Fontaines D.C. tell us about beautiful new single ‘It’s Amazing To Be Young’ and what’s next

Fontaines D.C. have shared their blissed-out new single ‘It’s Amazing To Young’, along with a video that completes their ‘Romance’ cinematic trilogy. Check it out below along with our interview with bassist Conor ‘Deego’ Deegan III.

• READ MORE: At home with Fontaines D.C.’s Grian Chatten: “Our personality is bigger than the sound that we make”

Having been teased throughout the week, the new single comes quickly on the heels of their acclaimed 2024 album ‘Romance’ and was produced by James Ford, who also helmed their fourth record.

‘It’s Amazing To Be Young’ also features a video from acclaimed BAFTA-winning filmmaker Luna Carmoon (Hoard, Shagbands), who previously directed the videos for the band’s singles ‘Here’s The Thing‘ and ‘In The Modern World‘. This one completes the cinematic trilogy, uniting Martin (Ewan Mitchell) from ‘In The Modern World’ and ‘Here’s The Thing’ character Spider (Grace Collender) in “an unlikely but beautifully surreal love story”.

“I love this new track – it’s one of my favourites Fontaines have done and I love that I got to complete the trilogy of videos for it,” said Carmoon. “It was all natural and kind of a surprise that the three videos came together. I’ve got to work with such a beautiful team and was really given the space and breath to create the worlds that automatically came to me when hearing the music.

“I feel like we’re living in this weird time where romantic love is being pushed to the side, and sex and love is unvirtuous and no longer what people want to see. I don’t believe that at all. I love that these two people have fallen in love with themselves, and I wanted to see them fall in love with each other.”

Carmoon added: “I planted the seed after I did the carjitsu video (‘In The Modern World’) and then I had a couple of days to write the video for “It’s Amazing To Be Young’. There are a lot of odes to Santa Sangre it. It also reminds me of my first short film Shagbands.”

With echoes of ‘Romance’ highlight ‘Favourite’, ‘It’s Amazing To Be Young’ breathes with an innocent euphoria as frontman Grian Chatten sings of simpler times over kaleidoscopic indie. Speaking to NME, bassist Conor ‘Deego’ Deegan III explained how the song was inspired by being “in the presence of a newborn child” – the child of guitarist Carlos O’Connell.

“I’m glad it got to see the light of day, because it a special song to us. More so for the way it was written than the song itself, in a weird way. It started life in the presence of Carlos’ newborn and it’s just a message for her, you know.”

He continued: “It was really heartwarming. Sometimes as people we can be a bit cynical. The world around us can make you that way if you’re paying attention it. Sometimes optimism feels like a necessary delusion, but with the birth of a new child we were introduced to a really pure and deep beauty and hope that can’t be debated away by anyone jaded or even by ourselves.”

Speaking of the video, Deego revealed that it was all part of “making a world that was our own” for ‘Romance’.

“In previous times, we had commented on Ireland and Irishness abroad; it was set in how the real world appeared to us. We realised that what Irishness meant to us in a big way actually was a romantic view of the world and trying to hold onto that; grappling with the impact that it has on you. We realised that we wanted to make an album that was purely about that – that’s why it’s called ‘Romance’ – and we wanted to make a world of that too.

“That’s why we changed the way we dressed, the aesthetic, the sound of the band. Along with that comes the visual world of the videos and we wanted to make this dream-like thing. In this one, the characters from other videos interact with each other and that makes it feel like a world that exists as opposed to just different videos.

Deego revealed that the song was written around the same as ‘Romance’ but was simply left off the record as they wanted to keep the album “concise”. ‘It’s Amazing To Be Young’ will be released on vinyl backed by the b-side ‘Before You I Just Forget’.

Asked about the b-side, Deego replied: “That is a song that Curley [Conor Curley] wrote and we finished off. I really that song. It’s got a great bassline and a real sweetness to it in the vocals, but in a way that you’re kind of worried about the person singing it because it’s a bit manic. I would say that it’s well-considered.”

The bassist revealed that the two new songs should be entering the live set very soon once they’ve finished “working out the kinks”. Speaking on the phone from a soundcheck in Osaka amidst their Japanese tour, Deego revealed how the country helped to shape ‘Romance’.

“Our first visit to Japan was actually a big inspiration for the record and made a big impression on us – Tokyo and that dream-like city. It would be nice to play [‘It’s Amazing To Be Young’] in the city that helped inspire it.”

Fans hoping that the new single is a sign of more new material dropping imminently may have to wait a little longer, but Deego did say that the band were already at work on album number five.

“It’s one of those things where we can’t stop writing – it’s something that we just do when we’re with each other,” he told NME. “We should probably take a break from it because it would be nice to let the ‘Romance’ world simmer down a bit and open up our imaginations to something else. I think we’ll just keep writing and stay connected to each other, then when we finish up the tour we can get into the more serious conceptualisation or whatever.”

Asked about the direction of new material in the works, Deego replied: “There are a couple of songs that have a feel to them, but then there are a couple that are more loose. We haven’t decided yet where we want to go with it, but I’m interested with the songs we have so far.”

The band will be capping off the ‘Romance’ campaign with a run of huge outdoor shows in the UK and Ireland this summer, and it sounds like there are a few surprises in store for fans.

“I think we’ll get up and play the set as usual for the most-part,” ended Deego. “We would like to expand it but we’ll have to see what we can afford to do! They are going to be great gigs and we have a couple of things in mind, but I wouldn’t like to spoil it to be honest.”

The song will be released as a seven inch vinyl single backed by new b-side ‘Before You I Just Forget’ later this year. Visit here to pre-order it.

Fontaines D.C. are in the midst of a stacked year of international touring in Japan, Australia and New Zealand (check out the full list of dates and get any remaining tickets here) with the band returning to Europe and the UK for a run of huge outdoor headline shows and festival appearances this summer. Visit here for tickets and more information.

The post Fontaines D.C. tell us about beautiful new single ‘It’s Amazing To Be Young’ and what’s next appeared first on NME.