Fontaines D.C.’s Grian Chatten on the idea of a Lana Del Rey collab – and reuniting with fan ‘Dexter’ on stage at Reading & Leeds 2024
Fontaines D.C. frontman Grian Chatten has spoken about whether he plans to make a collaboration with Lana Del Rey come to fruition at Reading & Leeds 2024 this weekend.
The Irish band are playing the twin-site festival’s main stage on the same days as Del Rey (Saturday August 24 at Reading, and Sunday August 25 at Leeds) after releasing their fourth album, ‘Romance’, on Friday (23).
- READ MORE: At home with Fontaines D.C.’s Grian Chatten: “Our personality is bigger than the sound that we make”
In 2022, Chatten said in a Big Read interview with NME that Fontaines D.C. and Del Rey could “do a really good tune together”.
“I just want to write some tunes with her,” he explained at the time. “Her music leans into an era of cinema that I love, and she writes in a way where people can find stories in her music.”
Now, while speaking to NME about the imminent ‘Romance’, Chatten was asked whether he’ll try to track down the ‘Born To Die’ singer when Fontaines share the bill with her at R&L ’24.
“Yeah, I’m going to muscle my way past security and pitch the living fuck out of our band to her!” he responded. “I’m going to bring all my Lana Del Rey records for her to sign as well.”
Chatten continued: “No, I don’t really have any interest in pushing for anything in that kind of way. If it happens naturally, then it happens naturally. I’ve no expectations.
“She doesn’t need to do it, we don’t need to do it, it would just be nice for me as a fan.”
As for the group’s upcoming Reading & Leeds performances, it was then put the frontman that their fan Dexter – who played guitar for them at Reading 2022 – could return for this weekend’s slots.
“I think he’s in one of the flight cases on the way over right now!” Chatten jokingly replied to the idea. “We met his mam actually, she was lovely as well. He’s shown us up on stage once already, so he doesn’t need to do that again.”
The viral moment in question saw Dexter assist Fontaines on their track ‘Boys In The Better Land’.
Elsewhere in his latest conversation with NME, Chatten talked about the “neon and ridiculous” sound of ‘Romance’ as well as the band’s new fashion style for this era.
“In order to communicate that idea thoroughly, I didn’t want to go out on stage dressed the same as I was for ‘Dogrel’ or whatever,” he explained. “I wanted to put the audience in the right mindset to render them sensitive to the message we were trying to convey.”
Ahead of their return to Reading & Leeds, Fontaines D.C. will play an intimate album launch show at the Electric Ballroom in London on Thursday (August 22).
They are due to embark on their 2024 UK and Ireland headline tour later this year, with the stint including two nights at Alexandra Palace in the capital. They’ll return to London next summer for a huge outdoor show in Finsbury Park. You can find any remaining tickets here.
Today (August 20), Fontaines D.C. will further preview ‘Romance’ with another new single called ‘In The Modern World’. It’ll follow on from the songs ‘Starburster’, ‘Favourite’ and ‘Here’s The Thing’.
In a four-star review of the James Ford-produced album, NME wrote: “‘Romance’ offers moments of wonder and gravity while also feeling occasionally foreboding.
“Much of its power, therefore, comes from the way the discomfiting mood is offset by the lusciousness of the melodies. “Ah, it makes sense when you understand / The misery made me another marked man,” Chatten sings towards the end of closer ‘Favourite’, a celebration of the past and all its learnings.
“These final, perfectly-chosen words will only take on a life of their own and reverberate onwards.”
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Tom Skinner
NME
