Fitz and The Tantrums has found the key, the magic words, to
reaching everyone.
The band came out swinging in late 2010 with its debut
full-length, “Pickin’ Up the
Pieces.” The album was an instant party album, overflowing with neo-soul and
retro Motown. It was not only a massive crowd pleaser — especially the huge single
“MoneyGrabber” — but was critically well-received.
Fitz and The Tantrums followed it up in May 2013 with its
sophomore album, “More Than Just a Dream.” This time, while the album holds on
to the band’s neo-soul roots, there’s a definite high-energy pop angle. The two
lead off singles, “Out of My League” and “The Walker,” have flown up the
charts. But while there’s more pop to “Out of My League,” and “The Walker” probably
wouldn’t have fit on “Pickin’ Up the Pieces,” Fitz
and The Tantrums can be heard virtually everywhere. The band has found a way to
reach everyone — coffee shops, alt-rock radio stations, Top-40 chart watchers,
indie dance parties, on and on.
Fitz and The Tantrums are set to play Water Street Music Hall
on Tuesday, September 2. CITY spoke via phone with keyboardist Jeremy Ruzumna while the band was home on a short break before
kicking off yet another tour. An edited version of that interview follows.
CITY: I imagine that when a band gets a couple of
weeks off, or they’re back home recharging, they don’t want to have anything to
do with music. They just want to wear earplugs all day and stay in bed.
Jeremy Ruzumna: That’s actually not too far from the truth. I’ve got a home studio, and I’m
always working on stuff, but it takes at least a week to re-acclimate to being
back in town. And usually right as you get to that point, you have to leave
again. But you’re right, you do just want to hibernate. As much as you want to
see your friends and go out, sometimes it’s hard to get off the couch.
The band just released “Fool’s Gold” as the new
single. Why did y’all choose that song as the third single?
It’s a tough choice. People always say, “Ah, that’s their
baby,” and it’s true, it’s tough to choose between songs. Ultimately, you have
to go with what you think will have the most appeal, what you think is the
catchiest, what you think is the most fun. It also has to be a song that you’re
not going to be afraid to play constantly. If it happens to be a hit, if you’re
lucky, you’ll have to play it 10 times a day for the rest of your life. The
problem is picking something that you love and something that people will react
to.
I first saw Fitz and The Tantrums back in 2011 when
the first album came out. Now I can’t escape “The Walker” and “Out of My
League.” I’m sure that’s been a wild three year ride.
It has. And it’s funny. We’ve entered a point where our new
songs get even more of reaction than our old songs. “MoneyGrabber”
still gets a great reaction, but “The Walker” and “Out of Our League,” I think,
has surpassed that.
For you, as a musician, is there a preference with
how you end the set? Do you prefer this older hit, “MoneyGrabber”
or doing “The Walker,” a more current song?
I think either song would be a great way to end the set. “The
Walker” keeps us pumped, people love it, but “MoneyGrabber,”
we have a few tricks up our sleeve for when we do it live. It’s hard to choose.
It’s been more than a year since the album came
out. How have those songs settled with you? Have they changed much for you
since y’all first released the album?
It’s interesting, we play them live so much I don’t really
tend to look back at the album, but when we do them live, we do the songs and
add the special live stock to it and give it more energy and make it crazy. But
that also makes it really interesting to go back and listen to the record. I
hadn’t heard the “Fool’s Gold” recording in a while because we’ve been playing
it so much, but I went back and listened to it recently and I releaized that yes. For me, being in the band, it’s fun to
go back and listen to the recordings because I can hear the distance they’ve
come. It’s an interesting process.
I’ve heard these two big singles, “Out of My
League” and “The Walker,” in a lot of different settings: On the alt-rock
station here, in coffee shops, in indie locations, connected with some soul.
Did y’all go into this album wanting to make these songs universal and
accessible to a lot of people?
No matter what musicians tell you, you always want people to
like your music, and of course, you want to make music that people will want to
listen to. I’m much more interested in making music that people are going to
hear, than making music people aren’t going to hear. But having said that, you
have to do stuff that will satisfy yourself and satisfy your soul. Otherwise,
you’re just going to go crazy trying to record those songs.
It’s funny,
speaking of hearing it in different contexts, the last time I was in an Uber — or even when I’m in someone’s car — it’s funny how
often I hear one of our songs. The other day I was in a hotel before
Lollapalooza, and it was 3 in the morning and the people next door were making
so much noise, I was getting kind of pissed off. But at one point I heard a
Fitz and The Tantrums song, so I forgave them.
Did you want to walk next door and say, “You
know, that’s mine.”
You’ll be in the grocery store, in the frozen food section,
and want to look at the people next to you and yell, “That’s my band.” I used
to do that back in the day with other bands I was in, when I was in the checkout
line. But you start to feel like an idiot after a while [laughs].
The band had this album pretty much in the can
before signing to Elektra, right?
That’s something not a lot of people realize. Our sound
changed so much between our first and second record, and then the second record
came out on a major label. Many people think we changed our sound because we
are on a major label and they made us do it. But we wrote and recorded the
entire album, and mixed it, before signing to Elektra. The only thing they had
us to do is change a few small mixing tweaks and add a couple small elements to
Out of My League, which I think were good suggestions. Overall the record was
99 percent done.
There’s a thought that record labels are so
controlling, but that doesn’t seem to be as much the case these days. It seems
like musicians have to be road-tested, finished products, and giving out music
through Bandcamp.com, before signing to a major label.
It’s changed drastically. Technology is a huge part of it.
Not even the old days, as late as the 90’s, if you wanted to release a
recording, you had to have thousands of dollars, and most musicians don’t have
that. You really were at the mercy of the labels. Now anyone, for the cost of a
laptop basically, can make an album or the beginnings of the album. We take it
for granted now, but it wasn’t even that long ago that I could record something
in my living room and put it on YouTube and someone anywhere in the world could
hear it.
Because of
that, at first labels lost some control, but at the same time, they could look
at a band, look at their digital footprint, and you could look at the
accomplishment they’ve achieved on their own. Our band, we finished an album and
had been road testing “MoneyGrabber” for over a year
before we got signed to Dangerbird. I think in a way
it benefits everyone.
Water Street Music Hall is currently running a
contest to let fans hang out and interview Fitz and the Tantrums in the
dressing room on September 2. For more details and oo
enter, visit http://on.fb.me/1t98jdg
This article appears in Aug 27 – Sep 2, 2014.
