The title track of Foals' What Went Down album paints the picture of a man close to a dangerous brink. The song showcases a new, vitriolic sound for the group. Speaking to BBC Radio 1's Annie Mac about the song, singer Yannis Philippakis, said: "It is one of the most savage and animalistic songs we've ever done. When we play it in a room, it just feels predatory, it feels like we're on a hunt or something." "[Producer] James Ford really pushed me to get into a place with the vocal texture where it was just like berserk." Philippakis added: "Ford really pushed us and we couldn't be happier."
Philippakis spoke to XFM's Georgie Rogers about the track. During the interview, he compared it to "Inhaler" from the band's Holy Fire album, saying "What Went Down" was its "buddy." "We were craving more songs that had that physical, manic energy...Writing a song like 'Inhaler' broke that barrier that might have been there before where we were nervous or had reservations about certain types of heavy guitar stuff," he explained. "That's gone now... it's a product of the fact that we feel more confident, we feel more liberated. We feel like we can do anything but not in too cocky a way."
Philippakis told NME: "The recorded version is the first one we ever played. I re-recorded the vocals but the rest of it is raw. It's one of those moments you can have if you're lucky in the studio where things seem to materialize fully-formed. We wanted it to feel like the moment when a predatory animal goes in for the kill: there's a savagery to it."
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