Standing in the dressing room of Manchesterâs O2 Ritz, singer Grian Chatten weighs up the distance travelled by his band, Fontaines DC, in recent months. Grian Chatten of Fontaines D.C.. There is a poem by Patrick Kavanagh called Inniskeen Road: July Evening, where he details, beautifully, a party going on in town and heâs obviously not invited. âDublin in the rain is mine, a pregnant city with a Catholic mind,â frontman Grian Chatten announces at the top. Home. The band are lovers of poetry, and that is something that is apparent throughout this record. In 2017 Carlos O'Connell (guitar), Conor Curley (guitar), Conor Deegan (bass), Grian Chatten (vocals), and Tom Coll (drums) bonded over poetry while studying music at university. ... slagging a choreography, where put-downs are poetry. Image: Fender âItâs surreal to me now,â says OâConnell. These songs are made to be heard, but also screamed along with. You cannot help but soak up everything he sings. photo by Norbert Burkowski @No.photos The combination of poetry and social awareness ethos of punk/rock'n'roll music is not a simple task. Features The young Dublin quintet took the world by storm just over a year ago with their bracing mixture of raw guitar-beating energy and a distinctly Irish sense of poetry. We were encouraging each other to be who we believed ourselves to be all the timeâ -Grian Chatten, lead vocals, Fontaines D.C. With the best bands, it seems to happen fast. It blows my mind how much weâve done in a couple of years. The Grian doesnât scream, but his voice has the same power as if he is. Poetic Licence: John Cooper Clarke meets Fontaines DC's Grian Chatten diymag.com - DIY. Released just over a year after their mercury-prize nominated debut Dogrel, A Heroâs Death was written and recorded in a whirlwind of heavy touring. Nostalgia is a funny thing, especially when it comes to music, take the debut album,⦠Behind Chatten, guitarists Conor Curley and Carlos OâConnor, bassist Conor Deegan III and drummer Tom Coll were flawless throughout, adapting to the contrasting moods of the music, bringing the landscapes of Chattenâs poetry and opaque sloganeering to life in cacophonies of sound and in delicate melancholy. It would be a bold statement to compare any band to music legends such as The Jesus and Mary Chain, Sonic Youth or The Cure, but let me say this â I think Fontaines D.C. are one of the most exciting bands to form in a long time.. Itâs all topped off by vocalist Grian Chatten â a man whose thick Irish accent sits heavy on his barked tales of disillusionment and mental dissolution. âBigâ opens with a bang â itâs fast, fun punk-rock that lasts for less than two minutes. Grian Chattenâs broad Irish accent is the first thing I noticed when listening to the opening track of Fontaines D.C.âs debut album, Dogrel. Fontaines DCâs Grian Chatten: âIâm in an emotional fluxâ Sold For Parts documentary about the Dublin band addresses the downsides of even modest success Tue, Mar 10, 2020, 14:30 They arenât just songs. The series kicks off on April 23rd with John in conversation with Grian Chatten, the lead singer of one of the most exciting Irish bands on the music scene at the minute, Fontaines D.C. Fronted by Grian Chatten⦠With Celeste being number one in the BBC Sound Of 2020 and an impressively intimate show at Eurosonic, the British soul singer is only inches ⦠The five members â Carlos OâConnell, Conor Curley, Conor Deegan, Grian Chatten, and Tom Coll â have a staggering preponderance of names beginning with C, and met at music college in Dublin. Grian Chattenâs ode to Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh: âThe spirit of the album [A Heroâs Death] is one that has no sense of place, whether that be geographically or sociologically.Thereâs a feeling of alienation. Poetry. Showcasing the Best New Music, Curating the Classics. âAt that time, it felt like a natural progression, but itâs been such a short time looking back, now weâve managed to stop for a bit. However, it seems to come out easily to an incredible Dublin based band - Fontaines D.C.. On the 22nd of January, they were invited by From Row Heroes to play a gig in Cracow.⦠Meanwhile, frontman Grian Chatten shambled around the stage, his lurching limbs and wringing hands recalling Joy Divisionâs Ian Curtis, his body a lightning rod amidst a swirling tempest of sound. Grian speak-sings the chorus: âMy childhood was small/But Iâm gonna be big.â Pigeons Playing Ping Pong (February 2020) Funky Baltimore-based jam band Pigeons Playing Ping Pong played one of our only Free at Noon concerts of 2020 back in January. The band formed over a decade ago when its members were in college, but theyâve received more widespread attention this year with the release of their latest album, Presto.Theyâve also been hosting their own ⦠Before that, we were nothing. Having been drawn together by a mutual love of beat poetry, these young five lads led by frontman Grian Chatten use their music to paint a captivating portrait of their adolescence and home town. They discovered a shared love of poetry, and have together released two volumes of poetry. Lead singer Grian Chatten is in the new series of The Works Presents, where John Kelly meets five key Irish figures from the arts. Despite the four decades between them, Fontaines DC frontman Grian Chatten and longstanding punk poet John Cooper Clarke have much in common. History. - Grian Chatten âTo us, Ginsberg, Kerouac and Burroughs were three guys who met in college but they werenât writing poetry that was measured or âIâm going to be a great poet because Iâm exploring words and language.â It was more âIâm living and Iâm excited, Iâve ⦠The 40 best albums of 2020, from Bob Dylanâs Rough and Rowdy Ways to Taylor Swiftâs Folklore. Forty years on from the day the singer took his own life, Mark Beaumont talks to bandmates Peter Hook and Stephen Morris plus Tim Burgess, Grian Chatten, Orlando Weeks and ⦠ââHappiness is living in a closed eyeââ utters front man Grian Chatten on the penultimate track âSunnyâ; one of the sweeter, more tender and introspective numbers on the eleven track sophomore album A Heroâs Death from Fontaines D.C.. âBleed who you are all the time⦠donât hold back,â Grian Chatten The collision of art, punk and poetry from Irish band Fontaines D.C inherited the world in 2019. And in Grian Chatten, ... with the quintet reportedly bonding over a mutual love of Joycean poetry and pub nights spent scribbling out and reciting verses to ⦠Carlos O'Connell, Conor Curley, Conor Deegan, Grian Chatten, and Tom Coll met in Dublin while attending music college at British and Irish Modern Music Institute in The Liberties, Dublin. âRomantic Irelandâs dead and goneâ¦â, goes September 1913, a famous poem by W.B. 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