Foals biography
Foals are an English rock band from Oxford, England. They are currently signed to Transgressive Records in the UK and Sub Pop in the US. They released their debut album Antidotes on 24 March 2008 in the UK, and 8 April 2008 in the US. The band's second album, Total Life Forever, was released on the 10 May 2010.
History
Early History
Jack Bevan, Eilish May and Yannis Philippakis were originally in cult math rock band The Edmund Fitzgerald, which did not gain much media interest. The group was disbanded after they claimed that things had become "too serious" and they wanted to have more "fun making their music".
Walter and Jimmy were part of a small Oxford band called Face Meets Grill. They met at and were formed from members of Abingdon Boys School. They played gigs in and around Oxford and recording a debut EP in Hull. After playing Truck Festival in 2004 they separated to follow different paths and careers.
Guitarist Jimmy Smith is the only one of the band members to have completed his degree, at Hull University: each of the band members quit their respective universities including Yannis and Edwin leaving their English courses at Oxford University, when the band signed to Transgressive Records by Ben Mackereth.
The lead singer of Youthmovies, Andrew Mears, originally formed the band Foals, playing as guitarist and lead vocalist. He was present on the band's debut 7" single "Try This On Your Piano/Look At My Furrows Of Worry", but left shortly afterwards to concentrate on Youthmovies' debut album Good Nature.
The band likes to be self-sufficient, so all of the music videos are created by their friend Dave Ma and all of the artwork (excluding cover art of Total Life Forever) is also done by their friend Tinhead.
The band's musical influences are varied, with the band members citing minimal techno, Arthur Russell, the Irish based math rock band The Redneck Manifesto, Krautrock bands such as Harmonia, and Talking Heads as well For London (previously known as The Jester People) as their main sources of inspiration. Their musical style however can be more directly linked to various genres such as math rock, indie Rock or New rave.
In early 2007, the band released the limited edition 7" singles Hummer and Mathletics, both produced by Gareth Parton. "Hummer" later featured on the Channel Four teen drama Skins.
Antidotes
In the summer of 2007 Foals began working on their debut album in New York. It was produced by Dave Sitek of TV On The Radio. However, the band decided to mix the album themselves, stating that Sitek made the first master copy of the album sound like "it was recorded in the Grand Canyon". Yannis has stated multiple times during various interviews that Foals and Dave Sitek are on good terms, even though the copy by Sitek was rejected by the band. Foals released their debut album, entitled
Antidotes, on 24 March 2008 in the UK and 8 April 2008 in the USA. The album was a commercial success in the United Kingdom, debuting at #3 in the UK Albums Charts. The album was a minor success in other countries, charting in Japan, France and the Netherlands. Non-UK versions of the album include the early Parton produced singles.
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