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Foals Explore the Apocalypse on 'Holy Fire' With Flood and Alan Moulder

FoalsSteve Gullick

Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis spent his youth immersed in the likes of Smashing Pumpkins and Nine Inch Nails, so when he and his four bandmates had the opportunity to put their third album, Holy Fire, into the capable hands of Flood and Alan Moulder, it was pretty much a no-brainer.

This is coming from a band rather particular about the production of their records. Don't forget how, after Dave Sitek produced Foals' 2007 debut Antidotes, the band decided the sound was so unlike what they were after they ended up mixing it themselves. Moulder played a part in the mixing of 2009's follow-up, Total Life Forever, and Philippakis knew a connection was made.

"They're great combination," Philippakis says of Moulder and Flood. 'We grew up listening to Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness and Downward Spiral. Flood's produced some of our favorite music. In many ways it was a much more liberated process this time around. We were very confident. It was less of the anguish that followed the last records."

Holy Fire is set for a Feb. 11 release date and its first two singles, "Inhaler" and "My Number" are already garnering a lot of attention.

"We were less neurotic about things sounding good," the singer claims. "It was more about the humanity of the take. It was much more about things hitting you in the gut level. We wanted to be greedy with the album and push ourselves to explore new territory. When any two songs sounded alike, we made a point to alter one. I think it means the record has diversity."

Subjects of the new record include human relationships, "guilt, shame, the moon" and, as the album title suggests, the end of the world.

Philippakis explored related themes in Total Life Forever and admits that he is fascinated by the future and apocalyptic images but doesn't subscribe to any fatalistic views on the matter.

"I don't believe in that doom-mongering, superstitious stuff. I think it's self-important to think
we're going to be present to see the world end," he says. "There is a preoccupation with what it will look like, yes. It's virtually depicting a scene where everything was rocking and crumbling."
But more than his preoccupation with this idea, Holy Fire was named more for pure drama.

"It just felt like it was a good title for the record. All five of us agree it evoked the right thing in the record, the right kind of intensity," he says. "I like these huge words that have a lot of significance, they can make their own kind of a message."

Regarding the law of averages, Philippakis insists that Holy Fire doesn't necessarily continue in the vein of "math rock," the category into which Foals' have historically -- albeit unwittingly -- been lumped.

"I don't really like labels either, but I think I know what it means. Math rock stems from the Chicago scene, post-hardcore with weird, stop-start riffs. I don't think we're a math rock band. The kind of labels put on our band over the years, it shows how fastuous critics like to be."

Foals are kicking off their longest tour to date in Australia, the UK and Europe and several dates are already sold out. They head stateside in April.




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