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Fontaines D.C. have released the video for “Tongue”, the second single from “Dopamine Chamber”, out on 16 October through XL. John Angus Stewart directed it. The first single, “Marianne”, came in August.
It’s the Irish quintet’s fifth album and their second in a row with James Ford producing. They recorded it in London, the English countryside and Palermo, where Grian Chatten sang in a makeshift booth built from mattresses and cushions. “We continued where ‘Romance’ left off, leaving the live-band elements until they were really needed,” guitarist Conor Curley says.
Chatten places the record further out than the last one: “I think ‘Romance’ was maybe 60 per cent human and 40 per cent corrupted by automation, and a loss of feeling. This one feels more like 60 per cent corrupted — the mask is wearing the face a little more.” On its tone, he adds that he chose to leave hope out: “I felt it would be more powerful to reflect the ugliness honestly. This one needed to feel more like a catastrophic warning.”
The European tour stops at the Sant Jordi Club in Barcelona on Saturday 24 October, two days after Madrid’s Movistar Arena, and it’s the only Catalan date. It’s sold out, as are Bologna, Łódź and Berlin.
Text by Marçal Bonastre