Foals bassist Walter Gervers has quit the band after 12 years.
The 34-year-old musician has decided to bow out of the the indie group in order to "pursue a new life", but he’ll be sadly missed by his bandmates – frontman Yannis Philippakis, Jack Bevan, Jimmy Smith and Edwin Congreav – who have wished him well for the future.
The four of them will continue and have reassured fans that their fifth album is well underway, and is their "best yet".
In a lengthy post on their social media accounts, the ‘Cassius’ hitmakers announced: "To all our fans.
"Sadly we have to announce that our mate Water has decided to leave the band to pursue a new life. The parting has been sad but we remain firm friends. He’ll always be our brother, we love him and wish him well in his future endeavours.
"We had 12 amazing years touring together from a small postal van to the Pyramid Stage and beyond. It’s the end of a chapter, but not the end of the book.
"We want to thank him for all his time and energy and passion and we want to thank you for all your support from the early days and into the future.
"We are making new music and working on the fifth LP. It’s gonna be the best yet. Keep those ears alive. (sic)"
It comes after Yannis admitted that they needed "violent change" on their next record, to avoid "extinction".
Asked about their progress on writing their follow up to 2015’s LP ‘What Went Down’, he explained previously: "What we need to do is go through some sort of violent change and make sure, whatever the next record is, it’s not friends with the last two… We’ve built a wide palette that we can draw from. It would be a shame not to keep pushing that. It’s evolution vs. extinction."
The 31-year-old singer also joked that their early drafts of their future tracks didn’t "sound good yet", but they are excited to be back in the studio.
He laughed: "We’ve just started writing the new record. We’ve taken a year out – we needed it. We’d been on tour for a long time. It was fun, but sometimes the more fun a tour is, the more of a toll it takes on you.
"Me and Jimmy [guitarist] have come up with some sketches and some early ideas. We’re actually writing on the road at the moment. It doesn’t sound good, yet … "
Foal bassist Walter Gervers quits
