Foals say YouTube ‘ruins the surprise’ of new songs with ‘crappy phone versions’

Band announce European tour dates to follow upcoming festival appearances

Foals have expressed their reluctance to play new material live ahead of their new album release, claiming that “crappy phone versions of the songs” uploaded to YouTube “ruin the surprise” for fans.

The band release their James Ford-produced new record ‘What Went Down’ on August 28. Announcing a series of European live dates today (see dates in full below), singer Yannis Philippakis has discussed playing new material with NME.

SEE MORE: Foals Interview: Yannis Philippakis On Their Most Volatile, Intense Album Yet

Advertisement

“We’ve got some festivals booked in over summer, we’re itching to start playing this stuff… but thanks to YouTube I don’t wanna ruin the surprise so we’ll probably keep a bit of a lid on it,” Philippakis said. “If it was up to me, we would have been playing new songs already for ages but you just can’t do that anymore because then you get some crappy phone version of a song that gets thousands of views and it spoils everything because you get this whole commentary on whether the album version is better than the phone version in this 2bit quality. I’d rather not spoil the surprise of a record we’ve worked hard to make sound a certain way by jumping the gun.”

However, Philippakis states that he won’t completely rule out debuting new music live. He revealed: “We will obviously play some songs live but maybe not as many as we’d like to. When the record comes out, the new live set will just be the cream of the crop, it’s exciting for us to see what the new shows will be like.”

Foals play the following European live dates:

Hassleholm Siesta Festival (July 3)
Turku Ruisrock Festival (5)
Montreux Jazz Festival (12)
Bern Gurten Festival (17)
Benidorm Low Festival (26)
Buftea Summer Well (August 8)
Budapest Sziget Festival (13)
Piestany Grape Festival (14)
Krakow Live Festival (20)
Paris Cabaret Sauvage (September 4)
Luxembourg Den Atelier (5)
Amsterdam Melkweg (7)
Berlin Kesselhaus (8)
Copenhagen Vega (10)

The first single from Foals’ album, also titled ‘What Went Down’, will premiere on BBC Radio 1 on Tuesday (June 16) during Annie Mac’s show. It will be available to download immediately afterwards.

Speaking to NME about the new LP, Philippakis was keen to establish that the band were thinking of their live show while recording the songs. “This new stuff’s going to decimate venues; we’re itching to play it,” he said. “It’s going to be fun to get back on stage and obliterate places.”

Advertisement

The singer also explained the ongoing changes he is working on in regards to his lyrics. “On [2013’s ‘Holy Fire’] I tried to consciously push the lyrics somewhere personal that was more like real life, whereas on this one I just wanted to strip the layers of myself away, have the reptilian part of my brain speak directly and not analyse or censor it,” he said.

He added: “I wanted to tap into my inner madman and feel like I was channelling some sort of fevered creature. I wanted to relish the mania, and what ended up happening – looking back at certain passages in some songs – is pretty intense in a way that I wouldn’t have ever been able to plan.”

SEE MORE: 50 Geeky Facts About Foals

The ‘What Went Down’ tracklisting is as follows:

‘What Went Down’
‘Mountain At My Gates’
‘Birch Tree’
‘Give It All’
‘Albatross’
‘Snake Oil’
‘Night Swimmers’
‘London Thunder’
‘Lonely Hunter’
‘A Knife In The Ocean’

You May Also Like

Advertisement

TRENDING

Advertisement

More Stories