Music

TRACK OF THE WEEK: "Pumped Up Kicks" by Royal Wood (Foster The People cover)

by Chris Budd

Royal Wood has been on a roll lately, having followed his recent Juno nomination for Songwriter of the Year with a well-received national Canadian tour. In between shows, Royal has been writing new songs but also stops to lay down a cover, in this instance covering what could arguable be one of the hottest tracks of the past year.  Here’s Royal explaining his inspiration behind his cover of “Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster The People.

“I recorded this song after an afternoon spent in my hotel room in Halifax on a rainy day on tour. I had wrapped up a writing session, and was waiting to load in at the venue, when I started playing ‘Pumped Up Kicks’ on my guitar in its original manner. However, the lyrics suddenly hit me in a much more melancholy way. They are subcutaneous to the melody. Though the tune comes off as a fun summer song, under the surface it reads to me as a comment on a single absentee Dad who raises his son with false promises, and the child is left to deal with the lack of love in troubling ways, i.e. carrying a gun for retribution. I recorded it on the first take in a slow and deliberate manner, and ended up using that performance because I felt like the rawness only added to the message.”

Well put.  Beautiful touch on his stripped down version, check out “Pumped Up Kicks” (Foster The People cover) by Royal Wood.