Im confident that well treat it with a healthy sense of facetiousness and respect.
I think a combination of the two is the best way to go.
You guys have beenon tourfor quite the stretch.
Grian Chatten onstage with Fontaines at Brooklyn Paramount, October 2024Griffin Lotz for Rolling Stone
How has that been so far?Honestly, its been incredible.
Its the first time that its felt new for a while.
Obviously, at this point, Im sipping on a Lemsip and Im feeling the effects.
My immune systems down and shit like that.
It was a bit scary at first, when the crowd started kicking off.
But it was nice.
The U.K. crowds, many of the cities here anyway, theyre pretty up for it.
Im wondering how they translate onto the stage in ways that were unexpected or exciting.
But then theres a physical education involved, which usually takes a few shows to break in.
I guess its more about your body relaxing and more easily inhabiting the song in a fluid way.
It was somewhere in between those things.
Heres the Thing is probably the highlight of our shows at the moment though.
You throw in a decent number of older songs from previous albums in every set list.
Its important in a gratitude sense to keep one foot in the early stuff for us.Related ContentFontaines D.C. Its becoming more mine.
Theres a genuine confidence thats ascending proportionally with the upscaling of the audience size.
I think it has faculty.
It can create really good art and also theres almost like a career mortality.
You feel like its going to end and you may as well just do whatever you want.
For some reason thats worked out for us.
I think the majority of people do.
I dont think people want us to acquiesce or compromise.
Im sure people think that we are doing that already, but I dont think we are.
I think that Im just doing the right thing with my life, really.
Im going to stop talking now.
No, thats beautiful.
Theres too many people that would be disappointed.
Im trying to look after myself out of respect for the fans and stuff like that.
Theres a lot of pressure in that regard.
In terms of writing, its always just happened.
Weve never gotten the right time to get into the studio and write the next album.
Its just been a harvest, you know what I mean?
It can be difficult to find the energy to do that at times.
Its very easy to get caught up with your own shit when youre on tour.
It feels like a bit of a revolving door or something like that.
I feel like I dont want anyone to perceive us as any kind of establishment band.
I do get a little prang of anxiety sometimes when I see stuff like that.
I havent thought about it too much.
Im just trying to play good shows at the moment.
These things percolate and land when you least expect them to.
Were you expecting this response toRomancewhen you were writing it?No, not necessarily.
I got the word romance tattooed on my arm before we released and recorded the album.
Im wondering now, looking back to that, was I hedging my bets?
Thats very important to me to try and keep that integrity, I suppose.
Like a premonition of sorts.Yeah, exactly.
Or a manifestation, to use the Instagram version.
Youre about to play two shows in Dublin at the end of this week.
Theres more than nostalgia, its almost like upset.
Theres just an awful lot of emotion around it.
I havent been back very much over the last year or even two years.
Im actually just a bit overwhelmed thinking about it now.
I dont really know how to say.
Its going to be amazing.
Im really looking forward to going there.
But theres a place called Brogans, which is probably my favorite pub in Dublin.
Im going to plug Brogans.
Thats probably my favorite place.
To me it has an air of…its quite specifically Dublin as a pub to me.
Its not a standard Irish pub.
Its like an Irish pub with a streak of relative city slicker in comparison to other rural Irish pubs.
Its my favorite pub in Dublin.
Im just looking forward to seeing the Irish Sea again from that side of things.
Were pretty booked up until late next year.
I would say were probably going to do another record around then, maybe.
I dont want to saturate peoples airwaves or fucking news feeds or whatever.
I dont want to be overly omnipresent.
What would be the main reason for stepping away?
Creatively, it would probably be a good idea at some point.
I think it might be good to just read the room a bit, I dont know.
You guys expanded your sound a good amount onRomance.
Im thinking about what we as humans will have said, if anything, when its all over.
But I think about it more.
Im still young, I suppose.
I was going to say Ill be 30 next year, but I know thats not old.
You know what it is?
That set a precedent.
What an indelible mark to leave in the creative world.
I want to contribute something.
I want to have said something and contributed something.
As I become more mature and maybe more sober-minded, those things matter more to me.
Longevity in general matters more to me.
I think to stop is to go backwards for me.
I feel restless immediately.
I know that sounds really cheesy, but I am tired of being cynical and pessimistic.
For me it was a young persons game to be a rebel without a cause and offer a solution.
Im striving to feel hope in myself and therefore inspire it in other people a little bit more.
