Foals to release remix album and artist collaborations

Foals are planning a remix album and cross-genre artist collaborations, Music Week can reveal.

Following their win in the British Group category at the BRITs last week, now Warner Records president Phil Christie has opened up about the plans for the band.

“We’re planning an album of Foals remixes,” said Christie. “It’s a compendium of all the remixes from over the last 10 years, which are numerous. Basically, a lot of them never came out and don't exist in the digital space. There are things from Hot Chip, incredible remixes from over the years.

“We want to make a statement that this is a band that have always been at the forefront of remix culture. That will be accompanied by one, maybe two collaborations, which will be taking them into new areas.”

The remix album is set for release in the summer on streaming services and vinyl. It follows the remix edition of 2013 LP Holy Fire, as well as the reworkings of tracks on Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 1 last year. The identity of the artist collaborators has yet to be confirmed.

Music Week reported on the band’s dual album strategy in 2019 with Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 1 and Part 2.

According to the Official Charts Company, Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 1 has sales so far of 71,934. The follow-up album, which became the band’s first No.1, has sales of 41,823.

“[The dual album strategy] has been totally vindicated,” said Christie. “We can very confidently state that both those albums stand up in their own right, they've both been critically acclaimed. So it's not like we diluted the music across two pieces of product, which was always the statement we made at the start.

“The fact that those two albums in one year allowed us to dominate the conversation for 12 months, and mitigate drop-off in consumption and coverage of an alternative guitar-led album in the current marketplace – it’s absolutely been a proof of concept.”

Christie said the label will now capitalise on the BRITs moment.

“There's obviously a large number of people who have never heard of Foals still, they remain undiscovered to many,” he said. “This is a great bit of mainstream profile for a band and genre that doesn't always get those platforms. So we’re really grateful and delighted. We’ve still got another single that is a belter of this album, which we can now take to radio off the back of this news. We can re-optimise everything with DSPs to make sure that people are giving both these albums the profile they deserve.”

Foals have lined up a busy touring schedule, including three nights at London’s Olympia in May.

“They have never been bigger as a live proposition,” said Christie.

The Warner Records boss also welcome the BRITs win for the group, 15 years into their career.

“This is a real mark of recognition for this band,” he said. “They are BRIT winners and they join an illustrious line of British bands and groups that have won that prize. They absolutely deserve it on every level. It’s really gratifying that this doesn't feel like an award at the end of a career. This is a band that still has a lot of ground to cover and a lot of things to say – we think their next records have got every chance of being their best.”