Chicago – Over the amazing three-day weekend that is Lollapalooza, I was able to sit down and talk with bassist Joe Karnes and keyboardist Jeremy Ruzumna of the Los Angeles-based sextet Fitz and The Tantrums. As excited as they were to see Outkast later that day, I was equally excited to chat with artists I had seen perform on the main stage back in 2011, when I danced in the mud with a friend to “Don’t Gotta Work It Out” and “MoneyGrabber.” Back then, Fitz and The Tantrums were still making a name for themselves with the debut album Pickin’ Up the Pieces. Now the guys have a second album under their belts, major radio play, and fans young and old. All the more deserving, Karnes and Ruzumna were sweet as molasses and pretty darn hilarious. Between laughs we talked Lolla 2011 and Lolla 2014, More Than Just a Dream, and touring.
Sarah Hess: It’s so refreshing to hear more soul on the radio and to see the younger generations discovering neo-soul and R&B. Fitz and The Tantrums is no doubt contributing to this. How does that make you feel? And do you see more and more young faces at your shows?
Jeremy Ruzumna: We definitely see a lot more young faces at shows. It’s pretty astounding actually!
Joe Karnes: I think anytime you can turn on the next generation to music we’ve grown up with and love, that’s like 40, 50 years ago, and help educate and show people some real music, it’s really, really gratifying. We don’t ever create the music with that in mind. It’s just a bonus we get in the end, and if we can cause someone to go out there and look a little deeper, find some old records, that’s great.
SH: Last time you played Lolla you were touring in support of Pickin’ Up the Pieces. Now you’re supporting your sophomore album More Than Just a Dream. How would you say the band has grown in the making of your second album?
JR: Well, first of all, the second album, as you probably heard, is really different from the first album. We went for a completely different sound this time, and we just let ourselves come up with whatever we wanted to come up with. Anything we thought sounded cool, we did.
JK: The only rule we kept for ourselves was that there are no rules in writing! We wrote like 35 to 40 songs in a month and a half, and some of them really sounded like the first record and some sounded like the sixth record, you know. (laughs) Eventually we were able to whittle it down with help from our producer, Tony Hoffer, to the best 12 songs that sounded like an album, that had a little bit of a taste of where we were.
JR: Thirteen if you buy the bonus album. Deluxe!
JK: True! (laughs) I like to think that you put a couple songs on from where you’re coming from, a bunch of songs from where you are, and then a couple songs that may hint where you’d want to go in the future. We’ve really been enjoying the fact that we took a chance, and seeing that people are embracing it. You know, we definitely knew when we were making this record and putting it out that we may lose a bunch of fans; we may not, but there was a chance.
JR: We knew it was a risk.
JK: Yeah, but we just wanted to push ourselves and make music that we really wanted to make. It’s very gratifying, especially a year later when you see our old fans from the first record in the crowd. Like “Oh, those are our people from the first record!” and they’re singing the new songs, and so it’s like “Oh, maybe we didn’t lose anybody at all!” (everyone laughs)
SH: As Lolla alumni, how are things different this time around? Are you less nervous? More excited?
JK: I’m actually, in a way, more excited. I had a great time the last time we played. In fact, last time we played Lolla, it was a huge experience for me, not that I hadn’t played a festival before, but it was the first festival I ever played where I took a moment to actually look up from the keyboards and look out at the audience and the cityscape. I was like, “Wow, this is amazing!” This time around I’m even more excited because I remember that moment, and I’m looking forward to it again. And we’ve been touring so much that there’s not really any butterflies or nerves, at least not for me. I mean, Joe gets really nervous before shows, but not me. No, no that’s a joke! (laughs)
JK: Yeah, it’s really exciting. The first Lollapalooza, I think as a band, it was our first really big festival stage, and we didn’t know if anyone was going to show up. We played at like two o’clock on a Saturday, and we didn’t know how many people were hungover and all that. And even like a half-hour before, I remember I poked my head out and was like, “Well, there are some people out there,” but I was preparing myself for there not being a lot of people, barely any people. And then when we got out there, it was just packed! There were 20 or 30 thousand people!
JR: And they were into it!
JK: And they were into it all the way, from front to back! It definitely was one of the major experiences we had as a band together, I think. When people ask, “What was one of your favorite gigs?” That! That was one of our favorite gigs! To be able to come back, well I’m just really looking forward to it!
SH: You guys will be heading out on tour again soon. What are you looking forward to most this upcoming tour?
JR: Yeah, we’re taking a little break and then starting up again. We’re going to be playing the U.S. Open opening ceremony, which will be really cool!
JK: And then right after that we’ll basically be touring until the end of the year…
JR: An easier question is “Are you guys gonna be home?” because the answer is “Not really.” (laughs) This little break we have coming up is our first break in a long, long time! Since like 2010! (everyone laughs)
SH: Do you ever get to bring your families on tour?
JK: Actually, it’s funny that you ask that because we don’t get to bring them a lot of the time, but because we’ve actually had a few days in Chicago, everyone brought out their significant others and their families. It’s really a nice thing. They’re all here today, so we have to do well because they’re all watching us. People’s kids are watching them. I mean, that’s traumatic if dad doesn’t do very well at the show. (laughs)
SH: Well, that’s all I have for you guys. Anything you’d like to leave us with?
JK: Stay in school and don’t do drugs.
Joe, Jeremy, and the rest of the gang are now on that forever tour. For a list of tour dates near you, head over to the Fitz and The Tantrums Facebook page, and get your tickets ASAP because they’re selling our fast! Head over to iTunes to purchase More Than Just a Dream.
Live Photo: Lollapalooza 2014 By Sarah Hess
Sarah Hess
After attending The School of the Art Institute in Chicago, Sarah went on to study education at Dominican University, earning a degree in history. When not teaching, writing, or taking in a show, she is most likely to be found with a camera to her eye or hanging out in a darkroom.
You can follow Sarah Hess on twitter at @Sarahhasanh and view her music photography on her website: smhimaging.com.
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