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Feb 06, 2013 By Mike Hilleary Photography by Joseph Cultice Fitz & The Tantrums

Newly signed to Elektra Records, Fitz & the Tantrums have announced that they will release their next album More Than Just A Dream on May 7. Originally slated to come out last October, the follow-up to the band’s 2010 debut Pickin’ Up the Pieces was recorded in Hollywood’s Sound Factory studios with producer Tony Hoffer (Beck, Phoenix), whittled down to 12 tracks from some 30-plus demos.

Keeping the band’s old-soul sound while expanding into territories of new-wave and hip-hop influences, bandleader Michael Fitzpatrick explained to Rolling Stone that “It’d been a long while since we’d made the first record and we’d obviously grown a lot as a band and as people. We wanted to show people that this band was more than a ‘retro band.’ We’d all gotten a little bit tired of that one moniker that kept getting applied to us. To me, obviously, there was obviously a lot of Motown, retro-soul influence to (the first record), but there was just as much Eighties influence, indie-rock influence, new-wave and hip-hop all mixed in. That first record was that kind of hybrid, and on this record, we just wanted to push it even more forward and take even more chances, and it just required a lot of experimentation.”

Fitz & the Tantrums will likely preview their new material when they attend this year’s SXSW Festival in Austin. Stay tuned as more details are revealed.

(www.fitzandthetantrums.com)