Foster the People is an American indie pop band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 2009. Its members include founder and frontman Mark Foster and keyboardist Isom Innis.
members: Mark Pontius, Mark Foster, Sean Cimino, Cubbie Fink, Isom Innis
formed in: Los Angeles
labels: Columbia Records, Startime International
genres: alternative rock, indie pop
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Mark Foster graduated from Nordonia High School in the Cleveland-Akron suburb of Macedonia, Ohio, in 2002. With his father's encouragement, Foster moved in with his uncle in Sylmar, Los Angeles, California to pursue a career in music. Foster worked various jobs and at night, he attended parties in Hollywood to expand his social network. He said, "I felt like an 18-year-old Hunter S. Thompson. I was just diving into this Hollywood Hills subculture and taking it all in. I wasn't shy about taking my guitar out at a party. I wanted to be the center of attention." Foster struggled with drug addiction during his initial years in Los Angeles, saying, "It got pretty dark. My friends thought I was going to die. I was blind to it. When I was 19...
Foster the People was born out of a nascent relationship with drummer Mark Pontius, a film school student who left his group Malbec to found a band with Foster in fall 2009. At that time, Foster had released and was playing shows supporting a solo album; Pontius was impressed by the number and diversity of songs that Foster had written to that point, saying, "Some were on the guitar, and some were on the computer. But it was this really awesome singer-songwriter thing with a tricked-out beat, and I felt we could go wherever we wanted with this."
Foster the People's musical style has been described indie pop, synth-pop, dance-pop, alternative rock, indie rock, neo-psychedelia, indietronica, and psychedelic pop.
Are you them, or do you know them? The mail slot is open.
"Pumped Up Kicks" is the debut single by American indie pop band Foster the People. It was released in September 2010, and the following year was included on their self-titled EP and their debut album, Torches.
"Pumped Up Kicks" became the group's breakthrough hit and was one of the most popular songs of 2011. The song was written and recorded by frontman Mark Foster while he was working as a commercial jingle writer.
Soon after Mark Foster formed Foster the People in 2009, he wrote and recorded "Pumped Up Kicks" in five hours while working as a commercial jingle writer at Mophonics in Los Angeles. On the day of recording, Foster debated between songwriting in the studio and going to the beach. He explained: "I really didn't have anything to do that day. I was standing there in the studio, and this thought came in my mind like, 'I'm going to write a song,'... and then I was like, 'I don't feel like writing. I don't want to write a song.' I was a block away from the beach, and it was a beautiful day. I kind of just wanted to just be lazy and go hang out at the beach or whatever. But I just forced myself to write a song... By that time the next day, the...
The lyrics to "Pumped Up Kicks" are written from the perspective of a troubled and delusional youth with homicidal thoughts. The lines in the chorus warn potential victims to "outrun my gun" and that they "better run, better run, faster than my bullet". Foster said to CNN Entertainment, "I wrote 'Pumped Up Kicks' when I began to read about the growing trend in teenage mental illness. I wanted to understand the psychology behind it because it was foreign to me. It was terrifying how mental illness among youth had skyrocketed in the last decade. I was scared to see where the pattern was headed if we didn't start changing the way we were bringing up the next generation." In writing the song, Foster wanted to "get inside the head of an...
The music video, directed by Josef Geiger, follows the band playing various venues in California in the leadup to their first international tour to Australia. There are also cuts to band members doing other activities, such as playing frisbee and surfing. Parts of the video were filmed at the University of California, Riverside, the bands first official show, and at a huge parking lot, on 2131 Humboldt St, Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles which was used as a film location for the originally planned video for Pumped Up Kicks. The video was shelved as the result was a bit too dark for the song, and Josef Geiger was asked to create a video from his footage that would highlight being on the road with the band as they were living through the hype...
The official remix of the single was released by New York City-duo The Knocks in April 2011, under the name "Pumped Up Kicks (The Knocks Speeding Bullet Remix)", and was made available to subscribers to the band's email list. The song was covered by Weezer during their 2011 North American Tour, at the Orange County Fair on August 4, 2011. Weezer also played the song during their grandstand performance at the Minnesota State Fair on September 3, 2011. Mark Foster said in reaction, "Nine years ago, I met Rivers Cuomo at a party, and I had my acoustic guitar with me. He taught me how to play 'Say It Ain't So'. So nine years later, to watch him play one of my songs – it was wild. I can't wait to meet him and remind him of that story."
"Sit Next to Me" is a song by the American indietronica band Foster the People. The song is featured as the third track on the band's third studio album Sacred Hearts Club and was released as the record's third single by Columbia Records on July 13, 2017.
"Sit Next to Me" (Versions) was recorded on October 13, 2017 and featured a radio edit, an acoustic version, and a reworked version of the song. It was then released to US modern rock stations.
The official video for "Sit Next to Me" was directed by Fourclops and Brinton Bryan and was released on November 10, 2017. The video features 100 posts from Instagram influencers and celebrities and also includes submissions from Foster the People fans all over the world. A cardboard cut-out of Baloony from Phineas and Ferb is seen in one of the Instagram videos. "It was fun to play with the premise of a music video that hijacks your social feed," said director Fourclops in a prepared statement. "Instagram is a major destination for consuming media these days, and it made for an exciting setting for our video. We asked ourselves, what would it look like if all of the accounts within Instagram become transformed by a song?"
"Houdini" is a song by American indie pop band Foster the People from their debut studio album Torches. Written by the group's frontman Mark Foster, the song was first released as a promotional single exclusively in the United Kingdom on April 1, 2011.
The song was released as the album's fifth single on May 15, 2012. It is featured on the soundtracks for video games SSX and Sackboy: A Big Adventure and in the episode "Yes, Then Zero" of Gossip Girl.
"Houdini" was written by the group's frontman Mark Foster while he was working as a commercial jingle writer at Mophonics. While showing his then-girlfriend the offices on a so-called "take-your-girlfriend-to-work-day", Foster demonstrated how he wrote songs, putting a simple drum beat and vocal sample together in 10 minutes. Four days later, he revisited the composition and began adding piano chords. Reflecting on the song, he described his then-girlfriend as a "good muse".
The music video for "Houdini" premiered on YouTube on April 26, 2012, directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. James Mackey guest stars as the paramedic.
"Call It What You Want" is a song by American indie pop band Foster the People. It was released as the group's third single in December 2011 from their debut album Torches.
The song was written by frontman Mark Foster and produced by Paul Epworth. The song was also featured in the soundtrack of the videogame FIFA 12 and the World Cup mode of FIFA 23.
The song is an alternative rock and indie pop song with trippy sounding synthesizers and a piano accompanying the entire song with bass guitar and drums.
A music video to accompany the release of "Call It What You Want" was first released onto YouTube on November 1, 2011 at a total length of four minutes and two seconds. The music video begins with the phrase "Idle minds are the devil's workshop". The video consists of random, bizarre, strange sections, including singer Mark Foster pretending to shoot adoring fans with his right finger, drummer Mark Pontius floating while playing the drums, and the band running around outside while fireworks go off around them.