We Spoke To Foals About The Perils Of Touring

Noisey recentlycaught up with Foals’ Yannis Philippakis and Jimmy Smith on the roof of Warner Brothers’ London headquarters. A relatively peaceful spot, its calm was fast breached by us invoking the approaching two year storm of press, touring and general supporting of their imminently dropping third album, Holy Fire. Almost brutally visceral, the record is simultaneously darker and lighter than previous efforts. Holy Fire seems increasingly likely to tip them over into being properly big, like out of our world and into significant numbers at Asda and the inevitable churning up of ginormous bandwidth-devouring pythons that haemorrhage their efforts freely. That breakthrough when hype from sites like this and even their biggest fan, NME, becomes irrelevant as they pitch into sales figures that make the bean counters at Warners pay serious attention.

Having first leapt from the confines of Oxford with their beguilingly off-kilter debut Antidotes, followed by Total Life Forever, a record that radiates serious heat from its cool, black heart, Foals now pitch themselves far beyond with Holy Fire. It shifts demeanor frequently, casting brief shades of past work whilst convulsing with freshly captured influences. Played with starker conviction, made bloodier by producers Flood and Alan Moulder, it is a truly compulsive listen. “Inhaler”, the first single from it, is currently blowing up, but doesn’t quite give away the depths yet to be unleashed, those shivers tracks that stay your breathe momentarily, then do it again and again. You can’t hear it yet though so I’ll stop gushing and let you read what they had to say about it…

Noisey: So, how were the crowds’ reactions to the new material on the small venue tour you just finished?

Yannis: Way better than it’s ever been before. I guess as the new songs we played are more visceral. ‘Inhaler’ and ‘My Number’ were getting the best reactions of the set.

Was that a huge surprise?

Jimmy: Yeah. Well, you always assume everyone will hate it.

Yannis: You go in with a healthy amount of pessimism and are permanently surprised.

Are you feeling a lot of trepidation about the record coming out soon then?

Yannis: There has to be some or you end up putting out slop. There has to be an element of neurotic Woody Allen inner-monologue to it, which used to be crippling, but we realised that it’s not the end of the world.

Was there an ideal form you were working towards attaining with this album?

Yannis: We were reaching for a few things. Having everything working from the neck down. Not allowing things to become too cerebral and keeping much more of a gut feeling. More direct. Something sweatier that wasn’t as cold or introverted as Total Life Forever.

Did the time you spent writing in Australia have a big influence on the feel of the record?

Yannis: We were recording outdoors, which is one thing that was quite informative. To be outside in 30 degree heat with midges flying around, little sand crabs and have the echo of the river; things sound totally different. All the exciting things worked in that natural environment. There are insect samples on the record. We wanted it to have that feeling of just stickiness.

It is quite oozy and dirty. I really liked the weird samples too, especially the one on “Moon” that sort of sounds like the beginning of the end of the world. I read that that track was loosely inspired by Lars Von Triers’ “Melancholia”, and your record’s called Holy Fire, is that fire apocalyptic then?

Jimmy: It could be a really big thing, or a tiny little flame that never goes out.

Yannis: It’s not meant to be apocalyptic. If anything it’s meant to be joyous in some way.

From the reaction to “Inhaler”, and having heard the full record, it seems you can be quietly confident that these songs are going to connect with a much broader audience than you’ve had previously. Is that something you were at all aware of when you were creating it?

Jimmy: Not in a calculated way.

Yannis: ‘Inhaler’ is quite different from what came before, so it’s still kind of nerve-wracking. It is nice that it’s connecting with people though as we never wanted to be a cult band. I’m not interested on playing to just one niche set of people.

Is there any message in particular you’re trying to get across to all these varied people?

Yannis: It’s more for what records can do to provide comfort, solace or escapism. Some of the tracks on the last record were about trying to get out of paranoid states of mind or darker places, but I’m feeling a lot more balanced on this one. I just want to be able to have the same influence on people that records had for me when I was younger. It bolsters your want to be yourself. It makes you feel a bit more ready for the world.

Have any records had that effect on you recently?

Jimmy: I really like the Frank Ocean record and that took me by surprise but something just connected in there. The Tame Impala record again, it kind of annoyed me that one, I shouldn’t like it.

Why? Too many other people were raving about it?

Jimmy: Maybe.

Yannis: It’s the production as well.

Jimmy: It’s kind of interesting to listen to. It’s great harmonically. Musically, it’s awesome.

Yannis, I saw you tweeted about A$AP too?

Yannis: Yeah, I just started getting into A$AP. I’m not that into a lot of current hip hop. I really like 90s hip hop. but I like the instrumentals on A$AP, particularly on “Peso”.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Jon Hopkins too at the moment. A bunch of stuff. It’s not quite the same though. I don’t think I listen to things the same as I did when I was a teenager.

It’s quite hard to replicate that level of connection you felt at fifteen though isn’t it.

Yannis: Your synapses are still forming when you’re an adolescent so your brain’s porous.

Jimmy: You’re less cynical as well.

Yannis: And if you’re stoned too then things get real intense.

Ha. You’re starting the world tour soon right? Two years straight?

Jimmy: Pretty much.

Anything you know you’re already going to be missing hard?

Yannis: My liver. We’re super excited, but there’s also a fear about what we’re going to be like at the other side. Every time we do long tours your body gets eugh and your mind gets…

Jimmy: It’s like there’s a hurricane on the way and I’m frantically trying to board up my whole life so it will survive. I’ll forget one window and the whole house will fall down.

Is there anywhere you’re dreading heading to?

Yannis: I generally don’t like December in Europe. It’s just fucking bleak. The waking up at four in the afternoon and you get half an hour of sunlight before you start drinking.

Jimmy: You have a shower and then you have a vodka redbull.

So there’s no chance you’ll take it a little easier now you’re a bit more used to it all?

Jimmy: It’s impossible to do that. I don’t know how bands do that.

I can imagine it would be pretty hard. As soon as you’re hungover one day that’s it.

Jimmy: Yea, the last thing I want is carrots and humous. I want a pint of coke, a packet of Quavers and a ten pack.

We’re going to be asking you about Youtube comments on for Noisey YouTube a little later. Do you ever look at them? What do you make of them?

Jimmy: They’re awesome.

Yannis: Adam Buxton made me take everything way less seriously.

Do you feel any more pressure to be engage online now than when you started?

Yannis: When we started there was MySpace, that was fun, it was like building a little home for your band. Let’s pick the wallpaper. Let’s make it an aesthetic enterprise. I like Twitter. That’s it really, what else do you need to do?

Well, you’ve got the machine behind you I guess.

Jimmy: We’re fucking sitting on top of the machine right now! Look at them all hard at work.

Big. Is this where you thought you’d be when you started five years ago?

Yannis: Absolutely.

Jimmy: Yea, day one, we had it all planned out.

How about in five years time, do you ever think much beyond the next record?

Jimmy: In so much as I’d like to do another record. I already miss the studio.

Yannis: I miss the studio too.

Jimmy: But it’s going to be a while.

Yannis: It’s a shame that you can’t sustain a living without extensive touring. Which is the main downside of file sharing. There’s an obligation to tour for your bread and butter now in a way that stops bands from putting more records and / or of better quality.

Jimmy: It’s a heartbreaking image, all these pale studio people being shoved out in to the daylight and put on the road.

Until you’re broken physically and mentally and then shoved back indoors to go be creative again…

Jimmy: Yeah! It’s all good, but I definitely don’t look forward to five years’ time.

Are there any acts you look at and think, “I could happily have your career”?

Yannis: I kind of like the idea of the band burning out, imploding and leaving behind four records that hopefully are good.

Jimmy: Let’s do five as that’s my lucky number.

Yannis: Let’s do five and then we’ll stop. We don’t really want to be like some musicians who you can tell don’t want to be on stage anymore but they’ve become addicted to it. It’s a narcotic in many ways. It’s a temptation, and there’s something dark about those craven desires for the stage, the applause, the oblivion of the road. That side of it is the price you have to pay to the boatman to get the other side, and that transaction takes away from you.

Deep…thanks Foals!