Foster The People are writing material for their sophomore album, and things will kick into gear once the band finishes its world tour with a series of late summer dates in the Middle East.
Frontman Mark Foster tells Billboard that the new album will have "surprises around every corner," although the project is in the very earliest stages of planning right now.
"I think it's going to take a lot of left turns," says Foster. "It's going to be really celebratory -- a lot like our first record (2011's 'Torches') is, but in a different way. I think there's going to be more grit, and I think it's gonna be extremely percussive. I've been listening to a lot of The Clash lately, and a lot of '60s, The Kinks. I think those bands are going to influence the next record heavily."
Foster says he's "starting writing on the road" with a portable studio. "I've got a lot of ideas," he notes. "I've just been writing down lyrical ideas, writing a lot of poetry and stuff like that."
He also has "200 gigs of drums" that the group, including its two adjunct touring musicians, recorded earlier this spring with engineer Darrell Thorp (Radiohead, Beck). "We set up a studio for a few days with, like, six different drum kits and a bunch of percussion instruments from around the world," Foster says. "We just played tons of different rhythms, things at different bpm -- fast, slow, medium-paced and stuff that's really tribal, stuff that's really militant, stuff that's really funky, old Motown grooves, and we tracked all of it and ran it through different synthesizers and filters and weird stuff. So now I can just kind of pull different grooves and different things I'm attracted to and start writing over it. Whether or not we use these grooves or if they're going to be just the spark that lights the fire, I'm not really sure."
Foster The People recently released “Houdini,” the fourth single from “Torches.” Mark calls it his "favorite song on the record...I think 'Houdini' squashes 'Pumped Up Kicks.'"
Foster the People
See also:
Foster The People announce 2012 North American tour
VIDEO: Behind the scenes with Foster The People
VIDEO: Foster The People – Call It What You Want
