Cillian Murphy opened up about his love of Fontaines D.C. while on BBC Radio 1 alongside frontman Grian Chatten last night, describing himself as big fan of the band.
The pair appeared on the station as Chatten released the song ‘Puppet’ from Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, which will see Murphy reprise his role as Tommy Shelby. The track is the first to be shared ahead of the upcoming film, which comes out in cinemas on March 6 before coming to Netflix two weeks later. Read everything we know so far about the movie here.
Murphy described himself as a “massive fan” of Fontaines D.C. and explained, “There’s certain music that just lends itself to Peaky Blinders … the Fontaines music seems to work, it has that outlaw quality, that dangerous quality …. they’re incredible songs, so it just clicked for us.”
When host Jack Saunders asked if they’d “crossed paths” before working on Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, Chatten said that Murphy had been to a “couple of shows” before, and the Peaky Blinders star then joked that he’s “just a groupie”.
He said of Chatten’s involvement in the film, “We’re just thrilled that somebody like Grian is now part of the Peaky sonic landscape, and we’ve had such a storied and amazing line-up of artists over the years contributing to the show, and this was a massive step up for us to make a film.”
Chatten joked that, to get into the zone when working on the track, he “locked myself in a cupboard for six weeks, didn’t speak to anyone, and it was very difficult not to shave my head in the Peaky style.”
The soundtrack includes 36 tracks total, with five new songs recorded especially for the movie. Amy Taylor of Amyl & The Sniffers and Chatten, Carlos O’Connell, and Tom Coll from Fontaines D.C. will all contribute songs to the soundtrack, which will drop March 6.
Nick Cave has also recorded a new version of his song ‘Right Hand Man’ for the soundtrack, while there will be two “transformative” Massive Attack covers handled by Chatten and Irish-Cornish band Girl In The Year Above. Chatten will also collaborate with Irish doom-folk group Lankum on their song ‘Hunting The Wren’.
Murphy’s love for Fontaines D.C., meanwhile, is well known. He previously said about their debut album ‘Dogrel’, “Every single tune, they’re relentlessly themselves,” and was seen attending their intimate Camden show for their 2024 album ‘Romance’. His old guitar teacher compared his teenage band to both Fontaines D.C. and U2, too.
The album received five stars from NME when it dropped, with NME writing: “Much of [the album’s] power, therefore, comes from the way the discomfiting mood is offset by the lusciousness of the melodies. “Ah, it makes sense when you understand / The misery made me another marked man,” Chatten sings towards the end of closer ‘Favourite’, a celebration of the past and all its learnings. These final, perfectly-chosen words will only take on a life of their own and reverberate onwards.”