INTERVIEW: Lettuce’s Erick ‘Jesus’ Coomes is living his funky dream

The band members of Lettuce are funky — not in a bad, spoiled-food kind of way, but in an electric, get-down-to-the-ground kind of way. They are the type of band that holds the funk banner high in 2015, bringing on similar sounds of Earth, Wind & Fire and Sly and the Family Stone to new generations. Their latest album is Crush, which has a cover image depicting a herd of elephants with horn instruments as heads.

Funky, indeed.

Erick Coomes, better known as Jesus, plays bass for the funktet. Fans will instantly recognize him not only for his long, flowing blonde hair but also his maddeningly expert playing of the bass. He’s the one who keeps the beat thumping on so many Lettuce tracks (case in point: “Phyllis” off the new album).

Coomes said that the band’s process of recording albums is quite collaborative. “As soon as we finish one album … we’ll take a little bit of a break and then usually Adam Deitch [drummer] will call us all and say, ‘Hey, I’m writing. You guys better start writing because I’ve got three or four going here,'” he said recently in a phone interview.

So the writing starts separately, but some tunes are put together after jam sessions in sound checks. “Maybe somebody will take that little recording home and say, ‘Oh, I wrote a melody for that bass and drum group, and now let’s bring it back to the band,'” Coomes said. “So basically we just start writing. Once we realize we have enough tunes, then we pull the trigger and say, ‘Let’s go to the studio and go in for a week.’ … This time was a little better and a little different because we had played a lot of this stuff on the road in front of audiences.”

Crush features such new songs as “The Force,” “Get Greasy,” “Chief” and “Phyllis.” The sound has “progressed” since Lettuce’s earlier albums, which include Outta Here, Rage! and Fly. “I feel we’ve come a long way,” the bassist said. “I feel it’s the same heartbeat, the same band, the same guys, the same spirit. Yeah, but I do feel like we’ve progressed.”

As far as playing some of the Crush songs live, Coomes said he enjoys “Phyllis” the most. It’s a song that wouldn’t feel out of place accompanying the trailer of some grindhouse flick from the 1970s. It runs nearly seven minutes with a dizzying array of horns, drums and bass.

“Music is about the mood you’re in,” he said. “So different moments and different evenings sometimes ‘Silverdome’ will be really fun, like [I’m] just kind of dying to play something a little heavier for a second, but honestly … I love it when we play ‘Phyllis.’ It makes me so happy. Like you can see clearly on my face I’m extremely happy.”

The sound on Crush is probably the closest the band has come to capturing the energy of their live performances. Coomes called it the “vibe of the band,” something unique that can be experienced on the new album and when Lettuce comes to town for a concert gig.

Besides Coomes and Deitch, Lettuce includes guitarists Adam Smirnoff and Eric Krasno, keyboardist Neal Evans, saxophonist Ryan Zoidis and trumpet players Eric Bloom and Rashawn Ross. They have been going strong, expanding their fan base, for more than two decades. Several of the band members first met at a summer program for high school students at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. It was there that the young funk lovers realized they had similar musical tastes. Coomes cited influences such as the Meters, Herbie Hancock, Sly and the Family Stone and Earth Wind & Fire.

“Yes, we were always into like groove, old soul, funk records,” he said. “Things people take for granted now because of the Internet. Back then you had to search for these things. … You’d be kind of surprised and amazed that the other person had heard it.”

After starting to play music together, the band started to gain a following among funk fans. Eventually, a “light bulb” came on, and the band members realized that Lettuce could be a full-time possibility.

“At some point we realized that we didn’t have to play bass and guitar for other artists,” Coomes said. “Most of us, I think, thought we were going to be a side musician for other bigger acts or artists. … I mean you set out to play bass to back people up and work for other people. It’s just such a blessing. It’s such an amazing blessing that we are artists. We couldn’t hold back anymore. I am an artist.”

Coomes was predisposed to the musical life from a young age. He comes from a “musical family,” and as a boy he would try every instrument. At 2 or 3 years old, he was playing the drums and piano. From there it was the saxophone, clarinet, guitar and keyboards. Eventually, the bass became the main instrument but not because of choice.

“I tried everything first, and then they were like, well, bass,” he said with a laugh. In Coomes’ high school jazz band, three students wanted to play guitar, and nobody wanted to play bass. That’s when the transition occurred, and he’s been plucking those strings ever since.

 

In the new year, Lettuce will tour Crush around the nation. Upcoming concerts will take place in New York, South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia, among other states. They will also play a New Year’s Eve gig in Chicago and aboard the Jam Cruise out of Miami.

“We’re going to keep playing live shows as often as possible,” he said. “It feels really good, and unless something changes, I feel like we’re going to be doing that for quite some time.”

Life on the road is trickiest for Coomes when he has to adjust to the back and forth between touring and downtime. That, and when the tour bus is moving, his bed is also moving. That has taken some getting used to. But “Jesus” has few complaints. After each mention of the tricky aspects of being in a funk band, he’s quick to point out that “it’s fine” and “no big deal.”

“Friendship makes it so fun,” he said. “When we’re on the road, we’re really excited to be around each other, just be hanging. We help each other. We make each other better people in a musical way, and in a spiritual way and all that. So, to me, to be around my buddies and be around the guys in Lettuce, it’s good for me, and I know it. I think we all know it. We love it. It’s really nice to be out there on the road.”

Coomes is a thankful performer, someone who has dreamed of musical success and now is ecstatic that the band has a following.

“I could totally cry thinking about it right now,” he said. “I’m not even that type of guy. It’s just totally my dream come true. Just to be on a phone doing an interview about my band that exists in real life is totally surreal to me, and I’m so psyched for all of it.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Lettuce recently released Crush and have several dates booked in 2016. Click here for more information.