Ep 136: Foals’ Yannis Philippakis on collaborating with icon Tony Allen, his love of gardening and what happens next with Foals

Midnight Chats

Frontman with one of Britain’s biggest modern rock bands, Yannis Philippakis recently launched Yannis & The Yaw – not so much a solo project, more of an experiment in collaboration. Dial back seven years and Yannis spent time writing songs with one of his heroes, the icon drummer Tony Allen – godfather of Afrobeat and distinguished collaborator with everyone from Damon Albarn to Air. The result is a posthumous project – Allen died in 2020 – titled ‘Lagos Paris London’ released in August 2024.

Yannis goes deep with host Greg Cochrane about his “cross generational” bond with Allen, and the other legendary artists he'd love write with Yannis & The Yaw. Plus, he discusses the evolving future of his band Foals, chats about his passion for gardening and why he’s writing music for some contemporary theatre productions.

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Links to stuff mentioned in the episode:

More Yannis? He joined us on episode 64 of Midnight Chats back in 2019

Check out the videos for Yannis & The Yaw tracks ‘Under The Strikes’ and ‘Walk Through Fire’

Further reading: Yannis on his love for gardening, interviewed in The Telegraph

The Confessions theatre production Yannis wrote the score for in 2023

From 2023: Original bassist Walter Gervers rejoins Foals, via NME

Credits:

Interview by Greg Cochrane

Editing by Stuart Stubbs

Mixing and mastering by Flo Lines

Artwork by Kate Prior

Video by Robbie Hamilton

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