“When I heard Nirvana’s Live at Reading it became less about learning solos than putting the guitar in front of an amp and making it scream”: Fontaines D.C.’s Carlos O’Connell on playing Rory Gallagher’s Strat and why a spring reverb is the best overdrive

A black and white image of Carlos O'Connell playing a Rory Gallagher Stratocaster onstage.

Fontaines D.C. have come a long way since meeting at college in Ireland in 2014. A few short years after breaking out of the rehearsal room and into clubs around Ireland and the U.K., rapidly building on the huge buzz around the band, they managed to release three singles in 2018, kicking off with Liberty Belle.

A deal with Partisan Records soon followed, and Dogrel, their debut album, was released in 2019, peaking at Number 9 in the U.K. That same year they set their sights on America, which involved playing nine sets at SXSW over five days and appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.