PSYCHIC FEVER Could Become a Global Group: The Hooligans’ John Fossitt Talks J-Pop Band’s International Potential

John Fossitt is the lead keyboardist for The Hooligans, Bruno Mars’ backing band, and a live show arranger in his own right. In February, PSYCHIC FEVER conducted its first-ever U.S. tour, PSYCHIC FEVER FIRST U.S. TOUR 2025, and Fossitt took part as the J-pop band’s music director, live show arranger and keyboardist. Then in June, he pumped up the audience with the band when they performed in Tokyo at PSYCHIC FEVER LIVE TOUR 2025 “EVOLVE” in JAPAN.

Billboard JAPAN talked to John about how he sees PSYCHIC FEVER.

First, could you tell us how you first discovered PSYCHIC FEVER?

About a year ago, I was introduced to them by their manager. Until then, I didn’t know about the LDH label or PSYCHIC FEVER, so this was also my introduction to LDH. I started to become familiar with their music and their message, and what they’re trying to do resonated with me. That’s how I got involved in their live show music production.

When you first heard PSYCHIC FEVER, what about them made the biggest impression on you?

I feel like Japanese culture embraces things that America has kind of forgotten about. PSYCHIC FEVER felt a little nostalgic, reminding me of R&B from the 90s and early 2000s. If you go back through the history of American boy bands, all the way back to the early R&B groups like New Edition and then moving into Boyz II Men and Jodeci, PSYCHIC FEVER gives those R&B elements. If you go into the early pop boy bands like Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, with their high intensity dancing and their very pop feel, PSYCHIC FEVER has those elements, too. They’re nostalgic, but they’re also exploring the future shape of boy bands.

So PSYCHIC FEVER has a lot of different strengths, including, of course, their music.

Right. The strength of PSYCHIC FEVER is that they all have their own unique individuality. I think that is so relatable with the entire world. I feel like some boy bands want to have one very uniform look. But then you look at PSYCHIC FEVER and they have a half-Moroccan, half-Korean member, a half-Nigerian, half-Japanese member, a guy with a cowboy hat…they all have their own individual personalities. That’s a reflection of the world’s diversity. The members are all individuals, but they combine to form a cohesive group. I think that’s one of their great strengths.

Each member has their own wonderful individuality, but do you have a favorite member?

I feel like they all have something very unique. Like, Jimmy has a look but he also has this voice, and then Kokoro is a great singer. If you could combine all of them in one person, it would be a superhero (laughs). The fact that they’re all individuals makes them a supergroup.

You’ve worked on-stage with the world-famous Bruno Mars. Given that background, what aspects do you think they could improve to give them more of a global impact?

Working with Bruno, the main thing I learned is the importance of having well-defined intentions. This goes for music, of course, but also music video production, what you say to the audience—it all has to be intentional. You need to clearly think about the story you want fans to feel and what you want audiences to understand, and you need to have a vision and goals. I think having this kind of perspective will help PSYCHIC FEVER. They need to define their identity and what sets them apart from all the other music that’s out there, but also what makes them relatable to the world. If they do that, they can share what they want the world to see about PSYCHIC FEVER, about LDH, and about Japan as a whole.

I see. So they have a lot of potential for even more growth. You performed with them in Los Angeles during their US tour. What was your impression of the performance?

First, I had a chance to watch them perform in New York, and I gave them some advice. I told them that if you want the audience to do something, you have to show them. If you want them to clap, you should show them by clapping yourself. If you want them to wave their hands, show them by waving your own hands. You should demonstrate that intentionality I was talking about earlier. They made a lot of improvements in the LA show, and I could see them grow. They put on a great show, bringing the whole crowd together and generating amazing energy. You also saw a lot of fans start to follow them from show to show on the tour. There were fans who were at so many shows you’d think they were touring with the band. I think the fact that they’ve created that kind of fan base is a sign that they’re on the path to success.

So these fans that were following them around, were they Japanese or Americans?

Well, with Bruno, our fans are anywhere from age 9 to age 90. It’s a really broad fan base. When you reach that many different people, you have sustainability as an artist. With PSYCHIC FEVER’s shows, too, I saw that same phenomenon. There were young people and older fans. There were Asian-American fans and Latino-American fans. There were all these different cultures coming together to the shows. I remember when Kokoro was singing an acapella solo part, these local female fans started rooting for him. You had all these people from different cultures watching a Japanese boy band in the US, vibing with the band’s music and dancing, which was amazing.

You’ve seen Bruno’s performances up close. What do you think makes him such a top global artist?

He studies so much. He studies the greats, who laid the foundation for what we’re doing. He’s showed us how to study, too. For example, we’ll watch videos of James Brown or Michael Jackson and study how to create the kinds of crowd reactions we’re looking for. Even if the style is different, music is universal, so there’s always a lot to learn.

So that approach of studying ties into the intentionality you were talking about earlier. Going back to PSYCHIC FEVER, how did you get involved in the live show audio production for their US tour?

I’d been keeping in touch with PSYCHIC FEVER’s manager, and he told me that they’d be coming to the US in November. We talked about how I would be involved, but we were having a hard time nailing things down. So I said “Let’s forget about trying to figure it out. I’m just gonna come to Japan and we’ll figure it out from there.” In Japan, I met with JIMMY and a couple of the other PSYCHIC FEVER members and with the sound engineers, and we went into the studio and building and adding to what the songs are. We worked together to find a way to bring those songs to life when played live.

I heard that you stayed up all night working in the studio with JIMMY and Ryoga (Nakanishi). What kind of interactions did you have?

I’m a musician, but when I’m working on the creative direction for a show, I need to think about not just the music—the singing and the sound—but the whole thing, including the dancing. You can’t see music, you feel it instead, but the dancing is what the music looks like. To create the best show, you need to think about the chemistry. I don’t know all that much about dancing, so I was at a bit of a loss, but JIMMY and Ryoga are great dancers, so they shared their ideas from the perspectives of dancers. They would actually show me what they’d be doing, so we worked together to find a middle ground between the music and dance. They were real lifesavers.

After having been in such close contact with them, what do they mean to you?

They have this hunger to learn, and a lot of ambition. They’re also great at adapting what they learn, applying what I taught them to their shows. And they’re humble and hard-working. I’d love to work with them more as a team. They’re great artists. Maybe I could be the eighth member? (laughs)

In closing, could you share your hopes for what kind of artist you’d like to see PSYCHIC FEVER become?

I think they could become global superstars. They could be a blueprint for what it means to come out of Japan and be successful, becoming a leader for what a J-pop boy band could and should be. LDH has a great system for training their artists, and they’re dedicated to helping their artists grow. If PSYCHIC FEVER keeps working hard and taking advantage of this excellent environment, I’m sure their chance will come. I think they’re going to be huge within the next few years. I’m really looking forward to seeing what the future has in store for them.

—This interview by Azusa Takahashi first appeared on Billboard Japan