10,000 Feet

10,000 Feet

Foals

“10,000 Feet” is the first of the trio of songs about mortality which conclude Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 2. Singer and lyricist Yannis Philippakis explained in interviews with DIY, The BBC, Dutch radio station KINK, and others that he was interested in the idea of death as a change of state and inspired by the myth of Icarus and the story of architect Luis Barragán’s ashes being turned into a diamond after his death. He summarized the song for Apple Music:

“When we were playing this in the room, I just had images of falling. Dancing thousands of feet up in the sky and then falling. That’s partly why also ‘Ikaria’ is called what it is. We just felt there was something open-skied about it—both really open and heavy at the same time. The verse is up in the air, then you kind of come crashing down to earth in the riff and the chorus. There’s a lyric about being turned into a ‘wedding ring you can wear.’ This was inspired by an architect in Mexico whose ashes were turned into a diamond ring. It was an image that just stuck with me. One form of remaining alive forever after is being turned into a diamond through your ashes. I found that both ghoulish and beautiful.”

He also noted that the Icarus metaphor applies to the current ecological crisis being caused by human technology and hubris, a major theme of Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Parts 1 and 2:

“Icarus is a great metaphor and myth for what’s happening with the world right now, I think. Where through all our technological processes and supposed advancement, we’re actually at the point where we might undo ourselves, facing extinction.”

Yannis has alluded to this myth before in the songs ‘Ikaria’ and ‘Stepson’.