Santa Cruz songwriter Stephen Foster invites you to lean in close, sit, breathe, and maybe even fall apart a little.
Across his releases Sharing Perils and Sun to Rise, Foster crafts songs that are intimate yet widescreen, rooted in the quiet strum of acoustic guitar but heavy with cinematic undertow.
Talking with HAPPY, he opens up about insomnia-fuelled mornings, why Secret Chiefs 3 would be his desert island pick, and how a childhood love of Mary Poppins collided with Edward Scissorhands to inspire his latest cover.
HAPPY: What’d you get up to today?
STEPHEN FOSTER: I’ve been having some intense insomnia, so I got up to a lot today!
Drank a bunch of calming tea in the wee hours of the morning, while sketching out lyrics for a new tune (not totally sure where the mood is going yet), played with our 1-year-old kitties, (Agent) Desmond and Tobias (are they technically cats now?).
Later, I sat on the couch listening through headphones to my favorite Mark Van Hoen album (Playing with Time) with Desmond and Tobias on my lap, peed a lot (all that tea!), made a strong cup of slow-drip coffee for my wife, Elisabeth, since she had an early morning at work (yuck), a little guitar noodling, chores – my lands – the chores, and periodically ate some meals.
And it was a beautiful, sunny, but not-too-hot Santa Cruz day. Not too shabby!
HAPPY: Tell us a little about where you’re from, and what you love about it!
STEPHEN FOSTER: I’m from Corralitos, CA (about 16 miles south of Santa Cruz, where I live now).
It was such an idyllic place to grow up. The kind of small, rural town where you could play in the street, run through the apple orchards, adopt stray cats, skateboard to school, roam around in the creek, and get $1 sausage sandwiches from the Corralitos Meat Market (I lived right around the corner).
Just a beautiful place to grow up. I migrated up to Santa Cruz in my early 20s, an equally lovely area, but for different reasons – my favorite of which is our 1-mile distance from West Cliff Drive, where you can take leisurely strolls along the oceanview coastal path and/or run down to the beach to get sand in your toes.
We also have lots of yummy food, a couple fantastic record shops, and a pretty killer music scene. I love going to shows, of course (we’re lucky to be near enough to San Francisco that it’s not too much of a hassle to drive where many bands roll through if they don’t make it to Santa Cruz).
Most of all, I love living with Elisabeth, and our little furry family.
HAPPY: What artists or albums do you return to when you need inspiration or solace?
STEPHEN FOSTER: Oooh, I love this question. I’ve been listening to music since I was “this small” (pretty much right out of the womb) — I actually used to sleep with and carry LPs around as security blankets.
You know, how normal toddlers have stuffed animals? So yeah, music has always been everywhere for me, especially since my parents encouraged it early on when they first recognized my obsession.
Like most folks, my taste is pretty wide, but I’ve been told (yes, Dad, I know) it’s excessively eclectic.
If I had to pick my desert island band, it would be Secret Chiefs 3, led by the mad genius Trey Spruance.
They’re less a traditional band than a constellation of projects — with a rotating cast of the highest caliber musicians and seven “satellite bands,” each diving into radically different styles: mindblowingly complex Middle Eastern time signatures/scales, cinematic wonderscapes, surf rock, death metal, and so much more.
Beyond that, a few (okay, more than a few) artists I return to often: Arvo Pärt, Miles Davis, The Beatles, Damien Jurado, Tom Waits, Built to Spill, Cocteau Twins, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Elliott Smith, Slowdive, Guided by Voices, Slayer, My Bloody Valentine, The Innocence Mission, ELO, Ennio Morricone, and lately the newest Sharp Pins LP (Radio DDR) which I’ve had on heavy rotation.
My own music doesn’t necessarily sound like any of these, but they all inspire me in different ways — whether through solace, catharsis, or just reminding me why music matters.
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HAPPY: Are you exploring new sonic territories or themes in your current/upcoming work?
STEPHEN FOSTER: Kind of… I would like to get a couple new instrumental/cinematic pieces composed (in the vein of those on Sharing Perils). But there is also a potential shift on the horizon – I’m in the very early stages of trying to put together a band.
My desire is to take the songs already recorded and make them more “muscular” — faster, louder, and with more overdrive. If that works out, playing live shows with a band would be my free time priority.
We’d see if it worked out for recording together, which I think would be a blast — even if we just re-recorded some of the existing songs in a more rockin’ format.
HAPPY: Between Sharing Perils and Sun to Rise, how has your approach to songwriting or production shifted?
STEPHEN FOSTER: The songs on Sharing Perils were mostly pulled from home demos — some sketches going back 15 years.
I finally had the chance to record in a proper studio (shoutout to Compound Recordings in Ben Lomond and Henry Chadwick, who engineered, produced, and played on the LP). Sun to Rise was different.
I wrote the three original songs in a short burst, then added a cover.
It also opens with the happiest song I’ve ever written (Sun to Rise), and I brought in Lisa Dewey to sing harmonies on In Our Moments.
The last song, Untitled, came to me in a few hours late in the sessions.
HAPPY: Does living in Santa Cruz seep into your sound in any way — the ocean, redwoods, or its musical community?
STEPHEN FOSTER: Absolutely. The ocean is huge in shaping my thought patterns for lyrics and calming my musical style. And the redwoods — which, like the ocean — can range from sublime peace, to loneliness, to connection with the universe.
The musical community seeps into my sound too.
We have insanely talented metal, punk, and indie bands here, but what really inspires me is the heart and soul of people who just plain love making music and supporting one another.
HAPPY: What led you to include a cover of Chim Chim Cher-ee on Sun to Rise?
STEPHEN FOSTER: This song was a childhood favorite — we watched Mary Poppins every Christmas growing up, and I also loved Edward Scissorhands when it came out.
I learned Chim a few years ago on acoustic guitar, then started hearing it with whistling, glockenspiel, and other textures.
I wanted Mary Poppins and Edward Scissorhands to collide — nostalgic, but innocently spooky. That ended up being my favorite track to record on the EP.
HAPPY: Your writing feels deeply personal yet open-ended. Do you aim for ambiguity, or do your lyrics come from specific experiences?
STEPHEN FOSTER: Definitely both. Sometimes I don’t even know what the words mean until I step back later.
I cloak things a bit — partly out of shyness, partly because I naturally think in metaphor.
I love that it leaves space for listeners to find their own stories, and it’s especially rewarding when Elisabeth or my brother interpret my lyrics in ways I hadn’t even considered.
HAPPY: Your music doesn’t demand attention but invites it. Is that quietness intentional, or does it reflect your own listening preferences?
STEPHEN FOSTER: Thank you — that’s a lovely observation. It doesn’t generally reflect my own listening preferences (I do love old-school death metal, for instance), but for my solo work I usually start on acoustic guitar or piano, which naturally lends itself to quieter, more contemplative music.
HAPPY: Lastly, what makes you happy?
STEPHEN FOSTER: Elisabeth, my family, our animals, my closest friends, and our little Santa Cruz community. Going to shows. Traveling with Elisabeth. Friday night date nights.
Composing and playing music. The ocean. David Lynch. Food (except zucchini — I hate zucchini). Coffee and whisky (not at the same time).
