‘We Feel Like the World Is Our Oyster’

For Lettuce, Japan is more than just another tour stop. It is where the American funk collective first discovered an audience beyond U.S. borders, a place that welcomed their sound with open arms two decades ago. The band’s 2004 Live in Tokyo album captured that connection, and bassist Erick Coomes still recalls how meaningful it felt to find early international fans in Tokyo and Osaka.

“Japan was one of our first opportunities to go overseas,” he says. “They were our first really loyal audience, and we’ve wanted to get back ever since.”

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This year, Lettuce finally makes that long-awaited return. As part of the tour supporting their new album Cook, the six-piece will make their fifth visit to Japan for two special engagements — Oct. 29 at the Umeda Club Quattro in Osaka followed by a Oct. 30 concert in Tokyo at the Duo Music Exchange — before continuing on to Europe and a first ever tour of Australia.

“Japanese audiences make you want to give even more to the music,” Coomes said. “The respect they show makes you raise your own level.”

After recording their 2004 album at the Blue Note in Tokyo, Lettuce returned twice, first in 2008 and then again in 2013, to play Japan’s famed Fuji Rock Festival. Playing at the foot of Mount Fuji, Coomes recalls feeling struck by both the surreal natural setting and the audience’s extraordinary respect for music. “It’s the cleanest festival you’ll ever see,” says Coomes. “Not a piece of trash on the ground. That kind of respect for art and for each other is something we’ll never forget.” He recalls the long bus ride from the airport, exhausted from travel, when the mountain first came into view. “You catch that glimpse of Fuji and suddenly all the fatigue disappears. It’s like magic.”

For drummer Adam Deitch, the Japan trip feels like a full-circle moment. “Hearing music from different countries has broadened our creative outlook,” he says. “Japan in particular had a huge impact on us early on.”

Lettuce is eager to bring new music from Cook to eager fans. The album ties together their passions for food and funk, even including a cookbook insert with family recipes alongside the vinyl.

“Music and food are very related,” Deitch says. “Use the wrong ingredients in either and you can ruin the sound or the meal. With this record, we feel like we’ve got the right recipe.”

Recorded at Colorado Sound outside Denver, Cook builds on Lettuce’s past success at the studio where they recorded Elevate (2019), Resonate (2020) and Unify (2022). This time, the band leaned even harder into layering, textures and arrangements that blur genre lines with a record that is equal parts funk and R&B, hip-hop and jazz, cinematic soul and old-school rock.

“This record is a little more three-dimensional than our past albums,” Deitch explains. “It shows a lot more sides to the band, exploring further depths of production and arrangements.”

Tracks like “Storm’s Coming” carry the raw, urgent energy of early Wu-Tang Clan, a nod to the group’s recent tour with GZA of the legendary hip-hop collective. Others, like the album closer “Ghost of Yest,” echo the band’s dream-come-true collaboration with the Colorado Symphony, where they performed their catalog backed by a full orchestra.

On “The Mac,” Lettuce even pays tribute to Maceo Parker, the James Brown and Parliament-Funkadelic sax master who once performed with Lettuce onstage. Lettuce’s cover of Keni Burke’s 1982 R&B classic “Risin’ to the Top” is pure bliss, featuring Hall’s soaring vocals over a groove the band describes as “spirit caught in the moment.”

“I had never played the song on bass before,” recalls Coomes, noting that the track was cut in a single take. “I learned it one second before we hit record, and when we nailed it, we just started screaming with joy in the studio. We left those screams in the final cut because it was real, raw emotion.”

The title Cook isn’t just a metaphor. Along with the vinyl edition, Lettuce is releasing a glossy print cookbook featuring family recipes from each member. It’s a playful but sincere extension of the band’s culture, one built around sharing meals on the road as well as sharing grooves on stage.

“My dad’s Caesar salad recipe is in there, [Lettuce vocalist] Nigel Hall contributed a Portuguese dish, and I added a watermelon basil salad for the summer,” Coomes says. “It’s all food we actually love and make. The idea was to combine our love of music and cooking into something tangible.”

The cookbook is packaged with the album art so fans pulling the vinyl from its sleeve discover recipes tucked inside. “It’s beautifully presented,” Coomes says. “It feels like the band has come full circle.”
Deitch says Cook marks the start of a new chapter. “This is the best team we’ve ever had. Our infrastructure is solid, our ideas are flowing, and we feel like the world is our oyster. It’s the start of a brand-new era for us.”

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