Foals‘ Yannis Philippakis says their forthcoming album will be “heavier, poppier and weirder” than 2013’s ‘Holy Fire’.
Speaking to Q magazine, the singer describes pushing the sound “so the extremes were further apart”, adding that Nick Cave has heavily influenced his lyrics.
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Discussing the new sound, Philippakis tells Q: “We felt that the spread on ‘Holy Fire’ was good but on this we wanted to push it out even further, so the extremes were further apart. The heavier songs are heavier, the poppy songs are poppier and weirder.”
Of the band’s time with producer James Ford in the south of France, guitarist Jimmy Smith added: “We drank about 130 bottles of this red wine called Ardèche,” but reasoned, “I don’t think there was a point where we were all drunk.”
Earlier this year, the band told NME that recording their album ‘Total Life Forever’ in Gothenburg, Sweden in the middle of winter was a “ludicrous” idea, adding that they plan to record their forthcoming, as-yet-untitled album closer to home.
In the Albums of 2015 issue of NME, Foals keyboardist Edwin Congreave discussed the band’s plans for the follow up to 2013’s ‘Holy Fire’, which they begun work on in April 2014. “The aim is to record early [in 2015]. I’d like to do it here [London] – or as close to my house as possible, because I’ve discovered late in life that I really love staying at home!” Congreave said.
He added: “It’s going to be somewhere in Europe – there’s definitely a desire in the band to go to ludicrous locations but we’ve done that a couple of times. Gothenburg in Sweden in winter was ludicrous in retrospect. We put ourselves in a ridiculously lonely situation.”
Congreave was echoing sentiments previously stated by frontman Yannis Philippakis, who told NME that he “wanted to go back to the studio in Oxford but I also think it’s good to be grounded after doing what we were doing last year. I wanted to go back somewhere safe and familiar.”
In October, Foals posted a picture from their studio as they began work on new material. The picture, which can be seen below, showed a guitar sitting on top of a synthesizer and piano, and was accompanied by the caption: “It starts……”