Fontaines D.C. offered Rosalía a choice of four songs to collaborate on.
The Marianne hitmakers released Where Is Gone?, which is taken from their new album Dopamine Chamber, earlier this week, and they had been keen to collaborate with the Spanish superstar for some time before deciding during the recording sessions it was time to “shoot [their] shot” and approach her about a duet.
Frontman Grian Chatten told Rolling Stone magazine of himself and guitarist Carlos O’Connell: “The two of us especially were really big fans of hers for a while, and then during Romance we were flirting with the idea of approaching her.
“We were close to finishing mixing and mastering, and Carlos rang me and said, ‘I think we would be remiss if we didn’t shoot our shot with this and ask her if she’d be interested.’ Because we’d heard she was into our music.
“So we sent her four tracks, and I think she came back and said she was interested in Where Is Gone?, and then two days later we had a full vocal.”
Following the success of the group’s 2024 album Romance, the band were determined to do something different with Dopamine Chamber.
Discussing what their goals were for the record, Carlos said: “Not repeating ourselves.”
Grian added: “Still enjoy being in the room with each other with instruments and still find inspiration, which fortunately for me is still the case.”
The frontman recently admitted it was “humbling” that Rosalía agreed to contribute to their record.
Speaking to NPR, Grian said: “I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that there is almost like – personally, I can’t speak for the rest of the band – almost like one kind of grand thing that I’m trying to say that I’m trying to impart on the world before I, before I get old and die, you know what I mean? There’s like one thing that I’ll always be chasing. I’ve got a suspicion that her heart is similar to mine. … I mean, she’s such an incredible arranger and composer and lyricist. It’s just so humbling that she was into singing on something that we had arranged. It’s a career high for me, for sure.”
Rosalía’s Irish rock connections don’t stop there. The singer also inspired and helped shape the Spanish lyrics on U2’s The Mirror Maker (Rosalía) from their upcoming album, Carnaval de Luz.
Appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last week, she said of frontman Bono: “I don’t know him personally, but he texted me and told me that he had this new project and this song, The Mirror Maker.”
Rosalía laughed that he had made up some words.
She told him: “I don’t know, but feel free to invent your own language.”