The noise that hype makes is deafening. That cumulative build-up of magazines and mates repeatedly talking about that next big band, all saying the same thing: you're going to love this band. Scenes pop up. Like-minded artists get thrown in together, genres and eras defined and named in a brief but heady explosion of style and hype. It's a story as old as music itself, tribes gathering as punks or Britpoppers.
It's on the outskirts of any scene that the most interesting things usually happen, and so it is with Fontaines D.C.. While their early singles seemed to signal the Dublin band as obvious counterparts to the likes of Shame and IDLES, their debut album ‘Dogrel' marks them as something else completely. As evocative as you would imagine from a band who came together over a shared love of poetry, it is the work of a group who are as much aficionados of Yeats and Joyce as they are Ramone and Reed.
Fontaines D.C. are their own scene, and there ain't a box big enough to put them in. With a huge tour confirmed for the end of the year even before their debut album ‘Dogrel' was announced, the noise surrounding the band has become so all-encompassing that you could hear it from the moon.
Chatting to Dork as the band wind their way the French countryside following the end of yet another whirlwind tour, guitarist Carlos O'Connell has had time to reflect on the madness - though it hasn't really sunk in yet. Life on the road has kept the band separated from the boom of anticipation back home.
It was only when talking to their promoter that the band realised just how big the reaction to the tour and album announcement had been.
‘Dogrel' exists entirely in its own time and place, yet equally could be based in any big city at any time. Dripping with Dublin life, it shows a city far removed from Temple Bar pub crawls, and it is only frontman Grian's heavily-accented vocals that give the game away at points. Still entirely relatable with its depictions of needle-strewn areas (‘The Lotts'), a city pregnant with possibility (current single ‘Big'), as well as inner-city violence (‘Liberty Belle'), it brings a specificity that makes it stand out from the current crop.
Being born into a city renowned the world over for its musical heritage brought its own ups and down.
Being largely self-sufficient at home, putting on and promoting their own shows, the band even struggled to find suitable support bands in their earliest days - getting a local poet to open for their ‘Liberty Belle' single launch. Times may have changed over the last few years, but by then Fontaines D.C. were making their own noise on this side of the water.
While early singles ‘Liberty Belle' and ‘Hurricane Laughter' seemed to signpost that this was very much an angry post-punk band, Carlos sees it very differently.
It's a theme that he warms to, and one that is carried through by the diversity of ‘Dogrel'.
With a free-flowing stylistic manner that takes in straight-up punk and ominous post-punk basslines, there is just as much room for traditional rock and roll licks, and even a hint of The Pogues on the magnetic closing ‘Dublin City Sky'. This is a band that could go anywhere.
That freedom to move in any stylistic direction appeals to him and the band.
Suitably for an act that's impossible to pin down, a host of influences have been poured into the group.
The Beach Boys may seem an unlikely influence, though the layers of noise can't quite disguise that same ability to craft unforgettable melodies and hooks. Fifties rock and roll bands, seminal punk bands like The Stooges and The Ramones have all been fed into the Fontaines D.C. world. One key touchstone is The Velvet Underground.
Again, nodding towards an exciting future of unknown destinations, Carlos even hints at dabbling in electronica and techno.
If there's one aspect of the band that breaks the mould themselves, it is frontman Grian Chatten's lyrics. Able to hone in on the smallest detail, it is the poetry within the songs that helps to make the group stand out.
"He is an amazing lyricist, he has an ability to notice the small things that happen around someone and tap into that world, making something that will last forever," praises Carlos, pointing out some of the vivid details in his personal album highlight ‘The Lotts' that came from Grian's walk home from the rehearsal studios.
Set over a brooding bass guitar, it is a testament to producer Dan Carey's ability to craft an unsettling atmosphere that the band could let loose in - giving the album a dark heartbeat at its centre that is easily the match of anything that the legendary Martin Hannett achieved.
With the band fully in the middle of a whirlwind, Carlos recognises that they may lose touch with home.
Being honest with each other has never been more important.
That time away from home is about to increase with another headline tour in the spring, followed by a huge US tour with IDLES themselves - plus of course, the band have now got that monster tour at the end of 2019 to look forward to.
The thing with hype is, of course, you've eventually got to live up to it. With the confidence of a band that knows it's nailed their debut, Fontaines D.C. have got a spring in their step going into it all. There's only one thing for sure. It's gonna be big.
Taken from the May issue of Dork. Fontaines D.C.'s debut album 'Dogrel' is out now.
