 Secret F-kboy?
In these desperate and terrifying times, Francis Bourgeois has been a beacon of hope for millions of people on TikTok. The charmingly winsome, floppy-haired Brit has made a name for himself as one of the world’s most famous trainspotters, capturing hearts with his unfettered enthusiasm and delightfully unhinged head-mounted camera footage of himself at railway stations throughout the United Kingdom, with many claiming he’s one of the most wholesome content creators on the internet. He even won the coveted honor of Himbo of the Week on a recent episode of the Rolling Stone podcast Don’t Let This Flop.
Unfortunately, once someone hits a maximum threshold of internet fame, the cynics and the shit-stirrers are sure to follow suit. That’s exactly what happened with Bourgeois, after images of the star (whose real name is Luke Nicholson) with his hair gelled and dressed in trendy clothing went viral, prompting many to doubt whether Bourgeois’s content and persona were authentic.
Of course, as co-hosts Brittany Spanos and Ej Dickson discuss on this week’s episode of the Rolling Stone podcast Don’t Let This Flop, the fact that Bourgeois went through a phase where he used to dress differently and perhaps have slightly more mainstream interests doesn’t indicate inauthenticity so much as it reflects the natural evolution that most people go through in their adolescent and teenage years. But given the internet’s obsession with “scammers” and whether creators’ personae match their real identities, the claims that Bourgeois was faking his love of trains for clout went massively viral, with Bourgeois eventually being forced to address the allegations on his own TikTok page.
Bourgeois’s rebuttal seemed to satisfy the majority of his fan base, who are defending Bourgeois against allegations of faking his love for trains, arguing that one can be a himbo and still harbor nerdy, obsessive interests; and honestly, they’re not wrong!
On this week’s Don’t Let This Flop, Spanos and cohost Ej Dickson discussed the controversy over Bourgeois, as well as PageantTok in honor of the 100th anniversary of Miss America (you can read Dickson’s dispatch from the event here), an ill-fated Biden/Jonas Brothers TikTok collab, the “Gorgeous Gorgeous Girls Love Soup” meme, TikTok moral panics, and Nancy Reagan as the original Throat GOAT.
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Debbie should be in jail.  At heart, she’s honestly one of the closest of the children to Frank. She brings nothing of value to the table. At least Frank is smarter and more interesting.  Everything about her is hypocritical. I think Emma does a great job portraying this shiftiness, and I hope that she is a better person in real life. I skip Debbie scenes when I rewatch the show.Foster the People Enters a New Era
In an extensive interview with Mark Foster, the frontman discusses the changing music industry and the band’s latest single, The Things We Do.
Hearing the name Foster the People may conjure up memories: sounds of early 2010s indie pop, and the song “Pumped Up Kicks”—a hit track that propelled the band into the spotlight and resulted in a major-label deal in 2011. But much has changed in the past nine years; and lead singer Mark Foster, guitarist Sean Cimino, drummer Mark Pontius, and pianist Isom Innis are now entering a new era, both as a band and as individuals.
In March, the band was going through major changes: they’d just parted ways with their longtime label, and were on track to release two songs independently, Lamb’s Wool, and The Things We Do, the latter of which comes out today. (The band is donating 100% of the proceeds from The Things We Do to four charities: 25% is going to Black Lives Matter International, 25% to The Bail Project, 25% to Rebuild Foundation, and 25% to The Underground Museum.)
Speaking over the phone from his home in Los Angeles, Foster, quarantined with his wife, the actress Julia Garner, talked through his personal shifts one by one. He’d seen the music industry transform; the purpose of the band was different, in his mind, than it was when they first burst onto the scene. And he’d done a lot of growing up. “The perspective shift inside of me has changed everything,” Foster said. “It’s amazing to see where the wind blows me when I’m not anchoring myself down, being stubborn.”
I’d like to hear the story about why you left your label. What spurred your decision to do so?
We had a four-record deal when we signed nine years ago. We didn’t technically put out a fourth LP, but the singles we’ve been releasing throughout the year counted in completing our deal. We didn’t really go through any of those horror stories of labels trying to force us to do a collaboration with somebody that was just a bad idea. They were always really supportive. It was just kind of time for us.
The music industry has changed so much, even from when we signed with Sony in 2011. The income streams have changed, the way that music’s consumed has changed. There’s a fluidity with streaming that’s really powerful: to be able to go direct to a fan, to cut out the middle man, to not worry about having hard sales, making CDs, and getting them on the shelves in stores. None of that stuff really matters anymore. For us and for any artists out there that might might be reading this, if you have a creative vision and you are able to make your own album art, make your own music videos, anything else that comes with it, merch or whatever, you can be a one-stop shop. What do you need a label for anymore, besides having a bank with some experienced bankers that can tell you what they think you should do next?
Our label is really good to us, so I’m not disparaging them. They let us operate in our vision. But the last few years, I fell into the trap of feeling comfortable, knowing that I had other people with experience that would come up with ideas for us. It’s easy to rest on your laurels and let somebody else, talented people, bring good ideas. It allows me to do other things. But I think after a while, I started to notice that the core of the identity of the band was starting to get diluted because we were letting other things in to influence it. I think the fear of stepping away from that safety net and knowing that we’re going to have to figure out what to do every bit of this ourselves is very exciting. On one hand we’ll have to work harder, but our vision is going to be more pure. And at the same time we’re going to retain all of our rights. Whatever music we put out moving forward, we’re going to own the master to, which is very important. And on our own, the mobility is really exciting for us. We can finish a song and put it out. And it takes about a week to get that song out, and living, and breathing, and into people’s hands. There’s something punk rock about approaching things DIY.
It’s interesting to me that you’re talking about going into this DIY territory now, after years with your label. I feel like most people come up the opposite way.
That’s what we did in the beginning. We were DIY. We put out Pumped Up Kicks independently, on a website that we built with the photos that we took of ourselves, with South by Southwest shows that we booked with a rented van that we drove out there. That song being the anomaly that it was, very quickly we got out of the DIY game and signed to a major game.
The last couple of weeks, the band’s been on Zoom calls, talking about the release and watching everybody creatively powwow and come together and making our own visualizers. Mark Pontius, our drummer, experimented with shooting techniques at his place in Nashville and did the special effects and his own treatments. And Sean Cimino, our guitar player, having this idea of how we can take new band photos, even though the four of us are spread around the country in different places. Isom Innis is doing FTP radio, which is a new idea of different playlists that we put out on YouTube and Spotify. We’re figuring out how to do a live version of Lamb’s Wool remotely. It’s the difference between being on a giant cruise ship or being in a dinghy. Right now, it feels like we’re in a little speed boat. That part feels fun. It’s just the four of us, and we get to decide.
It also sounds like 2019 in general was a pretty big year of change for you. You’re having these revelations about what you want to do with the band, and you got married to Julia Garner at the end of 2019.
Yeah, it was a beautiful year. The last two years have been incredible and life-changing. I’m constantly surprised by how life can quickly evolve—when I think that I’ve got it figured out, everything changes. But everything has changed in a really positive way. Of course, it doesn’t always work out that way. I lost my stepdad in the last two years, I lost my uncle a few months