Pumped Up Kicks

Mark Foster wrote and recorded "Pumped Up Kicks" in five hours while working as a commercial jingle writer at Mophonics in Los Angeles. On the day of the session he debated between songwriting and going to the beach, which was only a block away, and admitted he felt no inspiration at all. He later said the experience solidified his belief that persistence is more powerful than inspiration. Thinking he was only cutting a demo, he played every instrument himself, arranged and edited the track using Logic Pro, and that demo became the released version.

The song became the debut single for Foster the People, the band Foster formed in 2009 with Mark Pontius and Cubbie Fink, and appeared in 2011 on their self-titled EP and their album Torches. Its lyrics describe the homicidal thoughts of a troubled youth named Robert, set against upbeat music that Foster described as a song the hipsters would want to dance to. He said he wrote it after reading about rising teenage mental illness and wanted to bring awareness to gun violence among youth. The subject was close to the group, as Fink's cousin survived the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.

Posted online as a free download in early 2010, the track went viral through blogs and helped the group land a multi-album deal with Columbia Records imprint Startime International. In 2011 it spent eight consecutive weeks at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.