L.A. band Fitz and The Tantrums formed in 2008 through friendly connections and instantly clicked. Now, five years later, they have released two full-length albums, two EPs and quite a few of their singles have gained some popularity over the years. They really blew up with “MoneyGrabber” in 2011 and now, “Out Of My League” has inched its way to the top.
At the beginning of the month, the band was in Montreal to perform their indie pop/soul music as part of the Jazz Festival here in Montreal. Before their show, I had the chance to chat with the two vocalists of the band, Fitz and Noelle. They told me all about the band, the new record and some of their goals. Noelle also drew something to represent the band!
CONFRONT: Can we start with a little history 101 for people who may not know you?
FITZ: We formed in 2008. I was just writing a few songs in my living room late at night and heartbroken and they felt different and special compared to any other songs I had ever written. My good friend from college James King, saxophone player and still with the band to this day, he started building on those songs and those ideas. I just told him we needed to find an amazing female vocalist to be my counter and he recommended Noelle. We did a couple of phone calls and we found this amazing pairing of people, got into a rehearsal room and it was on from the first downbeat of our first song. We booked a show right there for the next week, we played that show and it was a pretty magical experience. Very shortly after that, we were taken out on tour with Flogging Molly, Maroon 5, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings and we have not stopped since. We worked out butts off on the first record to get it out there and get known; “MoneyGrabber” sort of took off for us. Now, we’re here with record number two “More Than Just A Dream” and our song “Out Of My League” has a French version that I have been told is skyrocketing off the charts here.
CONFRONT: Yeah have been told that as well! Why a French version though?
FITZ: My mother is French, Noelle is studying French and I speak French! We did it on the first record; we did a French version of “MoneyGrabber” so they asked if we would do one. I love the idea of somehow connecting to my heritage so we did it and apparently it’s going like gangbusters right now here!
CONFRONT: Is it hard to transpose the lyrics over to a French version?
NOELLE: It really is!
FITZ: We had to bring in some counsel of my sister and some friends to sort of check the grammar of it all.
NOELLE: The translation sometimes don’t make sense or they don’t fit.
FITZ: Sometimes you have to choose between the spirit or the essence of the song over the lyrics.
CONFRONT: There’s also the fact that usually, when you want to say something in French, it’s twice as long as when you say it in English.
FITZ & NOELLE: Yeah!
CONFRONT: You guys are here to play the Jazz Fest, even though it really incorporates a lot of genres now. Are you guys Jazz fans?
NOELLE: I grew up with a lot of different artists. I used to love Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Mel Davis. I was introduced to a lot of that through my aunt; she moved in with me and my family when we moved to Pasedena. I actually got a huge realm of different types of music that I had never listened to from jazz stuff to more heavy stuff. It really expanded my horizons. But I haven’t really found any cool new jazz artists because I’m sort of out of that world. Our saxophonist and our drummer are both huge fans of the jazz world; that’s where they kind of came from.
FITZ: They actually are Jazz players. They can hold it down with the best of them for sure.
NOELLE: Yeah so we have a really cool and eclectic group of listeners.
CONFRONT: And actually, being so many in the band with different influences, is it hard to agree on stuff when you’re writing and recording?
NOELLE: We have very similar tastes in what we like and we’re able to expand each others’ horizons so I think it makes it a lot easier to find things musically. But everyone has their role in what they play. Fitz and I are primary writers when it comes to the actual lyrics and melody. All the of the guys come together and create the music format or build around what we have already created. It’s like a really cool collaboration process. It’s always been really easy.
CONFRONT: Has it ever happened that you really disagreed on something?
FITZ: There’s always a little bit of disagreements. When you do have that diversity of people, you do have to be willing to have a moment
where you take a stand on something. It doesn’t happen much at all working on this record. I think it happened once or twice where people were questioning the choice of the instruments or the parts but we lived with it for a while to see how everyone felt about it. When it’s different, at first it might be a little shocking to you and uncomfortable. But live with it a little bit and everyone was eventually on the same page about something.
NOELLE: It’s always a productive thing when there is any dissonance. It’s always helpful.
FITZ: Even in “Out Of My League”, there’s a lot of that happening more and more towards the end of the song and I think that part was a little shocking to a few of the guys. To me, it was the best art of noise moment it could possibly be and eventually, everyone loved it.
CONFRONT: Speaking of your album, where did the concept for the album art come from?
NOELLE: it’s kind of a blend of things. We really wanted to have something that kind of focused on this new element and with this organic feel. When you’re listening to our music, you hear these things that are kind of programmed like drums mixed in with our organic drum playing. It’s the same thing with the synthesisers and the pianos. All these things, there’s a cool blend of modern and old feel to it and it has a realism about it. We ended up getting back with the artist that created the artwork for our first record because we really loved what they were able to do as a team and they came out with this really cool heart aspect. There’s so many different meanings even just to the title of the record “More Than Just A Dream”. You’re looking at this artwork and I feel like we’re always putting 100% of our heart into everything that we do; you see it onstage and you can really see it in the music. There’s not detachment from the human being and the creative part of it. I really feel like this record cover has been able to bring that out and bring visual connection to it. And we’ve been able to use it for so many different formats of our live show, the lighting, t-shirts…all these really cool things that have been happening with this one piece of the puzzle.
CONFRONT: I really love that heart logo though! It’s really simple yet it has a certain something to it.
NOELLE: It’s all thanks to the creative people we were able to pull in. it’s beautiful. They got it! They really got it by listening to the music and finding out balance and what we wanted.
CONFRONT: And what’s the story behind the album title?
FITZ: It’s a lyric from “Out Of My league”. Like Noelle said, it can mean so many different things. The experience that we’re having feels like more than just a dream Our drummer John always interpreted it as: you can have your dreams but it’s more than just dreams. To get to where you want, you need to work your butt off for it. I feel like it has so many different facets to it and there’s a lot of dream language within the record lyrically which I don’t think we fully even realized how it all connected. Heart and dreams are themes.
NOELLE: It’s a big thing within the record for sure! We absolutely are doing everything that we wanted to do and it’s been a really successful experience for all of us. We’ve all been in this world of music and doing it professionally for such a long time that to actually have this project come together the way that it did and for it to have such synergy and for it to be so accepted throughout the world so far, it has been a blessing. It’s really cool to watch this unfold.
CONFRONT: And now that you’re here and speaking about dreams, what are you striving to achieve now?
NOELLE: Keep it going!
FITZ: World domination.
NOELLE: Totally! Keep it going and gain new fans. Have people that are touched and inspired by the music as much as we are and maybe be that role model for other artists or other young bands that want to do what we’re doing and to show them that they can and that it is possible. Sometimes, it’s just timing or being put in front of the right person or finding the right blend of musicians to make that happen but as long as you don’t quit, I think that’s what matters. Regardless of how big you get, however you’re going to find your success is what you should go for as long as you’re happy.
CONFRONT: I think that’s really good advice at the same time! Going back to your album a little bit, which track do you think describes your overall sound?
FITZ: It’s tough for us to say because they’re all our babies and they all earned the right to be on the record. They fought to be on that record because there were a lot of our other children that are now up for adoption. And what I like about the record is there is wide spectrum and that really reflects the diversity and the growth of this band. You have a song like “The Walker” which is so fun and it feels like it’s timeless yet rooted in so many different places. And then you have a song like “6AM” which is like a classic duet. It has a real line and thread back to soul music but from the gaze of one side of the mirror of the 70s era of soul music, not the 60s. And on another side…
NOELLE: It’s like 90s, modern…
FITZ: So it’s like you’re not sure where it’s sitting in the landscape of time. Those are two great songs that show the left and the right side of the range of record.
CONFRONT: Ok. I ask for one song and you give me two to create a range, fair enough! Now, I’m going to ask you to draw something that represents yourself.
FITZ: This is going to be all Noelle because I cannot draw a stick figure!
NOELLE: I drew a bowl of oranges. For us, we’re well rounded people. We could be put in any situation. You think of an orange, you can have it for breakfast, as a snack, as dessert for dinner, depending on what you want. It’s an everyday kind of thing and that’s how I feel about our music. You can have it at a party in the daytime or chill out with it when you’re at home and just sitting around. And you go to our live show and it’s like tossing it up in the air and have a really good time!
CONFRONT: That’s a really good metaphor! I like it! And that’s it for me, is there anything you’d like to add?
FITZ: No thank you so much!
NOELLE: Thank you!
Listen
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http://www.fitzandthetantrums.com/
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https://twitter.com/FitzAndTantrums
http://www.youtube.com/user/fitzandthetantrumsLA?feature=watch