TEMPERING TANTRUMS

Motown and ‘80s synth pop.

These are two music styles that most people would say couldn’t be further apart.

One gives you images and earworms of Smokey Robinson, Martha and the Vandellas and Marvin Gaye, the other brings back memories of The Human League and the Pet Shop Boys.

A band that attempted to channel both styles might be accused of musical schizophrenia.

Fitz and the Tantrums begs to disagree.

Since forming in 2008, the Los Angeles indie pop and rock band has successfully incorporated both genres into a sound that’s received critical acclaim and enthusiastic support from fans, things that are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

When the sextet hits the stage at the House of Blues in North Myrtle on Friday, they’ll bring along a bill packed with critically-acclaimed singles that range in style from the soulful, bittersweet “Moneygrabber” off the first CD to the impossibly catchy and upbeat 2013 single “The Walker,” a fight-the-system pop raveup.

Fitz and the Tantrums also blow into town with a dynamic live show that has drawn raves worldwide. This is a band, after all, that manages to successfully navigate switching performances nightly from huge outdoor venues to intimate clubs. They’ve wowed the talk show circuit, from Jimmy Fallon to Ellen Degeneres, and are now even becoming popular at sporting events. The Tantrums lit up the U.S. Open in New York on Aug. 26 and will be playing an NFL season kickoff show tonight, a sort of pep rally to get fans riled up for the Baltimore Ravens’ opener.

Fitz and the Tantrums have become a perpetual favorite on the outdoor summer music festival circuit in recent years. Friday’s HOB gig, for instance, comes just before two big outdoor events put on by North Carolina radio stations – the 106.5 End of Summer Weenie Roast in Charlotte and the 95X Big Shindig in Raleigh.

They’re playing the Grand Strand as the headliners of the first-ever WKZQ Big Night Out, a five-band bill that also includes rock duo IAmDynamite, Nashville-based Wild Cub, the L.A. indie-pop trio Sir Sly, and Wolf Gang, an alternative/symphonic rock quartet from London. It’s an eclectic bill that will definitely allow area fans to check out some bands and sounds they’ve likely not heard before.

96.1, WKZQ-FM’s on-air personality Mason “Mase” Brazelle has liked the Tantrums since he first heard them and was instrumental in getting the band to make its debut trip to the Grand Strand.

Brazelle says the band’s sheer diversity makes it one of the most interesting acts out there right now.

““Their sound is just totally different than a lot of stuff we’re doing on air,” he said. “The first album had a more ‘60s-R&B sound, while the current one has that ‘80s vibe. Their sound has changed a good bit over the years, and everything they do works.”

He realizes some people might not know Fitz and the Tantrums’ name right off the bat, but said they would probably recognize “MoneyGrabber” and “The Walker,” which has been used in film, TV shows and commercials. He especially likes the band’s current single, “Fool’s Gold,” a wistful, upbeat song that manages to talk about betrayal and breakup without making you want to run for the Xanax. Another standout off the current release? He recommends “Out of My League,” an edgy love song that incorporates echoing vocals from band leader Michael Fitzpatrick with a driving synth beat that is eerily reminiscent of Joe Jackson’s 1982 single “Steppin’ Out.”

Whether you know all of Fitz’s music or have never heard of the band before, Brazelle said the live Fitz experience is worth the price of admission.

“Their live show is supposed to be fantastic – they’re a total show band and from what I’ve heard their energy is huge,” he said. “This is a band that has performed on tours with everyone from Al Green to Maroon 5, so their sound can totally cross over to different audiences.”

If the first Big Night Out goes well, Brazelle hopes it will become an annual tradition and possibly, eventually morph into a larger summer festival along the lines of the two aforementioned North Carolina shows.

How to pitch a Tantrum

They say it’s all about who you know, and Fitz and the Tantrums is a prime example.

Born in France, lead singer Fitzpatrick grew up in an arts-infused environment in L.A., where he studied vocal music at the L.A. County High School for the Arts and then experimental film at the California Institute of the Arts.

The movies weren’t in his future, however. Fitzpatrick, now 42, spent numerous years behind the scenes in the music business working as a sound engineer.

He always harbored a deep love for soul and Motown music, and favorites such as Gaye and Otis Redding (actually on the Stax/Volt record label, a rival of Motown) helped him develop the spiraling, white-soul tinged vocals that have become his signature. The idea for a band didn’t come to him until 2008, after a period of extreme emotional upheaval – a really nasty breakup, to be specific – led him to sit down and write the song that would later become one of the Tantrums’ first hit singles, “Breakin’ the Chains of Love.”

Fitzpatrick decided to form a band and reached out to people he already knew on the Los Angeles music scene, who in turn reached out to others. A few days of fervent musical networking resulted in the lineup that makes up the Tantrums today: Fitzpatrick on lead vocals and keyboards, vocalist and percussionist Noelle Scaggs, hornplayer and percussionist James King, bass guitarist Joseph Karnes, keyboardist Jeremy Ruzumna and drummer John Wicks.

The Tantrums’ first full-length CD, “Pickin’ Up the Pieces,” released on the Dangerbird label in 2010, was full of retro soul and Motown influences blended together with a distinct indie rock sensibility. The latest record, “More Than Just a Dream,” was released by Elektra in 2013 and goes in a completely different musical direction, relying more on ‘80s-tinged synthesizers, percussion and vocal stylings. There’s still soul there, however, along with electronica, new wave and even some hip-hop.

“We wanted to show people that this band was more than a ‘retro band’,” Fitzpatrick told Rolling Stone in 2013. “We’d all gotten a little bit tired of that one moniker that kept getting applied to us.”

Fitzpatrick used the current single, “Fool’s Gold,” replete with drum machines, as an example of the change in direction. “On the first record, it was always like the ‘60s was in the foreground, and there was a layer of ‘80s behind it. But on that song, it’s reversed: the ‘80s influences has kind of come to the foreground, and the ‘60s soul is kind of layered behind that.”

Even though the band’s musical influences are evident, and many of their songs might seem strangely familiar to people who have never heard of them before, it’s obvious that the Tantrums are an original. They’re one of the rare bands that manages to pay tribute to the music they love without seeming derivative or, at the worst, copycats.

Tantrum Talk

The Tantrums have been caught up in an almost endless touring loop since their inception, and the current one won’t stop, they say, until 2015. On a recent Friday, keyboardist Ruzumna returned home to Los Angeles “for about a half second” and your Surge reporter was able to speak with him about the band’s origins, its sound, and what dirty Myrtle area music fans can expect if they pick up a ticket to the Night out.

Ruzumna is a versatile songwriter and keyboardist who, like the rest of the band, had already had a long career in music before he joined up with Fitzpatrick and the others in 2008. He’s performed live and toured with the likes of Prince, Bootsy Collins,and rapper Common, recorded with Cee Lo Green and written songs for various artists from Wynonna Judd, Bruno Mars and Joss Stone to, most notably, Macy Gray. He penned her 1999 Grammy-nominated hit “I Try.” Ruzumna’s wildly divergent tastes in music – he calls his influences a mix between Thomas Dolby and Prince – have helped him contribute to Fitz and The Tantrums’ eclectic sound.

There’s a story that Fitz and the Tantrums got its start because Mike Fitzpatrick, your lead singer, got a hold of an old church organ. Can you elaborate? He was going through a really bad breakup and somebody sold him this old Connorgan for like $50, and that’s when he wrote the first song for what was going to be a solo project and eventually became the band. I really identified with him because when I joined the band, I was going through a really bad breakup, so I was cheering him on from the very beginning. We really connected over those experiences and the songs.

You have a long list of music business credentials. Fitz has said the band formed “after five phone calls.” How did you come to be a part of Fitz and the Tantrums? I had been in Los Angeles writing a lot of songs, including a song for Rod Stewart, one for Bruno Mars, working with a lot of independent local singer-songwriters. In 2008, I was playing in a house band at a club in L.A. called Bardot with a lot of people who were working on albums, we’d all toured together in the past. John Wicks became our drummer for a little while, and he learned that Fitz was just beginning to think about putting a band together. Fitz chose him, and he recommended me for keyboards, and everything came together from that.

Many people have commented on the fact that Fitz and the Tantrums doesn’t have a lead guitarist. Who made that decision and how has it worked out? It was a conscious aesthetic decision Mike made. Not having the guitarist contributes to the uniqueness of our sound. It also forces you to be more creative on the keyboards, and since he writes songs from the keyboard and that’s what I play, we’re coming up with arrangements you might not have to reach for if you had the guitarist. You really have to rethink the arrangement process for songs. It’s a fun challenge and I think it works.

What is the songwriting process like in Fitz and the Tantrums? It’s a collaborative process. Some come from Fitz, some come from Noelle, others are a combination of the rest of the band. We’ll do jam sessions with all of us getting together in the studio and playing for hours and hours for several days, taking the stuff from that home and writing for several more days. I’ve submitted a track or two, so have the others. It all filters down to Fitz, though. He’s got to feel that the song works for the entire band.

What’s been the standout show of the year or of the summer for the band? Lollapalooza was pretty mindblowing. It’s always very exciting and amazing to look out and see an ocean of people. Something about Lollapalooza is just very special. Usually when you ask people to clap along, you see a lot of people doing it, but there we saw every single person clapping along. I’ve seen some video of the show and it was just an amazing experience.

The House of Blues in North Myrtle is a lot different than Lollapalooza. Will you be altering your live show for the smaller venue? It will be the same show with more of the benefit of the sound system and lights you get in a smaller room. It’s pretty cool for us when you play things a little smaller. It’s even more high energy, like putting a stick of dynamite in a small cooking pot. You get a bigger burst of energy.

Is there a new crowd you’re reaching with the second CD? We’re already reaching a lot of ages. People on YouTube have babies singing our songs, older people in their 60s are into it. I would say one thing that is different is we’re seeing a lot more of the young people at this year’s shows. That’s pretty incredible. It just makes you want to pass on all the knowledge you have. That’s another reason I’m glad everyone in the band is focused on musicianship. Before the band, we all had a lot of experience playing live and playing well, and it’s especially important to offer that to younger fans who just might have grown up seeing a lot of acts using pre-recorded music.

Any favorite songs off the new album? One thing I really love about our albums is we make sure not to put any filler on there. We overwrite to the point where we have so many songs to choose from when we pick what to release. Having said that, I love “Six A.M.” I love the new single “Fool’s Gold.” And there’s one song called “Tell ‘Em What You’re Hear For” that’s on the bonus version of the album. It’s really a lot more like our old sound, and really high energy. Fitz does some things vocally on there that he doesn’t normally do.

Besides obviously wanting the CD to do well, what are your other goals as a band for the forseeable future? First and foremost we want to survive. Before this tour and before this album came out, they told us to pack our suitcases for two years, and that turned out to be true. Except for this break we’re just finishing, we have been nonstop on the road. It’s funny…it’s like an alternate reality, really. All you can do is keep your energy up and stay healthy. Other than that, we’re really excited about the current single “Fool’s Gold.” We just really hope that song surpasses “The Walker” and takes us to the next level.

Has your live show changed any from previous years? What can the Myrtle Beach audience expect? We’re always trying to up our game live, partly because we want to and partly because I think it’s so important to us to have a live show that keeps getting more interesting and more exciting. Obviously we’re playing songs from the albums, but that’s mixed in with a really exciting light show and we have a great sound guy. We’ve tried to up our game on every level especially because we’ve been playing all these festivals and we’ve been up against so many incredible bands. You want to be good and to stand out. I try to tell people our sound is really two different things. There’s what you get on the album, and the show is completely different. We try to capture the album on one level, but our goal is to take the album and add 100 times more energy. We want the audience to have fun and for us to have fun. Every night we have to find a way to make the show a sheer adrenaline experience.

This story was originally published September 3, 2014 at 4:15 PM with the headline "TEMPERING TANTRUMS."