The New Jersey indie rock trio known as The Happy Fits have forged a unique path for themselves in the music world. Combining a vibrant sound with songs detailing honest portraits of love and heartbreak, they are a quirky, musical force building an audience of 1.1 million monthly listeners on Spotify. So far, they have released three albums, as well as their debut, an EP from 2016.

I got to chat with their lead singer, Calvin Langman, for both the Echo and my program on WXCI 91.7 FM, on the heels of announcing a U.S. tour as well as their own music festival in October.

You started as a classically trained musician; how did you fall into playing rock?

My parents had a radio station called 99.9 The Hawk. It was always playing classic rock hits, so that was always playing throughout my house. That’s how I got exposed to rock and roll, even though I was playing classic piano and cello.

Around fifth grade, that Croatian cello duo, 2Cellos, released “Welcome to the Jungle.” I just remember seeing that on YouTube and thinking, ‘They are playing so loud and fast. It’s not even that hard if you’re classically trained. I want to do that!’

As I got older, I listened to more indie rock than classical music. I also realized that I really like writing music as well. Near the end of high school, as a graduation gift, we recorded our EP Awfully Apeelin’ just for our friends and family of some original ideas that had. Put it out on Spotify for fun, and it landed on a playlist. One morning we woke up, and it had 40,000 streams.

I thought, “maybe I should drop out of classical conservatory and try and do rock and roll for a living.” That’s exactly what happened.

The jump between classical and rock is an interesting one. Two different genres entirely.

There’s a lot of similarities, and music theory is the thing that helps me. I did a lot of music theory classes in school, and I couldn’t think about writing rock without using music theory.

How did the band’s youthful, vibrant image come about?

I was just a really hyper kid. I loved spreading positivity. I always found a way to see the brighter side of things, and I wanted to bring that into my music. Most of the time I would spend listening was to and from school, tired and exhausted. Listening to The Killers or Panic! At the Disco, those guys were like my friends. There’s a sense of companionship when I listen to them. That’s the music I wanted to make that people can really sing along to. Songs with great melodies that they’ll put on in a good mood or a bad mood to cheer them up.

Your live shows are as energetic as your music. Are there any pre-show rituals you guys have to get into the right mindset for performing?

The days are long on tour. You wake up at around 8 a.m., drive 5 or 6 hours to the next city, set up for 3 hours, then soundcheck for 2 hours. Then opening bands play. You have to keep running around or on our feet, making sure to stay awake.

We try not to drink caffeine before a show, since that can ruin our vocal cords. Going out to eat really heavy before a show is also a big mistake. We feast after the show, and by feast I mean that we’ll go to McDonald’s and have some cheeseburgers.

How does you approach collaboration to ensure that everyone’s artistic voices are heard?

It comes a lot from our different backgrounds in terms of how we started playing music. Our drummer liked metal and played Rock Band, and our guitarist grew up listening to a lot of Dave Matthews Band and The Lumineers, folkier stuff like that. It’s great to have all of these different perspectives chiming in on the music. What makes successful music successful is pulling from different genres and welding them together nicely.

The various influences you have gives your music its own unique flair, rather than all three of you trying to just imitate one particular artist.

It’s always good, even with our producer/manager, who has a perspective on bringing classic rock into our songs, to get as many different opinions as you can. At the end of the day, you whittle it down until you’re left with something that you love.

How did the band get the idea to host your own music festival?

We always just thought that music festivals are super cool and wanted to host one with bands we love. We haven’t done one since a holiday show we did before and after the pandemic. We then wanted to take it to the next level and realized that if people were coming to our hometown show, we could put on a festival. We’re teaming up with the Wellmont Theater in Montclair. Wonderful team.

We kept floating the idea around from time to time since we’ve started. Our manager heard is talking about it before and suggested that now was the right time. We’re starting on a small scale, but we hope that it’ll become the next big thing in New Jersey.

You played at Lollapalooza. What was that like?

It was a blur. So much fun. I don’t think that we practiced that hard for a show before. We had a really fun after show. Our set was at midnight and ended at 1 a.m., so that was the latest show we had ever done. Playing the actual stage went so fast. There’s so much to take in when you’re up there, and you have to stay focused and be present. It was the best experience ever.

I also got to play a lot of ping pong backstage before the show.

What have you learned from the experience of putting it together?

It takes a lot of work. That’s the biggest thing, a lot of foresight and planning. We started planning this on January.

Is there a unique way you like to describe your sound?

The past two albums have been described as alternative or indie pop. We’re writing classic rock and roll, four or five chords here and there, really catchy melodies. When people ask what kind of band I’m in, I say, ‘Rock and roll.’

Everything’s coming from the soul. If that’s not rock and roll, then I don’t know what is!

Do you have a favorite Happy Fits song?

I don’t know why, it’s one of our least popular ones, but “What Could Be Better” has a special place in my heart. We never play it live. That’s probably my favorite.

The Happy Fits will embark on their Under the Shade of Green tour on September 5 at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn, NY and end on November 19 at the Corona Capital in Mexico City, Mexico.