Foals share Tanu Muiño-directed video for ‘2AM’

Foals have shared a vibrant new video for their recent single ‘2AM’, filmed in Ukraine and directed by celebrated filmmaker Tanu Muiño – check it out below.

The band’s new song was released last week along with details of Foals‘ seventh studio album, which is titled ‘Life Is Yours’ and will come out this summer.

Discussing the new video, frontman Yannis Philippakis said: “We love Tanu’s work. It wasn’t a collaboration we would’ve predicted, but I met up with Tanu in London, we hit it off and decided to work together. The moment I spoke to Tanu she was interested in the repetition of the lyrics, which is symbolic of being stuck in repeated patterns of bad behaviour. She wanted to visualise that with labyrinths and maze-like loops.”

Muiño, whose recent projects have included videos for Lil Nas X’s ‘Montero’ and Cardi B’s ‘Up’, added: “Foals are one of my favourite bands, so this project was a dream to work on with Yannis. The labyrinth idea came from playing the track on repeat and the visuals came together when I met with Yannis. We connected on the creative, which is the ideal situation in videos to have him explain the meaning behind the track and the inspiration of the song.

“The more we spoke, the more the idea revealed itself. We felt the repetition of being stuck in the same place, the same life, the same situations all felt like being trapped in a labyrinth/maze that you are constantly wanting to exit and find a resolution for – you keep trying until you unlock it!”

Watch the ‘2AM’ video below.

‘Life Is Yours’ will be the Oxford outfit’s seventh studio record and their first as a three-piece, following the departure last year of longtime keyboardist Edwin Congreave. Written largely at the band’s south London rehearsal space, the album is intended as an upbeat riposte to the COVID-ravaged last couple of years, with work on it beginning during the winter lockdown of 2020.

No release date or track listing for ‘Life Is Yours’ has yet been revealed; it will arrive some time in the summer. In a statement discussing ‘2AM’, frontman Yannis Philippakis said: “Musically ‘2am’ is one of the poppiest songs we’ve ever written. It’s about repetitive cycles of destructive behaviour, which I think lots of people can relate to, and certainly it’s an expression of something that I struggle with.”

In an interview with Rolling Stone UK last year, Philippakis said the group’s new music will be “ready for you to party to.”

He added: “The joyousness within the new music is us getting back our sense of childlike wonder, and having ‘pinch me’ moments. There’s always been a big element of melancholy in what we do, but we want our live shows to be an ecstatic celebration, and we’ve written new music for that. This record, more than any record we’ve made since [2008 debut album] ‘Antidotes’, is good for the body. It’s physically energising and gratifying.”

Foals will tour Europe from April onwards, with a slew of UK dates in the diary. See the full schedule below.

APRIL 2022
26 – Newcastle, O2 City Hall
27 – Brighton, Centre
29 – London, Olympia
30 – London, Olympia

MAY 2022
1 – London, Olympia
2 – London, Olympia
5 – Blackpool, Empress Ballroom
6 – Blackpool, Empress Ballroom
8 – London, O2 Brixton Academy

JUNE 2022

29 – Manchester, Castlefield Bowl

JULY 2022

8 – Leeds, Millennium Square