As soon as we can play in Ukraine again, we will...
FOALS GUITARIST JIMMY SMITH TALKS TO ALEX GREEN ABOUT LOOKING TO DANCE MUSIC FOR INSPIRATION, BECOMING A TRIO AND WORKING WITH A UKRAINIAN TEAM ON THE VIDEO FOR THEIR ALBUM’S LEAD SINGLE
FOALS’ recent albums may have – somewhat unfairly – earned them a reputation as pessimists.
Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost, which was split into two parts across 2019, circled around climate change, political upheaval and mental health. Not the lightest of subject matters.
But now the band, who recently became a trio, have pivoted towards something else entirely – joy.
“We definitely wanted to keep things simple,” says guitarist Jimmy Smith from a lounge at Gatwick airport, where he is waiting to catch a flight to a festival in Copenhagen.
“The genesis of the record came from chatting in beer gardens before everything closed [for the pandemic]. It was basically to try and keep it simple, keep it clean and fresh – all these words we were using to describe something that didn’t exist yet.
“It was the music that me and Yannis [Philippakis, Foals’ frontman] were naturally writing during the first lockdown.
“Normally we will just go in the natural direction and it made us feel quite good doing it. It was almost like a little tonic.”
Jimmy, Yannis and drummer Jack Bevan are now 17 years on from their inception as a mathrock band living in a Peckham squat and attending raucous house parties.
Nevertheless, Life Is Yours, their seventh album and a Day-Glo explosion of colour and sound, bears a striking resemblance to their debut, 2008’s Antidotes.
“This definitely feels like a relation to the first album in some ways,” Jimmy reflects. “It’s the combination of the dance-ability and the simplicity. And it was quite nice to know we can still do that.”
This was a direct reaction to the pandemic. Who wants to be bludgeoned over the head with doom and gloom now?
“I’m really glad we didn’t [go down that route] because I think it might have been a bit too much if we came back with a weighty, heavy album,” he says.
“I think a lot of people expected that from us to be honest.”
But do not worry, Foals have not entirely lost their political streak.
“I love up music – upbeat music with crushing lyrics,” says Jimmy, who now lives in Orange County, California. “It’s the best combination because it gives the music longevity. If you just slap a load of cheesy lyrics over a pop song, it’s not going to last long.”
Jimmy jokes that he is pleased they have moved on from the seriousness of Everything Not Saved... – if only for his mental health.
“I found it hard to talk about that stuff every day,” he admits with a laugh. “You get more and more frustrated. Actually, it bums you right out. So that was a bit of an annoyance. We would just be bummed out all the time!”
When they settled down to record Life Is Yours, the band actually visualised playing a festival main stage as the sun set. And thus far their efforts seem to have paid off – festival audiences have been dancing to their new tracks.
On the subject of festivals, Foals headlined Glastonbury on Friday night on the Other Stage (the festival’s second largest).
Ahead of their set, Jimmy said it would be “probably our biggest moment” as a band.
“I used to go to Glastonbury all the time. I used to camp opposite the Other Stage. That slot, the one we got offered, the one we are doing, is the one I really, really wanted.
“It feels very serendipitous. I would say it’s probably the biggest single show in the band’s history.”
Life Is Yours is the band’s first album since the departure of bassist and synth-player Edwin Congreave, who left Foals in September 2021 to pursue a postgraduate degree in economics.
Did becoming a trio take some adjusting?
“Yes and no,” says Jimmy. “The three of us is the core writing unit of the band anyway, and had been for a few years really. So in some ways nothing changed. But what was interesting was just having three people, so we could only play three instruments at a time.”
The video for lead single 2am was shot in Kyiv just weeks before the Russian invasion. Jimmy says the band have been in contact with director Tanu Muino and the rest of the local crew.
“I know Tanu went back for a bit to fight or to help some people out and certainly loads of the dancers are caught up in it. Everybody is caught up in it. No one knows how long the war is going to go on and then the country is completely devastated. But as soon as we can play there, we will play there. Absolutely.”
Social consciousness remains at the heart of what Foals do, but with Life Is Yours they approach it from a different angle.
“We started with what we were feeling, an element of escapism, and we were like, ‘That can only be a good thing right now’.
“It seems like everyone’s getting it. They are getting the right message.
After everything, they’re enjoying themselves.”