Fontaines D.C.’s Carlos O’Connell On New Album, ‘Romance’
Carlos O’Connell is one of two guitarists in Fontaines D.C., a rock and roll band from Ireland.
In their relatively short career as a band, they have found enormous and well-deserved success, which makes an introduction to Carlos’ interview - though the interview is actually quite good - feel almost arbitrary. Stupid, even. If you are clicking on this article, then you are a fan and know very well who Carlos is, and this introduction is simply a drop in a bucket of highly visible and very well catalogued interviews that members of the band have done in promotion of their previous three albums, and by the time this interview sees the light of day (most of this introduction having been written in May of 2024), the bucket will likely have expanded to include the other press engagements conducted by incessant music fans turned music journalists (much like me, only for publications with more click incentives and whose homepages also include think pieces on the ethics of whatever teenagers are dancing to on TikTok and articles that ask the dire question, ‘Are we experiencing Sabrina Carpenter Summer?’) that they’ve graciously endured in promotion of this, their fourth and newest album, Romance, which releases on August 23rd, 2024, and which you should listen to as soon as possible.
So what can I do to make this introduction less of an obligation and more of an education? I will spare you observational platitudes and allusions, because I’m sure that upon listening to the singles that have been released, you will be able to ascertain the transition that the band has gone through from their previous album to this, their most daring and most pronounced piece of work that sounds less distraught, more self-assured, less matter of fact, and more upright than ever before. You didn’t need me to tell you that, and yet I did. Sneaky me.
What I will tell you about in order to brief you for this interview with Carlos O’Connell is somewhat personal. In all of my interactions with Carlos - all of which have been in passing, few and very far between, and spanning three years and multiple states and countries - he has been very kind. He has rolled me cigarette after cigarette without me having to ask. He has asked me about myself and how I came to be. He has brought me beers from his green room. In an industry full of assholes, Carlos has proven himself not to be an asshole.
However, in all of these interactions, as kind as he has been, I have sensed a certain subdued disposition, which isn’t a lack of confidence so much as what I would identify as someone concerned about something not presently available to be addressed. When we met again for this interview, that concern had vanished. He seemed more comfortable and of himself than I had seen previously, both visibly and in articulation. That shift is reflected heavily in the newness and fulfilled sound that Romance presents - the songs simultaneously striding in a new and precise direction while unmistakably and authentically Fontaines D.C.
How’s press going?
Going well. First day at doing it. We only got in last night. Straight into it.
Do you find that it’s easier to do press immediately after you make an album or months down the road?
I don’t know if it makes a difference. I forget things very quickly so it’s always a bit reminiscent whenever I do one of these.
What do you think separates this album the most from your previous? The biggest thing.
I’d say the same thing about every album that we put out; this album feels more self-assured. Musically, it feels- I feel like these songs are the perfect showcase of where we are musically at this moment.
I’ve spoken to bands before who have expressed that they are striving toward this perfect ideal version of themselves, whereas your answer is more fleeting and temporary and to do with time. How do you approach songwriting now versus before? How has it changed and how do you factor that change into the goal of the product?
I think that it doesn’t change so much, it’s people that change and evolve and have more. I think that the thing that we’ve managed to keep is to have an open mind and open ear to be influenced by and listening to new stuff. It’s always new, always fresh. And I’m very aware that you only are the thing you are because of the things that you’ve been affected by, so you’re in a constant state of change. I don’t think I’m anything other than something that is hit by things- I’m only reactions, that’s how I see myself. I think everyone’s that way, but some people try not to react. I don’t see the point in that.
“I think probably by keeping value in the immediacy of your life, what’s close to you, your local life. For us, we are five friends, and if that’s as far as our life extends, then it’s very easy to remain authentic.”
You mean people will try to steer their reactions, or even reject change?
Yeah, not even just in music but in life, you just have to constantly react, you know? There’s no two reactions that are the same.
I think that asking about influences is the most boring question to ask, so I will ask instead if there is a single emotion or event that you are reacting to most strongly in this album?
Yeah, I think it was a sort of acknowledgement of what we were into as teenagers that we felt we had grown out of, but we hadn’t grown out of it. We can still be as excited about the music that we were excited about as teenagers, today. The things that you loved don’t have to be belittled by all of the knowledge that you had gained in the years, so we went back to being really excited by bands like Korn, Deftones, Alice In Chains, Nirvana.
At some point, we went, ‘oh fuck all that stuff, that’s too simple, I know all of this rare 60’s stuff and it’s superior,’ but now I can be as excited about the rare 60’s stuff as the things I loved as a teenager. I think that that really made a big impact. In a way, I do think that this is the most original album that we’ve done without trying to be that original.
So it’s more about not being highbrow about shit.
Exactly. I fuckin’ love Korn, when that tune comes on, I like it.
It sounds like you no longer feel the need for validation, which a lot of people say they don’t, but it seems like you actually don’t. It sounds freeing. What’s that process been like for you?
It’s been exciting. Very fun. When you’re younger and you’re excited about music and not worried about how uninteresting in a hype or highbrow way, something is, you’re just fully invested and happy with the music. You’re not trying to be anything other than what you’re engaging with. That’s what happened here. I can play through an amp real loud with that kind of stupid EQ - stupid like, the sort of thing that people would have looked down on- very rock, you know? I would have looked down on that shit before.
Why do you think that is? I understand the desire to avoid references like Nirvana, but at the end of the day, the sound is good and people like it for a reason, and it seems almost pretentious to be so conscious and judgy.
Something happens when you stop being a teenager, suddenly you want to stand out. When you’re a teenager, you want your identity, but it’s very localized. It’s just in your classroom. It’s that easy, and you’re satisfied with your own individuality. When you step out of school and it’s a way bigger world, if you want to continue to be your own individual, you can become pretentious about it.
It’s competitive. Like, ‘I know more than you, my shit is more obscure than yours.’
Yeah! I don’t think that I’ve been a pretentious guy in this band or that the band is pretentious, but we weren't simplistic about things, even when they were simple. We very much knew where things came from and what we were referencing. [There were people who] would ask us, ‘what would be the biggest influence on this album?’ and we’d say Korn, and they’d say, ‘you can’t be serious.’ It was bad to reference Korn, but I don’t really know why.
I’ve been talking to people a lot about this lately. In the pursuit of being an individual, you fall into the same bullshit as everyone else in your scene. You know what I mean? Like how you can recognize a punk on the street because they’re wearing the punk uniform and its own references. When a scene or movement gets to that point, it’s not individualistic or authentic anymore, it’s more conscious of itself and its own rules. How do you attempt to stay authentic in your music and do you have checks in place for that?
I think probably by keeping value in the immediacy of your life, what’s close to you, your local life. For us, we are five friends, and if that’s as far as our life extends, then it’s very easy to remain authentic. You know what I mean?
Yeah, but now you’re on an international stage.
Sure, but as far as values, we think of ourselves as five guys on stage and we maintain the values of those five guys. You can extend that to all aspects of your life. If you’re very aware of the limits of your immediate life, you can be a better person in it.
How do you maintain a healthy relationship with them?
With the band?
Yeah. What advice would you give for that especially considering the growth that you have experienced and continue to experience?
It’s very difficult, but it's as simple as remembering that you love these people. Things can get frustrating, there’s more at stake. There’s times where you have to put all of those things aside and just see the five boys that would rehearse in a shed. The thing that we wanted to maintain forever was how we felt about each other, and you have to take care of that and make efforts. It’s a relationship. You have to remember why you love someone in the first place. It’s easy to forget sometimes. You have to make efforts to keep that alive in your head.
I have a baby now, and things change in a relationship when you have a baby. Things take on more importance and you can get lost in all that, but my girl and I do these date nights every now and again where we get a babysitter for the night and book a hotel in the city, we don’t go on our phones or anything, we’ll just have our own date. That totally refreshes everything.
I think it’s the same with the boys. We do that sort of thing together. The last time we went on tour, we booked flights maybe a week before the tour started and hung out. I think the tour started in Madrid, so we booked flights to Balbao, and that was all we booked. We said lets just be those five guys again who showed up for a gig and had nowhere to stay. So we flew to Balboa, rented a car at the airport and had nowhere to go, so we just drove out and were like, ‘lets see where this takes us’. We spent a week in Balboa where nothing was planned and it kind of brings you back to when the entire world was these five guys just making the most out of wherever we are or whatever we were doing.
It can feel really strange sometimes. It requires a lot of planning and effort, and it feels very systematic because you have to make the time to do these things, but it’s so important. I do the same thing with my girlfriend with our date nights. When there's so much more at stake than the relationship, it’s easy to lose the relationship.
“Self doubt is a real killer. We’ve come to terms with ourselves, what we are as a band, how we are good; we’ve never fucked it up, so there’s no reason for us to believe that we will fuck it up, so let’s just not doubt it. ”
This is your fourth album, do you think you’ve gotten better or worse at dealing with the pressure?
I think that in this one, we are definitely better with pressure for the first time.
For the first time? What’s changed?
I think that we are doubting less. Self doubt is a real killer. We’ve come to terms with ourselves, what we are as a band, how we are good; we’ve never fucked it up, so there’s no reason for us to believe that we will fuck it up, so let’s just not doubt it. When we first did it and there was no pressure, you weren’t thinking that you might fuck it up, because you never fucked it up before, but then suddenly it becomes a possibility and it’s terrifying.
You know the term sophomore slump? Obviously that wasn’t the case for you, but between that album and this, how has your mental health been affected by the creative process, deadlines, all of that stuff?
On the second one, we decided to do that really quickly, like a year after, because we didn’t want to get to a point where we were thinking fuck this. We were still so close to being a band who made their first album in our minds, we still had the mentality that we are no one. We were people that no one expected anything from, and it made it easier.
Anonymity, it’s so freeing.
Yeah, but with the third one, it had that pressure. We knew very well that people had expectations, and that came with stress and anxiety. I don’t think that it impacted the music, but it was definitely an anxious process. With this album, there wasn’t as much anxiety or expectation from outside of the band, but since the third one, I had become much more obsessive with music, and that is both a great and dangerous thing, because it means that I get very lost in very small details and it can drive me a little insane. I struggle with that, becoming too close to it. It’s from a place of passion and something that I wouldn't want to change, but it makes it harder. That’s evolving, finessing your craft, being more involved, so it’s good, but it can be overwhelming.
Do you think that maybe that’s because you now have the comfort and freedom and availability to be that obsessive professionally?
Maybe- actually, I have less space to do that because I’m a father now, so I have to balance those. I think it’s genuinely because my musical ear has become fine tuned. It’s like a muscle and I’ve been doing it for so long now that I’ve got a better ear than I did five years ago. I hear more things in the music.
Fontaine’s DC’s new album, Romance, releases on August 23rd, 2024.