insiderblmFoals keyboardist Edwin Congrave has said he has questioned being in the band over the carbon footprint of their global tours.
The musician says he has struggled with the idea of touring far-flung places like Asia and Australia.
“I think that it would be quite easy for us and a lot of bands to tour differently,” he told the BBC Radio 5 Live podcast ‘What Planet Are We On?
“I don’t want to fly ever again,” the 35-year old added.
In a rare interview, Congreave also described suffering eco-anxiety after becoming more aware of the climate crisis in the last year.
He told co-presenters Victoria Gill and Matt McGrath it felt like “an avalanche of truth descending on my head”.
It meant the musician looked at the impact his own life was having on the environment – which at the time included a prospective tour of Asia.
“This year I’ve had to kind of look at the question of whether I should be in the band – but if I didn’t go on this tour this summer then the obvious point comes up that someone else would do it.
“So it’s not like I’m going to stop the flying and I’m just not quite ready to walk out of my job.”
But the musician called on his own band and others like it to “not do certain types of tours” – particularly those in far-off destinations.
“It wouldn’t affect our business particularly, but it would mean that we are not freighting two tonnes of gear halfway across the world and back. So, for me, that seems like quite a clear case of something we shouldn’t do.”
Congreave conceded many people’s livelihoods in the industry would be affected and also admitted that Foals frontman, Yannis Philippakis, would see things differently: “He just wants to make music and that’s his whole reason of being, so to suggest to him that we cannot tour is kind of like an affront to his identity.
“He wants to communicate his music to fans and to not be able to do that means stripping away his life.”
Congreave said he envisaged possibly relying on streaming services in the future alongside touring Europe or the USA in a greener way: “The actual impact that driving gear across Europe has compared to flying, in the big picture, is relatively low,” he added.
“But, yeah, I think that a lot of musicians and a lot of DJs and bands should just stop touring. Basically, I think it’s that serious… it’s just a message that people don’t want to hear.”
In 2019 Coldplay took the decision not to tour their album, Everyday Life, over environmental concerns.
Chris Martin announced the band wanted to “work out how our tour can not only be sustainable [but] how can it be actively beneficial.”
Last year, Massive Attack also decided to take action on the carbon footprint of the music industry, announcing they would tour Europe by train.
The band is currently working with the University of Manchester and the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and released a video in October with an update into research they commissioned into how to decarbonise the music industry.
