As indie-darlings and magazine cover stars, Oxford band Foals always fought hard to defy expectations and fulfil the hype. As the band warmed up to release their new album ‘Total Life Forever’ and bring their tour to Nottingham, ANDREW TRENDELL had a quick chat with guitarist Jimmy Smith to talk about math-rock, mass appeal and moving forwards.
Hype can be hard to deal with. As music becomes more and more disposable and fashion sees bands come and go, recent years have seen countless bands crushed under the weight of the expectations laid upon them. Many feared that Foals would share the same fate, as the buzz surrounding them grew more and more deafening. Fortunately, their debut album ‘Antidotes’ was a triumph. It was an awkward yet infectious record, and saw them top many ‘best of’ lists, and gained them the reputation of one of Britain’s most promising young bands. Their new album ‘Total Life Forever’ is an accomplished sophomore album. Vast and euphoric, it shows a clear departure from the dark claustrophobia of ‘Antidotes’, without losing the band’s charm for enigmatic lyrics and idiosyncratic musical flourishes. We caught up with guitarist Jimmy Smith to discuss how the Oxford five-piece made this huge leap forwards.
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AT: Total Life Forever is an incredible album. It sounds much larger and more ambitious than your last album with a lot more space and atmosphere. Would you say that was a conscious thing or did that just happen naturally?
J: I think that just happened naturally. We were playing the old songs for so long. Not just for the two years we were touring but for a few years before that because some of those songs were written right at the beginning of Foals. This time round we all had an appetite to make some new music. We moved into a house together so we could write music any time of day or night and at quiet volumes, which is why I think the music has a different sound to it now. We had the space to progress and there are no forced ideas on it.
AT: It sounds quite euphoric. What inspired that?
J: Just some old acid house tunes! I remember quite vividly when we writing in spring last year, things were heating up and everyone was just really happy and I think a lot of the music reflects that.
AT: With the last album it seems as if a lot of lazy journalists were throwing a lot of labels at you and trying to pigeonhole you into some sort of fixed dynamic or scene or whatever, but this album sounds as if you guys are sitting outside any kind of fixed template. How would you respond to that?
J: I think we got used to the whole labelling process pretty quickly, but that’s just what happens isn’t it? Some of the tags were pretty annoying, like the whole ‘math-rock’ thing. No one had really heard of it so I guess people just started to use it all of the time. I think we are a little harder to pigeonhole now, I think we always were a little bit. I think it’ll challenge people a bit more.
AT: In light of that, how do the new songs rest alongside the old ones?
J: We just did a short tour of Europe and tried out some new ones and they went down really well. The new songs seem to be working well with the old ones and they’re kind of making the old songs sound better than they used to. We also get to have a bit of a breather with these songs – we’re not just running around like lunatics at break neck speed for an hour. It’s definitely more dynamic and we’ve a lot more different emotions on display.
AT: You guys have already achieved an incredible amount, but what do you still hope to accomplish?
J: Years ago I set myself some goals in life; one of them was to release a seven inch single and another was to release an album that I’m proud of. We were really proud of the last one but I think we’re especially super-proud with Total Life Forever which has ticked off a big box for us. I just think that from now on we need to keep getting better as a band and keep progressing and hopefully we’ll be able to do this for a while.
AT: How would you say that travelling the world and playing to an international audience has changed the outlook of the band?
J: It probably has changed us on some kind of subconscious level. It’s always an eye-opener when you finally leave your own country and see how other people do it. It was a big eye opener to discover that we actually had fans in Japan and South America and all of these places. We went to Brazil which was absolutely bonkers. We had a week in Sao Paulo which was insane, they’re great people. We were quite taken aback the first time we had to play a big stage in front of people because the energy is different and it’s not the same as some kind of sweaty little club.
AT: To look at the bigger picture, mainstream indie has had a very clear direction for the past 10 years. Where do you think it’s going to go in the next decade?
J: I think its going in the right way in terms of the progression of things with bands like Yeasayer and Caribou who are light-years ahead of everyone else. There are some great bands that blend experimentation with pop music and I’d just like to see it go a bit further towards that. We’re still in search of that perfect pop song – the Holy Grail.
Interview By Andrew Trendell
Tags: foals, jimmy smith, nottingham, total life forever, yannis
