Fistfights, fungi and wind — The Foals
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FOALS — UK art rock band from Oxford with fourth album What Went Down on Warner.
Source: Supplied
THERE are two Yannis Philippakises.
The 29-year-old Greek-born vocalist, lead guitarist and ringleader for Oxford, England, art rock heavyweights Foals is mellow yellow when his band are off tour, right into gardening in fact.
“I don’t have a garden at the moment, I’m in the process of moving house south of London where there’s newer energy. I’m gardenless,” he says.
Then there’s the Philippakis who rips across international stages from Romania to Rio de Janeiro, stagedives from tall balconies in a single bound and always tears off and does a lap of the venue — midset — with his Gibson ES-347 guitar still attached.
On the title track of their fourth album What Went Down there’s a lyric about falling in love with a girl with a port wine stain.
“That’s a guy — there’s an aspect of me — that’s skulking, brawling but wounded. He’s a dangerous menace in some strange dystopian city. An unpredictable force with arrowheads embedded in him,” he says, explaining his Mr Hyde side.
This is the same Philippakis who sings lines like this on Give It All. “I called you up three times last night, running through the streets bloody from a fistfight.” You just know he’s not talking in the third person.
“I don’t want to extend on that lyric in particular … but it’s a true story,” he says.
Give It All is an album track from What Went Down, another sterling collection of songs that kick it in the dictionary when words aren’t needed and pull back to smell the roses when the rock needs to roll.
The quintet put out Antidotes (2008), Total Life Forever (2010) and Holy Fire (2012), the latter two were both nominated for the prestigious Mercury Prize. After a touring schedule that would make most bands tambourine in their boots, they went off to rural France with James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Florence & the Machine) to record in a 19th century mill.
“Jimmy (Smith, guitarist) challenged him,” begins Philippakis.
“James is good at pushing the synths stuff, he’s an uber-nerd about all that so Jimmy laid down the gauntlet and said James needed to find the best synth sound of all time,” he sniggers. “He got close.”
London Thunder (Early Draft) 🏬🇬🇧✈️⚡️☔️ https://t.co/JiFCLAa8K2
— Yannis Philippakis (@YnnsPhilippakis) August 25, 2015
Previously, Foals have recorded with iconoclasts like Flood and Alan Moulder who tricked them into thinking they were just doing a run-through and instead they recorded live takes they ended up using on the album. It made for paranoid studio vibes.
There was less butting heads this time. It was straight Ford.
“This was fairly fluid. James is down to earth, he didn’t come in using big words with big manifestos about what he wanted the album to sound like. It was refreshing, there was no trickery. We weren’t in the mood for it.
“Some of that is ageing and having a better perspective from having made records before. Knowing when to take a break and not feeling like you need to push someone’s buttons. James is a musician first and foremost, he understand the anxiety that comes with being on the musical side of it rather than just as a producer,” he says. Ford is one half of Simian Mobile Disco.
“He was very encouraging. He didn’t come in and try and be an antagonist which is how it’s felt sometimes. There wasn’t any mindgames.
“He comes in, listens carefully to all of the music and tries to get the best performances he can. Instead of talking about voodoo and getting out bones he would say ‘Where’s the best position for the bass drum?’”
Fuelled by red wine (“we were plied with it the moment we got there, it led to droopy eyelids”), valium and the local psilocybin products, Foals had one other character to contend while making What Went Down.
“The mistral is a wind, a biting winter wind, it’s said to drive people mad, it rips the shutters off windows. I was going out and recording the wind,” he says, not intimidated by what Dame Nature was going to throw at him.
And after a day of recording and flipping the bird to the elements Yannis slipped under the sheets atop a famous mattress. “I stayed in the same bed as Morrissey and Nick Cave for two months,” he says.
Did they kick much? “No, they were respectful, there was room for three, no egos,” he sniggers again.
The Foals headline the Falls Festival and the Southband Festival.
Source: Supplied
Foals’ ego got a decent stroke when they were announced as headliners of Falls Festival and Southbound Festival. They’ve smashed tours for Big Day Out, Splendour In the Grass and Laneway Festival before but never have they been Falls guys.
Philippakis can’t hide his glee.
“Being here in summer is always great. I’m excited about going to MONA in Tasmania, that guy David Walsh made all his money gambling, yeah?” he asks calmly then switches it up
“I feel like it’ll be similar to Laneway Festival, travelling with bands and all the debauchery backstage … which I’m very excited about.”
HEAR: What Went Down (Warner) out tomorrow.
SEE: Foals, Falls Music Festival, Lorne, Dec. 28-Jan1, Marion Bay, Dec. 29-Jan1, Byron Bay, Dec. 31-Jan3. fallsfestival.com.au
