Colts from the blue

A hit debut album and two years of touring will change a band, Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis tells JIM CARROLL.Gone is the introspection – and the cockines. Now the Oxford five-piece are walking the walk

THE SECOND take from Foals was always going to make for an interesting listen. Straight out of Oxford with a collective first in art-rock, Foals were always an enthralling proposition, even more than their music might necessarily have implied. Headstrong, opinionated and articulate, they were an indie band who pitched themselves cockily as a cut above the pack.

Yet their 2008 debut album, Antidotes, was just a little too stylised and a little too, well, predictable to match their strut. It had all the de-rigueur hooks and add-ons, a splash of afrobeat here and a dash of math-rock there. It had a couple of tunes, such as Cassius, which many different pop tribes could hold close to their bosoms. It had vigour and vim in equal measure. But the album lacked the punch and the swagger which the band professed to possess. They basically didn't walk it like they talked it.

Two years make a big difference to a band's outlook and Foals' second album, Total Life Forever, is a horse of a different colour. You'll notice what's missing right away. Gone are the angular, jerky rhythms and indie dancefloor-friendly grooves which earned them a regular berth on the Skins soundbed. Instead, you can lose yourself in layers of sound and immerse yourself in hugely introspective lyrical tracts.

Frontman Yannis Philippakis thinks this new momentum has to do with changes in outlook amongst band members. "The most important thing was a change in perception about how and why we make music," he explains. "When we started, we had a very distinct aesthetic and every song had to reinforce that and build an identity. Most young bands do that to feel secure, and we felt that came to the fore with Antidotes."

But when the band went on the road, that identity changed. The songs which sounded one way in the studio sounded completely different as the band reacted to the energy of the crowd. They realised their sound needed more width and depth, more top and bottom.

“When we were touring the album, we started to naturally open out our sound, and it felt like we didn’t need to over-analyse things any more. It’s counterproductive to creativity anyway, and we’re now more interested in making music which is not so calculated or pre-meditated or has too distinct a design.”

Philippakis is an erudite, articulate frontman who talks a very good game and is quite willing to discuss and deconstract his band’s psychology. For them, the hardest aspect of the last campaign turned out to be touring, and especially the duration of the touring cycle.

“For a band like us, touring was hard because we write prolifically, but we can’t construct or finish songs on the road. When you go on tour, it’s like being put on pause creatively to an extent. It’s the one aspect of what we do which was really difficult to adjust to.

“We don’t feel tethered to anyone else’s idea of what we should be doing – or often even our own idea of what we should be doing. But the only way we’re trapped is because of that thing which is implicit in the music industry – you end up having to tour for a very long time. In the future, we don’t want to tour past the point where it’s meaningful, but that won’t be for a long while yet. We’re looking forward to doing some travelling again with this album.”

When it came to writing Total Life Forever, the band headed to a house in Oxford where, according to Philippakis, "it was fun and carefree and didn't feel like an industrial process at all".

“We had a house where we all lived and worked together so we didn’t have to interact with the outside world. We were comfortable there and I think that was a huge help in making this record sound so confident.”

However, when they moved to Sweden to do additional work on the album in a conventional studio set-up, stresses did emerge. “It was certainly more stressful to have to come up with definitive versions of the tracks,” he says. “We always find that difficult because we have different versions floating around all through the recording process.

“If we weren’t within the structure of a record label or the music industry, we probably wouldn’t end up making a record or putting one out because we’d continually keep working on stuff. I think we benefit from being part of a structure like a record label that is bigger than ourselves. Without that, it would all descend into madness.”

With Total Life Forever, the band took a more naturalistic approach to songwriting. There wasn't a specific design around the songs, but more of a general wish not to repeat ourselves. It wasn't a calculated directional move. There was no specific area or terrain we wanted to capture. We had too many ideas so we tried to eliminate conscious thought and tried to be merely instinctive"

Taking about eliminating conscious thought from the work process is a far cry from the standard indie-band mantra of “making music for yourself and if anyone else likes it, it’s a bonus”. Then again, Foals do appear to be driven by a different set of motivations than their peers. They come across as a band who would debate the finest details to the nth degree.

“We’re pretty obsessive and self-critical as a band,” admits Philippakis.

“The internal pressure to make something which is better than what we’ve done before is the predominant drive. We want to make something that will quieten the noise within us. It’s a compulsion, an addiction. It’s what drives us to keep making music.”

Can he ever see a situation where they finally quell that currently insatiable appetite? “Well, if we do make something which we feel content with, we won’t have to make any more music. I like the idea of being freed from having to do this. I like the notion of making a record where we don’t feel we have to make another one afterwards.

“On a personal level, I feel compelled to do it because it fills something that is missing, and I kind of hope that, some day, that need will be fulfilled and there won’t be a need to say anything again.”

That said, Philippakis feels they won’t be calling it a day any time soon.

"I don't know if we'll ever make a record which we think is truly wonderful and faultless and is the definitive Foals record, but we're proud of this one. It's a more complete record than Antidotesand, though it's not some kind of act of defiance against the first one, it's more of a reflection of where we're at as a band. It makes more sense to us."

Philippakis is naturally curious about how this album will be received by the fanbase who made Antidotessuch a success. While he believes that they have "an open-minded fanbase", he knows some will baulk at where the band's new moves have taken them.

“I’m sure there are some people who want Cassius part two, but it’s not our job to satisfy that. It’s not like we wanted to make some willfully difficult or experimental record. We can see a definitive linear progression between the two albums. You can see hints of this one in the B-sides we’ve done between albums and how the live show has progressed.

“If this is going to be something that people are going to invest time in, it’s my responsibility to make sure the songs are reflective of us as a band. In that way, it becomes a more fulfilling process for us and our audience.”

• Total Life Foreveris out today.

Foals play Dublin’s Academy on May 14