4 minute read
Why so serious?
THE HAPPY FITS Daisy the Great, Phoneboy
7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 9 The Plaza Live 425 N. Bumby Ave. plazaliveorlando.org $25
C’mon get Happy (Fits) | Photo by Rahil Ashruff
The Happy Fits bring their vibrant new indie sound to Orlando
BY GABBY MACOGAY
It seems only fitting that a group dubbed “that fruit band” by fans is returning to the orange capital of the world as part of their latest tour.
With a bold modern rock sound that packs a powerful yet comforting punch, the Happy Fits’ newest album, Under the Shade of Green, takes their already catchy tunes to an entirely new level of punchy energy.
The New Jersey trio — cellist Calvin Langman, guitarist Ross Monteith and drummer Luke Davis — found that writing this new album gave them a chance to break out of their creative comfort zones and explore new lyrical themes and sounds.
“I think a lot of our earlier work was very coming-of-age and it was kind of like a diary of growing up between the years of 16 and 23,” says Langman. “Over the pandemic, there were just a lot of major global events that really opened up our eyes to realizing that the world was a lot bigger than the world of Pittstown, New Jersey, that we grew up in.”
Each member of Happy Fits initially found their passion for music in their youth: Davis discovering his interest in drumming through hours playing Rock Band and Guitar Hero; Monteith signing up for guitar lessons alongside his older brother and immediately thinking it was “the coolest thing”; and Langman transforming his childhood cello lessons into an unlikely gateway into the rock world.
“Basically, I saw two cellos on YouTube playing ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ and I was like, I want to play rock cello. That’s what I want to do,” remembers Langman.
After their first EP hit streaming platforms, Langman realized that people were responding well to the strings. What initially wasn’t intended to be a big release soon enough made the Happy Fits a force to be reckoned with on the indie-rock scene. Now a recognizable staple of their sound, Langman’s cello adds an entirely new layer of warmth to each tune.
Davis thinks that it’s important to the band that their songs translate well onstage and fans never feel like there’s something missing from a live performance. While this initially meant that the trio would stick to strictly cello, guitar and drums on their recordings as well, some experimentation over the years provided an opportunity for Happy Fits to branch out and evolve their sound both in the studio and on the stage.
“That became the evolution of the live sound, with Calvin adding pedals to his cello so he could have octaves, as well as Ross, so there was that void being filled in a lot of ways,” says Davis.
With fan-favorite songs as animated as “Too Late” or “Hold Me Down” from previous albums having raised fans’ expectations, the band felt that Under the Shade of Green needed to deliver with new material that was just “as big and loud” as possible.
“The first two albums, we only had six weeks to record them, but this most recent album, Under the Shade of Green, we had six months. It was the first opportunity that we really got to utilize our time as much as possible to make the songs sound as huge as possible,” says Davis.
Monteith says that “In the Lobby” is one of the more fun numbers to perform live in terms of crowd interaction. The band’s stage manager adorns Monteith with a bucket hat and sunglasses for this song, a tongue-in-cheek visual play on the lives and behaviors of the rich and famous.
The pineapple is the Happy Fits’ newest featured fruit, serving as the cover image for Under the Shade of Green and following the grapefruit adorning the cover of their 2020 album, What Could Be Better. What started as a silly pun with a banana on the cover of their 2016 EP, Awfully Apeelin’, became a full-blown tradition that now yields a deeper meaning in the lyrics and theme of each release.
“I felt like it was a powerful image to have the pineapple be made out of money and also on fire because it’s kind of a metaphor for how money is destroying the world right now and just fueling global warming,” says Langman.
Under the Shade of Green allowed the Happy Fits to experiment with new energies, grooves and sounds (and yes, a new fruit). Fiery with urgency and as bright as a flame, this new album adds a formidable array of new potential inclusions to the band’s already-stacked set list. Whether you “Dance Alone” or with friends — you will be dancing either way.
“We really took the time with these songs not necessarily worrying about how it’s going to translate, we can figure that out now because we have the tools and the team to achieve that,” says Davis. “A lot more harmonies and multiple guitar tracks and multiple cello tracks and bass synth. … We went from the garage indie band feel to a more refined rock band.”
music@orlandoweekly.com orlandoweekly.com ● DEC. 7-13, 2022 ● ORLANDO WEEKLY 19
