aeolianblues

Grian Chatten on wordplay: dream/drink

Fontaines D.C.'s songs have often featured bits of wordplay, usually in the way Grian Chatten enunciates words. He's talked before in interviews about how he is conscious of how he enunciates words, and that goes beyond just his distinct Dublin/Skerries accent: the sounds have to serve a purpose and he too is someone who often chooses words for their melodic and rhythmic sounds and taste rather than for meaning alone.

He's also fond of the world between two words when it's not cut and clear which one it might be specifically. He leans into this in the liner notes of Skinty Fia. Here are the printed lyrics of Jackie Down The Line in the booklet.

Grian sings somewhere in between 'got a way with murder' and 'got away with murder', two different sides, perhaps of the same coin.

Another word pairing I've seen him lean into is the dream/drink conflation. During Fontaines' Artist In Residence stay on BBC 6 Music, Grian picked the Electric Prunes song 'I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night', playing on the phrase 'too much to drink'. I think they used that in a show dedicated to words and lyricism, but I can't remember now and those shows are unavailable right now (officially).

Grian has used this very wordplay on a number of Fontaines D.C. songs himself: 'Go to sleep/There's not a thing that can't be fixed with a dream' - Skinty Fia. A song that's pretty much about drug use in communities. The fact that that line sounds almost plausibly like it would be talking about substance abuse, but underneath hides a much more earnest hope that you might miss if you weren't listening for the quieter 'm' at the end of the line. Almost as potent as the rest of the song itself.

'Amazing stars from the dream/drink' - Death Kink. The first verse uses 'dream' and the subsequent ones 'drink'. Is that now a spark gone sour? A life once filled with dreams now overtaken by a desire to get away from it all? Has the life the narrator sought turned into a deathwish?

It's just a little pattern I've seen crop up a few times in Grian's lyricism, and I wanted to look more closely into it! What do you guys think, have you seen others that stick out to you?

Oh god, Carlos O'Connell really nailed it, didn't he. He knew exactly what he was doing when he wrote Big Shot. That instrumentation. The lyrics, even as seemingly abstract and distant they are. I get it. What he's written, I couldn't always pinpoint a lyric and tell you, this is what it is, but I know what he's written the song about. It's almost too fragile to put it into words. It might even break it to try. It would be too ugly to. But you get what he's saying. And when Grian puts his low, slow, strong and here very wistful, almost nihilist and faraway vocals onto it, he's really conveying what Carlos meant to say and it's so beautiful I might be sick to my stomach. I listen to that song sitting at home, and I feel homesick. Because it's about the other home. The unattainable one. The one only in memory, the one you left behind, forever. It's the fact that it will never exist for you. You will always be on the move. Home is everywhere and nowhere. It is a pin rusting through a mental map. It's an image in my head and it's been stuck there for ten years, rusting. I— my god. This song.

Fontaines D.C.’s entry onstage for their support slot opening for Arctic Monkeys. That’s going to grab you! They start, as they often do, with a voiceover recitation of Irish singer and poet Luke Kelly’s poem For What Died The Sons of Róisín, the background voice booming over the PA, “for what died the sons of Róisín, was it greed?” as Fontaines walk onto the stage, only to deliver an equally terrific rendition of A Hero’s Death, another song whose lyrics have been known to instantly convert people into steadfast Fontaines fans.

They played eight songs, not nearly enough really, but of course they only have 45 minutes as a support act. They’re doing a few headline shows in the US in clubs and theatres, and I highly recommend going if you can! I saw them solo last year (you’ll probably find the videos I posted from that show last May) and it was one of the most heart-rending, life changing experiences out there. One of my favourite bands right now, and certainly amongst the best bands on the planet at the moment.

Fontaines D.C.’s set closer, I Love You. The second single off Skinty Fia that came out last February, I remember it nearly scorching my eyebrows off in the February cold with just how hot and potent a song it was, just scathing. They began speeding up the chorus live, which to my mind just makes it more blistering. This was part of their current North American tour supporting Arctic Monkeys in the States, Canada and Mexico. Not a lot of people in my crowd knew Fontaines (evident by how unfortunately I think I hear myself in my videos… no one else really joined me, you can’t usually hear yourself unless you were practically screaming into your phone! 😅) but I think every person watched Grian and co. walk off stage highly impressed and as newly converted fans! I’m glad for them, they’re going to get so much bigger.

This show was genuinely something else. Fontaines D.C. in Montreal last May.

Two of my favourite songs ever, back to back. I Love You, and A Hero’s Death. A little Irish kid in the front row passed Grian a flag of Ireland mid-verse during I Love You, which Grian briefly held to his heart while singing before setting it down over in front and thanking the kid after. Given what the song is about, it was a mighty poignant moment. The chorus is faster live, which just makes it more intense!

And A Hero’s Death. What a song. I die for it every time. I’m seeing them next week. Life ain’t always empty!

I got to take this in to the radio station with me this morning! I’ve had the CD since when the album came out, but because of the unique situation with CDs and laptops these days, would you believe it? This morning was the first time ever this CD was ever played!

Fontaines D.C. - Skinty Fia

We played the title track!