Foals’ Yannis Philippakis promises project with Tony Allen will “come out next year”
Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis has confirmed his project with the late Tony Allen will finally see the light of day in 2024.
In 2020, shortly before the legendary Fela Kuti drummer died, Philippakis said they planned to finish the work together during lockdown. Upon his passing, he paid tribute to Allen and said, “The master has left the building but his drums play on forever”.
Philippakis first discussed the collaboration in 2017 and has now provided an update on his plans to release the material. Speaking to NME, the Foals frontman revealed: “It’s pretty done now. We’re in the very final mixes. David Wrench has mixed it. It’s going to come out next year.”
He added: “I need to figure out how to present it to the world and come up with a name for it. Hopefully we’ll play some shows to honour the project and to honour Tony. I’m really excited and think people are going to love it.”
Previously, Philippakis said of his unreleased collaboration with Allen to NME: “The songs have amazing grooves obviously, with Tony Allen on drums. They’re quite dirty, quite rough, fun, polyrhythmic and some of them are quite up-lifting.”
“There’s something generally liberating about having a separate project. It feels like a holiday, in a way. Even thought I always put 100 per cent of myself into everything, by virtue of it not being a Foals project it feels liberating in certain ways,” he added.
Philippakis, who has also contributed music for Alexander Zeldin’s new play The Confessions, released Life Is Yours with Foals in 2022. Additionally, this summer, they announced the return of founding member and bassist Walter Gervers.
Gervers’ departure from the group was revealed at the start of 2018, with Foals stating the musician planned “to pursue a new life”. While he played with them at a series of festivals during the summer, including Reading and Leeds, they have yet to release any music since his return.
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