Jesse Lee Falls of The Function

A glimpse into the lives of people aspiring to live a creative life – grappling with their muse on a regular basis and struggling to balance that with economic realities – is a source of both fascination and envy for this writer. So interviewing Jesse Lee Falls of the band The Function was a welcome assignment.

Aside from the fact that Falls is an affable guy who speaks knowledgeably about his music and “the biz,” his passion and commitment come through loud and clear. Some good things have happened to the band recently, too. The Function and independent record label Infiniti 12, started by Falls and his partner both in business and life, Trish McNair, recently signed a two-year distribution deal with Dynasty Records out of Nashville.

A native Oregonian, Falls was born in Ashland, but he spent a lot of time as a kid at the North Coast with his dad. He eventually moved to Astoria and took up playing the guitar at age 13. He’s taken lessons on and off for years from Dave Drury at Clatsop Community College. At 19, Falls started playing with The Function on and off for about four years. He then joined the Coast Guard and relocated to California.

He never abandoned his musical aspirations, though. While still in the military, Infiniti 12 Records was born. To stay musically involved, he was even giving guitar lessons at one point. He grins at the saying, “You’ve got to follow your bliss.” Falls adds, “creativity is the key … whatever form it takes.” The phrase suggests how with certain creatives, the opportunity for self-expression seems to give special focus and added meaning to their lives. This can breed excellence, and anyone who’s heard Falls play the guitar understands that right away.

When he left the military, Falls toured with a blues band for a year in California, playing clubs four and five nights a week. (He got the gig after answering an ad on Craigslist calling for a “relentlessly funky rhythm guitar.”) He says he tried to “keep it new and different, not so cookie-cutter,” and this worked for a while. Ultimately, though, he wanted more and kept pushing and growing musically.

Although he doesn’t read music, Falls writes and arranges it. When asked about that process, he says simply, “The music just comes through me and the guitar.” As a guitar player, his approach to writing songs is riff-based. (A riff is a kind of musical phrase – it can be as simple as a three-chord pattern or even three notes.) He’ll come up with three to four riffs in a single song. Riffs become verses; with a series of verses, each followed by a chorus, and then a “bridge” at the end, you’ve got a song. If you think it sounds easy, try it sometime.

Some of his musical influences include Tower of Power, Sly and the Family Stone, Cold Blood and Jimi Hendrix. Not surprisingly, The Function’s sound is “majorly” funky with some occasional forays into jazz fusion and Latin-tinged styles. Other band members are bass player Calen Uhlig (who’s been with The Bond Street Blues Band since he was 14), Josh Corry (from Cannon Beach) on the drums and Jacob Graichen (from Clatskanie) on trumpet. Graichen and Falls share vocals and sing backup for each other, “sort of like John Lennon and Paul McCartney,” laughs Falls.

Music promoter Kenny Demps, however, has called The Function the “Motown Beatles of the Northwest.” A fan, in raptures after The Function opened at a Cold Blood concert, referred to the band’s sound as “blue-eyed soul.” Their upcoming album, “Innerconnectivity,” is scheduled for release in 2010. Falls describes it as “music with a message,” this time the Native American belief that all living things are connected. (Falls is part Cherokee.)

Through their record company, he and McNair are able to book, promote and otherwise network with bands “who’re on the same page musically … interested in doing more than just filling their pockets,” says Falls. Too young to have been there, Falls talks rather reverently about the 1960s, calling it “a phenomenal time (when) bands did ground-breaking stuff.” He’s particularly drawn to the way ’60s music “expressed a unique culture and time.” For him, the only time something’s come close to having the same impact musically was in the ’90s with the independent record label Sub-Hop out of Seattle. When the next big music movement comes around, though, you might want to look for Falls, because he’s planning on being front and center.