The members of Los Angeles’ Under the Influence of Giants aren’t afraid to name the artists they are borrowing from. And for this disco-funk-pop-R&B ensemble, the list varies from the Bee Gees, Prince, Michael Jackson, Kool & the Gang, Earth, Wind and Fire, the Beatles …

The giants who hold the attention of the band are the predecessors who showed them the way.

“We have so many influences and we mashed them together so well, that I think we are original,” said guitarist Drew Stewart from somewhere in the state of Washington as the band bused it to a gig in Seattle. If you don’t talk about your influences,“you are ripping them off.”

The result of the ultra mash-up is a melodic smorgasbord that switches tones from song to song, yet keeps its identity throughout.

The band, which also includes lead singer Aaron Bruno, drummer and keyboardist Jamin Wilcox and bassist David Amezcua, plays at Cafe Du Nord Thursday night.

The Giants, whose biggest influence – like many others – is the Beatles – aren’t embarrassed to name off others like WHAM!, Olivia Newton-John and the Bee Gees.

“People always look at the Bee Gees as a ‘70s disco band, but they are so much more,” Stewart said. “Islands in the Stream” which was written by the Gibbs and recorded by Dolly Pardon and Kenny Rogers, is an “amazing song.”

“We didn’t limit ourselves to who we listen too,” he said.

A great album can take to many places: Anger, happiness, embarrassment, sexuality, Stewart said.

“I think we wrote an album that can take you to all of those emotions,” he said.

Bruno and Stewart have been writing music together since they went to the same high school. The band officially formed when Wilcox, the son of Hall and Oats drummer Willie Wilcox, joined two years ago. Amezcua is the newest Giant, having been with the band for eight months.

Although a couple of the Giants had previous exposure to big label business, the band decided to try a grassroots approach this time around. They toured tirelessly around southern California, building up a fan base. Through word-of-mouth, the Giants’ MySpace site grew to 37,000 friends.

“We wanted to start in L.A. and build up the local fan base,” Stewart said. “You can build a relationship with your fans with MySpace.”

As the band’s popularity grows, Stewart said its philosophy stays the same. All of the band members check and update their MySpace page daily, and will continue to do so.

They signed with Island Def-Jam because Stewart said the label let them run the band their way and a self-titled debut album produced by former Blind Melon members Brad Smith and Christopher Thorne dropped last month. It landed in No. 1 on the Heatseekers New Artist Chart and has been generating buzz since.

Their first single, “Mama’s Room,” evokes Maroon 5 with the Gibbs as back-up singers and deals with seducing a woman in your mother’s bed.

“It’s really just about doing something you’re not supposed to do,” Stewart said. “You get scolded, but you do it anyway.”

The song was one of their first recordings and became the “foundation” on which the album was built.

Other songs like “In the Clouds,” have more of a disco vibe but with distortion. “Stay Illogical,” is classic pop ballad and sung entirely in falsetto, and “I Love You,” could have been on a Paul McCartney solo album.

“Every song has its own personality but it was our goal to write an album that sounded like an album,” Stewart said. “I feel like every song expresses what the band stands for — having fun.”

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.