Cassius Is Over

"You don't have my number,” Foals toyed on Holy Fire's second single (unsurprisingly titled My Number), but as the Oxford five are fast finding out, more and more people are dialling in. Since the release of their third long-player earlier this year, the band have swiftly – if somewhat nonchalantly – become a serious touring drawcard. Music that was once seen as complicated math rock has straightened out and simplified. Yes, the songwriting intelligence still prevails – that's never going to change – but Foals have managed to chalk up a musical equation that anyone can solve.

Holy Fire sees the five-piece stretching their sonic spectrum to the edges of their abilities. Digestible art pop, relentless rock force, stuttering angular riffs – undulation after undulation. It's a record of extremes, a statement that their bass player Walter Gervers is quick to agree with.

“I think there was definitely a feeling of not holding back,” he begins, speaking of the sessions. “If a certain song had an identity we weren't about to rein it in too much and change it. In fact it was quite nice not making a song that was definitely heading in a different direction and sort of smothering it and making it more 'Foals'. What we actually did do was not do that and not add too many layers and make it safe – [we] just let it go in the direction that it went. That leads to having songs, like Moon, which are very naked and soulful and quiet, and then something like Inhaler, which is obviously the product of five guys playing big riffs together and really enjoying it. It definitely lent itself to that.”

Foals have just arrived at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma, an iconic venue that has hosted everyone from Metallica and Bob Dylan to Kings Of Leon and Snoop Dogg. The guys are taking shelter from the brutal summer heat outside, enjoying their second stint touring the States since Holy Fire's release, and the 29-year-old Gervers has broken away from his bandmates – Yannis Philippakis [vocals, guitar], Jimmy Smith [guitar], Edwin Congreave [keys] and Jack Bevan [drums] – to open up further about the group's most successful record.

“There wasn't really a specific thing that we wanted to achieve [with Holy Fire], so that in itself is quite a pleasure, going into writing and recording because you have that clean slate again – we really enjoyed writing it. We were back home in Oxford, and after all the touring it felt real refreshing to be writing new music again. There was no briefing, like, 'This is what this record is going to be about, this is what it's going to sound like.' It really did naturally evolve, which means that for its strengths it has this big palate of songs which are wildly different. To get that spread and not be going over the same ground was something that when we started recording we were really conscious of.”

Production issues on the group's first two albums have been well documented (Dave Sitek applying additional reverb on 2008's Antidotes; Paul Epworth being replaced by Luke Smith on 2010's Total Life Forever). This time around, Foals called in the serious big guns. Flood and Alan Moulder are two of the most commanding names in music production, having together worked on big budget records for the likes of Smashing Pumpkins and The Killers, and individually at the helm of releases from artists as diverse as PJ Harvey, Nine Inch Nails and My Bloody Valentine.

Interestingly, the quintet got a taste for what was possible when Moulder provided the mix for Spanish Sahara, off Total Life Forever. Unsurprisingly, that majestic and at times lucid track acted as the centrepiece for that record and was recognised by NME as the best song of 2010. The grand ambition found on that tune is obvious throughout Holy Fire, and although ideas were “ping ponging” relentlessly during recordings at Assault & Battery Studios in London, communication was continual and rewarding.

“They would come to Oxford for a bit of pre-production, and Yannis would send them loops and tapes and bad room recordings,” he remembers. “We had between nineteen and twenty tracks in very rough form, and then it was just a case of getting in there and chiselling away, which was really satisfying. They were great to work with to bounce ideas off, and there was a trust in them because of what they've worked on before.”

And although their resumes are formidable, thankfully their personalities are not. “They're just regular dudes, it's great,” Gervers informs with a smile. “Alan's a sort of sound doctor – he's very considered and calm and he likes to have a laugh; and Flood is bustling with energy the whole time and he can't really sit still and he wants to get his hands dirty, he wants to get into the guts of the songs. So between the two of them they're quite different, but you put them together and they're a pretty good calming combo for each other. They trust themselves because they know they're good at what they do, but there were no egos flying around, which I think would have been a bit of a disaster for us to come face to face with.”

Listening to Foals' three records end to end, back to back, they all seem consistent to themselves, yet distinctly individual. They encapsulate a constant feeling – a vibe – and stand as capsules in time, reflecting band members growing up as songwriters, musicians and people.

“We really do treat them like that,” Gervers agrees. “Sometimes we do go back and listen to the records themselves but not very often. We spend so much time on tour that these songs that we're playing live still seem fresh to us, and some of them have come a long way from what they were originally, which is exciting. But we don't get too sentimental or wistful about the old records; we just want to keep making different things and keep people on their toes, because I think it could be the death of the band if we start to cover the same ground.”

Indeed, if you're not looking forward you're looking back, and then you might miss the turn coming up. However, Gervers is drawn to reflect, albeit briefly, citing the changes that have taken Foals from their university-centric hometown to the headlining act at the recent Latitude Festival in Suffolk, UK.

“I suppose we learnt how to write songs as opposed to just jams and things that were the product of playing early live shows, like Antidotes. We'd written and played those songs a long time before we recorded them so they had a crisp frenetic nature to them. Then all of a sudden you make a record where you're recording something in a studio that you've never played in front of an audience or no one's ever heard it before, so obviously it takes on a completely different life. We're always going to be neurotic and anxious about what's getting released – like any band is – but we've learnt to relax a little bit more, and that goes back to songs having their own identity. If we're into it and we like it we're pretty sure other people will as well, so it's just about being relaxed and letting things breathe a little bit more.”

Foals can't wait to return to Australia. After all, our country's given the band their only number one record, an achievement that's not lost on Gervers. “Mmmmm,” he says, enjoying the reminder as he takes a sip of an undisclosed beverage. “That was a huge surprise for us – that was unreal.”

Gervers is being rather gracious here. Obviously. Foals' fanbase Down Under is rabid. But even if we Aussies in the know expected such a result, the band didn't, making it all the more special. “It was really exciting and it hasn't happened to us anywhere else before so good on ya,” he beams. “It was a really good combination that week and there was a lot of luck in it, and it definitely doesn't mean we're a different band in Australia than we are anywhere else. I don't know what else to say? It was cool, but we're definitely not a chart-topping band – and we probably won't be anywhere else in the future – but just to have that moment where we came in number one is pretty cool.”