Trying to pin down exactly what kind of band Fruit Bats is can be a little tricky — and that’s part of the appeal.
Depending on the album, Fruit Bats, which will perform July 17 at The Windjammer on Isle of Palms, might sound like a full-fledged band with rich harmonies and expansive arrangements. Or it might feel like the work of a lone songwriter following a thread wherever it leads.
That’s because this project has always revolved around Eric D. Johnson and has shifted fluidly between solo endeavor and collaborative band over the years, with a rotating cast of musicians joining him in the studio and on stage as the songs require.
That flexibility has given Johnson the freedom to treat Fruit Bats less like a traditional band and more like a musical vessel for whatever direction that a particular collection of songs demands. What results is a sound that is remarkably consistent in spirit even as its textures change.
Across the band’s catalog, you can hear warm acoustic guitars and sun-faded melodies giving way to shimmering psychedelia, pastoral folk and flashes of classic pop craftsmanship. Its songs can be simultaneously rooted and dreamlike, with arrangements that can evoke a back-porch singalong, a canyon-road road trip or the hazy glow of an old AM radio.
For the new Fruit Bats album The Landfill, Johnson leaned fully into a collective sound, bringing in his longtime touring band — David Dawda on bass, Josh Mease on guitar and synthesizer, Frank LoCrasto on piano and synthesizer, and Kosta Galanopoulos on drums — to shape the record in the studio as an actual band rather than a rotating cast of collaborators. That shift matters. Instead of treating arrangements as something built piecemeal around his voice, Johnson captures a group that has spent years learning how to breathe together in real time.
The result is a sound that feels lived-in and kinetic, where songs aren’t just written and recorded, but are actively performed with a looseness that still carries careful intention underneath.
In fact, “loose” was a word that came up during Johnson’s recent interview with the Charleston City Paper.
“I’ve had these same folks playing live with me for about 10 years,” said Johnson, who is based in Seattle. “I was a solo artist historically, but we always had these moments with this Fruit Bats band during sound checks; these loose, light moments where I wasn’t thinking about anything, I was just playing. I always loved that and I wanted to figure out a way to capture that.”
The new Fruit Bats album certainly sounds like the work of a close group of musicians. The playing is never flashy and suits whatever the song is. The band settles into a vintage soul groove on “The Saddest Part of the Song,” transitions to bright indie-pop on “Think Aboutcha,” fades into a sparse arrangement on the haunting ballad “Wild Tony Power Moment” and closes things out with full-throated anthemic rock on the title track.
The intuitive playing is the perfect backdrop for Johnson’s writing, which is incisive but often melancholy.
“Someone told me that I write well about aging, and I took that as a compliment,” Johnson said. “These songs are all of a piece. The album is about reflection, anxiety and sleeplessness, things like that.”
As much as Johnson enjoyed making The Landfill with a band, the next Fruit Bats album could just as easily be made in his bedroom. He said that’s one of the advantages of using the name Fruit Bats as an umbrella, not a set-in-stone rock band.
“It’s like a pen name,” he said. “That’s the way I think about Fruit Bats.”
IF YOU WANT TO GO: Doors open at 6 p.m., July 17, The Windjammer, 1008 Ocean Blvd., Isle of Palms. Tickets are $30-$35. the-windjammer.com
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