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Spotlight: Foster the People

“There are so many good bands out there that try to put on a front and make their music super esoteric—and it’s not communal,” Foster continues. “A lot of bands are creating a culture that only lets people in that they approve of. But we went into it with a different attitude: ‘Let’s make good music that we enjoy.’ We’re not trying to be a super exclusive indie band.”

He originally named his group “Foster and the People” but when someone mistook this for “Foster the People” after a show they performed for charity, the name stuck—Foster thought the new moniker helped drive home his greater mission of playing music while also helping others.

“I like to observe the people around me,” the Cleveland native says. “I tend to be drawn to outsiders—the hustlers—people that are struggling. There’s something compelling and human about adversarial relationships. I like to find the humanity in someone that is polar opposite of myself and then make them completely relatable.”

While The Beach Boys, New Order and The Clash were huge influences, Foster laughingly says that the band is best described as if “Brian Wilson and Aphex Twin got together and had a man baby who he grew up listening to Motown and heard a drum machine along the way.”

In concert, Foster delivers his high-energy show just as he said he would—displaying his love for the synthesizer and his multi-instrumentalist skills as he deftly moves from keys to percussion to lead vocals, sometimes with the help of autotune and other various effects, and adding some hand motions and dance steps as well.

“Mark recently reached out to me to start writing for the next Foster the People record,” Heiligman says. “The guys have been busy touring but luckily technology allows for Mark and I to work on tracks even when he’s halfway around the world. Mark is great with melody and it’s always exciting to me; I enjoy his musical sensibilities.”

Foster mentions his proclivity for hip-hop music, noting that you can hear undertones of it on Torches, especially on “Life on the Nickel.” “I’d love it if Lupe [Fiasco] or [Kid] Cudi got on that track,” he says, optimistically adding, “We’ll see.”