'The mainstream has come to them': how DC's Fountains went from Dublin dive bars to top stadiums?

Once post-punk poets, they are now one of the biggest bands in the world. As they release new album Dopamine Room, stalwarts including Kneecap and Shame explain their exciting rise When Irish rockers Fontaines DC emerged in 2019, they were a bunch of post-punk poets who, at a time when Dance Monkey, Drake and The Greatest Showman were on top, had guitar music

When Irish rockers Fontaines DC emerged in 2019, they were a bunch of post-punk poets making abrasive guitar music at a time when Dance Monkey, Drake and The Greatest Showman reigned supreme. But today, with the release of their fifth album, Dopamine Room, the five-piece are looking ahead to a 2027 filled with gigs in UK stadiums, US arenas and major European festival headliners - plus rumors of a headliner at Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage. This is quite a path.

Their rise has been strangely traditional for a time when social media has put culture in a state of suffocation. More ambitious albums, support from radio and institutions such as the BBC and extensive touring have all played their part. Beyond that, "the fact is, they're one of the best bands in the world," says compatriot Mo Chara, one third of Kneecap.

Fontaines DC formed in 2014 at the BIMM Institute of Music in Dublin. Headmaster Alan Cullivan describes them as "absolutely focused. It was all about writing one better song after one better song after one better song." They'll apparently play for 30 people in a dive bar for a week, then come back three weeks later and half the songs will be new.

This attracted the attention of Trevor Dietz, who became their manager, and Fontaines described his death earlier this year as the "sixth member of the band". "He brought this unwavering sense of self-belief, and it was contagious," says Jeff Bell, who eventually signed the band to Partisan Records.

Dietzet brought The Fontaines to circuits outside of the Dublin gig circuit. By 2017 the band released the single Liberty Belle and Dietz introduced them to south London band Shame, who were playing their first ever headline show in Dublin. "We went on tour together for our first album," recalls Shame frontman Charlie Stein. I felt like even with a few songs, they had their own crowd - it's one thing to have it in Dublin, it's another thing to have it in Leicester. Fontaines frontman Grian Chetton, he adds, "gave me a Yeats book to read on tour": an embarrassingly poetic turn of the singer.

BBC Radio 6's Steve Lamac was an early champion of the band at the time. "They sent us their self-released seven-inch of Hurricane Laughter, and we played it a few times—it had a power and an atmosphere that a lot of records at the time didn't really have," he recalls.

In March 2018, the band played Victoria in Dalston, East London, a small pub. In the crowd were Lamacque, enthralled by Chatten's stage presence, and Bell, who flew to Dublin the following week for the signing. "As soon as I saw them, it was clear that they were the biggest band in the world," says Bell. "It just hadn't happened yet."

The label created a clear game plan with the band. "There were two guiding principles: originality and urgency," says Bell. "If the mixes aren't right, start over. If the editing wasn't right, it wouldn't have gone on the radio. The writer didn't understand, don't do the interview. We also made sure to feature the lyrics wherever we could. "It was a real access point for a lot of people." After their 2019 debut album Dogrel hit the top 10 in the UK and Ireland, the Covid-19 lockdown could have killed them off, like so many small acts on the rise. But instead of canceling other albums, they pressed on with their Grammy-nominated second album, A Hero's Death.

The massive crowd that Fontaines DC now commands isn't the result of TikTok's algorithmic onslaught, even in the middle of quarantine. The group has a presence on social media, but they haven't done viral video series like Hot Ones, Chicken Shop Date, or Subway Takes. "They're one of those artists that has gone against the rules very quickly, where they've taken a less-is-more approach," says Liam Ward, founder of music-focused social media marketing agency Something Something.

That doesn't stop Fontaines from having die-hard fans who film entire shows for social media, and according to Ward, this online fan activity is organic (as opposed to the activity generated by fake accounts, which some of their indie counterparts do). "I haven't even heard rumors or whispers [about it]," he says. "They put out what they're putting out, and all that craziness and noise is happening around them."

Their previous album, 2024's Romance, which featured DayGlo artwork and the members' new look, was derided by some early fans as too pop, but became their first platinum seller in the UK and Ireland and earned them another Grammy nomination. The Dopamine Room, acclaimed in a five-star review in the Guardian, is as strange as it is interesting. "Arctic Monkeys have, in a way, done a brilliant job of setting the stage for Fontaines by creating a really cool rock band that has evolved a lot since the early days," says Lamacq. "There's a new, younger audience that's maybe more lyrically driven. They like the lyrics as well as the music."

Kneecap's Mo Chara says the Fontaines' political leanings, citing the benefits of homelessness show the group has been mentored, and their stance against the genocide in Palestine has endeared the group to him and many others. He adds: "If you make music as well as they do, the mainstream can't ignore it, but they seem to be making music their way and not to appeal to the masses. The mainstream has come to them instead of the other way around."

There are a lot of bands that make amazing music that don't reach the top tiers of commercial success. For Abel Gonzalez, who is in Barcelona's Primavera Festival reserve team, "it's all about emotion". The Fontaines played the festival on a small stage for the first time in 2018, but next year they were headlined by big names. "Every time they came back to the festival, they had something new to say and we wanted to hear them."

The real reason for Fontaines DC's dizzying emergence probably lies in the middle of Venn's complex diagram: the confluence of a generation of talent, commitment, good people and luck. The consensus seems to be that there is no limit to how massive they can get. Bell agrees, still passionate about the band even after they moved from Partisans to their current label XL Recordings. "They haven't reached the top of their mountain yet. I'm excited to see where it goes next."