It’s an ascent so rapid that it’s become a cliché to even mention it. But that’s not why Grian is in a good mood. He’s in a good mood because he’s just had a day off in New Orleans and used the time to go on a tour of a local swamp. “We saw some alligators and fed them marshmallows,” he says with a laugh. “I’m not really sure how good for them that is, but that’s what we got told to do. It was great.”
We’re speaking to him down a phone line, but you can still hear the smile on his face as he recounts the hard-won downtime in what is otherwise an incredibly hectic time for both him and the band. In the middle of a US tour, they’ve also just released a deluxe edition of fourth album ‘Romance’, complete with three new songs.
“The tour’s been great; it’s gone off without a hitch,” he says. “We’ve hit the Southern states over the last week, and I get very excited down here – I think Louisiana is probably my favourite state now. But the whole tour has been made a lot easier knowing that every night, no matter how your day’s been or how you feel personally and privately, you get on stage, and there’s passion in the faces of the audience members. That makes it way, way easier, and it also makes it easier to work through other things in your mind when you’re on stage.”
“A lot of people have engaged with it to the point that they’re coming to the shows dressed ‘Romance’-y”
Not that finding something to say has ever been an issue for Fontaines D.C., with the band having a work rate which makes most acts look like they’re slacking off. The longest they’ve ever spent between albums is just under two years between third album ‘Skinty Fia’ and ‘Romance’. That’s deceiving, though, because Grian snuck in a solo album during that time, seemingly finding it impossible – or at least deeply unpalatable – to stop creating music. Again and again, he’s underlined the point that songwriting is a release valve, simultaneously allowing him to make sense of the world and get away from the pressures it creates. As much as no band would admit to making music just for the sake of it, it really does feel that if Fontaines ran out of inspiration, there wouldn’t be another project until they found it again.
Working out how to be comfortable with success while firmly in the public spotlight is a tough ask. If ‘Romance’ is the result of that journey, it’s a struggle worth dealing with. Rightly lauded when it came out, the recent release of the deluxe version has shown that there were plenty of great tracks which didn’t even make it onto the initial album. The additions, two brand new (‘It’s Amazing To Be Young’ and ‘Before You I Just Forget’) and one a reinterpretation of ‘Starburster’ so drastic it feels just as novel, fit seamlessly into the fabric of the album. In no small part, that’s because they very nearly were on the album.
