British band Foals have been nonstop since the release of their first album in 2007. The five-piece band consisting of vocalist and guitarist Yannis Philippakis, drummer and percussionist Jack Bevan, rhythm guitarist Jimmy Smith, bassist Walter Gervers and keyboardist Edwin Congreave has four albums under their belt and a reputation for putting on an exciting and high energy live show. After a year of touring with other bands and making a few festival stops, Foals began a headline tour this fall, with a few dates in Southern California. After the end of this year though, the band will take a six-month break to recuperate and relax. Before the start of their tour, Bevan took some time to answer a few questions about the band’s music and upcoming tour.
Q: Last year you released “What Went Down.” Have you been working on anything else since then besides touring?
A: No, we’ve just been so busy touring. As a band we’re not very good writing on the road. We’ve just had so many shows … so we’re looking forward to taking a bit of a break after we finish touring and then getting into writing later next year at some point.
Q: Yeah, I read earlier that you guys said you’d be taking a breather after December. How do you think you’ll adjust to a normal pace of life after so much touring?
A: I’m quite excited about the idea of taking a break. We’ve basically been going since we made “Antidotes” in 2007. Every time we finished touring for a record we’ve almost immediately started writing the next one, so yeah, it’s what we love, but at the same time, a lot of us have stuff we want to do that isn’t just band related. It’s going to be definitely quite weird to go for months without doing any sort of band related stuff. I think having that time will make us really focused and excited for when we do start playing again with each other.
Q: I’ve been to a couple of your shows in the past, and you guys have such an explosive live set. What drives such relentless energy?
A: It’s just what we love doing. It’s kind of what we’re used to. Like being a live band was the thing that we had way before making any records, so that’s kind of where we’re most at home. We love the studio as well, but like we’ve kind of been learning our way around it over the last four records. After all these years, coz’ we’ve got four records to pick from now, it’s really nice having four albums worth of songs to choose a set that can be really exciting, energetic and then also have lulls and stuff. I think we get really riled up before shows. It’s kind of the one point in the day where we have like a real release, coz’ a lot of the time being in a band you do end up sort of waiting around a lot and sort of traveling, so it’s quite stress relieving to go out there and bash on the drums for an hour and a half and kind of get into it.
Q: After four albums and many years later, does it still surprise you how fans react to your music or live shows?
It’s always amazing, like I think it’s really exciting when you have a new record or when your record has just come out and you’re kind of seeing how the crowd reacts. It’s not always how we expect it, like sometimes one song will actually go down better than we thought it would or sometimes we’ll have one we think is gonna slay it and it doesn’t go down quite as well.
A: On stage, I know you’re behind the drums and Yannis is jumping somewhere, usually into the crowd – how do you balance each other’s stage presence?
You know what your role is on stage, and sometimes it’s like a dysfunctional family … but I think it’s great. We really do get ourselves into a sort of mindset before we go on stage. Beforehand, we’ll be sort of jumping up and down getting ourselves, like a sports warm up, punching each other on the shoulder. When Yannis is doing that stuff, it doesn’t ever feel like it’s inherently natural. I feel like he wants to connect with the crowd more than you can from just standing on stage and playing the guitar. And I feel the same. A lot of the time I’ll get up on my drum stool or whatever, and it’s just like little things you can do to feel it even more, that connection with the crowd.
Q: What do you want your fans to take away from your shows?
A: I hope they get out of it what we do, because we really enjoy being up there and playing. For me the dream would be for them to feel the way I felt when I used to see my favorite bands when I was a teenager. If I go and see my favorite bands now when I’m not on tour now, it’s a totally different experience you’re not thinking about in the same way when you’re on stage. You’re not analytical. You’re just enjoying it.
For more information, visit Foals website.