Drummer and producer Adam Deitch is on a roll! His band Lettuce is riding high from the release of Crush last fall, the release of their new feature film, Let Us Play, and reaching new heights musically every time they take the stage. Come April 1st and 2nd, the band will take on their biggest challenge hosting their own music festival Fool’s Paradise, in St. Augustine, FL!
Deitch is pulling triple duty at the fest, playing with Lettuce, his electronically-oriented project Break Science and the super jam Fools For Funk late night. We’re sure he’ll be sitting in with some of the great performers, like Vulfpeck, Nth Power, Chris Robinson’s Soul Revue, and more, throughout what is sure to be an incredible weekend of music at Fool’s Paradise.
In the middle of his whirlwind life, Deitch took a few minutes to talk with our own Rex Thomson about the upcoming festival and all things funky!Â
L4LM: Lettuce announced their own funk festival, Fool’s Paradise, in the beach town of St. Augustine. That’s exciting! How did you guys decide it was something you wanted to do?
Adam Deitch: This is a dream come true. Our relationship, from the beginning, with Paul Levine, from the beginning, has been incredible. He’s become famous for putting on great festivals like Bear Creek. He always took special care of us at his festivals. He gave us breaks before we really started to get the push. He really believed in us, and he’s been one of our biggest supporters. Whenever we’ve be going through tough times, he’ll call each of us, individually, and cheer us up and tell us how great a Lettuce festival could be.
Another person we know, Kunj Shah, presented a Lettuce tour with Live For Live Music and we became really good friends in the process. I told Paul that I’d like to join forces with Live For Live Music and Paul Levine’s incredible taste in putting together a festival. Paul was in, Kunj was in and we had Lettuce, and it just grew from there. Much props to Kunj and Live For Live Music and Levine for making this happen. They’re definitely the brains behind making Fool’s Paradise happen, and we’re very excited.
L4LM: Curating a lineup is no easy task, but you guys managed to bring in acts from across the music spectrum. Up and comers like Vulfpeck, the growing juggernaut that GRiZ is becoming, Chris Robinson, George Porter Jr. and Ivan Neville jamming together…how’d you go about putting all of that talent together?
AD: These are all friends that we’ve met through the years that we happen to love their music. We’re friends with so many artists, because we’ve all done so many different projects and shows with other people. We wanted to pick artists whose music we really, really enjoy. Vulfpeck are like the young guys that are brilliant and funky and they’re doing their thing.
GRiZ, even though he’s an electronic artist, he is deeply rooted in funk and soul. He loves it and loves mixing old school blues and funk with modern electronic music. It’s different from Lettuce, but it’s funky and we dig his work. George Porter Jr., of course, is one of our idols, a guy we grew up worshipping, and I still can’t believe I know him. (Laughs) He’s one of the progenitors of funk bass. We’re really happy to have George there. in the end we picked music that we would like to see.
L4LM: Makes sense. If I was picking bands I’d only pick ones I wanted to hear.
AD: Right? (Laughs) And bands that we felt would our core Lettuce fans would dig and be totally into. So yeah, we’re very excited!.
L4LM: One of the most exciting announcements about the Fools Paradise line up is the news that Lettuce and GRiZ are collaborating for a portion of his set. Are you looking at this as a extended sit in, or are you trying to create something new from the pieces of both?
AD: GRiZ is gonna play his own music. We appreciate what he does and which is something different… we’ll do either two or three probably three or four or five GRiZ tunes, but with instruments. GRiZ decided that we should combine our strengths onstage, which is pretty cool, and a thing we could only do someplace like Fool’s Paradise. I think that’s going to be special, because GRiZ doesn’t perform like this too often. So, we’re excited to be part of this…it’s a funk band, totally. I think it’s gonna be really fun set of jammed out electronic tunes.
L4LM: You’re pulling Late Night duty during Paradise as well, playing with your electronic band Break Science. Is there anything you have to do to change mental gears when you’re jumping from genre to genre?
AD: Nah man, I’ve been doing this for so long that both styles are really a part of me. It’s just a part of my DNA.
L4LM: Is there anyone on the line up besides GRiZ that you have in mind for collaborations?
AD: I mean, which of these artists haven’t we collaborated with? Any artist we haven’t yet. We’ve been building up our community for years. We jammed with Vulfpeck when they came to New York, we’ve played with George and the amazing Chris Robinson…Kraz did a whole tour with him. The only band we haven’t collaborated with is Goldfish, and they have this just amazing mix of styles. They’re from South Africa, so we haven’t had a chance to mix with them yet.
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L4LM: Since it’s your festival, will you just have the stage crew leave your kit onstage during the entire Fool’s Paradise weekend, so you can join in with any band at will?
AD: (Laughs) Yeah, definitely. What we announced is only the beginning.
L4LM: We recently talked with George Porter Jr. about his coming to Paradise to play with the Chris Robinson Soul Revue. In that interview he mentioned he was working on some recordings in New Orleans with you and Kraz. Anything you can tell us about that?
AD: Me and Kraz have been talking to George for seven years about going in the studio and recording, and it’s going to happen soon. When they book it, I will be there. I’m totally looking forward to it. It’s gonna happen.
L4LM: Nice timing on the setting of the festival, by the way. Nothing like spring in Florida after a long winter, right?
AD: Oh man…I highly advise all the people tired of the cold to come down because the location in St. Augustine is plush. The music site is right by the ocean, and everybody should come out and enjoy the sun and listen to some killer music.
L4LM: Lettuce’s most recent release, the very successful “Crush”, takes the classic spirit of funk in a very modern direction, tempo and production-wise. Was this a planned move, or just a result of where you were at the time of the recording?
AD: It’s just the natural evolution of the band. We wanted to include all our favorite elements of recording that were developed in the sixties and seventies and then use some of the bass frequency, the bombast, the drums of the modern times. All different eras actually. The seventies groove things but with modern overtones. That’s just an example. With that record we got to stretch out and and have fun with it.
L4LM: Well, just keep going in the direction you’re going. It’s sounding pretty good!
AD: We sure will. We can’t stop this train.
L4LM: The documentary “Let Us Play” about the recording of “Crush” just got its wide release. Do you feel like the film captured the band’s creative process?
AD: Absolutely. We are so grateful to Kunj and Jay Sansone. Jay had a hard job, filming us just enough to get what he wanted but that we never felt like we were being watched or invaded by some foreign camera guy. It’s really nice…you’re seeing us VERY comfortable, in our element. I really feel like it was a successful video, and captured who we are as people. It didn’t glorify us or make us seem like we were anything we aren’t. It’s a very intense situation. We were very eager to be engaged and everything but when we get to the writing process in the studio, it’s intense. We get very serious and focus on the music for as long as we can.
L4LM: Since your rise to prominence, you’ve been invited to teach and lecture at a variety of drumming clinics, workshops and festivals. Having studied music academically for so long, how does it feel being on the other side of the teacher/student relationship?
AD: Well, both of my parents are college professors. My mom taught music for thirty years, I think. My father is a college professor of music and teaches a bunch of different courses. So, teaching is my thing. Teaching and learning are the same thing. When you teach, you still learn. You’re learning how other human beings learn, to see into their psyche. I’ve done clinics at the Berklee College of Music and it’s just a beautiful thing to share. That’s what life is about. I believe that everyone that has achieved any sort of success in what they love to do…it’s their duty to give back and teach. The more you teach, I feel like that’s a mark of success. When you bring people up when they are at a point where they needed some guidance. It’s just a beautiful thing to help people, and to watch them smile when they learn. I’ve done clinic tours all across Europe for my drum company. I’m in a different country every day, taking the train all across Europe holding clinics and teaching people my style of drumming. I really enjoy it and I love the process and teaching and learning. It’s fun. It’s all one and the same.
L4LM: That’s a fairly respectable family tradition that you got from your parents.
AD: They are very knowledgeable people who love to share their knowledge. They enjoy sharing it. They love to see you get it. Some people look at it wrong, and think their knowledge and their control over information makes them special. I’ve seen people like that. My parents are the opposite. They give away all their knowledge.
L4LM: Are they coming down for a Florida vacation at the festival?
AD: Oh, they’re absolutely coming.
Check out Adam and his father Bobby getting down together in Jam Cruise’s Jam Room. (Poppa joins a minute or two in)
L4LM: It’s safe to assume that at one of these clinics or workshops, you’ve gotten to meet some of your personal musical inspirations. Do you remember any of these that stood out?
AD: Absolutely. As far as performing goes, getting to play with Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley and the original James Brown horn section. Again, Paul Levine was instrumental in making that happen. That was a huge honor. We got to tour with Aaron Neville and he’s such an amazing singer, a legend. George Porter. All those guys are equals, and revered like they should be. On Jam Cruise we had this thing with Bernard Purdie who is still on the scene and still playing great at 85 years old. They’re the heart of the funk community and the soul community. It just gives us hope for bridging the gap between ages, our forefathers and the young bands coming up. We’re somewhere in the middle, which is a great place to be.
L4LM: You and your Lettuce bandmates have been playing together for a while now and you’ve logged thousands of hours playing together. How often do they manage to surprise you, musically, during a show?
AD: Yeah, it definitely is possible to surprise each other. We’re built on improvisation. Every night we’ll play the melody of a song and then maybe Shmeeans will start playing something differently. And play some amazing vibe that will shock us and move us all in a whole different direction then we played it on the record. There can be a switch at the drop of a hat, and we all have to react to that.
At a certain point it might be that I get really quiet and inspire the band to do come down with me. It’s really all about those momentary decisions you make onstage that keeps the band fresh. That’s what keeps everybody inspired.
L4LM: With as much improvisation as Lettuce features in their music, how much time do you spend going back and listening to shows? It seems like there are dozens of jams and ideas that could be spun out into their own songs happening every night.
AD: Absolutely. We record all our shows. We finish the show, we relax for an hour, then we listen to the entire show. That’s always an enjoyable experience. We learn from what we did on the spot, and then create something like that for the next show, or expand on it or take it in a different direction.
L4LM: Sounds like you’re a football team watching their film after the game.
AD: Absolutely. We definitely watch our film!
L4LM: Well, thanks for taking time away from your Fool’s Paradise preparations to chat with us! Looking forward to seeing what magic you have up your sleeves!
AD: Thanks! This is something that we’ve put our hearts and souls into. It’s a dream come true, and we can’t wait to see everyone down there!
Lettuce will be rocking the St. Augustine waves at Fool’s Paradise Music Festival in just a few short weeks! More information about Fool’s Paradise, which also includes Chris Robinson’s Soul Revue, GRiZ, Vulfpeck, Nth Power, Cory Henry, Goldfish, Marvel Years and more, can be found here.