Checking In with Fitz & The Tantrums
L.A. Neo-Soulsters Prep New Album, Play the Santa Barbara Bowl
Thursday, June 28, 2012
by ALY COMINGORE (CONTACT)

If history has taught us anything about pop music, it’s that hard times make for swingin’ tunes. In the years since America’s economic tumble, we’ve watched vintage soul music not only make a comeback but stake its claim on the popular songbook, infiltrating every genre from hip-hop to indie rock. Among the revivalists, though, few do it as well as Fitz & The Tantrums. Building off a Stax-era foundation, these Los Angeles–based music makers weave in elements of ’80s New Wave, ska, and hip-hop to create a sonic palette that’s made for the dance floor. When I spoke to frontman Michael “Fitz” Fitzpatrick last year, he explained that tough times are prime breeding grounds for upbeat music because, at the end of the day, “people just want to dance.”

This October, Fitz & Co. release the follow-up to their 2010 breakthrough debut, Pickin’ Up the Pieces. In the months leading up to the as-yet-unnamed sophomore album, the band is splitting their time between wrapping up the record and playing some seriously high-profile gigs. (This weekend, they open for Ben Harper at both the Santa Barbara and the Hollywood bowls.) I caught up with vocalist Noelle Scaggs and got the details on the next chapter of Fitz & The Tantrums’ jiving musical story:

You guys are getting pretty close to finishing the next record I hear.
We’re getting close. We’re in the mode of having to get these songs finished before we leave for tour this weekend. We already have the release date set for October 9, so we’re gearing up all the artwork and prepping for the first video and figuring out what the single [is]. It’s going to be really cool. We’re very very happy with the direction it’s taken.

How has the writing process changed since Pickin’ Up the Pieces?
Well, we went from a January tour straight to writing mode. We wrote 30 songs in the span of a month and a half, which is very quick — I feel like that hardly ever happens — but it was just a really cool, easy process. It was just a really good flow, and when you start hitting that flow, you can really start looking at the songs you’re writing and making sure you’re writing great songs.

Have you hit any roadblocks?
I definitely hit my creative wall in certain areas. Just doing rewrites, you end up thinking, “Oh God, I have to change that, and it’s going to take me two hours to think of one word.” But it’s all part of the process, and we have a great producer, so it’s really worked out.

Was there a lot of pressure involved in trying to follow up a successful debut?
When you’re making your sophomore record, I think there’s always a little bit of pressure. You really want to push yourself; you don’t want to be stuck in a box. And after the growing success that we’ve seen because of the first record, there is a little pressure there to make sure that we kept our fan base. What we’ve learned, though, is that our fans are pretty diehard.

Pickin’ Up the Pieces was based on a breakup. Is there a theme that’s uniting the new album?
It’s a mixture. It’s not just about heartbreak and relationships and getting over things. When we were writing, we’d throw out topics and different scenarios and create these story arcs for each song, so every song has something to say. There’s one song that I had written which was basically about dying, about coming out of your body and realizing that you’re no longer on this Earth the way that you’re used to knowing. It’s about having these regrets in your life about not living fully or not paying attention to certain details in your life and wanting to bring back the day. That was something that I really wanted to do; I didn’t want every song to be about love, and I think we really accomplished that.

How has the writing dynamic changed within the band?
You know, you can really be surprised when you challenge each musician to go home and develop something, to really be a part of the writing process, because a lot of times, musicians don’t have that opportunity. In the beginning of this band, it was Fitz, and we were recording him in that way. It quickly became more of a unit, versus it just being about one face. Everybody in this band has a personality to the way they play. I’m really fortunate to be in a band like this. … And it’s a really great challenge for me as a songwriter and a lyricist to be pushed by them.

Absolutely can not wait! I'm trying to not get my hopes too high though. Even when Pickin' Up The Pieces was new, I always thought it'd be impossible to outdo. For me, it was one of those lightning in a bottle releases – as good as it could possibly be.

The Sou of Fitz and the Tantrums
Ted Shaw

Soul stirrers Fitz and the Tantrums take their music seriously, but they’re not above mixing it up when the occasion calls for it.

Fitz and the Tantrums perform tonight at the Shores of Erie Wine Festival in Amherstburg.

The band has a collection of R&B-flavoured original songs on its only album, Pickin’ Up The Pieces. Songs like the title song, Breakin’ the Chains of Love, L.O.V., and Moneygrabber have melodic hooks and a Motown beat that have dominated pop music charts for two years.

But Pickin’ Up The Pieces came out in August 2010, so the band has had to look elsewhere for material for its concerts.

On that score, said frontman Michael “Fitz” Fitzpatrick, taking chances has defined the band. The only thing you can expect from Fitz and the Tantrums is the unexpected.

“What’s the point of doing a cover and having it sound exactly like the original? I’m a big believer in the idea that if you’re going to cover a song you should try to make it your own.”

Take the band’s concert version of The Raconteurs’ Steady as She Goes. Fitzpatrick heard it blasting from a passing car and decided he wanted to do it.

“It’s my favourite Raconteurs song, but our band doesn’t have a lead guitar and that’s a huge guitar-driven song. It was a challenge, but now people come out to see us expecting to hear it.”

The same goes for their cover of The Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), for which the band has even recorded a video.

“When we started headlining,” said Fitzpatrick, “we needed to do some covers because we didn’t have enough originals.”

Two years after Pickin’ Up The Pieces, everyone asks Fitzpatrick about a follow-up. They went into the studio in May, he said, and anticipate releasing the second Fitz and the Tantrums album in January.

“It definitely won’t be Fitz and the Tantrums, part 2, however. Maybe Fitz and the Tantrums 2.0.”

There was one rule in the latest recording sessions, said Fitzpatrick: “Nobody could say this doesn’t sound like us. This was about experimentation, creating new conjunctions and combinations.”

In a sense, Fitz and the Tantrums painted themselves into a corner with the success of the first album. Although it came out in 2010, it wasn’t until later that winter, in January and February of 2011, that the album began to take off.

A positive review in Rolling Stone, press interviews all over the planet, appearances on all major talk shows, and a hectic touring schedule with Maroon 5 brought the band’s neo-soul sound to the attention of an international audience.

It seemed like overnight success. But Fitzpatrick said it took a lot of hard work and long hours.

“Everybody in the band has worked hard for 10 or 12 years to reach this point.”

Fitzpatrick dates the beginnings of Fitz and the Tantrums to 2008, but each member had spent years in studios and in other bands up to then.

Their first gig at Hollywood’s Hotel Cafe in December 2008 was followed by six months honing their playing skills at clubs around L.A.

The band is comprised of friends and friends of friends: Fitzpatrick on lead vocals and keyboards; Noelle Scaggs on vocals and tambourine; James King on reeds, trumpet and harmonica; Joseph Karnes on bass; Jeremy Ruzumna on keyboards; and John Wicks on drums and percussion.

In late-2010, just after the release of the album, two “magical moments” happened to propel Fitz and the Tantrums to stardom. One was the support of Maroon 5′s Adam Levine, who’d heard about the band from his tattoo artist. The other was an invitation to play on Daryl Hall’s webcast show, Live from Daryl’s House.

Hall and Oates was one of the bands that influenced Fitzpatrick’s songwriting, and his voice is very similar to Hall’s. Their appearance, which included Scaggs’ terrific rendition of Hall’s Sara Smile (on YouTube), was viewed on the Internet by millions around the world.

“That was by far our biggest break,” said Fitzpatrick. “It had a bigger impact globally than all the talk shows, all the interviews.”

Fitzpatrick grew up in a house where classical music reigned supreme. He jokingly called it “classical fascism.”

“My dad made one concession,” he said. “Driving us to school he let us listen to the oldies station.”

That’s where he first heard the likes of Motown, Gamble and Huff, and the Philadelphia soul sound. “I was immediately drawn to the melodies and the background parts.”

His older brother, meanwhile, introduced him to the neo-R&B and soul of later British Invasion bands, such as Duran Duran and Culture Club.

“It’s not a purist’s soul we do, but a hybrid,” he said. “There’s a lot of latter-day indie pop and hip-hop, as well.”

Interesting article! Odd that Billboard would mention the earlier release date in an article this morning. Given the LP has no name and no Amazon link, though, I'm inclined to think that date might be optimistic on their part. It sure wouldn't be the first time Billboard was wrong...

Fitz and the Tantrums Broaden Their Sound on New Album
Band's second LP, 'More Than Just a Dream,' is due May 7th
by: Ryan Reed

Deep into the recording of his band's sophomore album (and Elektra Records debut), More Than Just a Dream, Fitz and the Tantrums frontman Michael "Fitz" Fitzpatrick suffered through "many, many sleepless nights." Battling a frenetic, air-tight recording schedule, he and his bandmates attempted to experiment and mature sonically, pushing the indie-meets-Motown style of their 2010 breakout, Pickin' Up the Pieces, in more eclectic directions.

But Fitzpatrick sounds energized and de-stressed in the present, driving to an L.A. studio for "one final tweaker session," with insomnia thankfully in the rear-view.

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"At the end of the day," he says, "I can sleep at night knowing we made something we're really excited about."

While Fitz and the Tantrums haven't totally abandoned their retro-soul leanings on More Than Just a Dream, due May 7th, they've certainly expanded on that template, blending their trademark style with electronic, new-wave and hip-hop influences. After wrapping their last major tour in February 2012, the band jumped head-first into a rehearsal space, writing a jaw-dropping 40 songs in a "delirious" 30-day sprint before entering Hollywood's Sound Factory studios with producer Tony Hoffer (Beck, Phoenix). Fitzpatrick credits Hoffer – who helped whittle down their sprawling demos to a trim 12 songs – for guiding the band's blending of "the organic and the synthetic."

"For us, it's our second record," Fitzpatrick says, "and we wanted to grow into our sound, as most bands do on their second record. And with that ability to take chances and experiment, we quickly realized the first rule of thumb was that nobody could say that anything was off the table. We couldn't say, 'That doesn't sound like us!' We're just going to write songs, write as many as we can, and take as many chances as we want."

Among other goals, the group was determined to avoid being pigeonholed for having a throwback sound.

"It'd been a long while since we'd made the first record," Fitzpatrick says, "and we'd obviously grown a lot as a band and as people. We wanted to show people that this band was more than a 'retro band.' We'd all gotten a little bit tired of that one moniker that kept getting applied to us. To me, obviously, there was obviously a lot of Motown, retro-soul influence to (the first record), but there was just as much Eighties influence, indie-rock influence, new-wave and hip-hop all mixed in. That first record was that kind of hybrid, and on this record, we just wanted to push it even more forward and take even more chances, and it just required a lot of experimentation."

The resulting album ventures in unexpected directions. Fitzpatrick cites new track "Out of My League" – with its blend of vintage organs and Eighties drum machines – as representative of that change in direction: "On the first record, it was always like the Sixties was in the foreground, and there was a layer of Eighties behind it. But on that song, it's reversed: The Eighties influence has kind of come to the foreground, and the Sixties soul is kind of layered behind that." He describes live favorite "The Walker" as another crazy stew of influences: "It's a nice mixture, with a funky sax breakdown and a nice Eighties clap sound – it reminds me of the Beastie Boys' first record."

But the album's emotional centerpiece is the climactic "Merry Go Round," a heartfelt track inspired by the disillusion and disconnect of the band's grueling three-year tour cycle.

"I actually have a heard time listening to that song," he says. "I get so emotional. There was a thing where the record and the band was starting to have all this success, and every dream I've ever had has come true, and you're so excited. But then you're a traveling nomad, and you don't have a connection to a city or a home. When the band started exploding, it was all hands on deck, and it's 'go, go, go.' You may be in Australia on Monday, on New York on Tuesday. The ride was extremely overwhelming and fun and exciting, but totally disconnected from any kind of sense of regular life. "

On Pickin' Up the Pieces, most of the songs began as demos with Fitzpatrick alone in his apartment, tinkering with an old piano. But on More Than Just a Dream, the goal was to write and record in a more collaborative style – one reflective of the six-piece band's high-energy live show. Everyone contributed to the songs, from show-stopping co-vocalist Noelle Scaggs to drummer John Wicks, who experimented endlessly with drum sounds, sampling and layering his own kit on several tracks.

Fitzpatrick likens that whirlwind approach to an iPod on "shuffle."

"Nobody listens to one kind of music," he says. "With shuffle mode, anybody can go from a Bon Iver track to a Major Lazer track to a Zeppelin track, and nobody kind of bats an eye anymore. Our tastes are just as diverse, and it was about how to let all of those influences seep through onto the recordings and still have it feel true and organic."

Despite his occasional uncertainty about taking the music in new directions, the singer knows it was a smart move.

"There was many a night where I was just sitting there with the wheels turning, wondering if we were making the right choices," Fitzpatrick says. "But you can definitely hear the progression. It's not the same record at all. It's still us, it still has the spirit of who we are, but there's also a lot of growth in it."

At least put on some albums before switching up the core sound of the band.

I fear some generic sounding could be any band sound. I hope not.

There is also a Fitz song in the new Melissa McCarthy movie "Identity Thief". I immediately recognized their sound... So yeah, it has changed somewhat, but they still sound distinctive. And I get the feeling that they were recording this album BEFORE signing to Elektra, so I think it's the sound they were going for!