Foals have discussed the inspiration behind their changing visual aesthetic throughout the years. Check out the video below.
The Yannis Philippakis-fronted band, who are gearing up to release ‘Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 2’ later this month, sat down with BBC Radio 1 to break down the “visual evolution” from their debut album, ‘Antidotes‘, right up to the present day.
Talking about working with illustrator Tinhead on their first LP’s artwork, drummer Jack Bevan explains that the collaboration came about after meeting the artist on a Foundation course at Oxford Brookes University.
Philippakis goes on to describe him as “a real character” who was given “a list of words” by the frontman on which to base his designs. “We worked with him a bit again on [second album] ‘Total Life Forever‘ and then he carried on doing T-shirts for us,” he adds.
Yannis and Jack talk through Foals' visual evolution, from the illustrations behind debut album 'Antidotes' to the botanical themes of latest release 'Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost' ?✨
Posted by BBC Sounds on Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Speaking of the ‘Total Life Forever’ cover art, the band explain how they swam deep to the bottom of a London swimming pool in order to bag the final shot. “It was terrifying ’cause it was so deep it was black, basically,” Bevan recalls.
After running through the ideas behind their following albums, Foals touch on the video for 2019’s ‘In Degrees’ and the wider ‘Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost’ theme.
Recommended
“We wanted a kind of contrasting but complementary image for the second part, which has its own kind of feel to it,” says Philippakis of their upcoming LP’s cover. “But I think we’re just sort of attracted to foliage and things that are fertile and growing, and it just seems to suit the music well.”
At the end of the clip, Philippakis describes the sound of ‘Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 2’ – stating that it’s more of a “rock” album and contains “some proper bangers”.
The album is released on October 18, following on from ‘Part 1’ which came out back in March.
In other news, Philippakis spoke to NME last month about his “run-in with a knife” which left him unable to play guitar during the band’s performance at the Mercury Prize 2019 ceremony.