Hot Lettuce is an alternative-rock band from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The three-piece band features two brothers, Jared and Brady Linnen, who along with Manitoba-born Ryan Koltalo have created our catchy and at times, eruptive take on Alt-Rock. Officially formed in 2017, Hot Lettuce is beginning to hone and develop their own unique sound, which is marked by high-energy guitar riffs, layered vocals, driving baselines, and bombastic drums -- all which combine to create a fun, party vibe for their many listeners.
“Orange And Beautiful” is the band’s latest single and I’m blasting in through my speakers. The dedication to craft in the detail is admirable. Infectious and vivid music fused with quirky lyrics and skilled musicians. Hot Lettuce brings high energy and an indefinitely loud testimony to the magic of the alternative rock. Layered guitars, ground breaking vocals and deliberate drums give “Orange And Beautiful” a transporting feeling. The song is quite literally about the love between and a man and a carrot. Do yourself a favor and watch the music video immediately, I haven't stopped laughing. Through on the humor you can really hone in on the talent, versatility and expansive knowledge Hot Lettuce has in music. Don’t miss out on checking out “Orange And Beautiful” by Hot Lettuce because it will not disappoint. We can’t wait to see what this refreshing band has to offer next!
Check out “Orange And Beautiful” here and read more below in our exclusive interview.
Welcome to BuzzMusic! Can you tell us about how Hot Lettuce came to fruition? How did you create the band name?
Brothers Brady and Jared Linnen, two-thirds of Hot Lettuce, grew up playing music together in their parents basement, Jared and the drums and Brady on guitar. With their music taste being quite similar, enjoying bands like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and the Black Keys they started to jam cover songs as a two-piece band. These cover songs would eventually turn into them creating original songs together and playing live as a two-piece trying to emulate other famous two-pieces. That was until earlier this year they met Ryan Koltalo at an open-mic in Saskatoon and have been playing as a three-piece ever since.
The band name came to be on a warm autumn day in Saskatchewan, when a large group of farmers walked into town after a long days work. They were greeted with the most exquisite buffet of all the best cuisine of the prairies to celebrate that years’ harvest efforts. As they chowed down through the rows of meat, potatoes, vegetables, and grits it was then that one grizzled and calloused man noticed that all the food was gone except one errant piece of lettuce that lay glistening in the autumn sun. It was at this same moment that the band took notice of the errant piece of lettuce and instantly they knew that had found their new band name.
We LOVE “Orange And Beautiful”! It’s good music mixed with funny lyrics! How did you come up with it?
I (Brady) was sitting around my apartment one day in Brooks, Alberta just fooling around on guitar with different chords and rhythms. Eventually I landed on the main chord structure and realized that it sounded like every other generic pop/love song so I began to write a pop type vocal melody that suited the chords. As that progressed, I realized that my personality wouldn't allow me to write a serious love song like that so I decided that this “love” was going to be something different. I began toying with a bunch of ideas for the chorus until Carrots seemed to fit perfectly, I then went backwards from there and wrote the verses to start off like a love song but slowly give away the love for Carrots such as the lines, “You were the sparkle to my eye/ You filled me up when I was coming down.” While writing the lyrics I could barely keep it together as it kept getting more ridiculous.
Can you dive into some details of the music video?
The music video came about through a discussion with our incredibly talented friends at Blister Cinema, Joel Kereluke, Luke Halyk, and Jacob Farrell. We’ve known them for years and they worked on our music video for our first single “The Wall” as well. Together we talked about making it almost a parody of all the other new country love songs videos out there today and looked a Dylan Scott’s “My Girl” as the ultimate cheese-ball reference (sorry Dylan) and incorporated shots like the Carrot wedding. From there, we shot the video in two days around our hometown of Wadena, Saskatchewan and the Blister Cinema boys recruited the sexiest lead actor they could find in Michael Eisbrenner and also brought along Jermey Ratzlaff to help them capture this romantic love story. It was one on the most ridiculous things we have ever done and we couldn’t be happier with what Blister Cinema produced for us.
What do you hope your listeners take away from your music?
When writing our music we hope that it provides the listeners with an energetic boost to their day in some sort of way. Whether that be through a powerful and gritty rock song or the more care-free loose vibe of “Orange and Beautiful”. We hope that this entices them to check out our other releases.
What’s next for Hot Lettuce?
Next, we plan on recording a second EP in the very near future and hope to release that as soon as possible. We hope to capture our new, more polished and energetic sound that has been built over the past year as we have grown into a three-piece band that will stray away from the more comedic side of music for now.
Keep up with Hot Lettuce through social media!
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/hotlettucemusic
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/HotLettuce1