Foals are startlingly bright Oxford University drop outs, who currently have the entire music industry frothing at the mouth with their mix of skin piercingly sharp guitars and rapturous indie dance. They are also fucking livid.

'All these Hoxton, skinny jean wearing indie bands are going to go down. They are going to die. People have been on the moon. Buzz Aldrin has existed and these idiots think they are poets. Fuck off. They are fucking nobody. It is ridiculous. If they were just walking down they street they would get drop kicked and yet they are allowed to live in this little, inane, music industry bubble.'

The source of the torrent, is singer Yannic, on a one man mission to destroy the stereo type of bookish bands going hand in hand with the meek and unassuming. The trigger was a mention of Foals appearance at Ibiza Rocks.

'If I was Spanish I would want to behead every English person there', he fumes, 'The thing that freaks me out is that it is a jock, Ben Sherman shirt wearing centre but then you look around and you get all these families there. They get two or three weeks holiday a year and they go there? Why? It is fucking shit.'

And it wasn't just the tourism that left him bemused.

'We played with Hard Fi and they were just cocks. I couldn't give a fuck if they sell three million records. They're still shit and everyone knows it. It was just a joke seeing them walking around at night in sunglasses and changing their shirt three times before they played. To go to Ibiza and play with Hard Fi is so alien to us but that's what we love.The chance to do something different'.

Foals really do stand apart from their so called peers for simply being able to simultaneously sound like a scensters comfort blanket and still have the lust for experimentation, normally preserved for acid fried hermits. Their recent choice of producer says it all.

'..the first thing he said ( New York producer, Sitek)on the phone was , if you want to make a commercial record , don't use me'.

And once in the hands of the New York maverick, did things develop into studio bound lunacy?

'Yeah , pretty much. We'd spend six hours on one song. We recorded drums in an alley in Brooklyn. We manipulated every sound through analog and digital pedals.We got really stoned and I was force fed Jamesons, vodicon and lines of cocaine before I did vocal takes.'

So probably slightly different from say, The Feelings recordings then?

'That's how you should make a record. It shouldn't be some square arse thing where a band whinge about a high hat sound. It is about the process and that's what Sitek instilled into us, that it isn't about the end product but the actual process and making sure you have fun with it. You're not making a record to get from A to B or climb the social ladder, you are making it for what it is.'

The end result is a tightly guarded secret but Yannic is brimming with confidence.

'We didn't know what it would sound like. It sounds different. The brass makes is sound different. It takes it out of white boy indie, winkle picker thing. Less time bound.'

Not only that but it led to some unlikely collaborations.

'If we tour the states we'll probably take the three guys who played on the record, members of an afro beat band we worked with called Antibalas. They are fucking amazing.Serious musicians. We'll also have a sampler.'

Such wild creative turns are becoming commonplace to Foals, like their recent work with cult electronica wiz kid Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet).

'Yeah.That sounds great' , enthuses Yannic, ' That was so fun. Four Tet just let it happen. We were like remixing ourselves live with instruments and then he was conducting it. That's how it sounds. Just three bass notes from the original and the rest was totally original . I don't really like hippies bit that was the most jam orientated that we've got and my mind is opening now. It allowed this band to mature basically. We come from a punk background and now we are just thinking about a lot more things.'

Remarkably the band have only being together for less than a year and a half. In the time it most to decide which way to part their fringe, Foals have made the equivalent of a metamorphosis.

'We actually feel like we are doing something more fulfilling now. So now when we are stuck in a hotel room at 3am, we don't think , ''oh no, what are we doing. Why am I here playing the same songs every night''. Now we actually have a goal'

Which is?

'..to fucking destroy the music industry from the inside out. Just kill every other band'.

It is hefty task but in a time when most bands equate ambition to selling a record in Tescos, they might just do it.

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Matt Dyson is thirty years old, sitting, aloof on an ever increasing pile of creative achievements and literary accolades. Much like Snoop Doggy Dog or Dizee Rascal, Dyson was brought up on the violent streets of Bracknell but overcame the hardships of Home Counties life to get a University education in the useful field of History. He has since contributed music reviews and various articles for various publications, amassing enough cash to buy a London Travel Card. He also plays music in the seminal group, The Bandinis, named after but in no way resembling, Arturo Bandini from his favourite book, 'Ask The Dust' by John Fante. He currently rents a flat in Reading and works in an office. Just to keep it real.

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© 2007 Laura Hird All rights reserved.