The Belly Up Aspen

In the not so distant past, Michael “Fitz” Fitzpatrick, lead singer of acclaimed, multi-platinum-selling soul-pop outfit Fitz and The Tantrums, admits he would often second-guess himself when writing new music. Following the band’s breakthrough 2013 album, More Than Just a Dream, not to mention a slew of massive hit singles that followed including “Out of My League,” “The Walker,” and “HandClap,” suddenly, Fitz said, “I’ve got all these other little voices in my head swirling around: ‘What do people want?’ ‘What do the fans want?’ You just get all these other things that start to influence you both consciously and subconsciously.” As a direct reaction to this, over the past year, as the band wrote and recorded their forthcoming sixth studio album, Man On The Moon (due on July 25 via Atlantic Records), the singer says he decided to instead throw caution to the wind so as to feel more free in the creative process than at any time during his career to date. “I decided I was simply going to write for my heart and for my soul and nobody else,” Fitz explains one recent morning. “At this point in our career, myself and the band feel we have complete creative license. Because, c’mon, nobody knows what the rules are anymore. So I’m not going to chase some vapor in the wind. I’m going to just do what I want. And now we have 100 percent creative freedom.” The result is Fitz and The Tantrums’ most daring album yet — a no-nonsense collection of soulful, pop-infected masterpieces that both thrill and engross listeners in equal measure. It’s the sound of a band — which includes co-lead vocalist Noelle Scaggs, bassist Joseph Karnes, multi-instrumentalist James King, and keyboardist Jeremy Ruzumna — that knows their signature sound, but are willing to take it in new and bold directions. “We’ve never wanted to be stuck in a box. We refused to do that,” offers Scaggs. “With this project, we’re daring to be different.” While some of the band’s previous LPs, Fitz admits, were admittedly written with hit singles in mind, when it came time to craft Man On The Moon, they instead decided to go for a more subtle-sounding collection of songs — more cohesive as a whole, but still with the band’s signature dramatic flair. Fans got their first taste of the new album with lead track “Ruin The Night,” a funky, infectious song Fitz says is injected with some Gorillaz vibes. It also excitingly finds the vocalist singing in falsetto on the chorus, which he says “felt risky and different.” “I wanted people to know very clearly what this record is going to be, what the journey is we’re about to take them on,” Fitz says of leading with the track. “I didn’t want to go with the most obvious song first. I wanted to go with the song that’s really setting the intention for this record.” The Motown-flavored title track and lead single “Man On The Moon”, both Fitz and Scaggs agree, was the one that jump-started the album’s writing process. The doo-wop slathered song, which Scaggs says has a “sticky” chorus and Fitz says is “a cool Supremes song you’ve never heard,” set the compass and direction for the entire project. Other standouts, including the nostalgic “Perfume,” as well as “OK OK OK,” feature a thrilling new vocal innovation that’s a direct result of the band being together so many years. In essence, Scaggs explains, she and Fitz double each other’s vocals on these and other tracks – a vocal effect she’s taken to calling a “super voice.” This cohesion as a band is naturally reflected in their forever-mesmerizing live show. From their earliest days, the live show, Fitz says, has been the band’s calling card, and fans’ palpably passionate response to each of their gigs remains to this day. “It just feels so natural and so second nature,” Fitz says of the feeling every time the band hits the stage. “It’s what we do. We’ve set a bar for ourselves. It’s one dance-punch after another.” Fitz and The Tantrums are set to head out on a massive summer headline tour, and the band members say they’re anxious to introduce their new songs into their tight, nonstop set. “It’s going to be a really interesting challenge to how we approach our live show for this record,” Scaggs says. As for what success looks like to Fitz for the new LP? The frontman says he already feels like he and the band have won. 16 years into their undeniably riveting career, anything that happens going forward, he says, is an added bonus.

Says Fitz: “We only have a profound sense of gratitude.”