Adam Deitch Talks About His New Solo Album, a New LoDo Venue and Making Beats for 50 Cent

It's rare to meet someone in the Denver music scene who doesn't know Adam Deitch. He's the Grammy-nominated drummer for the jazzy funktronic band Lettuce, one half of electronic outfit Break Science, a Pretty Lights collaborator and part of the new supergroup BTTRFLY Quintet, which just won a Best of Denver award for Best New Band.

But many may not know that while Lettuce was starting out in New York City in the late ’90s and early 2000s, Deitch was also a successful beat-maker, composing for the likes of 50 Cent. He had been making beats since age thirteen, inspired by such producers as J Dilla and Madlib, and immersing himself in the sound of that hip-hop era.

"I've always been making beats, and I used to produce for rappers exclusively — Redman, 50 Cent," he recalls. "It was great. I used to go to [50's] office, the G Unit office in New York, and I would skateboard over there from my apartment. He'd be in there lifting weights and listening to beats, and I would go in there with my skateboard, and they would put on my CD — this is how long ago this was — and they would listen to it. And one day, after going there for a few months, they finally picked a song. It ended up being the first song on his Curtis record, the one that he went up against Kanye."

Later, when Deitch was performing in 2010 with Pretty Lights, the EDM project of Derek Vincent Smith, he was inspired to start producing beats outside of the rap sphere. "I played [Smith] a bunch of tracks, and he was like, 'Wow, this stuff is really good. You should probably think about releasing it on its own,'" Deitch says. "He planted the seed, and then I started doing that. And I'm happy that he did, because I've really enjoyed putting out this music and doing shows."

He's releasing his latest solo album, TAKE YOUR TIME, on Friday, April 7, and is celebrating with an album-release party at Meow Wolf on Saturday, April 8, which is "gonna be a totally immersive experience," he promises. Live visuals will be produced by Diethylamide, and openers include ETHNO and The Parrisian.

Years in the making, the aptly named TAKE YOUR TIME encapsulates a soothing array of soundscapes that massage the mind with ease, with a perfect balance of both calm and energy imbued in each note and melody.

"I call it mid-fi beats — not like lo-fi, where it's super relaxing, and not like hi-fi, where it's big-time hip-hop. This is in the middle range, where you could chill to it. You could drive up to the mountains and put it on in the car, smoke a J to it," Deitch explains. "It has a relaxing vibe, but it still can get you hyped. I wanted to convey just a good vibe."

While the music is all under Deitch's name, his collaborative spirit is on display throughout the twelve-track album. Back when he was a fledgling beat-maker, Deitch would dig through bins to find the perfect samples. For TAKE YOUR TIME, he turned to his peers and musicians he'd find on Instagram while scrolling during the pandemic.

"Enter the quarantine era, and all of my awesome musician friends were just expressing themselves on Instagram. Amazing pianists like world-renowned Jason Moran, synth wizard Shaun Martin and many more were posting musical gems on their respective accounts. The idea came to me that this was the new proverbial 'record bin' I was looking for. The concept was born here for TAKE YOUR TIME," Deitch says.

"You know, [the samples] weren't from a record. It wasn't from a live show. It's literally just them at home, playing piano or playing vibes or whatever instrument," he continues. "I decided to use those little Instagram clips as the paints that I would be working with, so I would sample little pieces and create songs around it for each artist that I found. It's sort of like a sample collage of a lot of my favorite musicians and friends."

Deitch recorded bits from the songs that artists were sharing online during the pandemic, and chopped them up around his own live and sampled drums. He would also add "sub and real bass, Fender Rhodes, and basically any other element I heard to complement the sonic centerpiece," he explains. "From here, the album took shape."

From decades of being in bands as well as being a producer, Deitch knew that he would need permission from each artist, which he and his team covered thoroughly.

"The hard part was just reaching out and making sure that they're all covered and taken care of, and so that's why it took a little longer," Deitch says. "That's why I call it TAKE YOUR TIME. Because you gotta give credit where credit's due, and if you work with people, you have to credit them and make sure they're taken care of. So that's what my main goal was with this: to hopefully shine a light so people go and check out the other artists that I worked with and look at their discographies."

Deitch also had to take his time because he has a hand in so many other projects. In February, Break Science, for which he plays drums and produces alongside keyboardist Borahm Lee, released its first EP since 2018. BTTRFLY Quintet, the supergroup he created with Lee, Benny Bloom (also from Lettuce), scene veteran Hunter Roberts and Dominic Lalli (Big Gigantic), released its first album in November. After his Meow Wolf show, he'll be heading to Jazz Fest in New Orleans to perform every day and night with Lettuce and other collaborators. And Pretty Lights, aka Smith, just announced he would be touring after a hiatus, and Deitch is likely to join him.

"I try to give every project as much time as I possibly can," Deitch says. "And that's what keeps all these things rolling and keeps them all relevant. It takes a lot of work, but it's worth it."

And he has yet another project in the works: Deitch is a consultant for a new music venue coming to 1448 Market Street called The Orchid.

"The owner Pete [Foster] is a really good guy, and he reached out to me because I've basically seen so many different venues in my long career," Deitch explains. "He wanted me to be a consultant as far as not just the music, but how the club should look, how it should sound, who should work there — the whole aesthetic of the venue, like having flowers and all sorts of things."

The venue is set to have a private soft opening in mid-April with BTTRFLY Quintet, and will open to the public toward the end of the month. The website currently is listing concerts beginning April 28.

"I'm very excited about this space opening. I've never done anything like this before, and I'm very excited to showcase all my favorite artists in Denver and beyond and outside," Deitch says.

Because if anyone recognizes just how amazing Denver's music scene is, it's Deitch, who moved here in 2015 specifically because of the area's attraction for musicians. "I just fell in love with the scene and how people out here really support original music. It's just such an amazing place to be for a musician," he says.

"Denver is a hub for the live touring industry. L.A. is for recording and Nashville's for recording, New York is a lot of jazz and jazz-inflected music. But Denver is the London of America; it's the electronic music capital of America," Deitch says. "A lot of bands move here because there's so many great venues, so many great promoters, like Scott Morill from Cervantes'. It just makes it really great for musicians to thrive if you're doing original music."

Deitch is certainly thriving here, and the future looks bright for Denver's ultimate collaborator, whose industrious nature remains unfettered.

"The goal is for people to know that I'm not just a drummer. And hopefully, if I keep doing this and I keep putting out records that I produce, I also want to get into producing some bands, which is also a goal of mine. And I'm looking forward to doing an album where it's all live musicians that I really love," Deitch says. "So this is just part of the point of the whole plan — to get the music out that's in my heart. Because the only way you can really enjoy being a collaborative, a good collaborator, is if you're able to do stuff on your own, as well."

Adam Deitch album-release party at Meow Wolf, 8 p.m. Saturday, April 8, 1338 First Street. Tickets are $22.