NO MORE HEROES
“WE DIDN’T KNOW WHAT WE WERE WISHING FOR WHEN WE WERE MOANING ALL OF LAST YEAR. I’D LOVE TO GO BACK AND TORTURE MYSELF AGAIN ON THE ROAD”
The irony of their current predicament is not lost on Fontaines DC guitarist Carlos O’Connell. About a year ago, the band were desperate for a break from touring. Now he’s spent months following the release of A Hero’s Death, the band’s outstanding second album, at the end of an endless lockdown summer, climbing the walls of his home in Ireland. Some 3,000 miles west in New York, fellow guitarist Conor Curley has been similarly restless.
“I WENT TO THE GUITAR SHOP AND TOLD THE GUY I LISTENED TO THE RAMONES AND ALL THESE PUNK BANDS I HADN’T REALLY LISTENED TO. HE GAVE ME A CORT 200”
Sandwiching the release of their adrenal debut album Dogrel in April 2019, Fontaines DC had been on the road since the autumn of 2017. The gig itinerary ran into the hundreds, the size of the venues escalating with each lap. They’d toured with Idles, played four times in a weekend at Glastonbury, and nine times in five days at SXSW Festival. The end of the road came a year ago, in February 2020, with a sold-out show at Brixton Academy.
The dizzying whirl of touring was swallowing the band whole: pints of whiskey were sunk before shows; food and sleep became fleeting strangers; relationships were disintegrating. As frontman Grian Chatten put it, “Our souls were kicking back
