On White Lies for Dark Times, the world-weary, spirited, occasionally defiant delivery from Ben Harper is as comfortable and familiar as worn shoe leather. But the music that rumbles and roars just under the surface, care of his new outfit, Relentless7, is another story. Harper's trio of collaborators -- guitarist Jason Mozersky, bassist Jesse Ingalls and drummer Jordan Richardson -- adds a fiery backdrop to his songs, and the result fully transforms the alt-folkie into a full-fledged rock singer. (Hear the record and read our review here.) We spoke with Harper and the band about the record in the video above. If you're one of those weirdos who prefers reading on the Internet to watching videos, you can read the transcript after the jump.
We also convinced Harper to participate in our burgeoning On the Record program, in which artists speak about records they love in exactly 45 seconds. Click the link to hear his pick and see plenty of others.
Rhapsody: What are hearing now [in White Lies for Dark Times] that maybe you didn’t hear when you were making it? How do you hear the record differently than you did originally?
Mozersky: I was actually running the other day and listening to it through my ear buds, and I heard it differently. Somehow, you hear little things that you kind of forgot were in there -- ideas that were buried. It was pretty illuminating actually and gave me a different way to look at it. Not better or worse, just different.
Harper: There are so many ways that working collectively rather than as a solo artist is different, and so many things that have surprised and shocked me as to how much further I have been able to get and been able to accomplish by letting go musically, personally and spiritually. This experience has been a huge release for me, and this record is what that release sounds like.
I stopped listening for a few weeks and then got back to it, and than I started hearing things in a more refreshing and exciting way. Not that I wasn’t excited before, but I had a couple of moments where I walked in on people in my house playing it, and as I was approaching the door I was like, “Man, who’s that?”, and the record’s that different and that removed from anywhere I’ve ever been musically that I almost didn’t even recognize it a couple of times, which was a great experience for me. To hear my own music and not recognize it while being able to appreciate what I wasn’t recognizing was a great experience.
Richardson: I’d say one of the most interesting things that I’ve found about revisiting the record since we made it is gaining new favorite parts -- like you know when you're making a record, your mind-set is in a way where you’ll have a favorite tune, but as you live a little bit longer and things start happening and you hear it for the ten thousandth time, you have a new favorite part every time and that’s always pretty interesting. I think that’s a good sign, when the record stays exciting.
Ingalls: Listening to the record now after some time has passed, you go through phases. At first you want to hear it every single day and you’re just really excited; then you want to take a break from it. But now it has been long enough that I’ve been coming back to it, like Ben said. I just love listening to the record because we’ve been playing these songs live and I’ve heard a lot of live recordings and that’s its own thing, but I like to go back to the album now and hear the production value that we put into it and hear how it's different than the live recordings, and how they’re both two separate worlds is really fascinating to me. I’m proud of the production and engineering that was put into the record by everybody, and it brings back a ton of great memories about the whole process when I listen back to it.
The record’s changed for me now because when you're making it, your head's in a certain mind-set and you're just trying to stay focused and be creative. Then, when the record's done, you listen to it over and over, and then you put it away for a little while, and now when I come back to it, I can listen to it like I’m listening to anybody else’s record and just enjoy the record instead of remembering every little thing or wishing I had done something differently. It’s a document of time and that’s where we were at that moment, and we captured that and now we’ve evolved so much just since recording that record that it's an amazing thing to be able to go back and listen to it as a fan instead of being critical or discerning or worrying about this and that.
Harper: It really is great to love the music you’re playing, and I’m so proud of this record and so proud of these guys. Making a record can be a long, arduous, grind of a process and I’m completely amazed at the way the musical collective that was in the studio enabled this record to come to life. All the communication, the dialog, every part of it was musical and everybody was very sympathetic, patient and understanding with each other through all our attempts, whether they made the record or not. It was real safe to go out on a ledge.
Rhapsody: How did you guys meet and come together as a group…?
Harper: I was in Austin in ‘98 and the driver [Jason Mozersky] that was taking my band to a venue asked me if he could play his demo and I obliged. The demo crushed and was just amazing, so I then befriended the band. The driver turned out to be the guitar player in that band, and because we’re both guitar geeks we became friends instantly, and over time I helped get them a record deal. And they made a must-have record called Juan Santo Condo. The band ended up breaking up, but the driver, Jason, came into the studio in 2005 to play on my record Both Sides of the Gun, and at that session he told me about these guys [the other members of Relentless7], and I trust his musical taste implicitly so if he says something is great, it's great. So the next day they came down and recorded a song that made it onto Both Sides of the Gun, and the chemistry that was involved in that song we recorded I recognized right away and knew it was something we had to revisit. But the way they met is a whole other story …
Mozersky: Yeah, we met here in Austin actually; I’ve known Jesse for about 10 years, and he and Jordan played with some friends of mine, and the three of us were in a Led Zeppelin tribute band called Pudge Zeppelin and we played together, just doing some fun gigs for about three years or so, and that’s where we developed our musical chemistry so when Ben joined it, we already had our chemistry so it was just an instant match. Some things just work out musically or relationship-wise and some things don’t, but this did immediately.
We were excited to get into the studio and just wanted to get into the studio to see what happened; there was no talk of a band or band name, there was no record plan, that wasn’t even on the map. Then two songs became four songs, and four songs became six songs.
Harper: By the fourth song I was like, we’re a band and if we’re not, we’re foolish.
Rhapsody: Where are some places that you’ve seen and played at that have been really inspiring as a musician?
Harper: Well I’ve got a laundry list of places from Sun Records and Graceland ... well I guess I don’t have a laundry list [laughs], the Hendrix museum is great up in Seattle, and Abbey Road up in England is a must-cross-the-crosswalk sort of a thing.
Mozersky: Just the malls of America. [laughs]
Richardson: Sam Goody. [laughs]
Mozersky: Spencer’s gifts; [jokingly] we actually haven’t traveled that much in this unit.
Richardson: I went to Hittsville, and that was mind-blowing; I cried there … like a baby.
- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC.
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