WHEN Foals step on stage at the SSE Hydro next Friday the band might be the most surprised people there.

Drummer Dan Bevan reckons reaching the size of places like the Hydro is something they’d never considered possible, even as they transitioned from danceable indie music to huge anthems.

“I haven’t even really been to many shows in arenas, so I’m not sure what it’ll be like doing them,” he says, as the Oxford group commence their biggest ever tour.

“When we started it was 50 to 100 capacity rooms with just the promoter and a couple of his mates he’d coaxed down, but it’s been a gradual build, and it feels organic.

"We didn’t do that thing a lot of bands do, where they have a debut record that catapults them to being huge straight away.

“We did a few shows in America before Christmas, and there’s bands like 21 Pilots, who are playing stadiums after a couple of years.

"I don’t know how you could cope with that, because every time we’ve gone up a venue it feels a bit weird until you get comfortable, so going from a few hundred to a stadium, I don’t know how you can hack that.”

The Foals story features a gradual evolution.

Their first album Antidotes arrived among a host of other bands writing soundtracks for house parties.

A more mature, thoughtful style arrived on Total Life Forever, then came the booming Holy Fire and now What Went Down, a selection of huge riffs and giant pop tunes.

Along the way they’ve picked up praise for their ferocious live gigs, been criticised for pretentious statements and stepped up to being legitimate festival headliners.

“After the first record there were a lot of bands playing party and dancey indie music, and we were very aware that if we didn’t do something different then we would fade away, as a lot of those bands ended up doing,” reflects Dan.

“I feel like our fans are very open-minded and that’s exciting, because it feels like we can put anything out and hopefully people will continue to like it as long as it’s not terrible.

"It’s an exciting place to be, and I can’t think of many bands that do change it up so much.”

There probably aren’t too many bands who are so full-on when it comes to live gigs, either.

The group’s singer Yannis Philippakis is well known for hurling himself into the crowd, and the band whip up a deafening racket, meaning the pumped-up tracks of What Went Down should slot right in.

There’s also their intense warm-ups beforehand…

“We all love pop music and we all love expansive music, and I guess some of that will suit a live environment,” says the drummer.

“There’s so much nervous energy with us to play to the same standard every night – we get ourselves riled up and into a certain mind-set.

"Some bands will sit down backstage and start working out after they’re told it’s five minutes to going on stage but that’s quite weird for us.

“We don’t slap each other in the face but we used to put our fingers against our arm or chest and then thump it as hard as we could beforehand, just to give us an extra shot of adrenaline.”

Although this tour sees Foals at the arena level, it’s a smaller venue that prompts the most enthusiastic chat from the drummer.

“The Barrowland is an incredible venue,” he raves.

“We do always love playing Glasgow because it’s such a high energy atmosphere and the crowd are always rowdy – we usually have a good night out afterwards as well.

“Some of our earliest band memories were up in Scotland – there was a gig in Edinburgh, when we were going around in an old post office van that went about 50mph and we showed up at the promoter’s house a few days before the gig and just took it over.”

That sums up Foals as a whole - doing things their own way.

“I’m quite proud that we’ve got to where we are by doing things in a different way,” he adds.

“We’ve never had a real hit single or been always on the radio.

"It’s like we’ve taken the long road and always been the underdog, and that means you’re always pushing to make better records and play better shows.

"It means we’re not complacent.”

Foals, SSE Hydro, Friday, £21-£35, 6.30pm