Foals keyboardist Edwin Congreave tells Tim Hughes how being in the band changed his life - and why he can’t wait to return to Oxford to play tunes at this weekend’s big festival

Edwin Congreave is a most unlikely rock star. As keys man for Oxford band Foals, he is part of one of the world’s biggest acts – global superstars packing out venues across the planet to adoring fans, hogging top slots at the world’s biggest festivals such as Reading, Bestival, Glastonbury and Coachella, and picking up accolades and awards by the guitar case.

Edwin, though, remains modest, considered and down to earth.

“I have never felt ‘rock & roll’ myself,” he says with a gentle laugh. “I suppose I am ‘rock & roll’ by proxy though, and am glad to partake.”

It’s impossible to overstate the impact Edwin, 33, and bandmates Yannis Philippakis, Jack Bevan, Jimmy Smith and Walter Gervers have made on indie rock and Oxford music – ranking alongside Radiohead, Ride and Supergrass as our greatest exports.

Forming 12 years ago – Jack and Yannis having previously played together in math rock band The Edmund Fitzgerald, and Walter and Jimmy in Face Meets Grill – they rapidly found fame, first as a buzz band playing sweaty sets at Oxford’s Cellar and Truck Festival and even starring in TV show Skins.

Their staccato rhythms and intricate, minimal techno-inspired work on guitars played as high as possible, won them an eager following, cemented by the release of early singles Hummer and Mathletics.

Since those heady days they have released four albums: debut Antidotes; Mercury-nominated Total Life Forever, containing anthem Spanish Sahara; Holy Fire, featuring killer track Inhaler; and latest effort What Went Down.

Despite the fame, something is nagging away at Edwin. Success and busy schedules meant most of the band had to drop out of university, including Edwin who was studying English at Oxford.

“I sometimes think I should have continued,” he says. “There’s a myth that I dropped out because of the band, but I did it for no good reason. It was after that I met Yannis.

“I was just having a bad time. It was pretty intense and I was too young. Lots of people that go to university haven’t got a clue and do the wrong subject. I was only doing English because I got good marks, but got a reading list as long as my arm. I was sitting in the library wondering ‘what am I doing here?’

“Maybe I should have stayed on and finished my degree, but then I would have missed out on all this. I probably would be working in the civil service, dressed in grey. I’d have been good as a government bureaucrat – I’m a pen-pusher!

“I do wonder though. I’m doing an Open University degree to make up for it as a small part of me wants a degree for the sake of having a degree.”

His chosen subject, appropriately enough for a sometime math rocker, is maths. “Rock & roll!” he laughs.

Of course he doesn’t regret a thing. “The best thing about being in Foals is being close to the music,” he says. “Yannis doesn’t write all the music but he is the primary source and I get to hear that primary material. I’m in a band so am a fan of the band, and it’s great to get a rare insight into how the music is made.

“The other thing is the effect it has had on my self-esteem. When I dropped out of university I was at rock bottom, but because the band has done so well I am a very different person to what I used to be. I feel I get happier every year.”

So what moments with Foals stand out as highlights? “Playing the main stage at Glastonbury was a ‘pinch yourself’ moment,” he says. “It felt good and people enjoyed it... to some extent.

“It felt triumphant – and that we deserved to be there. It took a long time to get there.

“When we played Glastonbury after Antidotes, we weren’t ready. We didn’t have the songs, in my opinion, and we didn’t have the crew. All our gear broke. We felt we didn’t deserve to be there. It felt like riding a tidal wave of hype and I don’t think we lived up to that.”

He goes on: “We used to play a lot of shows where we didn’t feel good enough.”

He sounds like a perfectionist, I suggest. “We all are in different ways,” he agrees. “Yannis is in some ways, and I’m the biggest. It’s a character flaw as I don’t start things which I think I might fail. If I was playing alone I’d never get to the stage of being good enough to perform in public as I always criticise myself. But Yannis is willing to get up on stage and fail.

“The benefit of being in a band is you get through on other people’s ambitions.”

This Saturday, Edwin, Jimmy and maybe other members of the band, will pitch up in South Park for a DJ set at the city’s Common People festival.

For Foals fans it is the closest we will have had to seeing the lads play a major live event since their 2014 show at the O2 Academy or last year’s headline set at Reading Festival.

“I’ve been DJing a lot and feel very much at home behind the decks,” says Edwin. “DJing at a festival is a very different thing though, as you don’t really have a dancefloor. I think it makes it easier too, though, as you don’t have as much to loose. You aren’t going to clear the dancefloor when 5,000 people are waiting to see a band – they’ll be standing there having a beer.”

He adds: “ I absolutely love DJing. I can’t explain it. It’s about finding the combination of being good at DJing and playing the music people want to hear. It’s stating the obvious, but while you may be able to mix records together, if people don’t want to hear them it’s no good.

“I didn’t use to be that good. Once I was playing The Cellar and playing the opposite of what anyone wanted to hear. I felt like I was doing a good job as I was mixing exquisitely, but it’s a redundant art form in that context.”

One thing he won’t be doing is playing wall-to-wall Foals songs.

“People have opposing views of whether DJs should play their own music, or anything as vulgar as that,” he laughs. “I aim for that crossover of playing stuff I like and that people who like Foals may like.

“You get a groove; something coherent with a narrative, and it’s difficult to throw original Foals tracks in there. But I can always throw in a remix.”

He tells me about a ‘big room’ dance mix of Spanish Sahara which has got him particularly excited and will certainly get a spin on Saturday. Just don’t expect him to hang around partying for too long afterwards.

“I’ve got an exam at the beginning of June,” he says. “So I’m in revision mode!”