Grian Chatten has said that Fontaines D.C. were unaware that AI had been used to help make the music video for ‘Marianne’ – and shared that he doesn’t “condone it”.
READ MORE:
The Dublin rock giants released their fifth album last week (Friday October 16) – marking the follow-up to 2024’s acclaimed and Mercury-nominated ‘Romance’. Already, the album has had a huge wave of praise from fans and critics alike, particularly for tracks including the lead single ‘Marianne’, eerie track ‘Tongue’, and cinematic collab with Rosalía, ‘Where Is Gone?’.
Now, frontman Grian Chatten has spoken about how it recently came to light that the music video for ‘Marianne’ credited “AI artists”, and told The Los Angeles Times that “none of us were told about” the use of artificial intelligence involved.
Speaking to the outlet, Chatten said that he called his management when he found out and asked “What the fuck, is this true?”.
“Somewhere in the process, someone from the VFX team, I guess, used some kind of AI in the workflow,” he said, adding that although there were over 100 people who came together to work on the music video, “not even our label or our management were told about it, [so] it was a real shock.”
The singer also quipped that it was “fucking ironic”, “contradictory” and “fucking sucks” that AI was used to help make the music video, particularly as ‘Dopamine Chamber’ centres around themes of isolation, social collapse, increased dependence on technology and more.
He also said that the band have taken measures to prevent anything like this from happening again, writing “into our contracts going forward that it can’t be in our music videos” and that they “don’t condone it”.
Recommended
Going on to share his opposition to artificial intelligence, especially its use in creative circles, Chatten shared that he thinks “AI is literally rendering our souls obsolete and I think that is true death”.
“Every conversation [about it] just ends grim,” he shared, adding that he thinks mankind “should just shut it off” out of fear about what it “threatens to rob from the human race”.
‘Dopamine Chamber’ was given a five-star review from NME, which praised it as a “dark but exhilarating reflection of end times”.
Chatten has also opened up about how it was a “career high” to work with Rosalía on the record, and the band played an intimate gig at London’s Roundhouse last week, which raised money for mental health charity CALM.
Fontaines have an upcoming tour on the way, which will see them play some huge concerts in the UK and Ireland, including two nights at Slane Castle and a double-header at Manchester’s Heaton Park. Support comes from Hayley Williams, Little Simz and Viagra Boys. They recently announced new concerts in Italy and Germany as part of their 2027 trek, as well as dates in Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Last week, it was confirmed that Fontaines D.C. will headline Primavera Sound in Barcelona next June.
Since ‘Dopamine Chamber’ dropped, Chatten has also hinted at a new solo album on the way, and said that once Fontaines have played their huge upcoming shows, “the best place [they] can go from here is away for a while”.