Los Angeles, CA · indie-pop · synth-pop

Foster the People

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Sunny indie-pop hooks concealing consistently dark lyrics — a trick they've never stopped pulling since 'Pumped Up Kicks' snuck onto every radio.

Mark Foster grew up in Ohio and moved to Los Angeles as a teenager to pursue music, working odd jobs before eventually writing commercial jingles for a company called Mophonics. He founded Foster the People in Los Angeles in 2009, later bringing in keyboardist Isom Innis, who had first joined the group as a touring member.

The song 'Pumped Up Kicks' spread online in 2010 and led to a deal with Startime International. It appeared on the 2011 debut album Torches alongside 'Helena Beat' and 'Houdini', and the record and single together earned the band three Grammy Award nominations.

The band's music sits between indie pop and synth-pop, built on falsetto vocals, layered keyboards and dance-oriented rhythms, with Foster's background in production and commercial jingle writing audible in the polish of the arrangements. Later records widened the palette toward psychedelic and R&B-tinged pop while keeping the emphasis on hooks.

Second album Supermodel followed in 2014, led by the single 'Coming of Age'. The lineup was formalized in 2017 when Innis and touring guitarist Sean Cimino joined officially for Sacred Hearts Club, whose single 'Sit Next to Me' reached the Billboard Hot 100 and went quadruple platinum.

Between 2018 and 2021 the band released several singles, an EP and an album reissue. They returned in May 2024 with the single 'Lost in Space', followed that August by their fourth album, Paradise State of Mind.

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indie-popsynth-pop