"You can feel trapped when people perceive you as one thing"

On their career-best fourth album, Fontaines D.C. have shed their skin of old to deliver something more fantastical. Grian Chatten tells us the story behind their evolution

- NICK REILLY

It's the first night of Glastonbury 2024 and over on the Park Stage, Fontaines D.C. are delivering a headline set for the ages. The crowd that stretches all the way back to that area's Ribbon Tower is the perfect reflection of the anticipation that's buzzed around Worthy Farm all day. As they boldly end on two new songs, it feels like the perfect introduction to a fresh and vibrant era that should cement their place as generational greats.

But while it may have been one of the weekend's stand-out sets, there's one person who can recall surprisingly little of the whole thing: the band's enigmatic frontman Grian Chatten. "I can't remember much of it because I was running on adrenaline," the Dublin singer tells me days later as we stroll through woodlands near his north London home. We'd originally agreed to chat at his flat, but a sense of restlessness in the singer - both post-Glastonbury and in the middle of a day of album interviews - means we're chatting under a canopy of leaves instead.

"I think I'd probably be a liar if I said there wasn't some nerves in there too. But it doesn't always manifest itself like that with me," he says. "I just get an overwhelming sense of energy and I'll be slapping surfaces, hitting tables, and it's a good buzz. I'm prone to hyperactivity and I feel a bit corrupted by the whole spirit of the event. I know it felt like one of the best gigs we've ever done, but I really can't remember."

In the coming year, it's fair to say that a whole lot more furniture should prepare for a swift backhander from Chatten. The band's first arena tour takes place this autumn, before 50,000 fans head to Finsbury Park next summer for their biggest show to date.

If all goes to plan, it'll be the perfect victory lap for their fourth album Romance, which arrived in late August and just so happens to be the best thing the band have ever done.