DISCOVERED Marcus Foster quite by chance at this year’s Green Man Festival.
As I was walking from one side of picturesque Glanusk Park to the other, I heard some beautiful melodic folk pop emanating from a nearby stage.
On closer inspection, it was the much-talked-about singer-songwriter, who was wowing a large crowd with a set of bewitching tunes.
In a crowded marketplace, his name has people talking. Radio 1 has picked up on his richly evocative music, while a friendship with a certain bloodthirsty Hollywood star hasn’t hurt his credibility.
It appears one Robert Pattinson is a friend and it transpires Marcus was at school with the Twilight star.
“Yes I was. We’re good friends, and have been for a long time,” he says. “It’s mad what’s happened to him. I’ve met Kristen Stewart through him, who stars in my latest video (I Was Broken). I asked, and she said she’d do it.”
The 24-year-old releases his new album Nameless Path today, which is set to see his stock rise even higher.
“I’ve already started writing the second one,” he reveals. “I’m halfway through. Nameless Path is still exciting to me – the band I have make sure it stays fresh when we play live and I keep forgetting no-one has heard these songs yet.
“I wanted to make a record like Astral Weeks, by Van Morrison, and I was a lot more acoustic and folky, but then I got back into the blues and gospel I loved when I was a teenager, and it felt more like me. I like the idea of being a kind of demented preacher.”
He’ll be touring throughout autumn, supporting The Pierces at Cardiff’s Glee Club next month, as well as on his own headline tour.
While his music career is in the ascendancy, it could have been a very different story. He graduated with an MA in Sculpture and has had work exhibited in the Saatchi Gallery.
“My dad’s an artist too, so I followed his lead,” he explains. “Sculpture is something I was interested in at school, so I went to art college. I was a painter before that, but haven’t painted since picking up sculpture. I did four years, then my masters at the Royal College of Art.
“I just threw myself into it, but kept up music as well. I did a couple of tours of America while I was in college and worked while I was on the road, selling work to fund the trip. I don’t think any of the things I like are exclusive.”
But for now music is in pole position.
“Yes, it’s album, tour, then tour, then tour, then another album, then tour and tour. Hopefully, anyway. I want to do this forever.”
Marcus Foster supports The Pierces at The Glee Club, Cardiff, on Monday, October 17. Tickets priced £13.50 are available from the box office on 0871 472 0400 or via www.glee.co.uk
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xoxo
Carrie
