Sudden Impact: Josiah Michael Foster – Drummer

Age: 16
School: Sophomore, McKinley High School
Extracurriculars: McKinley’s marching band and jazz band, video games
Dream job: Touring the world as a professional musician
Inspiration: Local musicians Charles Brooks and Troy Davis

The son of two musicians, Josiah Foster, it seems, was destined to fall into music somehow.

“We just left the instruments around the house,” says Foster’s father Michael, leader of the popular jazz and funk outfit Michael Foster Project. “I don’t know how he picked up the drums, because I didn’t have a drum set around the house, but we found out early that he was gifted in that area. Naturally we encouraged him and realized we would have to put up with a bunch of banging.”

At 16, the younger Foster is stepping out of his father’s shadow, both as a drummer with his band Limitless, and through his work producing music and engineering sound for live events.

Josiah runs sound for school programs at McKinley High School and is the youngest member of the audio-visual team at Shiloh Baptist Church.

“I used what I learned from video games,” Foster says. “I don’t know how, but it got incorporated into my music and also my way of thinking. I used to play a lot of strategy games, so when I’m putting elaborate sound or PA systems together, I think about putting a puzzle or game together.”

Foster began schooling at the Baton Rouge Center for Performing Arts, where he picked up the cello and started acting, too. He can be seen in the Baton Rouge-shot movie Mama I Want to Sing. While his roots are firmly planted in Baton Rouge, he is thinking internationally.

“I want to learn different cultures of music and improve how I make my own music,” Foster says. “I think more people need to be exposed to music here, too. There are a lot of people who come to Baton Rouge from other countries with different musical cultures.”