Fitz & The Tantrums have such an enchanting story…where ex-lovers become sources of inspiration, living rooms turn into cutting-edge recording studios, and tattoo artists become heroes.  I got to hear it first-hand on Thursday as I sat in the hallway of the Dangerbird Records headquarters with Fitz himself for a quick interview before he had to run off to take the stage at Silver Lake’s “Hipster Haven” aka Spaceland.  It was a delightful little interview.  We were offered ice cream mid-conversation and at one point Fitz was even asked to serve as an interim security guard in the absence of the guest list girl.

So tell me about this organ, the crazy way you acquired it, and how it contributed to the project?

Fitz: Well I was definitely going through a bad breakup.  We were sort of on a no talking policy, trying to just clean break.  I all of a sudden got a phone call from her.  I saw it on my phone and I was like I’m not picking that up [laughs].  And she left me a message and she just said, “Sorry to call you but my neighbor has an emergency, he has to move out today, he has to sell everything in the basement and he has this huge organ.  I thought you might want it, he’s selling it for 50 bucks.”  I hung up the phone, called him, called her, and I said, “Put the $50 in his hand.”  So I got it but then I literally had to feverishly find piano movers.  To find a piano mover in like 3 hours as the sun is setting – I called like 15 places and finally got these shady Russian guys to come do it.  They lifted it up and this thing was so heavy and they almost broke their backs doing it.  They put it in my living room and it’s a massive 60’s organ so it takes up half of my living room.  And that was truly the beginning.  I was so excited to have this thing.  I sat down this night and I wrote the first track off of the EP, which will also be on the LP called Breakin’ The Chains of Love.

So that really inspired you?

Fitz: Oh yeah.  It just came at the perfect time.  I was really wanting to put all that pain and energy from the break-up into something creative and it just came together.

Does your ex know that she played a major point in your career?

Fitz: Yes, especially since the songs have been getting a lot of airplay on the radio so I’m sure she’s not too happy about that because they are a lot about her.

I heard that you guys toured with Maroon 5…

Fitz: Yes, we did and that was another kind of serendipitous thing.  He [Adam Levine] was getting a tattoo in New York and the guy who was giving him the tattoo said, “You gotta hear this new band I found, it’s my favorite band.”  He played him it, Adam flipped out and called and then he called us the following week and asked us to go out on tour with them.  And that was amazing, we got to tour all these East coast colleges with them, play in front of thousands of kids.  It was pretty exciting.

Did you ever find out what tattoo he was getting at the time?

Fitz: I didn’t.  I forget to ask – I gotta ask him that.

I hear that you are inspired by Motown.  How did that come to be?  How did you get into all that?

Fitz: My parents are classical music and opera freaks.  That is the only thing that my dad would allow growing up in the house.  So the one sort of concession that I could make with my mom driving the carpool to school was that I could listen to the oldies station.  That is where I first kind of started to find my love – to me, that’s the best period of songwriting.  Then when I started to work in studios for other people, I just fell in love with the sound of those records even more.  I made this whole record in my living room and just tried to pay homage to that period and yet give it a little modern spin.

And you have an album coming out in August?

Fitz: Yeah.  We just signed with Dangerbird Records not too long ago and the records coming out Aug 24 so I’m pretty excited.  I recorded the EP and then kept going with the full length in my living room.  It was just the best way to get it done.

Words by Nicole Pajer with photos by Sidney Bensimon and Dustin Downing