Photo by Allison Murphy

In his now over-two-decade career in the music business, Eric Krasno has found himself at the vanguard of a resurgence in funk music and has become a staple of the jam scene, especially in New York—and especially at the Brooklyn Bowl. In the middle of a fortnight stretch that, for Krasno, has been a whirlwind of practicing and performing, the musician takes some time to discuss his busy week—which has included helping Soulive celebrate six years of Bowlive and helping Phil Lesh celebrate 75 years of Phil Lesh—along with his life as a producer and the aspirations he has for his brand new record label.

You’re on your way to doing ten shows in ten nights, with Bowlive and the Phil Shows. Even for someone like you, that’s not just business as usual.

Yeah, it’s insanity. It would be one thing to play that many shows, but the thing about it is just learning new songs every day.

How many songs do you think you’ve learned in the past week or so?

Well, I’m looking at three binders full. [Laughs] I mean, with Phil, there was a good fifty—a few of which I knew, but a lot I didn’t, because he likes to change it up. So it’s pretty much different sets entirely from the last time we played. That was a lot. Let’s see, I’m looking at a list now from Bowlive—probably about seventy or eighty or so. We learn about seven or eight with each artist. And with Chris [Robinson], we’re playing all different stuff. But it’s fun. The great thing is, we all throw different ideas in the pot, then go through it. I’d say right now I’m kind of just in this zone with it. The first few days were harder. Now, I feel okay. Like yesterday with Chris, it felt really good. But also with Chris, I know him pretty well. He’s really just relaxed and cool to work with, so it’s just been flowing really nicely. And we’re doing two nights, so we get to kind of settle in a bit, which is fun.

You’d previously played with Phil a couple times.

Yeah, we did two nights in November where he had different people sitting in throughout. So this was my third and fourth gig. Actually, I played with him at Brooklyn Bowl last year, I sat in for four or five tunes with Terrapin Crossroads Band, which is him and his son and some other guys. And also we did this random pop-up performance in the middle of Central Park—which was when Pete Shapiro was doing Jazz & Colors Festival—where Pete called me up and said “Hey, I’m trying to get you and Phil and Joey Russo to go play in the middle of the park, and we’re gonna tweet it like ten minutes before, so we’re gonna see if people show up.” And we ended up getting a lot of people out there, which was cool. That was just total improv. I had met him in passing [when] we opened for Phil and Friends, years ago, but I don’t even know if I’d actually officially met him till that morning in the park.

What is it like playing with a guy like Phil, gievn the kind of career and following that he’s had over the years?

I mean, it’s surreal. You grew up listening to that music and seeing their sets. I saw him perform many times as a kid. So, you know, it’s huge. And just seeing how incredibly musical he is. He’s a great leader. I’ve been learning a lot from him. It’s just amazing that he loves to change things up constantly and change the band up and re-rehearse and rearrange his songs all the time. He’s a really hard worker. I mean, he’s there all day, rehearsing new guys and refining his sound and experimenting with sound. It’s pretty inspiring.

How has Bowlive been going for you this year? I was talking to Alan a couple days ago, and he was saying that it’s been pretty chill so far, in that, after six years, you guys are a little more comfortable with everything.

Yeah, like he said, we’ve caught a groove with it. Bowlive’s really about being fluid, because you can prepare a lot, but there’s only a certain amount of preparation that you can do, because there’s a lot of variables that change as we get there. You know, we change up the songs, we change up who’s coming, we add different guests. It’s all about spontaneity and being ready for anything. So I think in terms of that we’ve gotten better. We’ve gotten more fluid with it over the years. It’s been getting more and more fun, you know, and there’s less stress about each guest and being perfect. Because the imperfection is kind of what people love. They don’t want to hear us cover songs exactly like the album; they want us to take something in and spit it out with a whole different spin on it, you know what I mean? It’s about taking it and making it our own.

Like last night, we did a bunch of covers with Chris, but we totally flipped everything up and extended it out. It’s getting more and more expansive, I would say. And we haven’t really repeated anything yet, which is cool. It’s hard to play that many sets without repeating anything—you have to have a lot of music. So I think we’ve gotten better at that, too. We get together at sound check and we rehearse a little bit backstage—we just have a routine now, you know? And this year the guests are just incredible. Charles Bradley was like the wildcard—we didn’t really know him. I’d met him once, but I’m a huge fan. And he showed up and just had the greatest vibe and energy, and it was just incredible. And then Aaron [Neville], I’ve been producing [his] new record, so we’ve been working together a lot. He’s very particular with his sound and with how he presents his music, and he was really happy, which was great. We got to try a bunch of the new songs from the album that had never been performed, so we did like five songs that no one had ever heard, with the background vocals and the horns and everything. That was really cool to hear.

So obviously collaboration is big for Soulive and for you in particular, and that’s really reflected in your career as a producer. What does it mean to you to have that role in the music business?

Well, it’s something that I’ve always wanted to do and I’ve always wanted to be a part of. I was always kind of infatuated with albums and how they were made. When I was a kid, I would look at album covers. I’d want to look at who played what, who produced it, and what does it mean to produce it. I always wanted to be a producer. So I dreamt of producing records, and I always kind of saw that as my path in school—I was always into recording. And then when I met the Soulive guys, it was just this awesome opportunity to play guitar. So I just kind of followed that, you know, but all along [I’ve] been producing on the side.

In the last few years, I’ve gotten more serious about that on my time off the road. It always helps feed back into the projects I’m playing with—Soulive, Lettuce or my own stuff—just being around other musicians; they rub off on you. I’ve always absorbed what was around me, and I’ve been really fortunate to be around some amazing musicians. So it all kind of feeds into each other, really.

You produced the London Souls’ new album, which is coming out in April. How did that come about?

I was just a fan of them. I saw them in my friend’s [Jify Shah’s] bar for the first time—The Lovin’ Cup in Brooklyn, which is now called Jify’s, I think—and I was just blown away by them. So over the years I hung out a lot with them and jammed with them. They asked me to produce their record, and I jumped at the chance. Then as time went on—I don’t know if you know the story about Tash [Neal]. He was in an accident. Just like really traumatic, you know, really bad car accident, and he was in a coma. He made a miraculous recovery, really, and he finally was able to start playing and singing again, and by six months later, he was out on the road.

To make a long story short, I eventually founded a label, Feel Records, and my first band that I wanted to work with was London Souls—they’re the first release on the new label. I’m really excited that they’re the debut album that we’ll be putting out. What people will hear when they hear this record is what an incredible songwriter Tash is—him and Chris [St. Hilaire]. They’re so talented on so many levels—they both play multiple instruments, they both sing amazing, they write great music. So I’m really excited to see what happens with them over the next couple of years.

What made you finally start up your own label, after having produced for so many people?

I guess just having a lot of musicians and artists around me that didn’t really have an avenue to put their records out, and also having worked on a lot of those projects. One of the projects—I produced Nigel Hall’s record, and this was years ago—I went around to shop to all these different labels, and every single person said the same thing. They were like, “This guy’s amazing, this album’s amazing, but we’re just not signing people like this.” They were singing young, you know, rappers or whatever. Nobody was signing music anymore, they were signing imaging, you know? So it inspired me to be like, you know what, I know there’s enough people out there that want good music that creating a label is gonna work. And people like Nigel Hall, London Souls, Alecia Chakour—and then obviously Lettuce and some of the other projects that I’m working on—people want to hear that music.

It’s just a matter of finding the right people and the right team to get the albums out there and marketed and heard. Because a lot people are just putting their music on Soundcloud, and I think that’s a way to do it, but I feel like—with a band like London Souls and some of the other artists I’m working with—they need a platform and a team to get their stuff out there. I also want to make vinyl records and have a look to it. Back in the day, you had Stax, you had Motown, you had these labels where you just knew, anything that came out on these labels, you would go to the store and buy that. And that’s my goal, eventually to be that label where, “Oh, Feel put out a new thing, okay we’re gonna go get that.” That’s always been a dream of mine, to be a part of a team that writes music and records music and puts it out, just like Motown and Stax, you know, Sun Records, Muscle Shoals—all those legendary studios. That’s always been something I’ve dreamt of being a part of.

Going forward, do you see the bands that you’re involved with—like Lettuce and Soulive—putting out records on the label?

I hope so. That hasn’t been 100% established yet. But I’m sure we’ll do projects together, and I hope that we end up putting out records. There’s a lot of details and particulars that need to be worked out, because it’s a brand new thing, but essentially yes, I would like to put out a lot of the projects that I’m doing.

Speaking of working with different projects, you play with Soulive, which is a smaller band in terms of personnel, and then with Lettuce, which is a fuller outfit. How is it different playing with a bigger band as opposed to a smaller one? Is there more pressure with less people onstage?

It’s a little bit more work, but I really enjoy them both. There’s something about being a part of this big machine that’s just churning. Lettuce has such a huge pocket, and every member is so funky that you can fall into this pocket, and you become like a piece of the drum kit. Like West African music, where everyone has a part that just makes this huge groove, you know what I mean? With Lettuce, I do that more than solo and play melodically. Although I play a lot of melodies in it, too, so it’s a little bit of both. And I love that—it’s like a trance, like a meditation. With Soulive, I’m very much on the melody, or the soloist, and it’s a lot of freedom. It’s like I get to kind of create these melodies and soundscapes. It’s two different feelings, and I love doing both of them. I’m really thankful that I get to do both. It’s a lot of fun.

On the topic of Lettuce, in January you put up a note on your Facebook that said you were going to be playing less shows with them. Can you talk about that decision?

Yeah, well right at that time I linked up with Round Hill Music, which is my label partner, and I knew that I was going to have to start working real hard on that. With Lettuce, we came to a point where it’s like, well, either we can tour like crazy and blow this thing up to another level, or we can keep it a side project. And we all kind of came together, and most of the guys really want to keep this going. And I’m completely supportive of that. It’s just that as my schedule is getting crazier and crazier, so is the Lettuce touring schedule. So I had to say, “Well, I’m gonna come in for certain shows, but I’m not gonna be able to do the extensive tours.” And the band was okay with that. I’m still a part of the overall picture of the band, and I’m super excited for how well it’s going, but I won’t be at every show.

That’s basically where it’s at and they’ve been killing it out there, man. Like this last tour, I had another tour that I booked two years ago, the Soul Revue tour, so I couldn’t be there, but they sold out everywhere. It was amazing. Like, Tuesday night, Minneapolis, a thousand people. I kept getting the reports, and I was like, “Wow, that’s great. Funk music is alive!” [Laughs] And they sound so good right now. I’m always keeping up on watching the YouTubes and stuff, and I’ll be with them next month at The Fort [Fort Clinch State Park], where we’re playing with Umphrey’s. I’m still gonna be doing a lot of shows, it was really the last few months that I wasn’t able to really be there very much. I’m hoping that in the coming months I’ll be able to be there a bit more.

Switching gears back to Soulive, you guys are celebrating your 16th year. Going back to 1999, Alan mentioned that when you first got together, you were filling in for Nick Mancini. Did you think you wanted to play with these guys permanently?

I was a huge fan. They were in a band called Moon Boot Lover back then, and we had done some shows together. Lettuce was actually performing back then, too. The first time I saw Neal, my mouth was on the floor. I could not believe this dude could do that with his left hand—bass, and doing all these melodies and chords. It just totally blew me away—and Alan’s pocket and the way they played together. So when they said “Hey, you wanna play?” I dropped everything. I was just like, man, anything to play with these two guys, I’m there. And then the first day we ever played together, I brought a couple songs, and they had some songs, and we recorded our first EP called Get Down! That was the first day we had plugged in. We plugged in, recorded, and that was our first thing. I remember listening to that and being like, “Wow, I think we may have something here.”

They already had the van—Alan and Neal had toured a bunch since they were teenagers. Neal I think was twelve when he first started doing shows in Moon Boot Lover. I didn’t really know much about that. I mean, we’d toured a little bit around the northeast, but they were in the van, cruising to gigs, just knew how to navigate the touring life and being in a band and setting things up. So they really set up the structure for it, and I just kind of hopped in and said, “Alright, cool, I’ll take this ride.” And I can’t see it ever stopping. The great thing about it is we have this ebb and flow with Soulive where we see the big picture. We’re not gonna, like, burn ourselves out and do a six-month tour and then quit, you know? We come together, we do records, we do tours, and then we do Bowlive every year, we do some festivals here and there.

We’re already planning our next record soon, which I’m really excited about. We have some cool concepts happening. And next year we’ll probably do some more touring and stuff. So I’m really lucky to be in a band with people I actually enjoy being around and enjoy working with, so I think we’ll keep it going for a long time.

When do you think that album might come out?

That’s a good question. We’re looking at recording in May, but I think because of a lot of other releases and a lot of other things going on, it probably won’t be until at the earliest end of the year, and maybe early next year.

I asked Alan this too, and like I told him, it might be an unfair question, but with all the special guests at Bowlive over six years, do you have a favorite one, or one that stands out in particular?

Oh man, that’s a really hard one. You know, I have to say that Aaron Neville was a really big one for me. I’m such a huge fan of him, and being able to play these songs that we had written together, that was a really important, special moment for me. But that’s just because it just happened—there’s so many great moments. Every time Derek Trucks plays with us, I get goosebumps, because he’s like my favorite. We had a really great time with Susan Tedeschi, last year, with her and John Cleary. There’s just been so many, so many. I’m really blessed to have been able to play with so many great people.