Just ten seconds into Spastic Fitts’ eponymous debut single, you know you are not listening to your average high school band. There is none of the aural feuding and selfish exhibitionism that bogs down so many groups in their opening years. No, instead there is a harmony in style that is developed beyond their years. Perhaps most impressively, Spastic Fitts experiments with changes in tones and pace throughout the song in a way that suggests greatness.
The band was founded several, not-quite-quantifiable years ago under the name “Banshee” before they changed their moniker to Minerva. Then, just this September, the adolescent quintet settled on “Spastic Fitts.” This name highlights the central talents of the group’s lead songwriter and guitarist: Fieldston’s own Ben Fitts (VI).
Topped by a tightly-wound bed of curls, and almost always wrapped in a leather jacket that conceals some band t-shirt beneath it, Ben Fitts is a musical force. His primary influences include, according to him: the Pixies, the Buzzcocks, Echo & the Bunnymen, Nirvana, and the Velvet Underground. Perhaps it might be too early to call him a second coming of the late Lou Reed, but Fitts certainly has the air of a musician and his band seems to be the perfect vessel for him to express his musical talents. And, apparently, his management talents.
“I’ve been the bandleader for the group and managed/led everything and been handling the booking and posting and publicizing and accounting and everything like that,” says Fitts. “I’m also the main writer on most of the songs, although Julian and Emma also contribute a lot on that front.”
Fitts is of course referring to his other band members, Julian Kaufman and Emma Houton. Kaufman (IV) is the younger brother of Phoebe Kaufman (‘14), and he is certainly not afraid to make a name for himself. As the drummer for Spastic Fitts, Kaufman is no simple tinkerer; his attention to craftsmanship is evident in the way he describes his band’s artistic process.
“Songs really can only come into existence when the whole band is oscillating on the same frequency,” Kaufman says. “Sometimes I will have written some chord changes on the subway coming over to practice. Sometimes it’s the spur of the moment, but either way, the song can’t be one of our better ones unless every member can fully understand the notes and intervals.”
The construction of music is not always so elegant.
“From there, its usually a couple of hours of hard work, yelling, and some chinese food before we start to get a good picture of what the song is going to be,” Kaufman says.
Emma Houton is a student at Hunter College High School and, quite frankly, she is an absurd talent. Her voice is reminiscent of a young Patti Smith, and her haunting wails give the Spastic Fitts’ first batch of songs a large portion of their idiosyncrasy. She will certainly be someone to keep an eye on in the future as the band continues its growth.
Other members of the Spastic Fitts include Erik Hoffer on guitar and Gabby Messner on bass guitar; Hoffer and Messner were relatively unavailable for comment, although Hoffer mentioned that the original lineup was comprised of Fitts, Houton, and himself.
So what’s next for the skyrocketing group?
“We plan on recording a full LP this spring, but we are currently waiting to both get together the money and figure out the label situation,” says Fitts.
Bake sale, anyone?
WOW!