liam Gallagher, there is something in the stature of Chatten that is entirely charismatic. Part intimidating, and part vulnerable, he somehow manages to physically embody the paradoxical nature of the band’s sound.
While Romance brought with it many changes, be it commercial success, big festival stages and a noughties-inspired dress code, it always saw the frontman reach for the guitar more. With his fellow bandmates becoming more preoccupied with their new songs’ more layered approach, it left Chatten with somewhat of a responsibility to contribute rhythm guitar during their live sets. And it worked for summer hits like ‘Favourite’ and ‘Horseness Is the Whatness’, lending itself to the sense of sentimentality.
But on the caustic punk track ‘Death Kink’, Chatten’s performance is left untamed, as he prowls across the stage, motivating people to singalong to the chorus line of “Shit, shit, shit/battered”. So the crowd are forgiven for overlooking the fact that the song plays host to one of the band’s finest easter egg moments. As the song bleeds into the bridge, it gives way to a rugged solo that Chatten himself recorded during the studio session.
Fellow guitarist Connor Curley said, “He ripped a solo, man, it was a cool time in the studio”. Defusing any sense of surprise among some critics that the frontman had that in his locker, Curley explained, “He’s a brilliant, brilliant guitar player, you know. People will see it more and more live, but yeah, he’s class.”
Chatten’s more multilayered approach on the album was symptomatic of a project that saw the band take their creativity into their own hands. They were less concerned about how each song could translate to a live context and more focused on creating something that carried its own recorded merit. Probably why we haven’t seen Chatten play the solo on stage as of yet, which, to me and my preferences, is no problem at all.
