Ahead of their new album Romance, people can't stop talking about Fontaines D.C.'s new look. One week after Glastonbury, the Dublin band's singer, Grian Chatten, had Stu round to his flat to discuss the reason behind the band's new aesthetic, his prolific writing process, a strange 9 days spend working in a bar in L.A., and a record that draws influence from Korn, Lana Del Rey and Shygirl.
You can watch clips of the podcast online now, just give us a follow on Instagram @midnightchatspod.
Further reading/viewing:
Jade 'Angel of My Dreams' video
Loud And Quiet 2019 cover feature
Chris de Burgh in The Mighty Boosh
Credits:
Editing by Stuart Stubbs
Mixing and mastering by Flo Lines
Artwork by Kate Prior
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
When we rolled oar and we and we we put
it out like I mean, I was only we're kind
of anxious to move on creatively as soon as possible,
because I felt like there was there was one dimension
of of of of our tastes and of our of
our kind of artistic makeup, you know. I mean, so
I was quite I was quite anxious to kind of
to keep going on. I only feel like we're getting
past the tip of the iceberg now a little bit.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
You know.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Sticky nights, very sticky nights here at the moment in
the UK, we are in the middle of a midsummer
heat wave. Welcome to Midnight Chats, Stuart. How are you
keeping cool right now?
Speaker 4 (00:36):
I'm currently in a room where the windows don't open,
so I'm doing a bad.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Job of it. So I feel like we'd be fortunate
to see you on next week's podcast. Yeah yeah, I'm
wearing my ice vest. Can you see that underneath my
T shirt?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's very Olympics of you. Speaking of
the Olympics. Just a couple of nights ago, it was
the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games. Is that over
your devas obviously because you bloody love the Olympics, don't you.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
I hate when anything's over, to be honest, I got
quite upset when Harry Potter ended I get I get
sucked into cultural moments very quickly do. Yeah, but the
Olympics is probably number one on my list of something
that I just truly, truly love. And you're right, it's
over closing ceremony last night. You have some thoughts on this.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I believe Phoenix played. I love Phoenix, probably one of
my favorite bands. Airplayed, probably one of your favorite bands.
They played together in fact, terrible sound issues. I thought
it looked really great, but it sounded awful.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
I thought for a long time that Phoenix were miming.
Then it went on for so long that I thought, well, no,
they can't be. They wouldn't be getting away with this. Yeah,
And then they did that handover thing.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
So traditionally, obviously they go from like one city to
the next host city for the Olympics, which is going
to be Los Angeles in twenty twenty eight, is that right?
And so Paris hand over to Venice Beach where the
Red Chili Peppers are playing, and Billie Eilish and then
Snoop Dogg and Doctor Dre and I thought the Billie
(02:09):
Eilish bit speaking of kind of miming, I thought, brilliantly,
I quite like this. She was taking a piss right
like clearly, like almost in the sort of Nirvana on
top of the Pops in the nineties where they famously
went on and just like kind of took the mickey
out of the fact that they weren't playing live. Billy
was like so far away from a mic and like
clearly sort of like Phineas's guitar wasn't plugged in. They
(02:32):
were playing on top of a sort of a beach
lifeguard station, and it was just like I thought she
was having I thought she was like having one over
on it, to be totally honest, whereas everybody else seemed
to be taking it quite seriously.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
The best moment of the whole thing was when they
cut to the they cut to Venice Beach and Red
Chili Peppers came on and Andrew Cotter, who was doing
the commentary on the BBC and just sort of talking
us through what was happening, said the immortal line, flea
looks good.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
He's looking good for a sixty one year old. That's
a lot of green tea and a lot of yoga,
isn't it.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
And to be honest, Flea did not look good. Flea,
I'm not sure there just wearing a towel, wasn't he. Yeah,
like you'd just gone to the beach and happened to
be roped into an Olympic closing ceremony. We've a very
strange I was were with Daft Punk? That's just the
big questions in it. How could they not get Daft
Punk to just put the helmets on for one night
and or let somebody else put the helmets on for
(03:31):
one night and pretend that Daft Punk? Come on?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
I know, I know. Listen, the Olympics closing ceremony wasn't
the only momentous things happened in the world this week.
It was your birthday more magnificantly, And how did you
spend your I imagine you were relaxing, you were taking
it easy. You just give yourself a day off. What
what did you do on your birthday?
Speaker 4 (03:49):
I played my first football match in twenty five years
in thirty degree heat, which I wasn't I wasn't too
happy about, but I did actually have a very lovely time.
This was for a local tournament, charity fundraising tournament. I
do want to quick give a quick shout out to
here in South London, there is a the first community
(04:12):
owned music venue of grassroots community venue that is going
to be opening up soon. There's been a big drive
for this. It's called Sister Midnight. If anyone wants to
know more about it or get involved, just you know,
google it. There's there's lots going on and yet. And
yesterday there was a big charity football tournament. We put
in a loud on quiet team, a five a side team.
(04:33):
We stole the hearts and minds of the fans. You
were the most liked were you? Was it the brand
of football that you were playing? We got battered, but
we one one game.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Great.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
You'll feel very satisfied next time you go and watch
a band play at System Midnight. Yeah, let's talk about
this week's guest on the podcast. This is the reinvention
of Fontaine's DC happening right now. Is that is that
fair to say?
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Stud? I think so?
Speaker 4 (04:57):
You know Fontaine's Irish punk slash rock band. For anyone
that's not too familiar, I see this band as a
band that have been on a real slow reinvention from
the beginning. They're about to release their fourth album, which
is called Romance, coming out on the twenty third of
this month, August twenty twenty four. They've got a new
(05:18):
look going on that a lot of people are talking
about the look of the band because they've gone from
being these dark, brooding poets wearing I guess you would
just say, you know, sort of scruffy indie.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Clothes like that, lots of trench coats.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
Yeah, that sort of vibe to dressing what most people
are describing as completely insane.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Well, you mean, like extras from a Prodigy video in
like the nineties.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Yeah, I loved it. I absolutely love I don't think
I don't know how you feel about this. I don't
think enough bands have fun with what they're wearing anymore. Like,
you know, we spend a lot of time as music
journals and music fans bemoaning the fact that where are
the David bowiees, where are like the where's like the
rock star energy? Where's that sort of flamboyance? And then
a band like Fontein's come back with a new record
(06:06):
and they build it around this whole new look where
they're crossing the look of metal bands like Corn with
new progressive R and B artists and dance artists like
Shy Girl, who they're a big fan of, which are
two completely different mistakes. They're smashing them together. They're dressing
up like you know, they've one's got pink hair now,
(06:28):
they're wearing a lot of goggles. It's a little bit
young blood, which I'm not so I'm not I'm not
here for. But the fact that they've smashed it together
and it's it's a talking point and that I think
that's exciting, and I just think more bands should be
encouraged to do that. And I find it bizarre. As fans,
we we want that in one sense, but then when
it happens, we're like, oh no, actually, I want the
(06:49):
band to look like me. And what I found out
since doing this interview is I think a lot of
people think they've been given a stylist. I think that's
why some people are down it. They're like, right, they've
signed a new record deal, they've got a stylist now,
and they're being made.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
To dress this way, or they've been convincerous this way.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
It's not that's not the case. This is all completely
off their own back. The whole thing, the whole new
look is completely on them, which I think makes it
even cooler that they've just gone for this quiet Bonker's
new new look. It's like they're like, you know, it's
like you two in the the early nineties or something.
They've been to Camden Market fair Play. They have been
a cyber dog.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
So we we joined Fontaine's DC tonight on the show.
I'd say like on the cusp of a pretty big
moment there. They've got a huge slot of reading and
Leeds festivals here in the UK later in August and
then next year. So for next summer they're playing London's
Finsbury Park where they're bringing Kneecap and Ammal and the
Sniffers as well. That's going to be an amazing albeit
huge show for them.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Stu.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Anything else to add before we get into hearing from
Green on tonight's podcast.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
The other things to add? Oh, this was recorded at
Green's house. It was one week after Glastonbury. After I
saw them at Glastonbury and we were both dreamly tired
and the first thing we said to one another was
unnackd So there is you know, maybe this but this
is good this is this show. It's it's it's midnight.
(08:11):
It's it's relaxing. Don't think of this as lazy, it's relaxing.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Halfway through we had a midway break. Green made us
a couple of barocas. We had genuinely we had. We
had we next a couple of barokas, and then we
got back into the conversation and then what just one
other thing. I will just quickly say, there's gonna be
There's gonna be a lot of links down here in
the in the description this podcast to lots of these things,
(08:38):
including the videos. I talk a lot about the Starburst video. Yeah,
and there's something that we talk about which is a
link between that video and Jade from Little Mix.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
This was recorded quite some time ago. Now the story
is now out there. But I don't want to tell
you the story just you can piece it together. If
you're listening to your Fontein's fan, you probably know all
about this. But the Eason way, I'm get a bit confused.
What is I'm very tired too. It was all it
was all a bit of a mystery at the time
when we talk about Jade coming up. But I'll put
(09:11):
some links below here that we'll explain them to give
you a little bit of a magical mystery tour rather
than just telling you what it all means right now
in this intro brilliant.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Well, grab yourself a effervescent vitamin drink and enjoy this
conversation on Midnight Chats. This is Stuart Stubbs speaking to
Green from Fontaine's They See and We Will See you
next week on the podcast.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Did I read somewhere that you lived in LA.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
For a bit? Nah? I mean, have you read that
or I didn't lie?
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah, it's a classic La piece of piece of fishing.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
And where's that come from?
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I sort of like fell off the edge of tour
and landed in LA for about ninth ten days?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
I mean, okay, and that was it? Yeah. I think
it's just because I sort.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
Of it sounds good though, doesn't it spent some time
in LA even if you were just there you're an artist.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
I mean, it doesn't sound good. Decide that when I
go back to Dublin, you know what I mean? It
doesn't sound good in the local public.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
It doesn't fly, that doesn't mister Laing? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
by everyone around Hollywood. Green, Yeah, exactly taken over with
his shoes on.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
I know, like I did a fair bit of writing.
I had had quite a profound effect on me. Not
because of la itself, but because of the manner manner
in which I experienced it. I was kind of I
was upside down in terms of jet lag, and I
was it was just I was just I was just
there for a bit of a bit of an adventure.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Really.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
I think it was afraid of touring being over, and
I was I thought that I could kind of keep
the this is all the unconscious by the way, of course,
thought that I could keep the tour going. But I
realized when I got there that it takes more than one. Yeah,
it's quite brave to go on your own. Thanks for
saying brave.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
You know.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
It was definitely interesting though, because I'd wake up at
six pm, seven pm, and I just go to the pub,
you know, and I meet these people. I went to
this pub a few times called the Lotus Lounge. I
think it's in Silver Lake, okay, And I just get
in there and I'll get behind the bar and i'd
poor people points that for some reason they had me
behind the bar, right and no one obviously, no one
(11:35):
knew who the fuck I was, like, which is which
is nice? And I just met I met these kind
of interesting people and yeah, I don't know. And then
and then i'd kind of I'd finished at the pub,
finish my shift, and I'll get home. I'll get home
at about four am and just stay awake in the
gaff yeah, you know, thinking and got to sleep at
(11:57):
about ten. It was just it was just an interesting
kind of way to live for for a week or so,
you know.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
So what so the tour had finished in the States.
I think I finished in Japan, finished in Japan. Everyone
else flew home, and You're like, I'm gonna I'm chipping
up to La to see what's just to see what
it's like. Yeah, it sounds like living like a like
a second life life of a barman.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Yeah, yeah, I think you know, there's there's something for me.
It's something quite scary about going home after tour. I
mean home in advert commas, because obviously I left Alan
a few years back, and I'm a bit of a mover,
like you know what I mean, I moved like seven
times before I was twelve. So I've got these I've
(12:42):
got these restless feet, like hanging off the enemy legs,
I mean, and I sort of just I like to
keep going. So I think I think I just couldn't really,
I didn't really feel asked doing it again, coming back
from tour and and trying to quickly a climate I two,
you know, the kind of the surrounding a couple of
(13:03):
streets and buying milk and all that kind of crack.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
You know.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
I think I just wanted to I don't know, soft
landing and LA just seemed to be I don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
I don't know why I went there to be on
the map.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
You know, did you do you like it? I found
it interesting, you know what I mean. I don't really
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
I often don't know if I like things generally. You know,
they're kind of they kind of they kind of serve
a they serve a function in in in my in
my in my art, or they don't really often, you know.
I definitely like my friends and my family, and I
like this flat, yeah, certainly, And I just like I
(13:47):
just kind of like I feel at home here kind
of I'm friends with this flat, like I mean, but
I don't I.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Have no idea if I like l a at all.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
You know, it's a weird place because I think La
feels like No, I've not been anywhere else that feels
similar to that, not just in terms of geographically, just
the feel of it, the people, the constant hustle of it.
I'm not sure if it's so much like that in
East LA. I'm guessing it is. You know, there's that
idea of everyone moving to LA to be something like
(14:19):
everyone goes there to Did you tell anyone at any
point I'm actually in a band back home and I'm
just here for a bit?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
No, no, no, I I know.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
I mean I met up with one friend at one
point and I reminded her that I was in a band.
You know that was a yeah poonage not a photographer.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yeah, great photographer I went for.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I went for a point where her one of the nights,
and that was great to see her, But no, perfect,
perfect not. I kind of kept myself to myself and
got a fucking electric scoter.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
And did you is born around the one of those
line ones? Yeah? Ill advised?
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Really, you know, even though you're not sure if you
liked it, did it you were saying? You know, things
sometimes serve your art or they don't did that.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yeah, definitely, I wrote the kind of the kind of
initial the initial kind of concept of Starburster happened there musically,
and then the the verse for in the Modern World
from the new album that happened there as well, which
is like which a fair chunk for like you know,
(15:23):
kind of nine days or whatever. Yeah, because I bought
on the record, like you know, and I think I
think that I think I felt very sort of torn
apart and abstracted after after tour, and I wanted to
before the door settles, I kind of wanted to see
what like kind of shapes were in the dost as
it was floating, I mean, and I went to La
(15:44):
to kind of keep the dost there in the sky
for a few days, you know. I mean, I didn't
want to kind of get home and be like right,
normal person routine, all kind of crack, you know. I
wanted to see kind of I wanted to paint the
portrait of of of of the monster. I was at
that time before you know.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
What year would this have been, by the way, it's
like two years ago.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
It was nineteen seventy six, it was, I think, and
I was, this is this is last year I think
is that last year?
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Yeah, the last year.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Did you know this is a ten day experiment? Or
was it something that made you go, don't no.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Need to go home?
Speaker 1 (16:19):
It was it was definitely sort of open ended. I
think after ten days. Yeah, after ten days, I what's
kind of like, what the fuck am I down here?
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Yeah? Sure, get me over of here? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Yeah, but it was good crack I had.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
I had a good laugh. I had.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
I had a nice bit of kind of self prescribed isolation,
which I think was necessary. And I think that if
I if I had, if I had gone home and
been asking, you know, how his tour, I wouldn't have
I would have known what to say.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
You know, I needed to get some some bearings.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
Even if you just go on a nice holiday and
someone says how would your holiday? Maybe willing to like
tell the one person one time, but then the next
person someone asks you you just I don't want to
talk about this anymore? Yeah, do you feel like that?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Is it?
Speaker 4 (17:08):
Like? How am I going to describe? How am I
going to explain to you how toour was?
Speaker 2 (17:12):
When?
Speaker 4 (17:14):
When it was so long or so intense, or no
one else really has any frame of reference for what
you're talking.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
About, I think a sort of scary part of being
I'm I'm kind of reluctant to moan about as well.
I feel moaned about about about touring like for fucking
five years.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
But I think one of the scary things about it is.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Seeing seeing people's, like your friend's faces like up when
you tell them about something that's not a kind of
that hasn't hit you in the same way, and see that,
see them be excited about it, and then kind of
that kind of kind often make you feel dissosiated from
from your own memory, you know what I mean, from
your on experience, Yeah, anyway, but.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
Like like what sort of thing, like it's just something
that the band's done that like playing Fallon or something
like that.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Yeah, yeah, or like meeting someone or whatever, you know,
and then why what were they like? And you're like
fucking personally and but but it's the point is that
it's I kind of wish that I had the same
response to it as dated.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
I sound like a miserable bat. Again. Let's Friday.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Let's talk about Starburst, because you you mentioned that that
was the first seed of it happened in I've got
a quote here that I was. I've been watching that
video a lot. Yeah, it's great. Like I was watching
it again the other day and I saw this comment underneath.
Do you read the comments under your videos? You don't,
(18:45):
don't worry. This isn't bad. I'm not I'm not about
to like and this is a nice one. They were
all nice, by the way, the ones that I read.
This is from Sean hu Hudgens eight four one nine.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Yeah for one great fan, isn't it. Yeah? They say
this is what I liked about this. Please tell this
seventy two year old lady who loves music what the
heck this song is about. Thank you very much, And
I do love this song and am determined to learn
(19:19):
the lyrics. My favorite genre of music is heavy metal
since I was sixty nine years old. That proved you're
never too old to learn to love a new genre
of music.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Smiley face heart emoji Shan Hodgens. Yeah, I'm guessing that
Sean is maybe short for Shana.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yeah, okay, yeah. Maybe.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
The response here was the response from dead Hands Dan.
You know Dead Hands.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yeah, of course he's clowning up my wedding.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
His response to his answer to that was from what
I've read it's basically a stream of consciousness diary of
a panic attack Green had whilst waiting for a metro.
How accurate is that?
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Yeah? It feels pretty accurate. Yeah, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Yeah, because because of the nature of a being extreamly consciousness,
it's it's difficult to it's difficult to define it any
more than that, like you know, and I'm sort of
lowed to to to sort of like to get in
the way of other people's interpretations generally, you know what
I mean. But yeah, that's pretty bang on dead handstand
fair play.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
Yeah, he's good, isn't he?
Speaker 2 (20:23):
He's good? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (20:24):
I wasnt that song obviously, is I presume is written
differently to have the lyrics you've written, if you know,
as that's come from a particular panic attack you had.
But just generally speaking, do you are you the sort
of lyricist who does it? Do they flow out of
you easily? Do you toil over lyrics?
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Like?
Speaker 4 (20:43):
Just generally speaking? How how quick do they do?
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Those? Come? Very quick? Yeah? No, I don't.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
I don't feel, you know, like I'm lucky, you know,
I'm glad to be talking about something that I can
I can sound happy about Okay, great, No, I don't
feel I don't feel in that manner that have that
have kind of worked uh a day in my life
since we started touring, you know. I mean obviously the
obviously the the tours have been difficult at times, but
(21:09):
the right and the right processes and that's that's recharging,
that's that's that is rest for me. I mean, that's
kind of where I get my energy from.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
And I've.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
I don't Yeah, it doesn't feel like toiling now. I
wrote a lot of the lyrics for the record in
the studio on the day. You know, it's kind of
just about for me, it's about keeping the relate your
your relationship with you with your own creativity really healthy.
And one of the ways that I like to do
that is I kind of embrace, embrace throwing things away
and especially good ideas. Because you hang on to something
(21:45):
that you know is a good idea, you're kind of
in that there's there's a kind of implication there that
you might not be able to do the same thing tomorrow.
And then in throwing things or or not necessarily throwing
things away, but like kind of being okay with forgetting
them or not taking note of them properly or whatever.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
You're you're investing in.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Yourself as the generator of those ideas, you know what
I mean, It's not it's not about the idea itself.
You're bigger than that. You're the thing that kind of
came up with that. You're the master of those of
those things, you know. So I think you're kind of
investing in your future ability to be able to do
at least yeah, do at least as well next time. So,
I I think that writer's block comes from fear, and
(22:29):
I think it comes from that kind of specific fear,
often of having created something that feels like it's looming
larger than you, and the kind of living in a shadow.
And I think to treat other things that you've done
with a healthy irreverence is a good way of avoiding that.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
Yeah, jet, I think that's partly why I've heard jay
Z say before, like he you know, he famously doesn't
says he's never written a lyric down and he would
say that that's because if he's forgotten it, then it
wasn't a good idea like that. I mean, that's a
different thing to what you're saying, but like similar though, Yeah, yeah,
(23:06):
of not being too precious about it. Essentially is at
the heart of that, isn't it not fearing like I
need to bottle this right this second. I Wise it
might go away. And he believes that if you can remember,
if it sticks with him or he comes back to
it a later day, there's probably something to it. And
if he doesn't, then maybe there wasn't anything in that anyway.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Yeah, I mean I have.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
I've had many conversations with friends, particularly when with the
with the band and we were starting off, we sort
of sit down and have a lot of you know,
kind of it was kind of a conspiratorial chats that
mark the kind of early days of of of of
lifelong friendships, you know what I mean. And we'd have
conversations where, you know, you'd be like, oh, I should
(23:47):
write that down, like you know that someone else said,
or something that U tad or whatever, or the general
kind of general kind of feeling at the table.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
You'd want to write it down.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
But the act of not doing that is kind of
like ye're convincing yourself that it's not It's not the
it's not the idea that's worth writing down. It's the
conversation that's worth upholding and investing in and recreating, you
know what I mean, to get better at the to
get better at the actual and the the conversation as
opposed to the fruits that grow from it.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
You know.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
We had Joe Tolbert from Idols on the podcast and
he was talking about the making of their last record
and how he had writes. I didn't, he didn't write
all of the lyrics in the studio with the band,
but he wrote some of them. And I remember hearing
him say that and being already impressed by it, because that,
to me, as someone that doesn't write songs, is like
(24:43):
a waking nightmare to be there with especially with your
closest sort of friends, your band, your unit, and to
have to reduce the goods there and there. But that's
is that way. So that's why you is it that
you thrive in that or it just doesn't.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
It doesn't. That's it doesn't scare you.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
It doesn't scare you because because of you've spent the
last I mean, you've spent the last sort of like
six years forgetting and like depending on on what you
can do the next day. As was I I mean,
I sort of like I feel like there's a there's
a sort of river constantly running through me of of.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Sound completely up on us.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
There's a there's a kind of there's a river running
through me of of of ideas at the moment, And
I might not always be there, you know what I mean.
But I I feel like I can kind of just
dip in and there'll always be something to pull out,
you know. I mean, So I'm not worried, like that's
what I'm saying, you know, but I think I think
I think it might not always be.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
There, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (25:43):
Because you started as a drama, right, Yeah, he's still
he's still like a drama. What are you a decent drama?
Speaker 1 (25:49):
I was good, Well, I think I think I was good.
I was I was one of those drummers that he
was real small, really really light sticks just like played
as fast thing cod you know what I mean. I'm
quite I'm quite like I'm quite a sort of twitchy
person like and I think I probably wanted to be
Like my favorite drum was when I was a killer
like Trey Kill and stuff. People who played the snare
(26:10):
really really fast and but I was enthralled by by
a song by Bad religion. What was a song calling
is American Jesus by bad religion, And there's a feel
I think it's that's that song could be wrong. There's
a fill to start that song where it kind of
it's like something like that. It felt like it's almost
(26:35):
like a dolphin coming out with the water and creating
an arc and coming back down. You knew that the
splash was about to happen at the end of the film,
and you could feel the inevitability of that, and I
just there's something so sort of beautifully symmetrical but at
the same time passionate about it. And I think that's
when I started learning how to play drums.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
And then as how long were you doing that before
you then start singing? And what made you go I'm
gonna actually have I'm a try singing. Was it because
of all the writing?
Speaker 2 (27:03):
It was because the right.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Yeah, I just had things that I that I I
think I wanted to say and I didn't really want
anyone else to say them. And that's that's probably how
how I became the singer of the band as well.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
Really, you know, the first time you sang then in
front of people, how did that feel.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
As a singer.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I was never overly sort of confident, but as a
as a as a front as a front man or whatever,
it kind of clicked into place quickly.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
You know.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
I felt kind of I felt a lot more comfortable
in the in the context of the stage then than
I did in the context of a you know, dinner
table or whatever. So I kind of feel I felt
I felt, I felt Garrett. I felt kind of armored
up there by the music and the fact that we
(27:51):
had a you know, there's a sort there's a sort
of like there's a social kind of contract going on
between you know, you're the audience and we're performing and
stuff like that that I because I could relax into.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Yeah, yeah, here's something I've read. You can tell me
if this one's true or not about romance. That is
the first album, the first Fontaine's DC album where you
really love the sounding Roman voice. Yeah is that true?
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yeah, it's true.
Speaker 4 (28:14):
Yeah, that you singing on the opening track on the
title track.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Yeah, because funny, isn't it that, Like it's the first
time that I love my own voice when it doesn't
sound like me.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Well, when I first heard it, I was like, Okay,
this is is this another member of the band singing
this opening track, which is the title track. It's a
great song. Is it particularly that song that you're like,
I love my voice on this song, or is it
throughout the record? And what is it about this record
where you're like, I'm happy with I'm happy with the
way our sound.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
It's throughout the record. It's not just that song. And
I think I think apparently so. I think for two
many reasons. One, I think I learned I learned the
the the the hardness that can come with singing softly,
you know what I mean, And the kind of like
the I learned more kind of a acutely the sort
of power of the power of context and framework musical
(29:04):
framework for for for a vocal, you know what I mean.
And in the song like Romance, for example, the music
is very it's very it's very hard.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Like you know, it's very sort of.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
I don't know, there's a there's a there's a real
sinister quality to and and and leaning into the the
softer side of the kind of of the vocal kind
of I don't know, the juxtaposition of.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
The two things.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
I really I really enjoyed that and I really got
into that and the kind of it was kind of
inspoiled by Gene Wilder and you know Italian chapter factory
and stuff, you know that kind of creepiness. Yeah, likes like,
is this a kind of is this a narrator that
I can trust?
Speaker 2 (29:45):
And is this kind of is this? Is this?
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Is this a chocolate room like that I should step into?
Or is it you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Is it just no way of knowing where the rowers
are rowing? Whatever? It is?
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Young Anyway, I think I think I enjoy because it's
a sort of a relatively cinematic record. I enjoyed creating
a big world musically, and then I could understand myself
more as a vocalist and love myself more as a
vocalist as a being a kind of small character dwarfed
by the grandiosity of the music.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
This time, you know, it makes sense. I've got a
few more questions about the video. The football at the
beginning skills. Yes, are you have you played a lot
of football as a kid? Is that your sport?
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Yeah? Well no, I played gaylic and Herland as well.
You know, Okay, I'm supported. I don't ever watch them.
I think the All Ireland is on this weekend actually
so yeah, I played. I was I was a sporting kid,
like you know, I really enjoyed it. I got I
got plurisy, you know, like the lung. The lung infection
was when I was a kid, and I kind of
(30:50):
it took me out of her for a few months
and I never really recovered. And I think it was
around that time that I really when I when I
when my my my career in sport, it was kind
of fledgling. Then I committed them to the music, you know.
But yeah, no, I just grew up playing football on
the on the grass in front of the gulf with
with the with the other local kids.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
You know, did you play for a team? Did you
pay for a competitively?
Speaker 1 (31:13):
The first team I ever played for was my secondary
skill team because I was playing gay like and Herland
all the time in US and maybe maybe rehearsing or
practicing three times a week, you know.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
I mean.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
My my my old herding coach was a great woman
called Ronnie Ronnie fay wat Veronica what she was. She
was my old herding coach. She died a couple of
years back, and there's a song about her on What's
All the record called East coffe bed. Yeah, anyway, she was.
She was just like she was a herdling coach. She
(31:43):
was the hardest woman I've ever met in my life,
you know, fucking amazing. Like she used to put her
son in goals right and we're hitting you know, do
you know what slitter is like it's like a fucking
cricket bak, Like it's kind of made a leather, And
she put her own son in in that.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
He had no shing guards.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Yeah no, no, you had no hermet on and we
had to take penalties which hit it as hard as
we possibly caught up, and all of us had shipp
aim as well. I mean, and he was I remember
he was. He was a bit of strata and she
was just like the fuck up, I just mean to
start mon. It's just it's just there's a toughness to it,
which I miss.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
Yeah, that's a real sport, isn't it like that? That
I'm not cut out for that? Yeah, I mean I'm
barely cut out for football these days.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean you could just dive in yours,
that's true. Question the dancer.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Saying you wouldn't be seeing any of that malarchy like
watching no exactly.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
I've got one more star Starburst video question, which is
you can you can refuse to answer this if you
like if it sports some mystery. But when I was
at your shirt at Glastonbury last week, I was stood
by Jordan from Rizzle Kicks, and I didn't know at
(33:00):
the time, but I've seen this online since his girlfriend
I think is in a little mixe. She was wearing
a T shirt that said I'm in a Fontaine's DC
video and this last week that has called someone read
it to piece these together and and come to the
conclusion that she is in the star Burst video.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Is that true? She is? Yeah, she isn't have you.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
Seen have you seen that? People have sort of worked
this a little bit of puzzle out.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Have you seen that. I haven't seen.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
No, No, I haven't seen that. I've had I've had
my my head. My head's been lying fairly low since Glassroo.
But I saw that she posted that she's a fucking
legend like and I don't even know if she got
the T shirt. I think she had like a T
shirt and.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
She did yea, And they both said I'm in a
fontage and it's in It's in the font It's in
the correct the ft.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Yeah, yeah, I texted. I texted Jordan as I said,
I've seen Jane's pulse and I want to get him.
I want to get one of those T shirts too.
She's just She's a fucking legend. And yeah, looking forward
to her her music video coming out with you need to.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
Be in that one?
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Really? Yeah? Maybe I should.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
I'm in a Jade video. What parts she and she
in the The other thing that the place people said
she's in is in the angel scene when you're when
you go into the when the lights come out of
the garage and you've got the angel wings and then
you're in the dancer studio.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Yeah, what's her new single card? You know? Okay?
Speaker 4 (34:30):
Is that is that part of it? I don't know, okay.
People are also talking about your new look a lot.
Have you been keeping track of that?
Speaker 2 (34:46):
No, I don't read like comments and stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (34:49):
You know, of course, it's great hearing people talk about
the fact that you're now, you know, wearing different clothes.
I think like the way you guys have been styled
for this new album is brilliant. It's all part of
like this world. How did you guys come up with that?
Speaker 2 (35:04):
A stake.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
I mean, when the record comes out, I think people
will realize it's a it's a it's it's a kind
of it's a it's a record influenced boy I suppose
a vision of like dystopia, you know. It's it's a
it's a futuristic kind of record, you know, And it
was inspired by a lot of cinema. And I think
(35:25):
we just wanted to visually draw from these inspirations in
order in order to short that people didn't try and
fit the record into a dog ll shaped box somehow.
I mean, because I think I think some people are
are some people just want to hear like Boyson a
Better Land over and over again. I mean, and you
can you can just like just put it on loop
(35:46):
like I mean, yeah, it's nothing to do with me,
like I mean, and I think it was just it
was just it was just Yeah, It's just our way
of making sure that a new stuff was communicated in
the right way.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
You know.
Speaker 4 (35:58):
I've read a list of your reference this album musically.
I'm visually I liked I like Shy Girls on your list.
I love that because I love her. I love everything
that she's done. I like her visual elements outcast her
on that list, corner on that list, Lana del Ray's
on that list. There's like a it's what's the track?
(36:19):
It's in the modern world. Feels to me like there's
you could have given that to Lana del Ray. I
think I'm glad you didn't, but you know, that's got
very much her sort of tone to it. Yeah, it's
a very varied, varied list from Shagal to Lanade. Within
the band, have you always had such a varied taste
or is that a new thing.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
We've always had a very taste. Yeah, we didn't. When
we wrote arg and We and We we put it
out like we were we were kind of I mean,
I was anywhere kind of anxious to move on creatively
as soon as possible, because I felt like there was
there was one dimension of of of of our tastes
and of our of our kind of artistic makeup, you know,
(36:57):
in so it was quite I was quite anxious to
kind of to keep going. I only feel like we're
getting past the type of the iceberg now a little bit,
you know, in terms of what makes us up. Like
we all sort of bonded over Chet Baker and stuff.
When you first met and it helps me feel like
a sort of multi faceted person. I mean it's the
same way that you were talking earlier before we started recording,
(37:18):
and think about the importance of having an art form
that you engage in that isn't necessarily the art form
that you are engaged in, you know, in terms of
your career. You were saying that you painted over lockdown
and stuff, and I think that I'm only interested in
(37:38):
in the kind of I'm more interested in the idea
of like sort of being a punk waking up listening
to punk, going to sleep listening to punk, and going
up and playing a punk show, and something I like
to sort of keep the other aspects of myself alike, like.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
You know, and you had a good glass to breathe
this time last week. What day are we Friday? It
was Friday you're playing, isn't it? Yeah, this is the
last week, this time last week. It's currently ten to three.
What would you been doing at ten to three this
time last week up Worthy Farm? Because you were playing
at eleven at night, so they'd still be quite a
(38:13):
bit of time before your stage time.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
I think I was doing interviews at this time, were
you Yeah, yeah, I think so, and then I would
have gotten backstage and I got yeah, like I'd just
be kind of getting quite manic and listening to music
really loudly and and then calming down and kind of
it's just a sort of It was at the end
(38:37):
of a quite quite an extensive series of showers as well,
Lass and really, you know, so there was a lot.
There was a lot to be said for musclim memory
and being sort of fit in terms of our performance,
you know. But at the same time, yeah, sort of
being locked up in that in that pen backstage that
(38:59):
really makes you look at the spectacle in the eye
and prepare for it. Like, you know, I get such
I get such sort of overstimulation leading up to a
gig that I need to kind of manage it, you know,
I mean so much adrenaline, which is why I can't
really remember the performance, you know, because I just had
too much adrenin.
Speaker 4 (39:17):
As a band, you talk to each other in that
moment or are you all in your own zones?
Speaker 1 (39:21):
I feel like the other lads avoid me for that reason. Honestly,
this at this point, they're kind of over there having
a sort of civilized conversation, like and I'm sort of like,
did you ever see The Mighty Boosh's depiction of Chris
de Burgh.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Yeah, so I'm like, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (39:42):
Yeah, I'm gonna put a link to that below this, uh,
this podcast for people to see that.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
That's what I'm like. I've got the eyebrows for it
and everything.
Speaker 4 (39:48):
Yeah, what are you listening to loudly?
Speaker 3 (39:53):
Like?
Speaker 2 (39:53):
What? What?
Speaker 4 (39:54):
What is you said you listened to? Like you'll be
listening to music loudly? Is there anything in particular? I
the Tiger?
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Uh? I think right, I think that I need to
listen to something that's that's that that demands to be
listened to because I'm kind of like I'm kind of
in my own head or kind of spiral and otherwise,
you know what I mean. So I listened to a
lot of Buyork or Buurke. I listened to a fair
(40:24):
a bit of Primal Scream, And I think that's how
Corn kind of came into it as an influence, because
backstage we listened to them and they were kind of
they kind of demand, they kind of bring you out
with your your your your your manic reverie that kind
of kind of corruptive before the show and then before
(40:45):
I go on, I usually listen to uh, Let's Get Last,
which Baker over again. I kind of sing along to
that because it kind of cams. Boy, I feel like
a cams my voice down a bit, okay, but I
don't think it really does.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
You know.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
Earlier this week I read an old interview that you
did with Annie Mack for The Irish Times, which is great.
I think you were up on Hampstead Heath talking on
a bench and I don't think you said this in
that interview, but you I think she wrote it referring
to an interview she'd read before where you had described
(41:20):
performing that the action of when you're on stage performing
as the feeling of being sick, not it makes you
feel nervous and sick, but actually vomiting.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
Yeah, and the kind of you know, how are you
kind of you're you're salivating the moments before That's what
I'm doing backstage was just salivating, you know.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
But that's what it feels like, you know.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
And then and then on the day when we don't
have gigs, it's like a dry heave, you know what
I mean. I'm not messing out it is because you know,
I remember the so the first time. The first time
I really noticed it was we were we were in
Prague and I think we had arrived in Prague the
night before the show, and my body thought we had
(42:11):
a show, so we sort of went to the pub
and about seven o'clock I had to leave the pub
and I was just sort of like like shaking my
shaking my hands and like like hitting the walls and
stuff like that, just because I had my body was
sort of ready to go on stage, you know what
I mean?
Speaker 2 (42:29):
But you did have a show to didn't have a
show out exactly.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
Yeah, so I do. Yeah, It's just it's a similar thing. Yeah,
But I love it because because I I think it's
I've accepted it now as a as a way of
as a way of expression.
Speaker 4 (42:42):
And then when you're up there, can you ever remember shows?
Was Glastonbury an anomaly or is it just you do
the show and then you can't. You sort of go
on and the next thing you remember, you're sort of
coming off.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
I can't often remember shows now.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
I remember when they got badly because it kind of
takes me out of that that high focus. And I
sometimes if they start going badly, and I kind.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Of feel like.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
Yeah, I don't know, it just takes me out of him.
Maybe maybe I want to maybe I want to sort
of get off stage and come back on and start again,
you know. I mean, but I think I.
Speaker 4 (43:14):
Can't imagine you're having many bad shows though, right what
constitutes a bad Fonteine show because the crowd are always
there for it?
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Right, Yeah? I think so. I mean there's that, there's
that's there's still.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Parts of the world where where they don't I don't
think they fully get it necessarily, you know.
Speaker 2 (43:29):
What I mean.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
And I mean we still we still play some showers
in like u in Germany sometimes where it feels a
bit like a little bit lackluster and stuff.
Speaker 4 (43:40):
You really, Yeah, I'm surprised by that. I thought they
would they would get it, the Germans.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
I think they generally do.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
But we have we there are there have been times
recently where I've been like a fuck, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
And it's good, it's.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Good for it's good for the humility, like you know,
and it keeps you, keeps you on your toes.
Speaker 4 (43:57):
Yeah yeah, yeah, I mean, I mean I'm going to
let you go because somewise I'm going to be in
your house all day.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
That's all right on the.
Speaker 4 (44:04):
Coach, Yeah, I think I might need to. I think
we've done all right on the energy. Do you think
the energy is? But I think the energy has been okay.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
We settled in.
Speaker 4 (44:11):
I think we got there.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
It's been a nice atmosphere. Can you hear the ray?
Speaker 4 (44:14):
It's absolutely caney us up being in La beautiful, lovely great,
thanks so much us.
Speaker 3 (44:27):
Midnight Chats is a joint production between Loud and Quiet
and Atomized Studios for iHeartRadio. It's hosted by Stuart Stubbs
and Greg Cochrane, mixed and mastered by Flow Lines, and
edited by Stuart Stubbs. Find us on Instagram and TikTok
to watch clips from our recordings and much much more.
Speaker 4 (44:44):
We are Midnight Chats Pod. For more information, visit Loud
and Quiet dot com.
When we rolled oar and we and we we put
it out like I mean, I was only we're kind
of anxious to move on creatively as soon as possible,
because I felt like there was there was one dimension
of of of of our tastes and of our of
our kind of artistic makeup, you know. I mean, so
I was quite I was quite anxious to kind of
to keep going on. I only feel like we're getting
past the tip of the iceberg now a little bit.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
You know.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Sticky nights, very sticky nights here at the moment in
the UK, we are in the middle of a midsummer
heat wave. Welcome to Midnight Chats, Stuart. How are you
keeping cool right now?
Speaker 4 (00:36):
I'm currently in a room where the windows don't open,
so I'm doing a bad.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Job of it. So I feel like we'd be fortunate
to see you on next week's podcast. Yeah yeah, I'm
wearing my ice vest. Can you see that underneath my
T shirt?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's very Olympics of you. Speaking of
the Olympics. Just a couple of nights ago, it was
the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games. Is that over
your devas obviously because you bloody love the Olympics, don't you.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
I hate when anything's over, to be honest, I got
quite upset when Harry Potter ended I get I get
sucked into cultural moments very quickly do. Yeah, but the
Olympics is probably number one on my list of something
that I just truly, truly love. And you're right, it's
over closing ceremony last night. You have some thoughts on this.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I believe Phoenix played. I love Phoenix, probably one of
my favorite bands. Airplayed, probably one of your favorite bands.
They played together in fact, terrible sound issues. I thought
it looked really great, but it sounded awful.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
I thought for a long time that Phoenix were miming.
Then it went on for so long that I thought, well, no,
they can't be. They wouldn't be getting away with this. Yeah,
And then they did that handover thing.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
So traditionally, obviously they go from like one city to
the next host city for the Olympics, which is going
to be Los Angeles in twenty twenty eight, is that right?
And so Paris hand over to Venice Beach where the
Red Chili Peppers are playing, and Billie Eilish and then
Snoop Dogg and Doctor Dre and I thought the Billie
(02:09):
Eilish bit speaking of kind of miming, I thought, brilliantly,
I quite like this. She was taking a piss right
like clearly, like almost in the sort of Nirvana on
top of the Pops in the nineties where they famously
went on and just like kind of took the mickey
out of the fact that they weren't playing live. Billy
was like so far away from a mic and like
clearly sort of like Phineas's guitar wasn't plugged in. They
(02:32):
were playing on top of a sort of a beach
lifeguard station, and it was just like I thought she
was having I thought she was like having one over
on it, to be totally honest, whereas everybody else seemed
to be taking it quite seriously.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
The best moment of the whole thing was when they
cut to the they cut to Venice Beach and Red
Chili Peppers came on and Andrew Cotter, who was doing
the commentary on the BBC and just sort of talking
us through what was happening, said the immortal line, flea
looks good.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
He's looking good for a sixty one year old. That's
a lot of green tea and a lot of yoga,
isn't it.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
And to be honest, Flea did not look good. Flea,
I'm not sure there just wearing a towel, wasn't he. Yeah,
like you'd just gone to the beach and happened to
be roped into an Olympic closing ceremony. We've a very
strange I was were with Daft Punk? That's just the
big questions in it. How could they not get Daft
Punk to just put the helmets on for one night
and or let somebody else put the helmets on for
(03:31):
one night and pretend that Daft Punk? Come on?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
I know, I know. Listen, the Olympics closing ceremony wasn't
the only momentous things happened in the world this week.
It was your birthday more magnificantly, And how did you
spend your I imagine you were relaxing, you were taking
it easy. You just give yourself a day off. What
what did you do on your birthday?
Speaker 4 (03:49):
I played my first football match in twenty five years
in thirty degree heat, which I wasn't I wasn't too
happy about, but I did actually have a very lovely time.
This was for a local tournament, charity fundraising tournament. I
do want to quick give a quick shout out to
here in South London, there is a the first community
(04:12):
owned music venue of grassroots community venue that is going
to be opening up soon. There's been a big drive
for this. It's called Sister Midnight. If anyone wants to
know more about it or get involved, just you know,
google it. There's there's lots going on and yet. And
yesterday there was a big charity football tournament. We put
in a loud on quiet team, a five a side team.
(04:33):
We stole the hearts and minds of the fans. You
were the most liked were you? Was it the brand
of football that you were playing? We got battered, but
we one one game.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Great.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
You'll feel very satisfied next time you go and watch
a band play at System Midnight. Yeah, let's talk about
this week's guest on the podcast. This is the reinvention
of Fontaine's DC happening right now. Is that is that
fair to say?
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Stud? I think so?
Speaker 4 (04:57):
You know Fontaine's Irish punk slash rock band. For anyone
that's not too familiar, I see this band as a
band that have been on a real slow reinvention from
the beginning. They're about to release their fourth album, which
is called Romance, coming out on the twenty third of
this month, August twenty twenty four. They've got a new
(05:18):
look going on that a lot of people are talking
about the look of the band because they've gone from
being these dark, brooding poets wearing I guess you would
just say, you know, sort of scruffy indie.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Clothes like that, lots of trench coats.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
Yeah, that sort of vibe to dressing what most people
are describing as completely insane.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Well, you mean, like extras from a Prodigy video in
like the nineties.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Yeah, I loved it. I absolutely love I don't think
I don't know how you feel about this. I don't
think enough bands have fun with what they're wearing anymore. Like,
you know, we spend a lot of time as music
journals and music fans bemoaning the fact that where are
the David bowiees, where are like the where's like the
rock star energy? Where's that sort of flamboyance? And then
a band like Fontein's come back with a new record
(06:06):
and they build it around this whole new look where
they're crossing the look of metal bands like Corn with
new progressive R and B artists and dance artists like
Shy Girl, who they're a big fan of, which are
two completely different mistakes. They're smashing them together. They're dressing
up like you know, they've one's got pink hair now,
(06:28):
they're wearing a lot of goggles. It's a little bit
young blood, which I'm not so I'm not I'm not
here for. But the fact that they've smashed it together
and it's it's a talking point and that I think
that's exciting, and I just think more bands should be
encouraged to do that. And I find it bizarre. As fans,
we we want that in one sense, but then when
it happens, we're like, oh no, actually, I want the
(06:49):
band to look like me. And what I found out
since doing this interview is I think a lot of
people think they've been given a stylist. I think that's
why some people are down it. They're like, right, they've
signed a new record deal, they've got a stylist now,
and they're being made.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
To dress this way, or they've been convincerous this way.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
It's not that's not the case. This is all completely
off their own back. The whole thing, the whole new
look is completely on them, which I think makes it
even cooler that they've just gone for this quiet Bonker's
new new look. It's like they're like, you know, it's
like you two in the the early nineties or something.
They've been to Camden Market fair Play. They have been
a cyber dog.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
So we we joined Fontaine's DC tonight on the show.
I'd say like on the cusp of a pretty big
moment there. They've got a huge slot of reading and
Leeds festivals here in the UK later in August and
then next year. So for next summer they're playing London's
Finsbury Park where they're bringing Kneecap and Ammal and the
Sniffers as well. That's going to be an amazing albeit
huge show for them.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Stu.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Anything else to add before we get into hearing from
Green on tonight's podcast.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
The other things to add? Oh, this was recorded at
Green's house. It was one week after Glastonbury. After I
saw them at Glastonbury and we were both dreamly tired
and the first thing we said to one another was
unnackd So there is you know, maybe this but this
is good this is this show. It's it's it's midnight.
(08:11):
It's it's relaxing. Don't think of this as lazy, it's relaxing.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Halfway through we had a midway break. Green made us
a couple of barocas. We had genuinely we had. We
had we next a couple of barokas, and then we
got back into the conversation and then what just one
other thing. I will just quickly say, there's gonna be
There's gonna be a lot of links down here in
the in the description this podcast to lots of these things,
(08:38):
including the videos. I talk a lot about the Starburst video. Yeah,
and there's something that we talk about which is a
link between that video and Jade from Little Mix.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
This was recorded quite some time ago. Now the story
is now out there. But I don't want to tell
you the story just you can piece it together. If
you're listening to your Fontein's fan, you probably know all
about this. But the Eason way, I'm get a bit confused.
What is I'm very tired too. It was all it
was all a bit of a mystery at the time
when we talk about Jade coming up. But I'll put
(09:11):
some links below here that we'll explain them to give
you a little bit of a magical mystery tour rather
than just telling you what it all means right now
in this intro brilliant.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Well, grab yourself a effervescent vitamin drink and enjoy this
conversation on Midnight Chats. This is Stuart Stubbs speaking to
Green from Fontaine's They See and We Will See you
next week on the podcast.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Did I read somewhere that you lived in LA.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
For a bit? Nah? I mean, have you read that
or I didn't lie?
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah, it's a classic La piece of piece of fishing.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
And where's that come from?
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I sort of like fell off the edge of tour
and landed in LA for about ninth ten days?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
I mean, okay, and that was it? Yeah. I think
it's just because I sort.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
Of it sounds good though, doesn't it spent some time
in LA even if you were just there you're an artist.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
I mean, it doesn't sound good. Decide that when I
go back to Dublin, you know what I mean? It
doesn't sound good in the local public.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
It doesn't fly, that doesn't mister Laing? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
by everyone around Hollywood. Green, Yeah, exactly taken over with
his shoes on.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
I know, like I did a fair bit of writing.
I had had quite a profound effect on me. Not
because of la itself, but because of the manner manner
in which I experienced it. I was kind of I
was upside down in terms of jet lag, and I
was it was just I was just I was just
there for a bit of a bit of an adventure.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Really.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
I think it was afraid of touring being over, and
I was I thought that I could kind of keep
the this is all the unconscious by the way, of course,
thought that I could keep the tour going. But I
realized when I got there that it takes more than one. Yeah,
it's quite brave to go on your own. Thanks for
saying brave.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
You know.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
It was definitely interesting though, because I'd wake up at
six pm, seven pm, and I just go to the pub,
you know, and I meet these people. I went to
this pub a few times called the Lotus Lounge. I
think it's in Silver Lake, okay, And I just get
in there and I'll get behind the bar and i'd
poor people points that for some reason they had me
behind the bar, right and no one obviously, no one
(11:35):
knew who the fuck I was, like, which is which
is nice? And I just met I met these kind
of interesting people and yeah, I don't know. And then
and then i'd kind of I'd finished at the pub,
finish my shift, and I'll get home. I'll get home
at about four am and just stay awake in the
gaff yeah, you know, thinking and got to sleep at
(11:57):
about ten. It was just it was just an interesting
kind of way to live for for a week or so,
you know.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
So what so the tour had finished in the States.
I think I finished in Japan, finished in Japan. Everyone
else flew home, and You're like, I'm gonna I'm chipping
up to La to see what's just to see what
it's like. Yeah, it sounds like living like a like
a second life life of a barman.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Yeah, yeah, I think you know, there's there's something for me.
It's something quite scary about going home after tour. I
mean home in advert commas, because obviously I left Alan
a few years back, and I'm a bit of a mover,
like you know what I mean, I moved like seven
times before I was twelve. So I've got these I've
(12:42):
got these restless feet, like hanging off the enemy legs,
I mean, and I sort of just I like to
keep going. So I think I think I just couldn't really,
I didn't really feel asked doing it again, coming back
from tour and and trying to quickly a climate I two,
you know, the kind of the surrounding a couple of
(13:03):
streets and buying milk and all that kind of crack.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
You know.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
I think I just wanted to I don't know, soft
landing and LA just seemed to be I don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
I don't know why I went there to be on
the map.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
You know, did you do you like it? I found
it interesting, you know what I mean. I don't really
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
I often don't know if I like things generally. You know,
they're kind of they kind of they kind of serve
a they serve a function in in in my in
my in my art, or they don't really often, you know.
I definitely like my friends and my family, and I
like this flat, yeah, certainly, And I just like I
(13:47):
just kind of like I feel at home here kind
of I'm friends with this flat, like I mean, but
I don't I.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Have no idea if I like l a at all.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
You know, it's a weird place because I think La
feels like No, I've not been anywhere else that feels
similar to that, not just in terms of geographically, just
the feel of it, the people, the constant hustle of it.
I'm not sure if it's so much like that in
East LA. I'm guessing it is. You know, there's that
idea of everyone moving to LA to be something like
(14:19):
everyone goes there to Did you tell anyone at any
point I'm actually in a band back home and I'm
just here for a bit?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
No, no, no, I I know.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
I mean I met up with one friend at one
point and I reminded her that I was in a band.
You know that was a yeah poonage not a photographer.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yeah, great photographer I went for.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I went for a point where her one of the nights,
and that was great to see her, But no, perfect,
perfect not. I kind of kept myself to myself and
got a fucking electric scoter.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
And did you is born around the one of those
line ones? Yeah? Ill advised?
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Really, you know, even though you're not sure if you
liked it, did it you were saying? You know, things
sometimes serve your art or they don't did that.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yeah, definitely, I wrote the kind of the kind of
initial the initial kind of concept of Starburster happened there musically,
and then the the verse for in the Modern World
from the new album that happened there as well, which
is like which a fair chunk for like you know,
(15:23):
kind of nine days or whatever. Yeah, because I bought
on the record, like you know, and I think I
think that I think I felt very sort of torn
apart and abstracted after after tour, and I wanted to
before the door settles, I kind of wanted to see
what like kind of shapes were in the dost as
it was floating, I mean, and I went to La
(15:44):
to kind of keep the dost there in the sky
for a few days, you know. I mean, I didn't
want to kind of get home and be like right,
normal person routine, all kind of crack, you know. I
wanted to see kind of I wanted to paint the
portrait of of of of the monster. I was at
that time before you know.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
What year would this have been, by the way, it's
like two years ago.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
It was nineteen seventy six, it was, I think, and
I was, this is this is last year I think
is that last year?
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Yeah, the last year.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Did you know this is a ten day experiment? Or
was it something that made you go, don't no.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Need to go home?
Speaker 1 (16:19):
It was it was definitely sort of open ended. I
think after ten days. Yeah, after ten days, I what's
kind of like, what the fuck am I down here?
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Yeah? Sure, get me over of here? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Yeah, but it was good crack I had.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
I had a good laugh. I had.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
I had a nice bit of kind of self prescribed isolation,
which I think was necessary. And I think that if
I if I had, if I had gone home and
been asking, you know, how his tour, I wouldn't have
I would have known what to say.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
You know, I needed to get some some bearings.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
Even if you just go on a nice holiday and
someone says how would your holiday? Maybe willing to like
tell the one person one time, but then the next
person someone asks you you just I don't want to
talk about this anymore? Yeah, do you feel like that?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Is it?
Speaker 4 (17:08):
Like? How am I going to describe? How am I
going to explain to you how toour was?
Speaker 2 (17:12):
When?
Speaker 4 (17:14):
When it was so long or so intense, or no
one else really has any frame of reference for what
you're talking.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
About, I think a sort of scary part of being
I'm I'm kind of reluctant to moan about as well.
I feel moaned about about about touring like for fucking
five years.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
But I think one of the scary things about it is.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Seeing seeing people's, like your friend's faces like up when
you tell them about something that's not a kind of
that hasn't hit you in the same way, and see that,
see them be excited about it, and then kind of
that kind of kind often make you feel dissosiated from
from your own memory, you know what I mean, from
your on experience, Yeah, anyway, but.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
Like like what sort of thing, like it's just something
that the band's done that like playing Fallon or something
like that.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Yeah, yeah, or like meeting someone or whatever, you know,
and then why what were they like? And you're like
fucking personally and but but it's the point is that
it's I kind of wish that I had the same
response to it as dated.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
I sound like a miserable bat. Again. Let's Friday.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Let's talk about Starburst, because you you mentioned that that
was the first seed of it happened in I've got
a quote here that I was. I've been watching that
video a lot. Yeah, it's great. Like I was watching
it again the other day and I saw this comment underneath.
Do you read the comments under your videos? You don't,
(18:45):
don't worry. This isn't bad. I'm not I'm not about
to like and this is a nice one. They were
all nice, by the way, the ones that I read.
This is from Sean hu Hudgens eight four one nine.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Yeah for one great fan, isn't it. Yeah? They say
this is what I liked about this. Please tell this
seventy two year old lady who loves music what the
heck this song is about. Thank you very much, And
I do love this song and am determined to learn
(19:19):
the lyrics. My favorite genre of music is heavy metal
since I was sixty nine years old. That proved you're
never too old to learn to love a new genre
of music.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Smiley face heart emoji Shan Hodgens. Yeah, I'm guessing that
Sean is maybe short for Shana.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yeah, okay, yeah. Maybe.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
The response here was the response from dead Hands Dan.
You know Dead Hands.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yeah, of course he's clowning up my wedding.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
His response to his answer to that was from what
I've read it's basically a stream of consciousness diary of
a panic attack Green had whilst waiting for a metro.
How accurate is that?
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Yeah? It feels pretty accurate. Yeah, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Yeah, because because of the nature of a being extreamly consciousness,
it's it's difficult to it's difficult to define it any
more than that, like you know, and I'm sort of
lowed to to to sort of like to get in
the way of other people's interpretations generally, you know what
I mean. But yeah, that's pretty bang on dead handstand
fair play.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
Yeah, he's good, isn't he?
Speaker 2 (20:23):
He's good? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (20:24):
I wasnt that song obviously, is I presume is written
differently to have the lyrics you've written, if you know,
as that's come from a particular panic attack you had.
But just generally speaking, do you are you the sort
of lyricist who does it? Do they flow out of
you easily? Do you toil over lyrics?
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Like?
Speaker 4 (20:43):
Just generally speaking? How how quick do they do?
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Those? Come? Very quick? Yeah? No, I don't.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
I don't feel, you know, like I'm lucky, you know,
I'm glad to be talking about something that I can
I can sound happy about Okay, great, No, I don't
feel I don't feel in that manner that have that
have kind of worked uh a day in my life
since we started touring, you know. I mean obviously the
obviously the the tours have been difficult at times, but
(21:09):
the right and the right processes and that's that's recharging,
that's that's that is rest for me. I mean, that's
kind of where I get my energy from.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
And I've.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
I don't Yeah, it doesn't feel like toiling now. I
wrote a lot of the lyrics for the record in
the studio on the day. You know, it's kind of
just about for me, it's about keeping the relate your
your relationship with you with your own creativity really healthy.
And one of the ways that I like to do
that is I kind of embrace, embrace throwing things away
and especially good ideas. Because you hang on to something
(21:45):
that you know is a good idea, you're kind of
in that there's there's a kind of implication there that
you might not be able to do the same thing tomorrow.
And then in throwing things or or not necessarily throwing
things away, but like kind of being okay with forgetting
them or not taking note of them properly or whatever.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
You're you're investing in.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Yourself as the generator of those ideas, you know what
I mean, It's not it's not about the idea itself.
You're bigger than that. You're the thing that kind of
came up with that. You're the master of those of
those things, you know. So I think you're kind of
investing in your future ability to be able to do
at least yeah, do at least as well next time. So,
I I think that writer's block comes from fear, and
(22:29):
I think it comes from that kind of specific fear,
often of having created something that feels like it's looming
larger than you, and the kind of living in a shadow.
And I think to treat other things that you've done
with a healthy irreverence is a good way of avoiding that.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
Yeah, jet, I think that's partly why I've heard jay
Z say before, like he you know, he famously doesn't
says he's never written a lyric down and he would
say that that's because if he's forgotten it, then it
wasn't a good idea like that. I mean, that's a
different thing to what you're saying, but like similar though, Yeah, yeah,
(23:06):
of not being too precious about it. Essentially is at
the heart of that, isn't it not fearing like I
need to bottle this right this second. I Wise it
might go away. And he believes that if you can remember,
if it sticks with him or he comes back to
it a later day, there's probably something to it. And
if he doesn't, then maybe there wasn't anything in that anyway.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Yeah, I mean I have.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
I've had many conversations with friends, particularly when with the
with the band and we were starting off, we sort
of sit down and have a lot of you know,
kind of it was kind of a conspiratorial chats that
mark the kind of early days of of of of
lifelong friendships, you know what I mean. And we'd have
conversations where, you know, you'd be like, oh, I should
(23:47):
write that down, like you know that someone else said,
or something that U tad or whatever, or the general
kind of general kind of feeling at the table.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
You'd want to write it down.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
But the act of not doing that is kind of
like ye're convincing yourself that it's not It's not the
it's not the idea that's worth writing down. It's the
conversation that's worth upholding and investing in and recreating, you
know what I mean, to get better at the to
get better at the actual and the the conversation as
opposed to the fruits that grow from it.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
You know.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
We had Joe Tolbert from Idols on the podcast and
he was talking about the making of their last record
and how he had writes. I didn't, he didn't write
all of the lyrics in the studio with the band,
but he wrote some of them. And I remember hearing
him say that and being already impressed by it, because that,
to me, as someone that doesn't write songs, is like
(24:43):
a waking nightmare to be there with especially with your
closest sort of friends, your band, your unit, and to
have to reduce the goods there and there. But that's
is that way. So that's why you is it that
you thrive in that or it just doesn't.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
It doesn't. That's it doesn't scare you.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
It doesn't scare you because because of you've spent the
last I mean, you've spent the last sort of like
six years forgetting and like depending on on what you
can do the next day. As was I I mean,
I sort of like I feel like there's a there's
a sort of river constantly running through me of of.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Sound completely up on us.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
There's a there's a kind of there's a river running
through me of of of ideas at the moment, And
I might not always be there, you know what I mean.
But I I feel like I can kind of just
dip in and there'll always be something to pull out,
you know. I mean, So I'm not worried, like that's
what I'm saying, you know, but I think I think
I think it might not always be.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
There, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (25:43):
Because you started as a drama, right, Yeah, he's still
he's still like a drama. What are you a decent drama?
Speaker 1 (25:49):
I was good, Well, I think I think I was good.
I was I was one of those drummers that he
was real small, really really light sticks just like played
as fast thing cod you know what I mean. I'm
quite I'm quite like I'm quite a sort of twitchy
person like and I think I probably wanted to be
Like my favorite drum was when I was a killer
like Trey Kill and stuff. People who played the snare
(26:10):
really really fast and but I was enthralled by by
a song by Bad religion. What was a song calling
is American Jesus by bad religion, And there's a feel
I think it's that's that song could be wrong. There's
a fill to start that song where it kind of
it's like something like that. It felt like it's almost
(26:35):
like a dolphin coming out with the water and creating
an arc and coming back down. You knew that the
splash was about to happen at the end of the film,
and you could feel the inevitability of that, and I
just there's something so sort of beautifully symmetrical but at
the same time passionate about it. And I think that's
when I started learning how to play drums.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
And then as how long were you doing that before
you then start singing? And what made you go I'm
gonna actually have I'm a try singing. Was it because
of all the writing?
Speaker 2 (27:03):
It was because the right.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Yeah, I just had things that I that I I
think I wanted to say and I didn't really want
anyone else to say them. And that's that's probably how
how I became the singer of the band as well.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
Really, you know, the first time you sang then in
front of people, how did that feel.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
As a singer.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I was never overly sort of confident, but as a
as a as a front as a front man or whatever,
it kind of clicked into place quickly.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
You know.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
I felt kind of I felt a lot more comfortable
in the in the context of the stage then than
I did in the context of a you know, dinner
table or whatever. So I kind of feel I felt
I felt, I felt Garrett. I felt kind of armored
up there by the music and the fact that we
(27:51):
had a you know, there's a sort there's a sort
of like there's a social kind of contract going on
between you know, you're the audience and we're performing and
stuff like that that I because I could relax into.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Yeah, yeah, here's something I've read. You can tell me
if this one's true or not about romance. That is
the first album, the first Fontaine's DC album where you
really love the sounding Roman voice. Yeah is that true?
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yeah, it's true.
Speaker 4 (28:14):
Yeah, that you singing on the opening track on the
title track.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Yeah, because funny, isn't it that, Like it's the first
time that I love my own voice when it doesn't
sound like me.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Well, when I first heard it, I was like, Okay,
this is is this another member of the band singing
this opening track, which is the title track. It's a
great song. Is it particularly that song that you're like,
I love my voice on this song, or is it
throughout the record? And what is it about this record
where you're like, I'm happy with I'm happy with the
way our sound.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
It's throughout the record. It's not just that song. And
I think I think apparently so. I think for two
many reasons. One, I think I learned I learned the
the the the hardness that can come with singing softly,
you know what I mean, And the kind of like
the I learned more kind of a acutely the sort
of power of the power of context and framework musical
(29:04):
framework for for for a vocal, you know what I mean.
And in the song like Romance, for example, the music
is very it's very it's very hard.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Like you know, it's very sort of.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
I don't know, there's a there's a there's a real
sinister quality to and and and leaning into the the
softer side of the kind of of the vocal kind
of I don't know, the juxtaposition of.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
The two things.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
I really I really enjoyed that and I really got
into that and the kind of it was kind of
inspoiled by Gene Wilder and you know Italian chapter factory
and stuff, you know that kind of creepiness. Yeah, likes like,
is this a kind of is this a narrator that
I can trust?
Speaker 2 (29:45):
And is this kind of is this? Is this?
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Is this a chocolate room like that I should step into?
Or is it you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Is it just no way of knowing where the rowers
are rowing? Whatever? It is?
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Young Anyway, I think I think I enjoy because it's
a sort of a relatively cinematic record. I enjoyed creating
a big world musically, and then I could understand myself
more as a vocalist and love myself more as a
vocalist as a being a kind of small character dwarfed
by the grandiosity of the music.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
This time, you know, it makes sense. I've got a
few more questions about the video. The football at the
beginning skills. Yes, are you have you played a lot
of football as a kid? Is that your sport?
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Yeah? Well no, I played gaylic and Herland as well.
You know, Okay, I'm supported. I don't ever watch them.
I think the All Ireland is on this weekend actually
so yeah, I played. I was I was a sporting kid,
like you know, I really enjoyed it. I got I
got plurisy, you know, like the lung. The lung infection
was when I was a kid, and I kind of
(30:50):
it took me out of her for a few months
and I never really recovered. And I think it was
around that time that I really when I when I
when my my my career in sport, it was kind
of fledgling. Then I committed them to the music, you know.
But yeah, no, I just grew up playing football on
the on the grass in front of the gulf with
with the with the other local kids.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
You know, did you play for a team? Did you
pay for a competitively?
Speaker 1 (31:13):
The first team I ever played for was my secondary
skill team because I was playing gay like and Herland
all the time in US and maybe maybe rehearsing or
practicing three times a week, you know.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
I mean.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
My my my old herding coach was a great woman
called Ronnie Ronnie fay wat Veronica what she was. She
was my old herding coach. She died a couple of
years back, and there's a song about her on What's
All the record called East coffe bed. Yeah, anyway, she was.
She was just like she was a herdling coach. She
(31:43):
was the hardest woman I've ever met in my life,
you know, fucking amazing. Like she used to put her
son in goals right and we're hitting you know, do
you know what slitter is like it's like a fucking
cricket bak, Like it's kind of made a leather, And
she put her own son in in that.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
He had no shing guards.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Yeah no, no, you had no hermet on and we
had to take penalties which hit it as hard as
we possibly caught up, and all of us had shipp
aim as well. I mean, and he was I remember
he was. He was a bit of strata and she
was just like the fuck up, I just mean to
start mon. It's just it's just there's a toughness to it,
which I miss.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
Yeah, that's a real sport, isn't it like that? That
I'm not cut out for that? Yeah, I mean I'm
barely cut out for football these days.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean you could just dive in yours,
that's true. Question the dancer.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Saying you wouldn't be seeing any of that malarchy like
watching no exactly.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
I've got one more star Starburst video question, which is
you can you can refuse to answer this if you
like if it sports some mystery. But when I was
at your shirt at Glastonbury last week, I was stood
by Jordan from Rizzle Kicks, and I didn't know at
(33:00):
the time, but I've seen this online since his girlfriend
I think is in a little mixe. She was wearing
a T shirt that said I'm in a Fontaine's DC
video and this last week that has called someone read
it to piece these together and and come to the
conclusion that she is in the star Burst video.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Is that true? She is? Yeah, she isn't have you.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
Seen have you seen that? People have sort of worked
this a little bit of puzzle out.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Have you seen that. I haven't seen.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
No, No, I haven't seen that. I've had I've had
my my head. My head's been lying fairly low since Glassroo.
But I saw that she posted that she's a fucking
legend like and I don't even know if she got
the T shirt. I think she had like a T
shirt and.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
She did yea, And they both said I'm in a
fontage and it's in It's in the font It's in
the correct the ft.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Yeah, yeah, I texted. I texted Jordan as I said,
I've seen Jane's pulse and I want to get him.
I want to get one of those T shirts too.
She's just She's a fucking legend. And yeah, looking forward
to her her music video coming out with you need to.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
Be in that one?
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Really? Yeah? Maybe I should.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
I'm in a Jade video. What parts she and she
in the The other thing that the place people said
she's in is in the angel scene when you're when
you go into the when the lights come out of
the garage and you've got the angel wings and then
you're in the dancer studio.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Yeah, what's her new single card? You know? Okay?
Speaker 4 (34:30):
Is that is that part of it? I don't know, okay.
People are also talking about your new look a lot.
Have you been keeping track of that?
Speaker 2 (34:46):
No, I don't read like comments and stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (34:49):
You know, of course, it's great hearing people talk about
the fact that you're now, you know, wearing different clothes.
I think like the way you guys have been styled
for this new album is brilliant. It's all part of
like this world. How did you guys come up with that?
Speaker 2 (35:04):
A stake.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
I mean, when the record comes out, I think people
will realize it's a it's a it's it's a kind
of it's a it's a record influenced boy I suppose
a vision of like dystopia, you know. It's it's a
it's a futuristic kind of record, you know, And it
was inspired by a lot of cinema. And I think
(35:25):
we just wanted to visually draw from these inspirations in
order in order to short that people didn't try and
fit the record into a dog ll shaped box somehow.
I mean, because I think I think some people are
are some people just want to hear like Boyson a
Better Land over and over again. I mean, and you
can you can just like just put it on loop
(35:46):
like I mean, yeah, it's nothing to do with me,
like I mean, and I think it was just it
was just it was just Yeah, It's just our way
of making sure that a new stuff was communicated in
the right way.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
You know.
Speaker 4 (35:58):
I've read a list of your reference this album musically.
I'm visually I liked I like Shy Girls on your list.
I love that because I love her. I love everything
that she's done. I like her visual elements outcast her
on that list, corner on that list, Lana del Ray's
on that list. There's like a it's what's the track?
(36:19):
It's in the modern world. Feels to me like there's
you could have given that to Lana del Ray. I
think I'm glad you didn't, but you know, that's got
very much her sort of tone to it. Yeah, it's
a very varied, varied list from Shagal to Lanade. Within
the band, have you always had such a varied taste
or is that a new thing.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
We've always had a very taste. Yeah, we didn't. When
we wrote arg and We and We we put it
out like we were we were kind of I mean,
I was anywhere kind of anxious to move on creatively
as soon as possible, because I felt like there was
there was one dimension of of of of our tastes
and of our of our kind of artistic makeup, you know,
(36:57):
in so it was quite I was quite anxious to
kind of to keep going. I only feel like we're
getting past the type of the iceberg now a little bit,
you know, in terms of what makes us up. Like
we all sort of bonded over Chet Baker and stuff.
When you first met and it helps me feel like
a sort of multi faceted person. I mean it's the
same way that you were talking earlier before we started recording,
(37:18):
and think about the importance of having an art form
that you engage in that isn't necessarily the art form
that you are engaged in, you know, in terms of
your career. You were saying that you painted over lockdown
and stuff, and I think that I'm only interested in
(37:38):
in the kind of I'm more interested in the idea
of like sort of being a punk waking up listening
to punk, going to sleep listening to punk, and going
up and playing a punk show, and something I like
to sort of keep the other aspects of myself alike, like.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
You know, and you had a good glass to breathe
this time last week. What day are we Friday? It
was Friday you're playing, isn't it? Yeah, this is the
last week, this time last week. It's currently ten to three.
What would you been doing at ten to three this
time last week up Worthy Farm? Because you were playing
at eleven at night, so they'd still be quite a
(38:13):
bit of time before your stage time.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
I think I was doing interviews at this time, were
you Yeah, yeah, I think so, and then I would
have gotten backstage and I got yeah, like I'd just
be kind of getting quite manic and listening to music
really loudly and and then calming down and kind of
it's just a sort of It was at the end
(38:37):
of a quite quite an extensive series of showers as well,
Lass and really, you know, so there was a lot.
There was a lot to be said for musclim memory
and being sort of fit in terms of our performance,
you know. But at the same time, yeah, sort of
being locked up in that in that pen backstage that
(38:59):
really makes you look at the spectacle in the eye
and prepare for it. Like, you know, I get such
I get such sort of overstimulation leading up to a
gig that I need to kind of manage it, you know,
I mean so much adrenaline, which is why I can't
really remember the performance, you know, because I just had
too much adrenin.
Speaker 4 (39:17):
As a band, you talk to each other in that
moment or are you all in your own zones?
Speaker 1 (39:21):
I feel like the other lads avoid me for that reason. Honestly,
this at this point, they're kind of over there having
a sort of civilized conversation, like and I'm sort of like,
did you ever see The Mighty Boosh's depiction of Chris
de Burgh.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Yeah, so I'm like, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (39:42):
Yeah, I'm gonna put a link to that below this, uh,
this podcast for people to see that.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
That's what I'm like. I've got the eyebrows for it
and everything.
Speaker 4 (39:48):
Yeah, what are you listening to loudly?
Speaker 3 (39:53):
Like?
Speaker 2 (39:53):
What? What?
Speaker 4 (39:54):
What is you said you listened to? Like you'll be
listening to music loudly? Is there anything in particular? I
the Tiger?
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Uh? I think right, I think that I need to
listen to something that's that's that that demands to be
listened to because I'm kind of like I'm kind of
in my own head or kind of spiral and otherwise,
you know what I mean. So I listened to a
lot of Buyork or Buurke. I listened to a fair
(40:24):
a bit of Primal Scream, And I think that's how
Corn kind of came into it as an influence, because
backstage we listened to them and they were kind of
they kind of demand, they kind of bring you out
with your your your your your manic reverie that kind
of kind of corruptive before the show and then before
(40:45):
I go on, I usually listen to uh, Let's Get Last,
which Baker over again. I kind of sing along to
that because it kind of cams. Boy, I feel like
a cams my voice down a bit, okay, but I
don't think it really does.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
You know.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
Earlier this week I read an old interview that you
did with Annie Mack for The Irish Times, which is great.
I think you were up on Hampstead Heath talking on
a bench and I don't think you said this in
that interview, but you I think she wrote it referring
to an interview she'd read before where you had described
(41:20):
performing that the action of when you're on stage performing
as the feeling of being sick, not it makes you
feel nervous and sick, but actually vomiting.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
Yeah, and the kind of you know, how are you
kind of you're you're salivating the moments before That's what
I'm doing backstage was just salivating, you know.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
But that's what it feels like, you know.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
And then and then on the day when we don't
have gigs, it's like a dry heave, you know what
I mean. I'm not messing out it is because you know,
I remember the so the first time. The first time
I really noticed it was we were we were in
Prague and I think we had arrived in Prague the
night before the show, and my body thought we had
(42:11):
a show, so we sort of went to the pub
and about seven o'clock I had to leave the pub
and I was just sort of like like shaking my
shaking my hands and like like hitting the walls and
stuff like that, just because I had my body was
sort of ready to go on stage, you know what
I mean?
Speaker 2 (42:29):
But you did have a show to didn't have a
show out exactly.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
Yeah, so I do. Yeah, It's just it's a similar thing. Yeah,
But I love it because because I I think it's
I've accepted it now as a as a way of
as a way of expression.
Speaker 4 (42:42):
And then when you're up there, can you ever remember shows?
Was Glastonbury an anomaly or is it just you do
the show and then you can't. You sort of go
on and the next thing you remember, you're sort of
coming off.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
I can't often remember shows now.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
I remember when they got badly because it kind of
takes me out of that that high focus. And I
sometimes if they start going badly, and I kind.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Of feel like.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
Yeah, I don't know, it just takes me out of him.
Maybe maybe I want to maybe I want to sort
of get off stage and come back on and start again,
you know. I mean, but I think I.
Speaker 4 (43:14):
Can't imagine you're having many bad shows though, right what
constitutes a bad Fonteine show because the crowd are always
there for it?
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Right, Yeah? I think so. I mean there's that, there's
that's there's still.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Parts of the world where where they don't I don't
think they fully get it necessarily, you know.
Speaker 2 (43:29):
What I mean.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
And I mean we still we still play some showers
in like u in Germany sometimes where it feels a
bit like a little bit lackluster and stuff.
Speaker 4 (43:40):
You really, Yeah, I'm surprised by that. I thought they
would they would get it, the Germans.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
I think they generally do.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
But we have we there are there have been times
recently where I've been like a fuck, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
And it's good, it's.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Good for it's good for the humility, like you know,
and it keeps you, keeps you on your toes.
Speaker 4 (43:57):
Yeah yeah, yeah, I mean, I mean I'm going to
let you go because somewise I'm going to be in
your house all day.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
That's all right on the.
Speaker 4 (44:04):
Coach, Yeah, I think I might need to. I think
we've done all right on the energy. Do you think
the energy is? But I think the energy has been okay.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
We settled in.
Speaker 4 (44:11):
I think we got there.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
It's been a nice atmosphere. Can you hear the ray?
Speaker 4 (44:14):
It's absolutely caney us up being in La beautiful, lovely great,
thanks so much us.
Speaker 3 (44:27):
Midnight Chats is a joint production between Loud and Quiet
and Atomized Studios for iHeartRadio. It's hosted by Stuart Stubbs
and Greg Cochrane, mixed and mastered by Flow Lines, and
edited by Stuart Stubbs. Find us on Instagram and TikTok
to watch clips from our recordings and much much more.
Speaker 4 (44:44):
We are Midnight Chats Pod. For more information, visit Loud
and Quiet dot com.
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