Has rock music has become too “humble” and “apologetic”? Fontaines D.C.’s Carlos O’Connell thinks so: “It gets in the way of the music”
Fontaines D.C. guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Carlos O’Connell suggests modern rock music has become too “humble” and “apologetic”, which then “gets in the way of the music”.
The band are gearing up to release their new album Romance tomorrow (23rd August), which has seen them develop an eye-catching new aesthetic that O’Connell has had a particularly significant hand in.
READ MORE: Weird drum machines, shoegaze and Danish cinema: how Fontaines D.C. confounded expectations again on Romance
In an interview with Uncut, O’Connell says he was amused by a fan online comparing their new look to “mutant Spice Girls”, where drummer Tom Coll is Ginger, frontman Grian Chatten is Sporty, guitarist Conor Curley is Posh, bassist Conor Deegan is Baby and he himself is Scary.
I like Fontaines DC, but this new y2k makeover reminds me of a group of LazerQuest regulars that would always be there every Saturday, challenging every kid that walked in, knew all the staff by first name basis, had callsign names and brought their own kneepads pic.twitter.com/PbyuDbi5fK
— Tim Head (@ledilly) August 19, 2024
“It is quite funny how shocking he is,” he tells the outlets in response to the reaction to the photoshoots. “It wouldn’t happen in any genre other than rock ‘n’ roll. If you’re a rapper you can go around with grills and watches and chains, showing you’re a success. Rock ‘n’ roll has become such a humble genre. It’s apologetic. I think it gets in the way of the music that unhinged form of creativity.”
Elsewhere in the interview, O’Connell shares his hopes for the band’s future as they grow.
“My only ambition is for us to stay together,” he says. “For it to just be the five of us and no-one else’s voice in the room. Fontaines is a world that we believed in and we’ve maintained. When we started, the moments in the rehearsal room we had in Dublin were the only thing we had of any value in life. It was just ours. It’s great that we have other things in our lives now. But that was the start of it all, and that’s always going to be the root of it all.”
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