I’ve followed guitarist Izzy Fontaine mainly for his penchant for hilarious memes on Instagram since 2017-ish — and sometimes for a photo of him on stage with Seal, Tegan and Sara, and The Nightgame — for whomst he plays guitar for on tour (amongst others). Recently, I noticed he joined a band…. with Tyson Ritter from All-American Rejects.
I had just been at Emo Nite’s Halloween bash at Avalon in Hollywood and sang “Dirty Little Secret” at the top of my lungs, and had spent many nights wondering how long Tyson’s “old person” makeup he wore on stage at the very first “When We Were Young Festival” just weeks earlier. (I didn’t attend, unfortunately…) Izzy’s post had a blue warped photo of three band members, “Now More Than Ever” they’re called… the post was announcing release of a new song called “Don’t Rush, Don’t Wait.” So of course, I had to listen…
Izzy and I have never met in person, but we’ve had long discussions about weird niche things like how much we both loved Tevin Campbell’s voice as POWERLINE in A Goofy Movie, and other weird specifics like what keyboards were used on the Jetsons movie soundtrack. I know we have a similar upbringing in music because of this…. so I immediately KNEW I would love this band.
Besides imagining JUST HOW the conversation went down on how they came up with their band name, I could FEEL the band would have some sort of 80’s influence… and I WAS RIGHT. People often say that my “music type” is usually always 80’s synth with a drum machine, and always a mix of indie with happy pop chords, and I can’t say they’re wrong.
I especially knew I was right when their second single “Heart to Heart” was released…. the intro has two of my favorite things: echoey Izzy guitar, and desperate-sounding Tyson vocals. The chorus of course gets really big and layered, and has a hook that you can join in on your first listen.
I dug on the internet to find that they’ll be releasing an album called Creatrix, which will be released March 17, 2023, by Thirty Tigers. Not to mention, there’s a show already planned at LA’s The Echo on March 16th…. that I am already buying tickets for. Since this falls directly into my “music type,” I can’t wait to hear the rest of the album….
For more on the band, Follow @nowmorethaneverband on Instagram and Listen to them on Spotify
And don’t forget to follow the Neon Soapbox Official Playlist for our top new favorites.