Cool Cool Cool: Lighting the Fuse
photo: Ernesto Hernandez
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“Let’s go,” Shira Elias whispers, igniting the opening line of Cool Cool Cool’s first original track, “Never Noticed.” Released in November, the single arrives almost exactly two years after Chris Brouwers, Craig Brodhead, Greg Sanderson, Michael Carubba, Josh Schwartz, Sammi Garett and Elias issued a joint statement announcing their resignation from jam-scene favorite Turkauz.
Their mass exodus initially allowed time for some independent projects, but a half-decade of shared history proved too viable and boisterous to truly walk away, and they quickly found themselves starting an entirely new project. Rather than follow the marked path, Cool Cool Cool took a different route, delivering their debut tune after already testing out the waters during a featured slot at Brooklyn Comes Alive in 2022—on a bill with jam-scene stars Medeski Martin & Wood, Lettuce and STS9—and as special guests on the road with Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew’s Remain In Light project.
“We had to work in reverse and came up with music after we had already been playing shows. Most bands start by writing music together, then do a show or go out on tour. We did the opposite,” says Brouwers who—along with the rest of Turkauz— joined the Remain In Light band when it was announced in 2019 and stayed with Harrison and Belew even after their well-loved funk outfit fractured in November 2021.
“[Cool Cool Cool] came as a result of continuing to do Remain In Light, which led to other opportunities, like booking a couple of other shows where we were all in the same place at the same time,” Brodhead explains. “When we left Turkuaz, they were the first people that hit us up and were like, ‘We want to play music with you guys.’ A big part of us being a band today is because they came to us and said, ‘No, you guys have something, and it’s special.’”
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The Remain In Light dates may have quickly assisted in getting the word out about Cool Cool Cool, but the process of putting the project together was far more involved. As Brodhead explains: “When Turkuaz dissolved, we all wanted to continue to play together because we’re family, and we all have this built-in chemistry. We didn’t have any specific plan to try and start something. It was more of a general feeling that we wanted to continue to work together.”
“We rode the wave, and we’ve been playing together for so many years that it just felt very natural,” Garett adds, relishing in the newfound atmosphere she and the members of Cool Cool Cool created. “We decided we wanted to be very collaborative about everything we did and make decisions in a democratic way. I’m proud to say that is really how we’ve done it this entire time,” Brodhead adds with a grin.
Looking back on their split from Turkuaz and resulting opportunities, Elias notes, “We toured for so long together, and we got to a pretty substantial level, so ending Turkuaz was like, ‘Are we going to be able to do something like that again or ever get to that level?’ And then, getting to do these tours was like, ‘We worked really hard to get here. This is paying off.’”
Thanks to their time with the Remain In Light band, the members of Cool Cool Cool also had the opportunity to tour with Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade on their recent Summer of Green tour, which set the stage for several career-defining collaborations. “Greg’s too humble to say it, but at the time, Skerik was down with a back injury—thankfully, he’s feeling better now—but he couldn’t do that tour that Claypool did with Remain In Light. And a few shows in, Greg just let it slip; he was like, ‘Hey, I do know some of the tunes.’ So he ended up jumping up and playing various dates on saxophone,” Brodhead boasts on behalf of his bandmate.
“I ended up learning most of the set, to be honest. Then, when I talked to Les, he was like, ‘So what songs do you know?’ I was like, ‘You tell me.’ I rattled off a few, and then he had me up on a couple of them each night for most of the tour. It was a lot of fun,” Sanderson says, thinking back on the opportunity. The outing culminated with all the members of the Frog Brigade and the Remain In Light band taking the stage together in Tampa, Fla., on July 20. “They came and sat in with Remain In Light at the end, and we got a gigantic super band. Everyone was onstage,” Brouwers says. “It was like 35 people,” Brodhead confirms.
“It was a pretty surreal scene, being with all those guys, plus Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew—who, by the way, are the guys Les Claypool looks up to. It was like a triangle of admiration, looking up and being inspired by each other,” Schwartz adds, cementing their sui generis participation. For those dates, they were joined on bass by Belew’s longtime collaborator, Julie Slick, a role that would be officially filled by Rodrigo “Digo” Zambrano as Cool Cool Cool’s creative vision solidified.
“I think one of the cool progressions we made in the early stages was the many different, stylistically diverse bassists we played with before Digo became our permanent guy. We played with some great people: Julie Slick, Kevin Scott from Gov’t Mule and Nate Edgar. I like amazing bass players who are all their own geniuses,” Carubba says. “When Digo started playing with us, a couple of looks went around the stage that first time and we were like, ‘Yeah, this is it. This is the guy.’ We planted our flag and said, ‘Hey, this is the full-band sound now.’”
Echoing the praise from his band, Zambrano says, “I was the last addition to this group of musicians. They’ve been playing together for so long. So, at the beginning, I’m the new guy. I don’t know how this operates. But, since day one, it was all smooth style-wise. The band kicked ass.”
In blending their backgrounds, Brouwers is quick to note the resulting effect their new bassist has already had on their music “I feel like one of the things that’s always been fun and exciting for other people to watch is the versatility among the musicians that are in our band,” he says. “Many of us are multiinstrumentalists or instrumentalists/ vocalists—we can create a lot of sonic textures. In so many ways, I feel like it’s been really freeing for us and allowed us to open up our own creativity in ways that we didn’t have an opportunity to before.”
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Up until November, Cool Cool Cool had emerged on the scene without a note of original music to represent their grouping. What they did have was a following that believed in them—not just the collaborators they performed with, but also the fans that repeatedly showed up, knowing they’d experience something memorable.
“Where we thrive the most is live shows. That’s where we are able to reach people and touch them,” Elias says.
While distance separated the players, they agreed upon a destination to assemble and focus on their own music, touching down at Denver’s Color Red Music on Feb. 13 and 14, 2023. For the session, they enlisted The Motet’s bassist, Garrett Sayers, who added some seductive textures to “Never Noticed.” Fixing their timeline to the single, Brouwer points out, “That was before we had done any tour dates with Digo on bass, and Garrett came in and crushed it.”
Looking back on the process, Brodhead says, “We had a whole folder of different things we had worked on. And then everyone started to layer stuff on top of it.”
Brouwers notes that “Never Noticed” was an unexpected pick from Elias, who stumbled across the song in the band’s idea folder. “I would never think that’s the one she would pick, but she just sang this melody over it, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ It made me hear it in a totally different way. Then Sammi and Shira started writing lyrics together—and Josh too.”
Garett continues, adding context: “It was like this snowball thing. You guys created the foundation, and then Shira did some vocals and sent it out, and I was like, ‘I also hear this.’ And then I laid down some vocals, and Josh said, ‘I also hear this.’ Everyone had a piece in that. So it’s really cool that our very first song was essentially written together.”
Upon accepting Elias’ invitation, the listener is met with a display of pure funk opulence. “Never Noticed” highlights the shorthand the brass players, who collectively perform as The Horn Section, have perfected over the years while still saving space for Garett and Elias’ often intertwined, soaring vocals.
For now, Cool Cool Cool’s repertoire is limited, but that’s guaranteed to change. As Elias points out, “I think people will also be surprised and excited that all the stuff we have so far is very different. So, if they are expecting our other stuff to be like ‘Never Noticed,’ it very much is not. That’s the whole thing of us figuring it out and having people write different things. You have different voices, which ultimately leads to different sounds. There’s something for everybody.”
Looking ahead, Sanderson notes, “We are very excited to hit the road on our first official headline run, Never Noticed Tour. It was a huge year for us opening for Remain In Light—as well as an incredible run with Andy Frasco & the U.N. But it’s safe to say, we are ready to show you what we’ve got cookin’. Never Noticed Tour will start in Florida, push up the East Coast, and then head out to Colorado to finish up. Revisiting some of our favorite cities and venues feels amazing. It brings back great memories and a renewed excitement for touring and dance parties!”
