Foster the People Quotes
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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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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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When I started really playing music, I pretty much quit sports. I quit everything.
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I write in character a lot.
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Foster the People wouldn't exist without Mophonics.
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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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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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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 play guitar, bass, drums, piano, and pretty much any sort of stringed instrument - besides violin or cello.
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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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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 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 was always extremely independent growing up.
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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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Music is the great equalizer.
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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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Art brings to life things that can seemingly be dead, and can put a fresh perspective on things that are living. It's so important we keep creating.
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I look at bands like the Beach Boys, Hall & Oates and Blur, and those are the bands I want to be in company with because their songwriting is intelligent, and yet you don't need to be a musical genius to pick it up.
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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 don't like to write the same song twice.