Footage has been shared of Fontaines D.C. performing new single ‘Marianne‘ from the last ever BBC Maida Vale sessions. Check it out below, along with what the band had to say about how their late manager Trevor Dietz saved the song.
The cinematic single was officially released this morning (Tuesday August 18), alongside the announcement of new album ‘Dopamine Chamber’. It comes following the Irish indie heroes teasing their return for a while now, introducing ‘Marianne’ and another new song called ‘Six Shot Morning’ at their recent run of summer live shows.
Produced by James Ford, the album is set to drop on October 16 via XL Recordings, and can be pre-ordered here. It marks their first record since the death of manager, friend and influential Irish music champion Trevor Dietz. The band shared news of his passing in June, writing that he “was beside us from the beginning of our journey” and called him “the sixth member of the band”.
Now, Fontaines have shared footage of them performing the new track at the last ever BBC Maida Vale session, which they recorded on July 31. Grian Chatten and co. had part of their set broadcast on BBC 6 Music, although the performance of ‘Marianne’ was not aired. Today, to celebrate the release of the single, it has been shared on YouTube, along with their performance of ‘Roy’s Tune’ and ‘It’s Amazing To Be Young’, which were both played on the broadcast.
The indie icons have also taken to social media to explain how the song was originally “left on the cutting room floor” during work on the new album, but it was thanks to Dietz that they salvaged it and turned it into the lead single.
“‘Marianne’ is a song that never would have seen the light of day if it wasn’t for Trev,” bassist Conor “Deego” Deegan III wrote on Instagram, alongside a collection of images of their late manager.
“It was left on the cutting room floor of the 40 songs we wrote for ‘Dopamine Chamber’. We were at his in Brighton one evening showing him all the songs, and he said ‘yere absolute lunatics’ for wanting to leave this song off the album,” the caption continued.
Deegan added: “So we brought it back, and now it’s the first single off of our next album ‘Dopamine Chamber’. An album that suddenly feels more fitting to our lives than we thought it would be when writing it. This album is dedicated to Trev, all he gave us, all he taught us. Love you forever.”
‘Marianne’ was inspired in part by the 2024 thriller series Ripley, and tackles themes of escapism and surrender. It was given a five-star review from NME, which praised it as a “surreal dream, a dark lullaby where the elegiac synth majesty of Depeche Mode meets a widescreen David Lynch scene of lush strings”.
The upcoming album will be the follow-up to 2024’s Mercury-nominated ‘Romance’ and is expected to see them take on “darker and more synthetic sounds”. Since their last full record, Fontaines have contributed to the Peaky Blinders: Immortal Man soundtrack and the War Child ‘Help(2)’ album.
As for live shows, their UK summer trek continues with more shows in the UK and Europe, including huge headline slots at Reading & Leeds and Electric Picnic. From there, they will embark on a run of North American tour dates. Visit here for tickets and information.
Speaking about what to expect from the upcoming R&L headline shows back in January, guitarist Carlos O’Connell told NME: “I personally like the idea of revisiting some old stuff at Reading & Leeds, making the setlist maybe a bit more ‘Dogrel’-heavy.”
“I’m excited about that. I’ve been listening to music like that much more,” he added. “This morning I was listening to Sonic Youth. I want to go [in] that direction, but we’ll see, because anything could happen now – literally anything.”