How Yannis & The Yaw grew from loss and legacy

Foals burst onto the scene in the late 2000s with their frenetic, Skins-friendly, mathy dance-punk, then went a bit post-rock, went heavy, and also blessed us with the two-part Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost project.

But Yannis & The Yaw’s first EP Lagos Paris London is a bit of a departure from what we’ve seen from Philippakis before – not entirely, as Afrobeat has always been an influence – but it’s still a totally unique entity. In 2016, Philippakis got to spend time writing with Afrobeat legend Tony Allen in Paris, but due to scheduling conflicts and the COVID-19 pandemic, the recordings never got completed before Allen died in April 2020 aged 79.

Lagos Paris London, out on 30 August, is a tribute to Allen and a celebration of his life and work – and it’s been a long time in the making.

“It’s been in the shadows for a long time,” says Philippakis of the EP. “There was a big question mark around it – I wasn’t really sure whether it would ever be completed. I was in London when Tony was in Paris. We were both busy, and then there was Covid, and then he passed away. I feel a sense of fulfilment that I’ve managed to complete it on behalf of Tony and myself.”

When Philippakis talks about Allen, it’s clear to see the respect and admiration he has for his late friend, and understandably so – he was Fela Kuti’s drummer for years, and none other than Brian Eno suggested that he might be the greatest drummer of all time.

It’s remarkable, really, given the way things panned out, that Philippakis never expected to find such a connection with him. “I went on a wish – on a hope – and didn’t really have that much expectation. I was hoping to have chemistry with him and almost impress him, I wanted validation that he was into what we were doing. But I was equally expecting that not to be the case. I’d have been quite happy to get back on the Eurostar and chalked it up to misadventure, you know?”

Philippakis says that Allen encouraged him to make his lyrics politically engaged and outward-looking, too. “He wanted it to have a dialogue with the kind of social tension we live in – some of the ways I write Foals lyrics would be much more of an internal … examination,” he explains, trying to find the right word.

He describes the experience as “surreal”, particularly because he grew up listening to Allen’s records. “To hear him playing drums with a riff I’d written was just surreal,” he says, calling himself a guest in the world of Allen and his band. “I was quite happy to concede control to them, certainly at the beginning, just to go with the flow.”

“Once we started to jam the first track, “Walk Through Fire”, and there was a good atmosphere in the room, everything opened up.”

When I meet the affable Philippakis at a café in South London, the first track, “Walk Through Fire”, has been out for just over a month. “It was a buzz to hear it on the radio for the first time,” he says, “With Foals, we’ve had so many releases out. It’s strange and sort of thrill to be back at the first release – there’s not been a first for us for a while. So, to have a first track out, for it to be something fresh entirely, has been really exciting.”

And the reception was overwhelmingly positive. “People seem to really be digging it,” he says, “Some of my favourite authors have actually gotten in touch with me, which is really nice. Robert McFarlane, a nature writer, and Max Porter, who wrote this poetry collection called Grief is the Thing With Feathers.”

How did it feel to hear “Walk Through Fire” back for the first time? “It felt poignant,” says Philippakis. “It was kind of strange to hear some of the last drums he would have ever recorded playing out in the track.”

He also highlights “Under The Strikes”, which came out as a single in June, describing the second half of the song as something of a farewell to Allen. “A lot of the instrumentation slips away, his drums are left quite exposed, and there’s a kind of acknowledgement of his passing in the track,” he says.

“When we were finishing off that one in particular, I felt moved and privileged to be in a position where I have access even just to the raw settings of his drums. It felt like a treasure, you know? A privilege, something precious.”

While Yannis & The Yaw came about through his collaboration with Allen, the project is something that could well continue, exploring music from around the world. Philippakis wants to work with more West African artists, but he points out that it’s not an Afrobeat project in itself – he was born to a Greek father and a South African-Jewish mother, which opens up a wealth of possibilities.

“I’d love to,” he says about bringing South African music in – it’s fair to say that it’s having a bit of a moment right now, with amapiano being popular around the world and Tyla well on her way to becoming a global star. “There's a musician I really love called Petite Noir. We've talked about doing something together for quite a long time – he'd be somebody that I'd love to work with."

“I grew up listening to a lot of compilations from Soweto. I'm not sure how many people are playing in that way anymore – if I could go back in time and record with some musicians from the 80s, that would be wicked,” he laughs.

Would Philippakis work with his Foals bandmates as part of Yannis & The Yaw? “I’d probably keep it separate,” he muses, “because then I think it’d be in danger of becoming the same thing. This is partly exciting because it’s such a break from Foals.

“I want to be inspired to take ideas back to Foals – that happens by having the space from it,” he continues, “I think what would be good with Foals would be to make a record that’s a bit freer and a bit quicker – sometimes I feel like we’re in the studio for too long; things can get overworked.”

“There can be an epicness to a Foals production. I think what’s kinda cool about this record is how light and free-footed it is – that approach of keeping it a bit rougher.”

But before we look towards new Foals material, there are a series of tour dates next month. They’re playing L’Alhambra in Paris – Philippakis describes the EP as more of a French than a British project, and it’d be amiss not to have a show in the capital – as well as London’s KOKO, to round off the tour.

“We're only going to play a handful of shows,” he says, “Just largely to honour Tony, honour the release. We're just doing stuff that we're going to enjoy.”

And Paris? “It just feels like where it should be played, you know?”