I play guitar, bass, drums, piano, and pretty much any sort of stringed instrument - besides violin or cello.

I started out with piano when I was little. That, for songwriting, is my favorite instrument.

I write in character a lot.

I was always extremely independent growing up.

I'm really into the recycling of art. That one piece of art inspires another piece of art, which inspires another piece of art. I really like that idea.

I wrote 'Torches' before experiencing touring as a band. I really had no idea what they would sound like live, and that was something we had to figure out along the way.

Culturally, it's really funny to me that people respect the weird guy as an artist. There can be a curmudgeon in the corner with spiders building nests in his hair, and he hasn't bathed for three weeks, but for whatever reason, he's more creative than the guy sitting next to him that's showered and is talking to everybody.

When I'm writing songs, my favourite thing to do is to try and rabbit-trail and go places I've never gone to before. Just like exploring a new terrain or a new country or something.

I love exploring music.

I didn't record 'Pumped Up Kicks' out of a sense of moral obligation.

I write songs based on things I see in the culture around me.

'Torches' opened a lot of doors. Ultimately, it turned into an experience to be reckoned with.

With 'Torches,' I wanted to make a great pop record; I wanted every song to be exciting, not to have too much space, no long pieces of music without vocals. I kind of wanted to write the perfect pop album.

I'm a really extreme person, and balance is probably the hardest thing for me to maintain.

L.A. gives me a lot. L.A. is a city of extremes. People come here from all over the world that have these, like, giant ideas, and they put everything into it. And some people just fall flat on their face, and some people, you know, shoot like a rocket.

One thing about Foster the People is that it's taking pieces of a lot of different genres of music and kind of melding them together.

I like to write about real-life topics, and I like to write about different walks of life.

We've grown up on the Beach Boys and the Beatles and Blur and Bowie and the Clash. Also E.L.O. and Hall and Oates. Those are all artists who write songs that are accessible but still left of center. It's intelligent pop. There's still something different and complex about it.

I love countermelodies, I love hooks and melodies that stick in your head. If I could put 20 melodies in a song and they would all work together, I would.

Our audience isn't One Direction, Katy Perry, Rihanna fans.

We're not the corporation of Foster the People. We're a band.

I feel like trying to write a song in order to be a big hit is just not something I'm interested in because it's not going to come from an authentic place of expression.

I don't care if it's Dr. Dre or Dr. Luke or Brian Eno. When you're in a studio and making music together, it becomes pretty apparent if you see eye to eye.

I want to make music for everyone. I'm not trying to start a super exclusive group. I don't want a clique of people where you have to wear a certain type of clothes to come to our shows, or you have to be the ages of this and this.