“Anyone who has experienced bullying at least once can understand. But I thought cutting my wrists and committing suicide would cause trouble for my parents, so I did not go through with it.”
Mark Foster, of Foster the People, has made music that’s moved millions, but when he saw a story about a teenage girl, Nanae Munemasa, who faced bullying so severe in her native Japan that she contemplated suicide and then found refuge in music, he was moved to take action.
After opening a campaign on IndieGoGo, Foster brought Munemasa and her brother to a professional studio in Los Angeles to work together, and the result of that extraordinarily unique collaboration arrives today in the form of “Hide & Seek,” a new bundle that includes both Munemasa’s impressively powerful track and a remix by Foster the People that gives the hard charging original a bouncier, more electronic feel.
“Last Fall I read an article on CNN about a young girl from Japan, Nanae Munemasa, who had left school because she was getting bullied to the point of not wanting to live. At the end of the article she talked about music as being one of the things that got her through this period. It was her escape. Her friend. It struck a raw nerve in me, bringing me back to when I was that age and the isolation/bullying I had survived myself. Music, also being the friend that pulled me out of the mud and gave me something to focus on other than my own situation. With the help of our management and friends, we started a fundraiser to raise enough money to fly Nanae and her brother/band mate Takehiro out to Los Angeles from Tokyo...”
Nearly 50% of high school students report being bullied every month, and studies have linked nearly half of teen suicides to bullying. Stats like that can make the internet, and the real world, feel like a particularly cruel place, but you don’t have to look hard for evidence of an even greater drive towards connection and kindness. It’s right here.
Nanae Munemasa and Foster the People’s “Hide & Seek” breaks boundaries in pursuit of that connection, listen to it via BitTorrent Now and be kind to each other.
"Hide & Seek" Bundle
- "Hide & Seek"
- "Hide & Seek (Foster the People Remix)"
- Art work
- Handwritten note from Mark Foster