For whatever reason – be it a fickle hype cycle perpetuated by the UK music press, or the languishing lustre of the format – four albums is a rare milestone for British bands this side of the second millennium. How have Foals managed to survive from 2008’s Antidotes to the recently released What Went Down? “By not putting all our eggs in one basket,” Smith says.
“It’s hard to talk about other bands, it depends which ones. We’ve worked really hard at the records and progressing, making good records and pushing ourselves,” says Philippakis. “Also playing live, playing really hard, not getting distracted or tempted. There’s been a bit of luck as well. Each record has been different and progressed. We’ve never remained static.”
Foals have ascended to the status of major festival headliners, with appearances at the likes of Reading and Leeds, onto prime billing at the upcoming Falls Festivals. In turn, they’ve crafted songs of a larger scale in production and arrangement – or maybe, it was the other way around. “We were offered a festival headline set in the UK, and we couldn’t turn that money down,” Philippakis says.
Especially compared to the crisp, immediate nature of Antidotes, 2013’s Holy Fire marked Foals’ entrance into a larger sonic landscape, rich with expanse to satisfy crowds in the thousands. However, as Smith explains, the growth in sound isn’t a conscious ploy to get top festival billing. “When you’re making the record, the live setting in your head is only as far as you’ve got on the last record. If you think about the biggest crowds, you think about a festival. On Holy Fire, it’s not like we were writing with headlining in mind or anything like that.”
In terms of adopting the fuller sound, the direction came from an attraction to heavier compositions, coupled with a touch of obliviousness regarding the production scope.
“Some of it was sleight of hand I think,” Philippakis says. “When we were writing Holy Fire there was that sleight of hand by making the production quite massive, in ways we didn’t even realise when we were working on it. I remember thinking it sounded like a regular rock record, then all the feedback started coming in from the outside world. We definitely felt that songs like Inhaler were much heavier than anything we’d written before. We knew that. We didn’t realise the vastness of the production.
“Some of it is because we started off with what we did on the first record; the interlocking, tightly wound guitars and it was dance orientated. Then the second record [Total Life Forever] was more introverted and atmospheric. The natural thing to do since then is combine those natural threads from the past, but expand into heavier stuff as well. It feels good to play live.”
The stylistic distinction between albums is also apparent on What Went Down, with the mood ranging from intense aggression to more tempered showcases of songcraft. Despite the incongruities within the album, Foals maintain certain sonic motifs.
“We write what feels right, we don’t worry if it’s going to be coherent,” Philippakis says. “We feel if the five of us are working on it, and we have the same producer and mixer, then everything will glue together. The thing that we should never do is worry about the coherency. If anything, we try and push ourselves out to make the songs not sound similar, so there’s a big spread.”
“Someone once said to us that it’s always going to sound like Foals if Yannis is singing on it. That gives us free reign to do what we want,” says Smith.
“It’s not just me, it’s the five of us. We could write a fucking Soviet polka song and it would end up someway fitting,” says Philippakis. “Because we want to excite ourselves, we need to feel like we’re trying different things and expressing ourselves in a myriad of different ways. We’re not the kind of band that will make a record where it has the same texture from track one to track 11. Some bands do that, and they do it very well. For us, the excitement is having these peaks and troughs in the dynamic, these different spaces.”
Despite evolving beyond their “angular” dance-punk roots, Foals have retained the core values they developed early on. “I think the intent behind all of [the albums] is the same, which is a pure drive to make music that is thought-provoking, entertaining, passionate, that has depth and beauty, but is also fun. I think that’s always been the same,” says Philippakis. “It’s just different variations of that. I don’t feel like we make shallow, one-dimensional records. That’s been the same with every record. We crave that depth. We work hard at the records. There are some obvious sonic things as well – the interlocking ways we play guitar are here on this record, probably more so than the last record in some ways. We’re definitely suckers for rhythm, that’s really important. Even if we’re using a straight up 4/4 beat, there’s been a decision behind doing that, rather than using stock beats.”
The band’s continual evolution comes with the inherent risk that established fans may not take to each new direction shift – be it subtle or otherwise. However, the band are willing to roll the dice each time, with the results speaking for themselves.
“Maybe now on the fourth album, we’re definitely rolling the dice with getting new fans, but our traditional fans who have stuck with us for a few albums perhaps expect something different each time,” Smith says.
“It definitely is a bit nerve-wracking,” adds Philippakis, abandoning his arrogant cool. “By the time the album comes out we’ve put out a few songs to show there is a spread in terms of sounds. But it’s always nerve-wracking when you put the first track off the record out. I remember when we put Spanish Sahara out we didn’t know whether people would like it – same with Inhaler and same with What Went Down. You can’t predict it.”
With Foals’ 2015 wrapping up with the Falls Festival dates and a run of headline shows, what lies ahead in 2016 and beyond? “We want to make more records that we feel are better than what came before. We want to make an amazing record,” Philippakis says. “We’re getting close,” adds Smith.
“Universal domination. What’s the Scientological overlord? Xenu?”
BY LACHLAN KANONIUK
