Calling Bullshit On Artists Who Are 'Too Afraid To Talk About Things That Really Matter'

"I feel like the US is on the brink of change, that people want change and that we're going through growing pains," Mark Foster of Foster The People opines, "and I felt like it's been more important than ever, when we've been on tour, that I speak out, and that I speak about things, and that I'm not afraid and that I'm not holding my tongue.

"'Cause I look around and there's so many artists right now that just aren't talking about any of it and I'm just like, 'What the fuck are you here for  - you know, as an artist  - if you're gonna be too afraid to talk about things that really matter?' And I guess going back to the idea of just quantifying success as money, power and fame, it's like there's so many artists, I feel like, that have a massive platform to say things, and change things, but they're not, because they're too afraid; because our country's so divided, they're too afraid to lose 50% of their fans. And it's like, to me, that's just bullshit, you know? I think that's just so wrong, it's like an abuse of power, you know, to have the ability to say something, to be articulate enough to get your point across in a really intelligent way, but then choose to hold your tongue when, you know, people are dying and people are being abused... we're on the brink of a race war, you know, and our government really hasn't taken responsibility for any of it, and that's when artists shine. In the past, artists have been the voice, in times like these, to unify people and to give people the ability to express themselves when they don't really have the words themselves, you know, that they can sing along to a Woody Guthrie song or a Bob Dylan song or a Nina Simone or Billie Holiday [song] like Strange Fruit.

"So there's examples of this throughout history and I'm kind of like looking around saying, 'Ok,' you know, 'Kendrick can't be the only one that's speaking up, guys,'" he laughs.

Foster is at home in LA at the time of our chat and has recently enjoyed a couple of weeks off from touring. "Today I was basically - I watched a movie in bed and cuddled with my dog. He's an English bulldog. He's like a linebacker." He's muscular, then? "Ah, yeah, and chubby, you know, but he's not in the room right now so I can say that out loud." What's his name? "His name's Biz... I've gotta figure out how to bring him [on tour], make him the band mascot."  

It's also the day after festivities celebrating Australia's same-sex marriage Yes vote and Foster enthuses, "Congratulations! It's a huge step; a big step forward globally, I would say."

Last time this scribe interviewed Foster was for a cover story for which The Music (although called Inpress at the time) did an exclusive cover shoot. All three members of the band swung around on ropes for our in-house photographer Kane Hibberd and a signed copy of this cover still takes pride of place on a wall in The Music's Victorian office. "I remember that day very clearly," Foster confesses with a laugh. "I see that picture every once in a while and I just go, 'Woah, how did we do that?' God, that was like seven years ago... at the very, very beginning."

Our cover hit the streets before Foster The People performed at Splendour In The Grass in 2011, which is a show Foster says he'll "never forget". "I just remember there was a curtain that was closed when we walked out on stage and we were getting ready to play. And then the curtain opened up and there was, like, 30,000 people and that was the first time we'd played for a crowd that big, you know, and just the love that was comin' at us, like, that was the first time where I felt, I dunno, I just felt like I was bit by the bug. I walked off stage and just looked at everybody else and I was just like, 'MAN!' I'd never felt anything like that before, you know?

"I mean, up until then every time we were playing live it was very nerve-racking, too, 'cause when things started to happen for us we only had three shows under our belt so we really didn't know how to play live together. We hadn't had a lotta time together. We'd been friends for a few years, but we hadn't put hours and hours and hours and hours and hours into being a band together. So the first six months to a year was just like, I dunno, there was a learning curve that was pretty vast, massive; it was like a tidal wave." Sounds somewhat like a baptism of fire. "Yeah, exactly, for sure, and we had to walk through that, you know, and just come out the other side. And that Splendour show was kinda the first time where I just exhaled.

"I remember that day clearly, too, because afterwards I ended up hanging out with Isaac Brock from Modest Mouse and ended up just, like, having a beer and a cigarette on my balcony. We just talked for a couple of hours about music and creativity and writer's block and just life in general, you know. And he was a pretty big influence on me as a songwriter, so to be able to have that kinda one-one-one conversation with him later on that night - that was pretty cool. I walked away pretty inspired."

You probably noticed some hip hop flavour throughout Foster The People's latest album Sacred Hearts Club. "I grew up on hip hop," Foster enlightens, "and I think Isom [Innis], my bandmate who started a lot of those beats, you know, he grew up with it being a big influence on him as well. So, I mean, it's something that the two of us... we've produced other bands together and have written with other artists, and we've dabbled in hip hop stuff aside from Foster The People, but I think on this record it was kind of a world that we started to explore a bit and it felt good. And it was a challenge, I guess, trying to use hip hop as a base but to approach it as a songwriter would, which was kind of a fun challenge for us to kind of bite off and, you know, explore on Sacred Hearts Club... We wrote a couple of songs on [second album] Supermodel together - we wrote Best Friend together and The Truth and he was involved a bit in Coming Of Age as well - but I would say that over the last, like, four years we've just kind of grown closer together as, like, production partners. We wrote and produced stuff for - there's an artist called Grace Mitchell, which is a new young artist on Universal [and] we worked on, like, four or five songs with her. I brought [Innis] in to work on the Kimbra stuff, the song I did with A-Trak."

The track Foster refers to here is Warrior, which was written as part of Converse's Three Artists, One Song series and later appeared on Kimbra's debut Vows set. When asked whether he's worked with Kimbra much since, Foster replies, "Not really. On her last record [2014's] The Golden Echo I went in and I jammed some stuff, and we wrote a song together on that record and, I mean, just added, like, little things... It's funny 'cause when she lived in LA we saw each other a lot more, but she's been in New York the last, like, two and a half years and we've been in our own studio hole and I think that she has, too. She's the best, though."

While he's performing, and depending on "what's going on in the world at the time", Foster admits some songs "will immediately become more relevant again because the lyrical content is dealing with something that maybe just happened". "Loyal Like Sid & Nancy on the new record is a song that, lyrically, when I sing that I just feel like enunciating [so] that every line that comes out of my mouth is like an arrow - just shooting it into the crowd; I want them to hear every word and to think about every word, you know? 'Cause we're living in weird times right now, especially here, and it's been like that for the last two years so a lotta the new record is about that. Well that song in particular talks about kind of all of it, you know. So that felt like a really important song to play live." 

Dig deep into the lyrical content of Foster's band's biggest hit, Pumped Up Kicks, and you'll discover sinister undertones. The song is written from a killer's perspective; a troubled kid who's plotting revenge. Singing along while you dance to the irresistibly catchy melodies of this tune will be a markedly different experience now that you know what it's about, huh? We can't help but wonder whether Foster felt pressured to follow this single up with another commercially successful song. "It's interesting," he contemplates. "I think, for me, the way that I responded to all of that was I went the other way, you know? And on Supermodel I wanted to write a record that had no radio songs on it - that had no singles - and rebel against being put in, like, a pop box, you know... For us, as a band, I think luckily we had a number of other songs on [debut album] Torches that people reacted to, to [the point] where we built a real fanbase and we toured a lot and, I guess, proved ourselves as a good live band.

"I mean, I would say that's the only reason we still have a career today, 'cause there's so many bands where if you have one song that just kind of trumps everything else that I think, you know, after that moment kind of comes and fades people don't really care about you anymore. And I would say that I feel like we're extremely lucky with our international fanbase that people are still there for us, you know. But I feel like it's very dangerous to allow commerce to dictate art. I think commerce and art - they coexist in a really strange, dysfunctional way and I think that I just constantly have to, like, remind the creative spirit inside to not let the commerce dictate what I'm gonna write about, or what I'm gonna write next or, you know, what I should be listening to on the radio, what trends I should be paying attention to and really just try to be authentic. Because I think that, for me, that's the purity of why I do music in the first place, you know, and I'm not gonna let the business or societal pressures change the purity of what I like to create.

"I think that we live in a culture, too, [where] we try to quantify success by monetary success or by celebrity success... It's like The Kardashians is one of the biggest shows. I just read that they, I think, signed on for a new season, or a new contract, for something like $130 million to keep filming that show. So in everything - all the messages that are put forward from that show and also in Donald Trump being the President of the United States, you know, being an ex-reality TV star - it's like we're seeing that these worlds are combining, like, if you're famous and if you have a lot of money then it seems to be how [people] quantify someone's success. But I think when I look at art like Patti Smith who didn't really sell that many records, at all, in the '70s, but was highly influential, a highly influential poet that gave birth to a new train of thought, and ideas and creativity, in a way that people hadn't seen before. And being bold and being brave; I think, like, that, to me, is - that's real.

"Time and time again you always hear the story of Van Gogh never selling a painting, you know, while he was alive... I don't know how we got on this tangent, but I think it's important to not let society or social media, the pressures of radio, or, like, comparing yourself to other artists and being like, 'I should be there,' - I think that's really dangerous, you know? I feel super-blessed to be able to do what I do. I mean, I was a barista before this and all I wanted to do was make music, but I was working at a coffee shop 40 hours a week." Did they at least play good music at this coffee shop? Foster chuckles, "They did play good music at the coffee shop, yes. Everybody had pretty good taste at this coffee shop, actually. It was a good coffee shop."