Words: MM Ridho & Garrin Faturrahman
Photo: Simon Wheatley

Despite oft-hailed as today’s post-punk revivalist, Fontaines D.C. might just have something to say about such a label. Moreso that their newest release, Romance (2024), has taken a more alt/indie rock and cinematic approach with a fashionable tinge of 90s aesthetics. This might be partly due to the switch from their past producer, Dan Carey (black midi, Squid), to James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Foals, Depeche Mode).

This time, we talked with the drummer of the band, Tom Coll, on how they’re lumped together with the South London post-punk scene, their shoegazey palette in Romance, and their newfound cultural experience through Japanese films.

Hello, Tom.

How are you doing? Are you well?

Yes, I’m good. How about you?

I’m good. Just in London. Very gray and rainy and drizzly, but all good. All good.

Are you there with your band members?

So, a few of them are off on a press tour around Europe at the minute. So me and Curly are based in London and we’re doing Zooms. But some of the other guys are in, I think they’re in Paris right now. So yeah, everyone’s all over.

So you guys are apart.

Exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah.

The first question is from my observation among all this wave of post-Brexitcore bands. Your band sings more than any other post-Brexitcore group—whom are more likely to go for spoken words or screams like Squid or Dry Cleaning—But I think the “more singing” part is evident through the extensive use of acoustic guitars in many songs in your upcoming album, Romance (2024), which serve as a vehicle for the vocalists. Could you elaborate on the reasoning behind this singing decision?

Yeah, I feel like we, when we put out our first record, we were kind of lumped in with the whole South London post-punk scene, you know? I guess the first record, in hindsight, was kind of in that world. But yeah, I feel like as the records went on, we kind of didn’t really feel like that kind of genre tag really represented us massively.

I feel like we were always bound, it was kind of a little bit more alternative and kind of a little bit more… rock and roll than post-punk, I guess. Yeah, I feel like Grian has really found his his voice on this record and it’s been so nice to watch him kind of blossom into, like, a really amazing songwriter, you know? I feel his vocal style has kind of developed over the last four records.

So yeah, it’s probably not a real conscious thing, but I feel like we always try and get away from that post-punk kind of tag, really. But yeah, I feel like a lot of our friends who we kind of like came up with are in that scene as well, which is really special.

But yeah, I feel like post-punk doesn’t really represent us as a band right now, you know?

As your press release suggests, band members were compiling inspirations during their mundane individual activities, whether it’s on tour, hangouts, without a specific writing time, right? So I’m really curious, apart from it, I’ve noticed the music is taking on a more shoegaze path than your previous album, Skinty Fia (2022). Is there a specific musician or experience you’d credit for this sonic shift?

I guess, yeah, I feel like for this record, the kind of the kernels and the starting point for a lot of these songs was when we were on tour with the Arctic Monkeys in North America, last year. So that’s when we started writing a lot of these songs. And I guess there was something really special about being on tour with such a well-respected, credible band and seeing them play every night. And they’re a band that kind of never compromised their art for their whole career. I feel like it’s like six records now and that’s something really inspiring. So yeah, I feel like being in that kind of setting, playing stadiums with them in America, was such a crazy thing for us.

 

 

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And the shoegaze elements, yeah—Curley has been experimenting with different kind of like washy kind of guitar tones and he’s, like, a big like my bloody valentine fan, Dean Blunt—kind of shoegaze but also hip-hop elements—and stuff like that. So, yeah, I feel like he kind of spearheaded that element to the record, I suppose. But yeah, there’s kind of so many different kinds of disparate influences from that tour. I feel like it’s maybe a little bit more of an introspective record than our last three.

But yeah, I feel like everyone’s getting into hip-hop and getting into, I don’t know, more kind of The Flaming Lips-ey kind of like kind of psych-shoegazey stuff as well. So yeah, it’s been kind of a little kind of mix and a smorgasbord for sure.

Is there any specific experience for you to get the band to a more shoegazey path?

I think it just kind of naturally happened. I feel like a lot of the tunes on Skinty Fia kind of leaned into that shoegazey kind of element as well. So it’s kind of somewhere of slowly exploring for a few years for sure. Yeah, I feel like “Nabokov” on the last record is kind of our first like dip into kind of shoegazey kind of stuff. But yeah, I think it’s been like a slow kind of development. And I feel like Curley’s really been the spearhead of that.

I’ve been interviewing Black Country, New Road and Squid before, and I’m always curious: As an Irish, do you think Brexit has had any impact on your whole musical career?

Brexit. I don’t know, I guess being Irish people it’s kind of, it’s probably less of an impact on us. You know, we’re still able to travel through Europe freely and it’s a bit… I feel like being based in London at the minute, all our crew are British and stuff like that, so I feel like touring costs so much more money, you know?

But yeah, in terms of creativity, no, I don’t really think so. I feel like Brexit is the bed that the UK made for itself and we’re kind of happily Irish and standing to the left of it you know which I think is a good thing.

Okay, okay let’s get back to your album. Based on my interpretation of your upcoming album, Romance, it seems to suggest that in our current bleak world, love is a complex yet exhilarating roller coaster, right? What is the worst thing you or Fontaines D.C. can imagine happening to humanity? What would be the final straw that makes you guys conclude that this is the worst thing that could happen to humanity?

God, that’s such a big question! I mean, being honest, it’s pretty bleak right now. I don’t think it’s right away from, you know, from pretty, pretty dire times. I feel like what’s happening in Europe and what’s happening in Palestine right now is quite horrible, you know? So I feel like, yeah, we’re not too far away from that point of being like this is pretty fucked up, you know. Yeah, I don’t know, it’s pretty bleak as is, man.

What is the last straw, the worst thing that could happen in the near future maybe?

That’s such a hard question, man. I don’t know. World War 3, maybe? I’m not sure. It doesn’t seem that far away from me right now which is really grim, it’s really really grim. But yeah, I don’t know. I think that would be the worst thing that could happen. I feel like the climate crisis as well is pretty fucking mental right now. So yeah, I feel like we’re very close to that point, for sure.

Okay, moving on to the next question. From what I hear from your album through the first track until the last track, I kinda sense this more cinematic feel, if I can say. So it raises a question for me: If Romance were a movie, which one would it be?

Oh, that’s a really good question. I feel like during the writing of this, we kind of got into a lot of anime movies. We were watching, like, Akira (1988) and Spirited Away (2001) and stuff like that. And I’d personally never seen any of them. So it was such an eye-opening cultural experience. But yeah, I feel like that was a big influence, for sure. I feel like going to Tokyo at the start of 2023 or something.

I feel like that had a big influence on the kind of the spirit of the record as well. It was quite like the futurism of that place and the kind of hecticness, but also kind of weirdly serene feeling of it was a huge influence on the record.

So yeah, I think a Studio Ghibli movie would be the soundtrack for sure. I feel like we’ve kind of experimented a little bit more with string quartets and string arrangements on this record as well, which kind of gives that old Hollywood kind of feeling as well, which was something that we really wanted to explore. So yeah, I feel like that’s been a really kind of creatively fulfilling new step for us. So hopefully it’s a little bit more cinematic. I’m glad you’ve said that, that’s good.

If I imagine myself walking to the cinema and the score and the soundtrack was Fontaines D.C., I think it would suit best with Akira-ish movie—dystopian but quite romance and drama twist.

Yeah, yeah, 100%. I feel like that kind of ties into your last question as well, the kind of dystopian bleakness of the world right now, but also kind of finding the romance in that and finding a bit of solace, you know? That was a lot of the kind of conceptual talk around the records while we were writing it. So yeah, it’s good.

Yeah, and it does, it shows on your whole sonical and musical output, I think it’s really really putting some memories in me.

Oh, amazing. That’s great.

I think I like Dogrel (2019) but this Romance is more sonically different, I think.

Yeah, hopefully, yeah. I mean, we’ve tried to, I think on this one, we’ve kind of tried to view it a little bit more as a studio album of kind of like, you know, not worrying about recreating it live with the instruments we have on stage. We treated it more like going into the studio and making the sonic palette a little bit wider and not worrying about recreating it live—which I feel like we’ve always done for our last three records.

If we can’t play it as a band in a room, then it’s not  on the record. But it was a really nice approach this time to make it a little bit more cinematic, I guess.

All right, talking about production maybe. I’m quite curious, do you have any special treatment during your recording?

This record was done by James Ford. It’s the first time working with James, and we’re such big fans of all of his other work, it really stands as a testament to his output. So that was a really nice experience working with him. He’s such a musical mind. Every kind of minutiae of little sound and even the way he treats drums, and stuff like this, it’s so musical. So yeah, that was an amazing time to watch him work, you know.

I feel like over the course of the writing as well, we’ve all kind of got a little bit better at production or a little bit kind of more into the idea of learning how to use the studio as an instrument, you know? So yeah, that’s been a kind of a new step for us, and a little bit more sitting behind a desk rather than sitting in the live room, which is, yeah, it’s been cool. It’s been really fun.

The studio we did it in was this place just outside Paris called La Frette. This old kind of like French kind of house with a basement studio from like the seventies, which was like the best place ever to spend three weeks and not really leave. Yeah, it was really really good.

The whole three weeks?

Yeah yeah. 

In the studio?

Yeah. It was a bit mad. Honestly, I feel like I left the house maybe three times in three weeks which was really intense and I feel like we were all getting quite, like, cabin fevery, a little bit mental. But yeah it was really immersive, which I think we needed.

Back to the movie questions. Imagine if a billionaire wanted to turn your upcoming album, Romance, into a film, who would be the best director for it?

Oh, the best director? I really like Yorgos Lanthimos’ movies. I think that’d be really cool. I feel like I’m a big fan of his movie, The Favourite (2018). I really like that.

His music is always really interesting as well. I can’t remember the name of the guy who did the music for Poor Things (2023) but he’s a kind of a South London-based composer, and it was really interesting. I feel like all the harmonium and kind of really weird kinds of old instruments that he used for it was like really really experimental. It was really good. 

In every phase of life there’s a silver lining waiting for you at the end. Same goes for the making of Romance. So what lesson did you acquire during production that you hope to express through this album?

I think we spent so much time over the last year of writing singularly. I feel like each member of the band was working on stuff separately, and the process was a little bit different, it was less kind of written in a room. But yeah, I feel like the lesson I learned is just kind of trusting the other guys in the band 100% and kind of following their visions.

I feel like if somebody brings an idea, they obviously have a, you know, they have such a clear vision of what the song should be and the trust that I learned from that on this record is something that I want to always remember, you know?

I can see that. It’s like a uniformity in the whole release you made.

Yeah, exactly.

Since you guys have been so productive over the 5 years, what comes after the release of Romance? Do you have any plans for your band and for the fans maybe?

We’re just kind of looking down the year of quite intense touring. So that’s going to be a good, like, 14 months I’d say of just being on the road. And yeah, I’m really looking forward to it now. It’s going to be great. I feel like we’ve had quite a long period of time where it hasn’t been really intense.

So yeah, I’ve got the itch to go on the road again and play shows. And there’s something really special about going to places that I’ve never been to. I still get that excitement. So yeah, it’s just going to be a lot of that which I’m really excited for and then I’m sure whenever that comes to its natural conclusion we’ll sit down and start looking at album five for sure.

Since you’ve been intensely doing tour, have you found a new band that you think is really good?

I feel like I’m really bad at remembering bands that I come across over a long period of time. I can only focus on the ones that I’ve just listened to. So I went to this festival in London on Saturday called Wide Awake. It’s like a one-day kind of psych-alternative festival in London.

And I came across this band called Crumb that are from New York. They’re like this kind of psych-pop band. Yeah, and I’m a huge fan now. I’ve been listening to them constantly for like three days. So they’re my new favorite band for sure. Super, super into them.

I feel like there’s this shoegazy-psych element mixed with a kind of drum machine-y kind of style of drumming, it’s really exciting. So yeah, that’s my new thing for sure.

I think this is the end of the interview. I hope you’re doing good on the release and your upcoming tour.

Thank you so much, man. I appreciate it.

Please do mind to come to Indonesia when there’s a chance.

I know, I hope so. I hope so. Hopefully next year it’ll be amazing. Fingers crossed.