* READ MORE: Foals’ Yannis Philippakis tells us about The Yaw and his record with Tony Allen: “Our spirits got on”
The frontman recently spoke with NME, where we asked him about the status of Foals’ new record. Philippakis is currently gearing up to release his collaborative album with Tony Allen, as part of his new project The Yaw.
When asked whether there was much progress to the follow-up of Foals’ 2022 record ‘Life Is Yours‘, Philippakis replied: “Absolutely none, which is fine.”
He went on to say that the band “really want to have some time at home and apart to individually get replenished and be inspired – not make one out of a knee-jerk sense of obligation. We want the next record to be really special.
“We’ve been busy so it’s good to go out and smell the roses for a bit,” he continued. “I think we’ll make something special. It’s fucking great that Walter [Gervers, bassist] is back and it will feel great when we’re writing in the room together. I think it could be the best Foals record yet.”
Philippakis further teased that the upcoming record “won’t be anything like ‘Life Is Yours’ – as is the Foals way. I’m pretty sure we’re going to subvert and get into some interesting, new place.”
In the same interview, Philippakis discussed his upcoming new project ‘Yannis and the Yaw’, where he spoke of his first meeting with the late Tony Allen. The Fela Kuti drummer and musical director died in 2020.
“I went to Paris, and I walked nerdily and nervously through this studio where everyone was smoking – obviously because it was France,” he began. “We were in this big basement studio that was very 1970s, kind of naff, but full of amazing instruments. There were a lot of Air’s synths in there, a bunch of different West African percussion, and Tony was just sitting there in a fog of smoke.
“I don’t think the whiskey bottles had been opened yet but they were in proximity. He wasn’t super friendly straight away! He was writing with these French guys – the Vincents – and they’re the Frenchest men in the world. They set me up, we chatted and we all got in the room. I pulled out the riff that is ‘Walk Through Fire’, Tony came into his drum area and just started playing. It was crazy. I just felt like I was lifting off slightly. We just jammed it and by the end of that day we had cut the majority of the first three tracks on the EP.”
Philippakis has also been busy writing music for new play ‘The Confessions’, which he spoke to NME about last October. The play is based on the life of longtime friend Alexander Zeldin’s mother, and Philippakis knew he wanted to get involved “when he told me the story of some of the things that had happened to her and her arc from growing up in Australia to all of these shocking things that happened to her until she moved to England.
“Alex described this moment when her mother was nearly pushed off a cliff with murderous intent, and I told him that I could write music for that moment,” he continued. “That’s what bonded me to working on the project.”
In other news, Foals has appeared on Paramore’s ‘This Is Why’ remix album.
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