What went down at Yannis from Foals’ Oxford Union talk (Report)

Of all the truly great indie stars of the 21st century, Yannis Philippakis from Foals surely ranks near the very top. A firebrand attitude, paired with a bookish, philosophical mind, he’s the kind of figurehead that elevates a band to greatness.

With the Foals frontman invited down to Oxford Union to give a talk at his old university (the Union president admitted that they had been “trying for years” to get Yannis to come talk at the prestigious venue), NME was granted access to the Q&A. Here’s what went down.

On his short-lived time at Oxford University

Yannis famously dropped out of Oxford University after just one year in order to pursue the band full-time, after being offered a record deal by Transgressive. Discussing the decision with some lucky Oxford Union members ahead of the formal Q&A, he admitted that it was “an honour to be back.”

“I felt like [the band] was what my main drive was in, so I deferred,” he explained, “Thankfully it went well and I just never went back.”

Yannis studied English Literature at St. John’s College during his time at Oxford. Looking back, he admitted, “I have a dual view of it. I liked aspects of it. The intertextuality course I liked a lot. I was stretched a lot, which is good – in the music industry you’re quite vegetative and mollycoddled, in a way. But the idea of having to follow a course just wasn’t for me at the time.”

“I got both the town and gown thing,” Yannis also stated, in reference to his upbringing in Oxford, and subsequent year at Oxford University. “I walk past St. John’s all the time and it’s hard not to think how things could have been different. And technically I’ve still deferred, so you never know!”

On Foals’ early…