Fitz And The Tantrums To Kick Off Summer Tour In San Diego Ahead Of New Album Release

SAN DIEGO, CA — After taking fans on a funky lunar journey with the title track of their upcoming album, "Man On The Moon," Fitz and The Tantrums will share new music with followers this summer across the country.

The multi-platinum-selling band will kick off its summer tour Thursday in San Diego, a day before the group's latest album is released.

The band's sixth studio album is a 14-track collection of soulful, pop-infected songs from lead singer Michael "Fitz" Fitzpatrick, co-lead vocalist Noelle Scaggs, bassist Joseph Karnes, multi-instrumentalist James King, and keyboardist Jeremy Ruzumna.

"Anything that we do is going to be a good time," Scaggs told Patch. "Each one of these records — there's introspection, there's party vibes, there's social climate songs."

The band "dared to be different" with its latest album, according to Scaggs. "Man On The Moon" captures the quintet's signature sound while still taking music to "new and bold directions."

"The creative songwriting is just really unique to us," Scaggs said. "I love the fact that we really went in on the theme of 'Man On The Moon' and really explored new technologies with even just the visual aspects of the project. We're really trying to expand our horizons on what we do creatively across the board."

The lead single, "Man On The Moon," is the song that jump-started the album's writing process, according to the band. Scaggs said the Motown-flavored track takes her back to the early days of the group.

"It's really fun to sing live as well," she said.

Scaggs also called "OK OK OK," the band's newest single, a "bop."

Another special track is "Young Days," which she wrote and co-produced.

"That one's a really special record for me in that it's been written across the globe over time, and it was just something that I finally felt needed to be heard by this band," said Scaggs, who lives in Nashville, Tennessee, while her bandmates reside in Los Angeles.

Since forming the band in 2008 in Los Angeles, Fitz and The Tantrums has served up a slew of hits including "HandClap," "Out of My League," "The Walker," and "Moneygrabber."

The band has performed at popular festivals including Bonnaroo, Coachella, and Lollapalooza, and been featured on a variety of television shows such as The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel LIVE!, Good Morning America, TODAY, and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve.

Known for their energetic live performances, Fitz and The Tantrums really shines on stage. The band will celebrate the release of "Man On The Moon" with a 31-city summer headline tour that will feature a mix of their popular hits and newer tracks.

Fitz and The Tantrums tested some of their new songs during a short spring tour, but more new tunes are planned for the summer tour setlist.

"The reception has been great. We could see people singing along to the record already," Scaggs said.

"I'm looking forward to seeing us be able to do that more with more of the songs that we can present now, but also tinkering with the ideas of bringing songs back that we haven't played for a long time and seeing if we can kind of merge the two entities across our albums and doing it in front of new fans."

The tour starts Thursday at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay in San Diego and wraps up Aug. 31 in Austin, Texas.

Aloe Blacc and Neal Francis will appear as special guests on select dates. Ax and the Hatchetman, SNACKTIME, and Gable Price and Friends will provide support.

"The sense of the energy that we project and the movement and what we require from our fans in being part of our show — I think that's really unique to our live show, and I think that's why people keep coming to see us play," Scaggs said.

"Come and have a really good time with us because we really like to spread joy to people, and we hope that they give us that joy back," she added.