U2′s Bono and The Edge have revealed that they’re quite impressed by Fontaines D.C., Lambrini Girls, and Geese.
In a new interview with NME, Bono and The Edge revealed that the three rock bands — who have risen to the top of their respective scenes and genres throughout the 2020s — are inspiring to them. It started with Fontaines, as NME‘s Andrew Tendrell mentioned that the group are playing stadiums abroad next year and have been hailed by the press as “the biggest Irish band since U2.” “We’re huge fans of theirs,” The Edge said.
“It all should make you up your game,” Bono noted. “Bands make each other better if they’re any good. I can’t imagine The Beatles being as good as they were without The Stones, I can’t imagine The Stones being as good as they are without The Beatles. Paul [McCartney] writes ‘Let It Be’ then they put out an album called ‘Let It Bleed’, you know, ‘All You Need Is Love’ and then ‘Street Fighting Man’. In the ‘90s you had Blur and Oasis. You make each other better. I will admit that when you hear something really unique and original. That song [Edge] played me recently…”
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“Lambrini Girls,” The Edge replied. “I’m just so jealous of them. Now that’s a sound I would love to hear on a U2 album. Just the sonics are fantastic.” Bono continued: “That’s it. You have to up your game when people step into the room like Fontaines D.C….” “Or Geese,” The Edge said. “I love what they’re doing, and Cameron Winter’s solo stuff as well. Did you see him on Jimmy Kimmel when he played ‘Drinking Age’? Wow.”
Bono then rather poetically summed up his fascination with Winter and his band before bringing the praise back to Fontaines D.C.’s Grian Chatten. “[Winter]’s the man who understands the power of a silhouette. An original silhouette only comes along every 10 or 20 years. I went to see Geese and he was standing with his back to us. He knows about shadows. The band were going at it like Cookie Monster from Sesame Street, the drummer was incredible, but he was pulling some shapes. As a shape-puller, I appreciated that.”
“But Grian [Chatten] has got a very unique spirit. Everyone thinks of singers and songwriters as going around with a diviner, but I think the reason you’re drawn to certain music is like that and you then explain it to yourself later. They just work very well together that band, they’ve got something extraordinary. That was a great song they did with Rosalía [‘Where Is Gone?‘].”
Elsewhere in U2’s chat with NME, Bono and The Edge discussed their upcoming album Carnaval de Luz, visiting Brazil with Quincy Jones (“We had Quincy Jones take us to carnival like he was taking us to rob a bank,” Bono recalled), the value of protest music in the 2020s, and their creative process. They also shouted out the “extraordinary” band Wolf Alice and praised Rosalía for “doing something completely unique and different, and making the world fit around her aesthetic.” Read the full interview with U2 here.
Carnaval de Luz arrives on Friday, November 13th. Get the album on vinyl here.