AUSTIN -- Drummer Jordan Richardson is helping Ben Harper hit the reset button.
The Crowley native, who has played in local acts like Soviet Space and Horses and later found success with Austin’s Oliver Future, has a new gig these days, keeping time for Relentless7, Harper’s new outfit and one which radically alters his sound, injecting a bluesier, funkier, rougher feel.
Harper and Relentless7 will release their debut album, White Lies for Dark Times, May 5 on Virgin Records.
This year’s South by Southwest music festival has been the quartet’s coming-out party, with a handful of performances around town, a Friday spot on DirecTV’s SXSW Live broadcast and Saturday night, taping an episode of Austin City Limits to air later this year.
“The music is speaking for itself,” said Richardson during a Saturday morning conversation. “I think [Led] Zeppelin or the [Jimi Hendrix] Experience [cq] or the Who [cq] is the real model for this band, trying to make rock music the way the greats were making it, in the sense that we showcase what everyone does and push it.”
In the KLRU studios on the University of Texas campus Saturday night, Harper, Richardson, bassist Jesse Ingalls and guitarist Jason Mozersky let it rip for Austin City Limits’s cameras, showing off the raw new sound. Bashing away at cymbals and drums, Richardson anchored Harper’s improvisational tangents, frequently eliciting cheers from the capacity crowd. In keeping with the spirit of Zeppelin, Harper and Relentless7 even carved out a killer cover of the British icons’ Good Times Bad Times.
For Richardson, however, “bad times” are the furthest thing from his mind.
“Blessed is a great word; lucky is a great word,” said Richardson. “I definitely think that the ultimate goal, when you have a record coming out is for the whole world or as much of that world [as possible] is to be preaching the gospel of your record.
“I know that one of Ben’s aspirations for this is for people to listen to it with an objective ear and forget what they know about Ben Harper ... and think about it as a new band that isn’t really doing -- there aren’t a lot of bands trying to do what we’re trying to do. That’s not intentional, it’s just the way this band is working.”
