Foster the People, courtesy.

This story originally appeared in the Oakland Tribune.

A single song completely changed the trajectory of Los Angeles indie pop trio Foster the People. In a little under a year singer-instrumentalist Mark Foster, drummer Mark Pontius and bassist Cubbie Fink went from working odd jobs and playing in front of dozens at small clubs, to selling out large concert halls, such as their two-night stand at the Fillmore this week.

And it all started when the band, still newly formed in 2009, recorded a tune called “Pumped Up Kicks” and posted it as a free download on its website. While buzz initially grew slowly as the song was shared on music blogs, the song exploded as summer 2011 rolled around.

The song reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Alternative Songs chart, and No. 3 on the Hot 100, and carried the band’s Columbia debut album, last spring’s “Torches,” into the top 10 on the Top 200 chart. By the time Foster the People played the Outside Lands music festival in August, they had, by far, overgrown its daytime slot on a smaller stage.

“It’s definitely been a pretty wild ride,” Fink said in a telephone chat earlier this month. “We’ve been kind of just riding the wave of that buzz ever since, and it’s grown pretty rapidly; it’s very surreal.”

Prior to starting the band, Foster, Fink and Pontius – who were introduced through mutual friends – were typical struggling musicians. The bassist and drummer worked at cafes, as personal assistants, and the more unglamorous parts of the film and television industry. The singer delivered pizzas, wrote music for commercials and had more experience than he wanted selling kitchen cutlery door-to-door.

This year the band has circled the world twice over, visiting many places they had never been before. Fink said one of his favorite memories was riding a bicycle around the French Quarter in New Orleans.

“Going from a starving artist in L.A. to being able to play our music every night in front of a crowd and travel the world has been a pretty radical change,” he said. “We pretty much live on the road now.”

This success, based on a song, which has gone platinum, selling more than a million copies, may be surprising. “Pumped Up Kicks” is a violent fantasy about a boy shooting his enemies. The chorus: “All the other kids with the pumped up kicks/ You better run, better run, outrun my gun.”

“Half of the material (Foster) writes is in character,” Fink said. “So he’s gotten in the head of a kid that’s been bullied and didn’t have a good home life. The song is really about the psychology of this kid; breaking down in this hip hop process of how he’s responding to it.”

Hip-hop figures prominently into Foster the People’s music, usually in the band’s percussion elements, Fink said. As the band has developed its live show, which included touring with several musician friends to help recreate the studio sound in a live setting, is an edgier sound than what’s on “Torches.”

“People could definitely expect more drums and crazy beats going on in the music to come,” Fink said.

Through all of their recent successes, Fink, Foster and Pontius are aware that any band can fall out of favor as quickly as it finds success.

“We grew up watching bands come and go; kind of the one-hit wonder syndrome,” he said.

The band brought a portable recording studio on the road and has started getting a head start working on a follow-up record.

“I think our biggest fear is to end up with a month at the end of this touring cycle and … feel like we’re under pressure to pop something out,” Fink said.

Doing good on tour

Foster the People has teamed up with Los Angeles-based charity Do Good Bus, started by drummer Mark Pontius’ sister, to contribute charitable acts in each city the band is playing on its current tour. In each city the Do Good Bus collects volunteers at the concert venue and takes them to a secret location where they work for a local charity. The volunteers get a free lunch and a chance to meet the band “Doing charity work was something that very important to us from the beginning,” bassist Cubbie Fink said. “It’s a cool experience. They go and serve the community together.” For more information and to register to participate, go to www.dogoodbus.com.

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.