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Q1/ Tell us how this project came about and
where did it fit in as far as working on the
latest Unknown Mortal Orchestra album
with your brother Ruban?
I have been just chipping away at it in my
spare time whenever I got the chance. I had
worked on it a little bit before I started working
with Ruban. I showed him a bit of my new stuff and
we kind of did a little bit of co-writing when he was
touring last time and then he offered to have me
involved in his [new album].
I kept working on it more afterwards and it started
to feel like more finished towards
the end of last year.
Q2/ Why go down the electronic route?
I kind of got a bit bored with ‘band’ music.
I certainly found it a little bit more inspiring
to be able to do something new. It was also a little
bit of a return to the way I used to make music
when I started out – by myself with a sampler and
a sequencer. I had a Roland W30 and I did a ton of
music on that and recorded it to a four track.
Q3/ Although it harks back to the sounds of the
earlier analogue pioneers, there is also a bit of
future soul vibe to it, particularly on songs like
Love Peace. What music were you listening to
when you made it?
I had been listening to a lot of Kraftwerk and
George Duke – I have been listening to him for
years, I’m a big fan. I definitely like some R&B but I
used those influences in different ways.
I try and draw influences from anything I can.
I like Love Peace– it was one of the first ones
I wrote; I wrote it on the piano first…
Q4/ You recently played drums with your
partner Bic Runga and Tiny Ruins on their
joint tour. Did you enjoy it and will be working
with Bic on her new album?
It was pretty relaxed – it’s always fun to play
drums. Yeah, it would be cool to help her out. We
recorded one of her new songs Dreamed A Dream
and that was fun, but I think she is still in the
process of tidying up the songs
and finishing off the writing.
Q5/ The first Mint Chicks album F**k
The Golden Youth was reissued earlier
this year on vinyl – are you looking to
revisit any other Mint Chicks albums?
That would be awesome. Those records didn’t
come out on vinyl – well, Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No!
did but I never actually saw it
– it only came out in the States.
It seems as if with each successive album,
Foals are releasing ever more vicious and
clever hounds from their brains.
But lead vocalist Yannis Philippakis
believes butting at the boundaries of one’s
previous release is imperative, if a band
wishes to remain meaningful. “The only
danger is not pushing it out far enough,”
he tells STACK. “The ideas that interest
me are often the ones when
I’m falling asleep or have
woken up in the middle
of the night and my
brain’s going a bit
haywire. I had this
last night, actually:
I woke up at 4 in
the morning… It’s just
different ways of unpeeling
the layers that thicken, in the
boredom of everyday life. Sometimes I
wish I was the person that I was when I
wake up in the middle of the night.”
What Went Down is the fourth studio
album from the British five-piece, which
burst onto the music scene in 2007 with
their acclaimed debut Antidotes. For their
latest, Foals teamed with James Ford
(Arctic Monkeys, Florence + The Machine)
for a primal, sometimes harrowing, album
of extremes.
That said, there’s a definite Stone Roses
feel about lead single Mountain At My Gate,
and Philippakis agrees that there is probably
something distinctly British about Foals’ sound.
“I remember when we first started
playing Mountain, and thinking it was kind
of baggy, it had a baggy feel to it. It would
be impossible for us to not sound in some
way English, because I think the musical
landscape and the reference
points that we all share in
the band, a lot of them
are steep – you can’t
help but have it make
up part of the
band’s DNA.”
In the same way, he
isn’t afraid of pushing the
group’s limits because you
simply can’t un-Foals something,
when these five play together. “There’s a kind
of central belief that everything that we write
will basically sound like us,” he says. “There’s
a kind of pin that holds everything together
in some way, by virtue of the way we write
together. The danger would be in making a
record that’s too safe or that repeats itself,
so the main thing is that we try and push the
songs out further from each other.”
What Went Down by Foals is out now
Kody Nielson
Silicon
Personal Computer by
Silcon is out now
Foals singer Yannis Philippakis on the baggy vibes of
their fourth LP. By Zoë Radas.
uppers and downers
It would be impossible
for us to not sound in some
way English. You can’t help
but have it make up part of
the band’s DNA
12 SEPTEMBER 2015
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