“Oh you read the press release, then?”
Yannis Philipakis has had a day of it. A day of being probed about his lyrics, his approach to making music. A day of being questioned about studios, band chemistry and fall outs. A day of trying to recall events which passed by in a blur, in a haze of continual creativity.
But then, that's life as a musician – and Yannis is nothing if not dedicated to the role he has chosen. Foals' new album 'What Went Down' is a thrilling return, a dark, imposing monster which feels – definitively – like a band record. Each member plays their part, and Yannis plays his, continually straining to push the group further and further.
“I felt like (previous album) 'Holy Fire' was diverse but this one is probably more so,” he says at one point. “It's gone outward in all directions; there are still atmospheric, tender, hushed moments, but I think this sense we have in the band when we're writing is that there is no parameter on what we should be doing and that whatever we do will sound like us, and I think that knowing that in the back of our minds has been freeing.”
But let's take it back to the beginning. 'Holy Fire' marked an outward shift for the group – an unabashed rock record, the Zeppelin-style riffing was matched to an urgent, intense style of songwriting. It took the band further than ever before, to headline festival slots and an epochal show at London's historic, cavernous Alexandra Palace venue. Building up this enormous energy, Foals took the decision to plunge back into the studio.
“I don't feel like we've had a break,” he admits. “I think both getting straight into it and not diffusing the energy after a tour, not going home and having months off was good. I think we came into the writing with a kind of urgency and probably still buzzing off the last few shows. And also, the writing just clicked. It wasn't like we set ourselves a brutal deadline but we definitely wanted to make the record quickly, in and off itself, just to do it like that. I think that we got more interested in this idea of having the record be closer to the first vision of the song than we had prior. We wanted: first thought, best thought.”
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Writing the material in their cramped Oxford rehearsal space, Foals hurled themselves back into the creative process. Returning to familiar surroundings could have placated them, but something within the band had changed. “I think there's less going on, in certain ways,” the singer reflects. “We've got more interested in an economy of sound, less happening at once. I wonder whether some of it is to do with the rooms that we play now are bigger and I think that when you're writing music I sometimes feel like there's a sense of scale in your imagination which is different than maybe it was for me when I was younger. It's moving from working in miniature to working on a bigger scale, so I think that having something that's more lean and more direct and more punchy is probably influenced by that.”
Opting to record the record in the South of France, Foals took themselves away from any distractions. “One thing was that we wanted to get out of England,” he states. “We wanted to take the songs into a different environment. I think you can hear things differently when you take them out of the context they were written in. It's good to take them into a different place and we wanted to be somewhere isolated and residential, we wanted to live in the studio. We've made records before in difficult environments, slightly, or places that definitely haven't encouraged wanting to be there. I think that we wanted to make a record in a kind of more hedonistic, uplifting environment.”
Hedonistic? In terms of the freedom afforded to the band?
“Yeah and there's no interruptions,” he replies. “We drank a lot of wine, worked late into the night.”
The choice of producer was vital. James Ford agreed to oversee the record, and his background – from Simian Mobile Disco to Arctic Monkeys and beyond – helped push the group to renewed heights. “He's very focussed. Very down to Earth and has an incredible attention to detail,” the singer explains. “He's very encouraging for us to try things out but also would push us. It's not either/or – it's free, but he's also pushing us. I respect James a lot and I think that one of the reasons we were attracted to working with him is that he's very versatile. He's made records for clubs, he's made records for mosh-pits, he's made records for radio... there's no real parameter for what he can do. I think that, combined with us, was a good vibe in the studio. We got on well. It was clicking!”
One of the areas the producer was eager to focus on was the band's lyrical qualities. It's a mark of Foals' progression that Yannis himself has shifted from beinga musician within the group to becoming more of a classic frontman, as he readily admits. “I think that's something that has probably changed since the early days. When we started the vocals were sometimes if not an after-thought then definitely secondary in some ways. And I was pre-occupied with playing the guitar and working on the actual instrumentation and stuff.”
“Over time I've become much more locked into singing and actually expressing ideas through my voice in a way that I feel much more comfortable singing than I used to. And the lyrics and the vocal line have more weight in the songs these days, they actually direct the songs more so than they did in the early days of when we were writing music. I wrote a lot of the lyrics very quickly, and usually in the same moment in the same energy as when the song would first come into being. Usually if not in the same moment or the next day. It would be in that time.”
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I remember by the end of the record feeling empty...
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'What Went Down' is marked by a certain density – a density of sound, for sure, but also a torrent of words. Foals' lyric sheet, it seems, has almost explored between albums. “James definitely encouraged me to write more lyrics than I normally would. Just the amount of words – there are more words on this album than there have been in the past. I definitely feel like I got deeper into some sort of core thing on these songs. I feel like what I wanted to do was instil the songs with something dream-like, often. I wanted the songs to be like dreams, in songs – if that makes sense. I felt like I did that by not over-working it.”
Which isn't to suggest that the record arrived in a carefree fashion. A driven, competitive group of musicians, Foals frequently butted heads and this creative tension has led to one of the most remarkable records in their career. “I wouldn't say it's easy because there is a lot of work that goes into it, it's a draining process, making it,” he sighs. “You put so much into it and you have to kind of be able to see it through, y'know? You have to have a watchful eye on what's happening a lot, and that's kind of exhausting in itself. I definitely feel like having to ring myself out for the lyrics is draining. I remember by the end of the record feeling empty.”
“There were moments when we'd disagree,” the singer continues. “There are always disagreements but the best breakthroughs come from those moments when you butt heads. I wouldn't want to make a record where there wasn't any conflict or any tension. I think it would be a little bit too polite. I thrive off sometimes the combative energy that there is. But it definitely didn't threaten to de-rail it at any point.”
Ultimately, though, the only way in which Foals could have accomplished the speed of execution which lay behind 'What Went Down' is through being completely comfortable, utterly trusting in one another's judgement. “The five of us have bonded in a way that we probably don't even realise. We're kind of enmeshed creatively, so that we're all on the same frequency. We're all onstage and in the studio.”
“We're joined at the hip – it's a gang, a brotherhood and I wouldn't have it any other way. I think the main reason why we're still making music is basically down to the fact that we're tight and we're friends and I think the bands that don't last are where the chemistry and the characters in the band basically don't work together on a fundamental level. We've been lucky in that. You can't plot for that or plan for that. It's luck whether you meet the right people at the right time. Whether you grow at the same pace. Whether you have the same desires for your music. I feel thankful that we found each other. It's cool.”
“It's weird – you appreciate it more as it goes on. In the early days I don't think I really appreciated what we had and I think that, without getting all nostalgic and corny about it, the five of us have a chemistry that's meant that it's still fresh. I'm still excited, y'know? I'm not in any way jaded or feeling stale. I feel like the best has yet to come – I like to think that. I don't feel the best is behind us.”
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'What Went Down' is out now.
Foals have confirmed the following shows:
November
5 Nottingham Rock City
6 Liverpool Olympia
7 Norwich UEA
8 Cardiff University Great Hall
10 Aberdeen Music Hall
11 Newcastle O2 Academy
13 Southampton Guildhall
14 Margate Dreamland – By The Sea event
15 Bristol Anson Rooms
16 Cambridge Corn Exchange