Cash For Questions - Foals [Q Magazine (April 2016)]
Interrogate the stars. You could win £25!
OXFORD ALT-ROCKERS Foals DISCUSS “BREAKING VEGAS”, BEING DWEEBS, GARDENING TIPS AND DONALD TRUMP ARSE TATTOOS…
WORDS: PAUL STOKES
PHOTOGRAPHS: ALEX LAKE
While fear and/or loathing, not to mention a spot of bankruptcy, are common results of a trip to Las Vegas, it seems Q is in the presence today of the band who broke the bank… almost.
Joining us around a fully-laden poker table at the Hippodrome Casino overlooking London's Leicester Square, Foals are keen to share a few high-rolling war stories. Or more accurately, medium-rolling. “I won 200 bucks the first time we went to Vegas,” boasts frontman Yannis Philippakis of his card-playing prowess. “I had to give all the money to Edwin [Congreave, keyboard player] to hold though, otherwise I'd have gone back into the hole.”
Sadly for bandmates – guitarist Jimmy Smith, drummer Jack Bevan and bassist Walter Gervers along with the aforementioned Congreave – the card table summons up less successful memories. “Yannis was the only one of us to break Vegas,” confirms Smith.
However, now it's time to raise the stakes even higher than Vegas can. We're not talking about Foals' current European tour, their biggest yet, which promises a travelling card school in the shape of support act Everything Everything (“They're card-players, I think,” notes Smith, "so we'll have lost our fees by the end of it”) are in tow. It's not even their recently announced headline slots at Reading & Leeds Festivals (“We're going to smash it!” declares Philippakis), that's raising the jeopardy level. No, it's time to put away the cards, as Foals gamble their credibility, reputations and general good names with an inquisition from Q's esteemed readers. Ready? Stick or twist…
As big tennis fans, how do you feel about the recent match-fixing accusations?
Paul O'Brien, Liverpool
Jack Bevan: It's like when you discover bands playing gigs have been drinking!
Jimmy Smith: It's cheating!
JB: They should be out there stone-cold sober!
Yannis Philippakis: I'm not a massive fan. But I like watching Wimbledon. We tried playing tennis when we recorded the last album in France. We played a game! It's tiring.
Are any of the band big foodies? Do you search out the local good restaurants whenever you're on tour?
Pete Burroughs, via Q Mail
Edwin Congreave: Just the nearest shit Italian… Shitalian!
JB: I did an entire UK tour in 2007 only eating Wagamama's chicken katsu curry every day for three weeks. I thought that was good for you back then.
JS: We're still hoping for those Nando's “black cards” [rumoured to entitle the holder to free food for a year].
JB: Don't say it or they'll never give it to you.
JS: Oh, that's right, you fucked it by tweeting about it.
JB: Yeah, I did. I tweeted something about a Nando's black card and Nando's tweeted back saying: “If you ever ask, you'll never get.” So, sorry guys.
“PEOPLE STOPPED MENTIONING HORSES AND US AFTER THE FIRST YEAR. THERE WAS A LOT OF GREAT PUNNERY BEFORE THAT.” YANNIS PHILIPPAKIS
You met at school - who were the jocks and who were the nerds?
Phil Pearce, via Q Mail
EC: I never got a detention. That's all you need to know. I was a dweeb.
YP: I got suspended twice for general unruliness. I just got in trouble a lot at school.
EC: Walter was a jock!
JB: He used to bully Jimmy at school!
JS: Yeah, he did!
Walter Gervers: [Very defensively] I didn't! No! They still bring this up…
JS: I was brutally homesick and he used to heckle me! You've opened the biggest can of worms here…
WG: You used to heckle me too!
YP: What did Walter say?
JS: “Nice cords, dickhead!” [All laugh]
WG: I didn't do that! I was not a bully!
JB: I remember you going round kicking sand in people's faces!
WG: I just did a lot of sport and was well-behaved…
JS: Dickhead! [All laugh]
Who's the hardest in the band and how many times have you come to physical blows with each other?
lan Turner, Rochdale
JS: Yannis is the hardest!
YP: But we've never come to blows with each other…
JS: You've had most fights outside the band.
EC: It's definitely Yannis but it's not exactly difficult competition, we're five pansies!
JB: Ten years ago it would have been Walter!
YP: I once got into an altercation outside a club in Brighton over something like a cigarette and Walter stepped in and made the guy who was being aggressive cry without even touching him. He then consoled him, hugged him and made him feel better. This was in the space of five minutes!
JB: We also watched Walter feed a wild fox out of the palm of his hand in Edinburgh in 2006.
YP: He's a man of many accomplishments.
“I'D HAVE A TATTOO OF DAVID CAMERON'S FACE ON MY LEFT BUTT CHEEK AND DONALD TRUMP ON THE RIGHT.” YANNIS PHILIPPAKIS
Noel Gallagher said that nobody would be listening to Foals in 12 years' time. Did you take being slagged off by him as a badge of honour or were you upset?
Jenny Wardle, via Q Mail
EC: No. Very astute!
YP: But he also said that our album [2015's What Went Down] was one of his favourite new records. So it's more of a damning criticism of every other bit of music than us. If nobody is listening to us in 12 years' time, everyone else is not getting listened to either!
You appeared on Skins, but what is the best band playing themselves on a TV show?
@ iamruthkelly, via Twitter
JB: Motörhead playing Ace Of Spades on The Young Ones was probably the coolest thing I ever saw!
YP: I'd think there had only been one other band on Skins before us, it was meant to be a house party. I have an IMDb page because of it. I answered a phone and said, “Yes?”
As you were once described as "math rock", what's the square root of 87?
Louise Cunningham, Manchester
YP: Jack or Edwin, go on!
EC: It doesn't have a square root. It does, but you can't work it out, it's a never-ending number. It's an irrational number. [It begins 9.32737905309- Decimal Point Ed]
JS: He's going to figure that out later.
EC: You can't figure it out! Sorry.
What's the largest bar bill you've ever racked up?
Geoff Adams, via Q Mail
YP: Well, the ones we rack up, we don't usually pay for ourselves.
JS: We had a particularly good one when we signed to our label Transgressive!
YP: Yeah, we broke their bank.
JB: We'd never had the opportunity to have whatever we wanted in a bar before and they said, “Help yourselves.” So we had six of everything! The cocktails were £10 each!
YP: They had to drop a couple of acts!
Yannis, you often walk among the audience during gigs, ever been pick-pocketed or tripped up?
Lisa Mason, Brighton
YP: No, but I've been groped!
EC: You had your in-ear monitors taken.
JB: But very graciously returned later.
YP: I've lost shoes and stuff. I'm usually just out of my mind by the time I'm doing that, so I don't notice.
Yannis, I hear you're a great gardener. Do you have any tips for how to stop the winter frost killing off my hyacinths?
Jane Edwards, Leicester
YP: No, I don't. The only thing I really know about is roses and they're pretty hardy. I recently moved house, so my garden is just a rubble patch right now. I've been watching lots of Monty Don videos, what a genius! So, I don't know. They can just Google it… [laughs]
Is it true you turned down Glastonbury last year?
Jason Huddlestone, via Q Mail
YP: We were offered the Friday slot that The Libertines did before Florence. We hadn't played a show in a year, so we didn't do it.
JB: We'd got the call but we were in rehearsals learning to play our new record [2015's What Went Down] live.
YP: Which we're still in the process of doing…
JB: For a minute we thought about it, and it's amazing to be asked, but we weren't ready.
Can any of you ride a horse?
@ boydmcewan, via Twitter
YP: I have ridden a horse but I wouldn't say I can ride a horse.
JS: I rode a horse too but I don't think it listened to me.
EC: The answer is a clear, “No!”
YP: People stopped mentioning horses and us after the first year. There was a lot of great punnery going on before that.
JB: There were a lot of animal names going around when we were picking a band name, I'm quite glad we don't have Wolf in the name.
What was your favourite children's television show?
Emma Odell, Colchester
YP: Mine was probably Bucky O'Hare.
JB: Eerie, Indiana for me, so weird!
JS: The Family-Ness.
WG: Rude Dog And The Dweebs, so good! Trap Door…
EC: Come on, let's limit ourselves to one each!
WG: Wacky Races…..
YP: Ren & Stimpy was pretty good… [the band, bar Edwin, keep naming TV shows and arguing about Nickelodeon's creative peak for a further five minutes before humming the Rugrats theme].
YP: Ah, Rugrats, the theme was by the Devo guy, Mark Mothersbaugh.
EC: Anyway, sorry…
Have any of you listened to East India Youth's Total Strife Forever album? Do you take it as a tribute or diss?
Luke McGregor, Leeds
JS: Yes! It's a tribute [to Foals' Total Life Forever], I think.
YP: I find it weird that you would name your own album after ours.
JS: He [William Doyle] said he regretted it because he kept getting asked about it, but it's a really good LP.
If you were forced to have someone's face tattooed on your body, whose would it be and where would you want it?
Lucy, via Q Mail
YP: David Cameron's on my left butt cheek and Donald Trump on the right one. Or Snoopy. I'd quite like that.
JB: I wouldn't mind Keith Richards's face on my face. Not the same size but a bit bigger than my nose so it looks like a slightly upsetting birthmark.
What “pub sport” are you best at?
Tony Cook, via Q Mail
All (bar Jack): Darts!
JB: Bar billiards! I fucking love bar billiards. I'm good at pool, too.
EC: Darts is a bit more Everyman and we need to pretend we're more Everyman. I'm awful at all of them.
What classic album have you never listened to?
Pat Mackie, West London
YP: Any of The Beatles' albums.
JB: I've never listened to a whole Bob Dylan album.
WG: I've never listened to a Leonard Cohen album and I feel like I should.
JS: You fucking should!
EC: Jimmy has listened to all of them.
YP: He's the classic rock guy!
Translator's Note: Not gonna lie, I was shocked at just how short Yannis really is. He is just so... smol lmao
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