Mark Pontius of Foster the People interview

How and when did you guys start the band?

Errm we started about two years ago, erm really just as friends er I mean I met mark foster through another music friend of mine and we kinda just at the beginning played music together with no real intentions or being a band or anything, we both had a project and had some free time and started fooling around and we did that for about a year or two years just as friends and we met Cubbie through that and finally in our free time we just kinda opened up and decided quick other projects and to take the band seriously and that was right around the time pumped up kicks was written and that kinda took us into the next level as a band.

Can you describe Foster the People’s music?

Err can I describe it, err well yea the best way we hoped to describe it is kinda quirky pop we like to call it, its got the catchiness of a pop song but we try to keep it really pretty and electronic in a way that its still pretty interesting.

Is the whole band involved in the music making process?

Err Mark Foster usually brings like how those last records work is how he has a solo career that he’d been working on for like 8 years so we had a lot of songs from that but most of the record was previously written songs and then the rest of it was kinda worked out like he would bring a demo kinda a song to us and we kinda discussed it and go over it and in the studio kinda work out some ideas, its kind of a mix match of both. The rest is kind of done in pretty short time we had to do it in like 5 minutes so theres a lot of, Foster’s really involved.

What were you doing before you joined the band?

Err I was in another band, for about 6 years called Malbec, M-A-L-B-E-C and er not much I was just working freelance. I was home schooled so I was editing films and shooting films on a free lance basis from week to week and pursuing the other band and err til finally I just quit it and we made Foster the People a serious project.

Do you know where your music is most popular?

Err its hard to say, Australia was one of the first places that picked up the music I’m not really sure how I think just throught the blogsphere or somewhere on the internet. I would say either there or the states, erm  cause they’re probably the biggest now.

Have you ever been to Asia before?

I have actually never been to asia before, yea it’ll be all our first time.

Christmas and new years are coming up soon, do you have any plans?

Yea I’m actually at home right now in Orlando, Florida where I grew up and with my family and I just got in today so I’m gonna spend about a week and a half and erm do the whole Christmas thing and then for new years I’m gonna to Costa Rica and err surf and live in the hot for about a week.

Do you have any new years resolutions?

Erm yea I think probably to, it would sound kind of funny but to journal more. Like write day to day in a journal and just kind of write thoughts down. I feel like this past year, it feels like 10 years crammed into one yea you know and I can remember most of it but I really wish I’d been writing things down more often so I could really have like a clearer story to tell you know later in my life cause this is one of the best years of my life and I don’t know if I can remember every single part of it, so from here on out I would really like to be able to journal a bit.

What’s your favourite song on the album?

Err I think my favourite song is “Call it What You Want”, erm we recorded that in London it was our first real big trip together as a band and err yea everytime I hear that song I get that feeling of the whole London trip and what the positive atmosphere we had at that time and so err yup.

Any drum inspirations?

Err like drummer’s that I like? Yea erm I’m actually a really big fan of a I actually don’t remember his name, but he’s the drummer to this band called little dragon. They’re a band from Sweden and err the drummer is just he’s so amazing he’s such a talented dude. He almost sounds like a computer playing the drums, he’s so solid. Recently I got into that stuff but I grew up listening to a lot of Funk and 80’s stuff so err James something the old funk drummer is an inspiration of mine, something from the roots the hip hop drummer that I’ve loved forever. I’ve got a lot of different angles on inspiration.

What type of music do you listen to?

I like a lot of 80’s stuff I grew up with an older sister and ah so when I was younger she kind of influenced with me with her kind of music, I always tooks her cds from her and listened to them. I like a lot of something a genesis, a lot of the cheesy 80’s stuff that I’ve always taken a liking to and I listen to that even today still.

What should Malaysian fans expect at your concert?

Erm they should expect a massive dance party hehe.

Can you describe one foster the people’s live performances?

Erm yea we’re we its pretty err its pretty percussive I think we have a lot of, we have two other guys playing with us live so erm there’s a lot, it’s a bigger the sound it’s a really big sound live and we have a lot of precussion and drums being passed around and so we’ve developed it into this kind of thing that is very percussive and very rhythmic which makes it kind of dancing.. you know? So its really fun for us to play live we bring a lot of energy to it and it’s a pretty good dance party for us.

How are you dealing with all the fame?

Fame I don’t like to call it fame, its good we’ve been working for this for a long time. The band is still a young band we’re only 2 years old, we all have been working on music for the past 6 or 7 years of our lives so on one hand we welcome that part of this job, with the other hand it is abit weird when people look at you and put you on a pedestal for on real reason and that’s kind of odd like giving autographs to people that I don’t know is sometimes a little bit weird for me. Its all very new to us and we like that part of it its all very enduring as well.

Did you always want to be in a band when you were younger?

No err I actually, I grew up playing music in my church and I always loved it but I never, I am actually really into films and movie making and so that’s the real reason I came to LA to pursue that and erm drumming was just kind of be like a thing on the side. Through film school I just kind of realised my passion was more into music, I like fitting films and music and the passion was just really driven into the music part of it so I kind of realised that later in life I was like 18 I went back to LA and that year I realised that I wanted to pursue music, so as a kid playing drums it was just kind of a thing to do like a hobby it wasn’t some that I like aspired to be.