One of Ireland’s biggest bands at the moment, Fontaines DC, have teased new music, leaving fans eager for more.
Though frontman Grian Chatten has been involved in a few side projects of late, Fontaines DC last released new music in 2022.
Fans of the Dublin band may not have to wait much longer, though, as the band released a Stanley Kubrick-inspired video yesterday (15 April) teasing new music.
Fontaines DC – one of Ireland’s biggest bands
Grian Chatten, Tom Coll, Conor Curley, Conor Deegan, and Carlos O’Connell formed Fontaines DC in Dublin in 2014. They began releasing music in 2017, and these singles made up the bulk of their critically acclaimed 2019 debut album, Dogrel.
They followed up Dogrel with A Hero’s Death a little over a year later, and achieved their first number-one album in both Ireland and the UK with 2022’s Skinty Fia.
Though two years have passed, frontman Chatten has been a busy man. He released his debut solo album, Chaos for the Fly, in 2023 and more recently appeared on Irish hip-hop band Kneecap’s single, ‘Better Way To Live’.
Could the band now be set to make their return with their fourth studio album?
Fontaines DC tease new album – new music snippet
The band took to Instagram yesterday evening to share a 90-second video accompanied by previously unreleased music.
The video consists of a shot of two lift entrances that begin to leak green liquid towards the end of the clip. The accompanying music is slower, perhaps more moody, than much of Fontaines DC’s previous work.
A short lyric is also included in the video: “Into the darkness again / In with the pigs in the pen / God knows I love you / Screws in my head / I will be beside you till you’re dead”.
It came just a day after the band shared what seems to be behind-the-scenes footage from a music video, featuring a beaten-up-looking Chatten dressed in green playing with a pig.
Inspiration – laden with references
The clip is laden with references that might point us in the direction Fontaines DC are trying to go with their latest effort.
The most immediately recognisable reference is visual. The shot of the lift entrances and the leaking green liquid takes obvious inspiration from Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel The Shining.
In one of the most famous shots from Kubrick’s film, blood comes cascading from the lift entrances in the Overlook Hotel. However, the references to The Shining are not just visual.
Though the music starts reminiscent of elements of Angelo Badalamenti’s score for David Lynch’s cult classic TV show Twin Peaks, this is, at parts, accompanied by brooding Wendy Carlos-esque synths that recall The Shining’s title sequence.
Fontaines DC will appear at a selection of European festivals this summer, and fans in attendance will be hoping to hear more new music from the Dublin band.
