Power To The People
This time last year, LA’s FOSTER THE PEOPLE were riding the wave of hype ignited by debut single and sole release Pumped Up Kicks. 12 solid months of international touring later and the hype has crystallised into fame and chart success. They even find themselves staring down the barrel of two Grammy nominations.
“It’s a bit bizarre,” confesses drummer Mark Pontius. “When I was younger and thinking about a career as a musician it was the most obvious career ever. You play music and you go to different places to play music. It’s so easy!” Ahhhh the folly of youth…
“There’s a lot of work involved,” he admits. “With all this fame, there’s a lot you need to do to keep it going. I don’t think any of us really expected any of this so quick.” He remains pragmatic about it though… “It comes with the territory; it’s the same with actors and movies. You can’t just make music and relax; it’s not that easy.”
The boys haven’t shirked from the effort though. The Los Angeles indie rockers’ recent tour schedule reads like the board at an international airport, while their US tours looks like an attempt to cram the most shows into the smallest time frame possible. The only real downside is the effect on the creative process – something the band is keen to remedy in 2012.
“I think you have to figure out a balance,” Pontius offers. “We haven’t really been able to work on music for our second album yet because we have been so busy [touring].” He’s quick to defend the decision though… “It’s been super important. If we hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t be where we are now, we wouldn’t have the momentum that we have. I think the balance is just figuring out how to find the time to do that.”
After a year heavily touring their debut album Torches, thoughts have turned to the follow-up. “There’ll be a lot of experimenting and there’ll have to be a balance between keeping elements of this first record while also doing something new,” he tells me. “We can kind of just throw everything against the wall and see what comes from it; there’s no real limit.”
Before they can retreat to the studio there is a trip to Australia to contend with; the upcoming Big Day Outs mark Foster The People’s third trip down under in 12 months. “It’s kind of weird because Australia took on the music first, somehow. Through the internet, or whatever it was, and that was the first place that we decided we needed to go because there was an element of people wanting to see us.”
Many things may have changed for the group over the course of the last year, but it’s fair to say, with their hotly anticipated festival appearances and several sold-out sideshows coming up, the huge demand from Australian audiences is not one of them.
Foster The People will be in the country soon for the Big Day Out. For details and tickets check out bigdayout.com or ticketmaster.com.au.
