Foals: Finding Their Feet

“If we were to get into a fight he would fucking kill people for us…probably.�

Following that quote you’d be mistaken in thinking that Gigwise had recently spent time interviewing members of the SAS about a decorated member of their ranks. It is however how diminutive Foals front man Yannis Philippakis chooses to describe the band’s relationship with producer and TV on the Radio guitarist Dave Sitek. The Oxford quintet are back on home shores after spending much of the early summer months in New York recording their debut album with the much sought after studio wizard to play several festival dates and promote the release of their latest single ‘Mathletics’. Joined by keyboard player Edwin Congreave we’re eager to learn from the pair about the fruits of their Atlantic hopping musical odyssey.

“We worked with Sitek because he is pretty much one of the only producers that could do what we wanted,� explains Yannis about the bands choice . “We could have stayed in London and recorded with some in vogue producer. I’m not going to mention any names but you know who they are. They’ve all got their merits but what we want is a record that’s something else and when you listen to a TV on the Radio album its got a different atmosphere to it. It has an ambience above what is coming out of the speakers. Its not what you hear in the songs, its all the space around the songs that makes a TV on the Radio album special and that’s what he’s brought to our album.�

While Edwin adds that Sitek brought a “charismatic belligerenceâ€� to the recording process which helped developed the bands sound which as yet they didn’t think existed Yannis is insistent that his separation from the UK and the hype that has so far surrounded the band is one of the most important reasons why recording with him worked and was in the end the right decision. “If we’d worked with a producer in England they would already have been tainted by the press we’ve had,â€� he says. “He’s so out of the loop in that sort of way, it’s refreshing that he looks at it from a timeless perspective in that if he listens to a band he’s comparing it to people from the 60s and music from the seventeenth century. He’s not comparing it to the other band down the road in New Cross.â€�

So the producer what right but what about the place? We broach the subject of the influence of the Big Apple on the band and the album. “We can’t overstate what a good time we had out there,� says Edwin enthusiastically. “We were generally all in good moods and I think that if we were in East London…� Yannis jumps in, “We’d be killing each other!� Thankfully they were not and they didn’t, in fact it sounds as if the five-some were increasingly relaxed by their surroundings. “We were staying in this really calm, weird kind of Argentinean hostel type thing and some of us were smoking quite a lot of weed which we don’t normally do in Britain so much. Its something intangible, cities do have a certain atmosphere and it will reflect it in this record.�

Day to day it wasn’t just Sitek who was giving the band pointers into the recording but also his long line of musician friends which include many of New York’s well known luminaries. Edwin reveals, “They would come to the studio and listen or give us some comment. We had a lot of people who we respect a lot coming in such as Nick Zinner.� As a producer the pair also talk of Sitek’s relaxed approach to the recording process and both agree that it was a great help. Yannis explains, “Sitek would be like if something isn’t going well lets go and have a break, go to some bar and smoke some cigarettes, relax and feel the city.�