Words by Ash Kissane

This band needs no introduction but here’s one anyway. Foals’ first two highly successful albums Antidote and Total Life Forever were the soundtrack to many of our formative years, and now the Oxford quintet are on the verge of releasing their third highly anticipated album, Holy Fire. I had a chat to Foals’ Walter Gervers and Edwin Congreave backstage at Big Day Out festival about how Holy Fire came together, their advice to bands starting out and the plans in the works for their return  to our shores later this year.

MM: How do you find the audiences here? You’ve spent a fair bit of time here in the last couple years.

WG: It’s been such a variation of crowds. A couple of years ago it was Laneway; very different festival. That’s exciting because it’s kind of fresh for us. We’d always heard of the Big Day Out festival as one of those things that for years, has been this big rock festival, so it’s something different again.

MM: Did you like doing those smaller Laneway shows?

WG: Yeah, a lot. What was really nice about that, a little bit in comparison to here, is that with all of the bands, there was no clear headliner. Everyone was more or less at the same level. It was a dream for us because we were alongside bands that we love and we listen to. It was a great line up, we were lucky to be on it. Everyone from Blonde Redhead to Holy Fuck to Les Savy Fav and Warpaint. I’d go to that festival.

MM: So, a lot of people are saying Holy Fire is kind of a move away from your previous records and your indie-disco sound to more of a funk direction. Would you agree with that?

WG: I think it’s a progression, it’s third level now. Everytime we do anything, the word ‘funk’ comes up because obviously it does directly influence our stuff, but we haven’t made a funk album. There’s definitely a lot of the soul of funk that we’ve always loved that comes through. It’s a different record, we’ve learned a lot of things, a couple of years have gone past since Total Life Forever. It’s a move forward again.

MM: What was your experience like making Holy Fire? I’ve heard about your little haven in Oxford where you make your music. Did you sit down with the intention of writing an album or was it a collection of material that had built up?

WG: We had quite a lot of time off after touring pretty relentlessly for the second record. We kind of meant to keep stopping, but the touring would keep carrying on. We did a couple of shows with the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the end of 2011…no I’ve got that date wrong, when did we start recording?

EC: Let me just check my diary. I think it was the year before last year was writing, then we started recording in March last year which took about four months. It was a very fluid process. I just wanted to say ‘fluid.’

MM: Why did you choose Inhaler to prelude the album?

WG: We wanted to do what we did with Spanish Sahara before Total Life Forever, which was to just put out a track which was a precursor to the album coming out. That song had been around for a while, it was kind of an old jam that we used to play live after Miami. It was kicking around for quite a while and it was actually the last song to be recorded. It was kind of bottom of the pile, we thought it was old and it was such what it was as a jam that it was quite difficult to make a song out of it. We had a bit of a breakthrough then we were really pleased with it. We get asked quite a lot about this “new, heavy direction” and actually, it’s not really that heavy, it’s just kind of bold.

EC: I think it’s a manifestation of an instinct within the band that’s always been there but we haven’t recorded it and we haven’t released it. But that kind of riff and that kind of sound has been within the band the whole time. If I listen to the record now, there are so many different styles in it.

MM: What’s that process like? Does material come mostly from jamming?

WG: It depends on the song. It’s usually a mixture of us in a room all together, playing as if we’d just started the band and we were just trying to have fun and play riffs over and over to each other. Or it’s a result of just Yannis and Jimmy or a couple of us together, doing something with a bit more space and peace and quiet. You can tell the difference between the songs that have come out like that. Sometimes it will start very small with just a guitar part and drum beat and everyone will just build things around it and then just strip away as necessary. There’s probably as much subtraction as addition that goes on a lot of the time.

EC: There can’t be as much subtraction as addition. That equals zero.

WG: That does equal zero. You’re right.

MM: Where did the name Holy Fire come from? It’s quite a bold title.

WG: You can answer that.

EC: Let me tell you about that… I don’t really remember. We went through a few ideas. It’s obviously a really important thing for us, we wanted to have a continuity between album titles and I think this one is the strongest. I like the arrogance of it. It directly references the religious… I don’t know what I’m talking about.

WG: The connotations of it are pretty bold, as you said. It’s too early for him, he hasn’t swum today. Yeah, it is a bit of a bold title. It’s quite difficult to explain unlike Total Life Forever which was a real statement that actually related to the themes and contents of the record and the lyrics. This time, there’s no overall theme to the album in terms of any kind of concept, except from us just making this new collection of songs. It’s tied together by the songs themselves rather than some kind of narrative thread. So when it came to the title, it was really difficult and we were throwing a few things around, which seemed to cheapen the record a little bit. They didn’t hit home in any way. Holy Fire really jumped out at us because it’s something that’s out of our comfort zone, to put something out that’s just like, “Bam!” It’s kind of fun to go there and be like, “Why not?” It’s not directly religious but it does have that sort of purifying connotation. It’s kind of threatening in a way, I suppose.

EC: Sacrilegious.

WG: Once we live with it for a while it becomes so normal but it’s always a very tricky thing to do. You make this album, which you’ve been recording for so long, then you suddenly have to put a name to it. It’s like trying to name a cat or a baby. It’s like “What if we get it wrong?”

MM: When you were putting Holy Fire together, how did you pick and choose from material especially when, like you said, there’s no real narrative thread?

WG: With quite a lot of difficulty. Especially with the variety of the songs. When we first went in to start recording, Flood and Alan Moulder (producers) were saying from the start, almost as a joke, “This is going to be a hard record to put together.” I think we had eighteen or nineteen songs. Some of us were like, “Let’s make a double album!” and we were like, “No, we don’t have enough songs for a double album. That would be a bit ambitious.” Then we were like, “Let’s make a long album!” then we were like, “No, let’s be really brutal and chop it right down.” So it changed as we were going along. It was quite difficult to put together but it’s always very hard. It’s a really tough job but it’s usually left to the last minute as well.

MM: You’ve had some pretty crazy tour experiences, some that you’ve mentioned. Do you have any stand out moments that you think you’ll always remember?

WG: Without just saying this, I think Australia.

EC: Playing in Byron Bay was fun for a multitude of reasons; amazing location. I’m trying to think systematically…

WG: We’ve been to Africa!

EC: Yeah, we played in Milawi. We played a festival called Lake Of Stars. It was great, it was very challenging.

MM: How so?

EC: Challenging to our preconceptions of not just Africa. Because we’d never been, we had no idea what to expect but we still thought we knew what was going to happen. The audience was also very different to what we thought we were going to be playing to. It was very unusual.

MM: How were they? Were you well received do you think?

EC: Yeah, I think so. We weren’t really playing to a Malawian crowd because ninety-nine percent of Milawi couldn’t afford to go to the festival. It was surreal but it was excellent.

MM: How did you find audiences treated you guys when you were first coming out in England? It all seemed to take off quite quickly back in the day when you were on Skins and all over blogs, and there was a lot of hype around you.

WG: In our quite limited little world it did at the time, for what we were doing. All of the boys had been in previous bands so they had quite a lot of connections with local scenes from towns around the UK. So it was easy for us when Foals started going to Leeds to play a show or to Manchester or up to Scotland, to go and fit in and play amongst the bands that we would have seen and would come to us. It was all very small scale stuff but it made it quite easy for us to find shows to play. Quite often we’re asked by bands, when we meet people who are just starting out, they’re always asking, “How do you get out and tour and stuff?” We’re like, “You just call everybody you know in every venue and say ‘will you pay us fifty quid to play a gig.’” That’s how you do it, that’s what we did. It’s quite surprising that people, well, a lot of people still are very self-sufficient in that way but maybe not so patient to put the hard work in as we did.

MM: When did you start to feel like things were gaining traction and thought, “This is really happening now”?

EC: I think it was probably before we recorded the first album. I think it was the thrill of going to New York and realising that suddenly this huge thing was happening which was way outside of our experience. As Walter was saying, Yannis and Jack and the other guys had done the small band thing, touring around the UK. Suddenly to be sent away was a huge trip. I think in 2008, as soon as the press machine started happening, it really took us on a whirlwind. We didn’t have any idea what was happening.

MM: It seemed to treat you quite well though. There wasn’t that situation where bands are picked up in this whirlwind of hype then dropped and die as soon as the attention dies off.

EC: Yeah, I think in the UK there was that level of hype. We were taken on by the kind of press that does hype bands and drops them quite quickly. I think we’re quite proud of the fact that our music stood up to it.

MM: Yeah, definitely. It’s certainly a testament to your music. What’s on the agenda for touring this year?

WG: This is our first stop this year, we’re just getting going. We’re going home for a bit before the record comes out, then it’s the UK, Europe and beyond, a lot of festivals. Then hopefully we’ll be coming back  to Australia, though nothing’s confirmed yet later in the year, so we’ll play some proper shows in towns.

MM: Is there anywhere you’re particularly keen to get to?

EG: We’re playing in South America and we’re going to spend some more time in places like Argentina. I’m really keen to go back to North America. We’ve played there before but it’s my favourite place to tour because it’s a lot of fun.

WG: And maybe we’ll be able to go to Iceland one time.

EC: And various places in South-East Asia as well. Tick them off the list.

Published on Moustache Magazine