That was something he didn't expect, since it was a kind of a downer song about gun violence. It's got a strange, almost melancholic undertone underneath an earworm-y hook that just won't stop. And although it's an easy sing-along, it's really about a kid warning everyone to "run run run/Outrun my bullet."
"I've written so many songs that are hopeful — songs that are, like, about an old man that gives all his possessions away because he wants to help people. I wrote 'Pumped Up Kicks' just to tell a different type of story," he says. "Initially, I was pretty freaked out because the song is powerful. It's like an anthem. It's a sing-along, but it's dark.
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"I was definitely afraid that some 13-year-old would relate to that and flip out but ... I don't have control over that. I wrote the song and it's art. Art is observing society around you, representing it through your eyes."
Currently, the official version, made available on YouTube by Sony Music, has about 4.3 million views. Compared with Lady Gaga's "Born This Way," which has 62.3 million views, it doesn't seem so impressive. But alongside the kinds of bands that normally would have played the indie-size venues where Foster the People started — say, "T.O.R.N.A.D.O.," a 2010 single from fellow Columbia band Go! Team, with only 149,900 views — it seems a little more significant.
In a world where more than 75 percent of the 13 million songs available online never sell a copy, "Pumped Up Kicks" sold more than 200,000.
Even though I saw it happen, I couldn't quite tell you exactly why. But Foster can — or at least he can tell you what he's really trying to do.
"I've been on a journey," Foster says. "I think seven years ago I started to want to write the perfect pop song — like I wanted to figure it out, and I started chasing that. Really I just wanted to conquer the pop song. I realized probably when I was, like, 20 years old that the hardest thing to do is to write a pop song — not like a candy pop throwaway pop song. A timeless pop song is the hardest thing to do as a songwriter."
Goldenvoice presents Foster the People with Garden and Villa on Thurs., July 7, and Fri., July 8, at El Rey Theatre, 5515 Wilshire Blvd.; 8 p.m. Sold out. All ages.
the record "torches" is my soundtrack of this summer. it is my record of this year. I am addicted 2 that record. especially 2 "warrant", the last song. I cant stop listening 2 that whole thang! its on repeat. thank U 4 giving us such great tunes and lyrics. cant wait 2 C them live. every2ยด1 who hasn't checked them out: do it. U will not regret. but: B careful! it gets U right after the 1st song, and U can not stop.
Wow. Just this morning I caught the video for Pumped Up Kicks, and sat through it so I could catch the name of the perpetrators just in case sometime in the near future someone was going to tout this dreck as the future of Rock.And damn, two hours later here it is.Hopefully it will be gone in another two hours!
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