The roots of Lyon-based French band Fontanarosa could be traced back to the Punk and Indie rock scenes, but it would be misleading for a band whose leader and writer Paul Verwaerde loves pop music so damn much. Fontanarosa are unique for their mixture of pop, punk, indie and lo-fi. Their vigorous rock will get you dancing at once, but their sound encaptures a certain wistfulness as well, through sophisticated and romantic pop melodies.

Fontanarosa was born in 2020, first as a solo project signed on Howlin Banana Records/ SK Records. A self- recorded EP entitled FONTANAROSA was released in sping 2020 and was very well received by the French music press.

Verwaerde founded his first “high school” punk rock band (Fishliver Oil) when his family came back to France. In 2018, he partnered up with Julien Savoye (drums) in an instrumental Krautrock project, toured in Europe and finally decided in 2019 to come back to his roots: namely pop, rock and folk music. He digested and polished those influences to create what makes the sound of Fontanarosa so unique.
Fontanarosa is now a 4 members combo including 3 other members, Florian Adrien (drums), Greg Cagnat (bass) and Kevin Lafort (guitar). They started working together on a debut album in 2021.

This album, recorded collectively, is entitled ARE YOU THERE ? and will be out next spring 2022. It demonstrates an even stronger energy combined with a very neat execution and touching melodies you’ll want to sing and dance to for a very, very long long time.