Foster the People talk “Pumped Up Kicks,” Ace of Base, Milli Vanilli, Barry Manilow and life as the next big thing.

By Rachel Fox. Photos by Ryan West.

I suppose my enthusiasm for jumping at the opportunity to interview indie darlings Foster the People and review their May 31 show at Venue can be directly linked to my being influenced by that Sassy magazine column, “Cute Band Alert.”

Now, before you sneer and turn up the volume on that Shonen Knife album you love so much, just know that the column also banged the drum for the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Guided by Voices, Superchunk and Sloan, among others. There is nothing wrong with cute boys who play instruments. I digress.

It also doesn’t hurt that Foster the People’s current hit, “Pumped Up Kicks,” is on constant rotation on the invisible radio station in my brain. It has everything I like in a catchy song: it’s atmospheric, sonically interesting and multilayered, and contains both whistling and handclaps. If there were “woo-woos” or “la-las,” it would be overkill, but thankfully there are neither.

“Pumped Up Kicks” has brought the Los Angeles band plenty of attention. Their Vancouver show sold out weeks in advance, and appearances at SXSW, Coachella and Sasquatch have helped build the sense that Foster the People might be the proverbial next big thing.

The band consists of former commercial-jingle writer Mark Foster on vocals and various instruments, Mark Pontius on percussion and Cubbie Fink on bass. At Venue, augmented by two touring musicians, they raced around the stage and swapped instruments while playing a set drawn largely from their just-released debut album, Torches.

Earlier in the day, I met all three Foster the Peoples in the lounge of Vancouver radio station The Peak.

Rachel Fox: Let’s get the introductions out of the way. So, Cubbie—like what? One of the Mouseketeers? Explain.

Cubbie Fink: [Laughs.] Kinda. It was actually the nickname that was given to me at birth. My dad thought I looked a little like a bear cub when I was born.

RF: Awww. What’s your real name?

CF: Jacob. Which is ironic, because a lot of people think it comes from that—Ja-cob, Cub-bee…

RF: And do you go by Pontius, or…?

Mark Pontius: Everyone in the band calls me Poncy. Kinda came from Pontius.

RF: Is that kind of a diss, though—Poncy?

MP: No! I kinda like it. I think it’s funny when people call me Poncy.

RF: Because Pontius does sort of sound like a car, or the name of someone on the Starship Enterprise.

MP: …or a Roman leader. Pontius Pilate.

RF: I am in love with “Pumped Up Kicks.” Can you tell me a little about the process behind that song?

CF: The song was written and recorded in about three days. Mark Foster wrote it and recorded it early in the band’s cycle. I don’t think any of us really loved it, you know? It’s a great song; we didn’t know it was going to be as popular as it was.

Generally, the way it works with us is that Mark will demo them out and bring them to us, and we’ll workshop them and figure out how to do them live. We have a lot of gear with us onstage because we wanna reproduce that sound. So we’ll sort of tear down the demo and bring it all back up with the various instrumentation and figure it out from there.

Mark Foster: I usually write like that. That song started off with the drums. That drumbeat makes you bob your head. And then the bass line came in. It was a journey. It’s really hard to describe.

The drums and bass line made it sound like it was going to totally go in a different direction. Then when I put the pads on—really, a breezy pad—all of a sudden it took the whole song to sort of, “kick back and relax.” I think I surprised myself.

RF: What were you listening to while you were recording, and does it influence you when you are?

CF: I try not to really let music influence me when I’m trying to create music. My music tastes are so across the board anyway, so I don’t really think you’d hear it in what I’m playing.

Just kind of being out and living life. You know, you can really trap yourself in the studio and get burned out. But if you’re out and experiencing good food and good people—that’s the thing that brings inspiration for bringing it into the studio.

MP: I concur.

RF: What is your go-to album?

CF: [Fleetwood Mac’s] Rumours is so good!

MP: Ace of Base, The Sign.

RF: No it’s not!

MP: I am not kidding. When I was a kid I loved it so much and didn’t really know much about music. And now it’s like, every one of those songs is the exact same song—but it works! It doesn’t matter that they did it, because it’s all so good!

CF: One album that I could really put on anytime, anywhere would be Yes, Fragile. That album from start to finish is just insane. There’s a lot going on.

RF: Best song to cry to?

MP: Wait, I know this one… what’s the name?

RF: It’s all right. You can sing it.

MP: Oh wait, it’s in Top Gun…

RF and CF: Berlin—“Take My Breath Away”! [Said in unison. It was awesome.]

MP: Yes! That song makes me want to weep and cry and hug my ex-girlfriend.

RF: Best song to sing in the shower?

MP: “Blame It on the Rain,” Milli Vanilli.

RF: Secret psych-yourself-up song?

MP: Oh, that’s easy. The Rocky theme song. Cubbie plays it randomly all the time on the bus. It’s like, “We need to get pumped up!” Boom, Rocky theme song.

RF: What makes a great show for Foster the People?

CF: We all love playing music. We love being onstage doing what we love. I think that really translates. We’re just having a good time onstage, and I think the people in the crowd really love that energy.

MP: There’s a lot of switching with instruments, too, which enables us to have a little more energy. One minute you’re playing a keyboard, the next minute you’re playing a drum. It opens up some freedom.

RF: What is the worst show you ever played?

MP: We played South by Southwest and we played at 10 in the morning. I wouldn’t say it was our worst show, but it was 10 in the morning and it’s like, “OK, there are two people here and they’re not even awake yet.”

RF: You have a background writing jingles?

MF: Do you guys get California tourism commercials up here?

RF: We can through the magic of this thing called the internet.

MF: Muscle Milk? It’s a whistling thing… It’s really kinda dark, choral… it’s really cool.

[Mark Foster proceeds to whistle and sing into the recorder.]

RF: You know who else used to write jingles?

MF: Barry Manilow.

RF: Yeah, well. Damn it! OK, you knew that.

CF: I didn’t know that.

MF: [Starts to sing.] “Like a good neighbour, State Farm is there…”

CF: He wrote that? I didn’t know that. That’s awesome.

RF: Do you feel a kinship with Barry Manilow?

MF: Well, now I do! I mean, I never would have made that connection before, and now he’s like a brother from another mother.

More Foster the People:

* Foster the People at Bumbershoot 2017 — photos
* Foster the People at Squamish Valley Music Festival 2014 — photos
* Foster the People at Deer Lake Park, Burnaby, 2012 — photos