Foals discuss the “rich musical tapestry” of their seventh album
"We needed more voices in the room because the three of us are so well attuned to each other now"
By Nick Reilly
Foals have opened up on how their forthcoming seventh album will see them unveiling a “rich musical tapestry”.
The Oxford alt-rockers are in the final stretches of recording their next album, which has been previewed with the euphoric single ‘Wake Me Up’.
While the party-primed sound of that song is a world away from the doom-mongering themes of 2019’s ‘Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Parts 1&2’, Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis explains that the new record will provide one of their most vivid musical palettes to date.
Speaking in the second issue of Rolling Stone UK, Yannis says of the new album: “We’re almost finished, and just have a few more bits of mixing to do. Not all of the songs are as disco or new-wave as ‘Wake Me Up’, but they’re all upbeat, joyous, catchy tunes.
ve worked with John Hill (Florence + The Machine, Cage The Elephant), Dan Carey (Speedy Wunderground, Black Midi, Fontaines D.C.) and A.K. Paul. There’s been an interesting pen-pal aspect to the record, sending messages out in bottles to producers and then them all coming back to us — like an exquisite corpse situation. Hopefully it’s made a much richer tapestry, and maybe we needed more voices in the room because the three of us are so well attuned to each other now.”
Elsewhere in our chat, Yannis also opens up on the departure of founding keyboardist Edwin Congreave – who left the group earlier this year to pursue a postgraduate degree in economics at Cambridge University.
“We knew right at the start,” he said of recording the album without Congreave.
” It had been on the cards for a while, and we thought that we’d do one more tour together, but it had come to a point, particularly with Covid, where we said to him, “Do you really want to write another record with us as a four-piece or shall we leave it in a good place?” Edwin had things he wanted to do, like studying and engaging with efforts against the climate crisis — very venerable things, which it’s hard to pick faults in. There’s no animosity, and I respect him a lot for leaving.”
The new issue of Rolling Stone UK is on sale now. Subscribe to Rolling Stone UK in print and receive free access to the digital edition. Follow us on @RollingStoneUK