Mark Foster Quotes
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I wrote 'Don't Stop' just like I wrote 'Pumped Up Kicks' - I didn't try to make either a hit. I just wanted to write a song I liked.
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Foster the People wouldn't exist without Mophonics.
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I write in character a lot.
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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.
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When I started really playing music, I pretty much quit sports. I quit everything.
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I feel like my calling is to show people joy: to make them feel like there's something to look forward to.
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A timeless pop song is the hardest thing to do as a songwriter.
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Fear just crushes creativity, and if I let fear into the studio and into the songwriting, I was going to let it kill the artist inside of me.
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L.A. gives me a lot. L.A. is a city of extremes. People come here from all over the world that have these, like, giant ideas, and they put everything into it. And some people just fall flat on their face, and some people, you know, shoot like a rocket.
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I play guitar, bass, drums, piano, and pretty much any sort of stringed instrument - besides violin or cello.
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That's how life is: there are peaks and valleys in life, and that's how I like to write songs.
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I've played so many gigs in front of around seven people. It's difficult to keep motivated, but it's all about growth. The love of music kept me going.
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I was rambunctious - a boy's boy, full of energy. I wasn't a bad kid. I just liked to talk.
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I write songs based on things I see in the culture around me.
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There's a lot of bands that blow up quickly, but then they die quickly. Longevity is the healthy thing; that's the pursuit.
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I remember, in middle school, I went to four different schools. That was a rough patch. But it's also what shaped me as a person.
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I'm really into the recycling of art. That one piece of art inspires another piece of art, which inspires another piece of art. I really like that idea.
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I was always extremely independent growing up.
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My aunts and uncles were like, 'You've got such a great voice - why don't you try out for 'American Idol?'' I'd say, 'Because I'm a songwriter, not a puppet.' Even if I won and became really successful off a show like that, I'd be miserable.
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The jingles saved my life. When I got hired to do that, I was on top. I finally was making a living doing what I loved. Before that, it was so bleak; it got so dark in L.A. I was 25, been living there for seven years trying to make it, and getting really close to getting signed with different bands and as a solo artist only to have my hopes dashed.
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I wanted to be an attorney all the way up until I was 17.
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People worship anyone in the entertainment industry. You can be a used-car salesman and have a television commercial on the local station, and that makes you a celebrity.
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I think my inner child wants to take over the world.
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One of the things with the second record, a word I held close to my chest was 'brave.' To take chances to go outside the box and explore. To continue to toss off any expectation that our fans or anyone else might have of us, to just tap into who I am as a writer and artist and really just operate within that freedom of creation.