“I NEVER have been interested in doing a solo album, or having a solo career,” says Sam Coomes at a sidewalk picnic table at a North Portland coffee shop, his dog Murphy in tow.
Between bites of banana bread, Coomes talks about the circumstances behind the release of his very first solo record, Bugger Me. It’s a peek into Coomes’ singular headspace, uncompromised and skewed as ever.
You ought to already know Coomes as one-half of Quasi, his long-running pop-spazz duo with drummer and ex-wife Janet Weiss and a staple of the Portland underground since 1993. Following the release of Mole City in 2013, Coomes says Quasi was in search of a new muse.
“We still intend on working, but we can’t just do the same thing,” he explains. “We need to have a new idea and we haven’t really had one. Mole City really felt like a final chapter, not an opening or middle.”