Fox Theater

Mark Foster didn’t show up at The Church, his old friend and collaborator Paul Epworth’s studio in North London, expecting to dive full force into a new Foster the People album. He arrived without any expectations at all, just excited to be traveling internationally for the first time in a couple years, and eager to reconnect with Epworth after almost a decade. He didn’t realize at the time that Paradise State of Mind was about to be born, its title track written and recorded hours after he set foot in the door.

It was spring of 2022, and Foster had accompanied his partner on a work trip to the U.K. He knew he’d be there a couple months, and he was happy to have no real plans. It had been five years since Sacred Hearts Club, the band’s previous album, and so many intense things had happened in the world at large, and in Foster’s world in particular, that he hadn’t really felt ready to jump back into the fray of public life. Musical ideas had visited him, but none of them felt inviting. “I thought long and hard about what I wanted to make,” he says. “I almost made a punk record, and just went straight at everything. But I kept pausing because the energy didn’t feel quite right, and it wasn’t making me feel any better. I started thinking, ‘How can I make a record that is healing for me, and maybe for people who listen to it, too?’”

The trip to the U.K. brought a fresh perspective, and a chance to look at that creative puzzle in the company of trusted collaborators. And The Church itself felt like a welcoming nest – this beautiful, historic structure that had been converted from a proper house of worship to a more metaphorical one in 1980 by Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart, and which had previously hosted recordings by Bob Dylan and Radiohead and Adele. Foster entered the studio with nothing and started building from the ground up, that very first day. He grabbed a bass and started to lay down a groove, Epworth jumped on the drums, and singer-songwriter Jack Peñate, who had also stopped by that day, joined them on guitar, adding some of his signature strumming to “Paradise State of Mind.” And suddenly, there it was: a new beginning.

“It was such a cathartic relief when that song came together,” Foster says. “That one day cracked open a lot. I can hear it in the vocal when I listen to it now – the isolation I had been feeling, and how much I needed to break out of my own head.” The lyrics flowed out of him: “Just need to stop trying to work out why something feels good and let it all in.” That’s exactly what he did, over the course of the next eighteen months and a couple trips back and forth between The Church and the legendary East West Studios in Los Angeles, where he recorded and produced Paradise State of Mind.

Foster explains that when he came off the road following Sacred Hearts Club, he realized he needed to take a step back and get healthy, and part of that was getting sober. “I had to really let things get rearranged, and put some old things down, in order for this to be sustainable,” he says. “I got everything I thought I wanted, and then I realized that that wasn’t it, and that the simpler things that I didn’t know I needed were right in front of me, and didn’t cost a thing. I think stripping away all of the things I was chasing made me open enough to be able to receive some of the deeper things that were more spiritual, that are kind of effervescent and intangible, and really gentle, like the wind. You have to be quiet enough to be able to hear it. I need that connection, more than anything, to be able to walk through the rest of the noise. I feel like now, coming back out into the world, I’m open to whatever this experience is, in a new way.”

Optimism, positivity, and connection are the key ingredients of Good Neighbours – the duo of Scott Verrill and Oli Fox that have taken the last year by the horns. What started off as one simple SoundCloud demo link emailed around to a few industry folk resulted in them having the most streamed debut single globally from a new artist in 2024, with ‘Home’. This became the first truly viral success of the year and has amassed more than 500 million global streams. It entered the singles charts in 13 countries including the UK (#26) and the Billboard Hot 100 in the US (for 11 weeks), where it has since been certified platinum by the RIAA.

Good Neighbours’ music is bursting with hope and joyous abandon and an amalgamation of their emotive indie influences of yesteryear such as MGMT, Passion Pit and Bleachers. They came together to create an indie-euphoric dreamscape of sound and vision for a subdued generation. Live, they bring the inclusive party to fans every time – racing through the London gig circuit and beyond to the US, Canada, and Australia. Scott and Oli have enjoyed a packed summer festival season playing key slots for the first time, including shows at All Points East, Latitude, Boardmasters, Reading and Leeds; selling out first their world tour, and gracing stages supporting Benson Boone and Foster The People.