The Rich Harper Band Interview

by Evan Alexander

The Rich Harper Band hails from Los Angeles, a dynamic and powerful blues trio, the success of their debut CD, "Don't Think Just Play", earned them the position as one of Amazon.com's prestigious "Emerging New Blues Artists", and by the time their second CD, "Bottled Up Blues" was released, Europe had jumped on board by making the band the #1 selling artists in Switzerland on Amazon's charts. In December of last year, Rich, Australian ex-pat, percussionist Chris Cooke and native New Yorker, bassist Frank Scarpelli released their fourth major offering, a new live CD entitled “Onward”. There was a murmur on the grapevine of an Australian tour, so via email, I caught up with the man himself to find out what the story was and ask him a few questions about three pieces, Cynthia Manley, Redondo Beach and the steel mills of Pennsylvania.

• Rich, rave reviews of your work have come from such far-flung corners of the earth as South East Qld, Australia to Denmark. How have you achieved such a widespread global fan base?
• A:  Thru blind persistence. We sent the CD's out to every DJ & music publication we could find, then sat back & waited to see if anyone would listen or write a review on us. I have been very fortunate & very blessed & probably very, very lucky to have so many people take the time to listen, to play & also write about my work.

 

• You hail from the steel mills of Pennsylvania; when and why did you decide to settle in LA?
• A: I wanted to pursue a music career. I thought about my options & decided if I was going to starve to death, I would prefer to do that in a warm climate, so I chose LA. That was way back in the 1980's. Wow... that seems so long ago!

 

• Your list of influences reads like a who’s who of blues / rock guitar pioneers, in particular; Eric Clapton, Freddie King, Rory Gallagher and B.B King. What was about these guys in particular that appealed to you?
• A: I can't really say. Sometimes you just hear things & you stop & say to yourself, what was that & how did he do that? Every one of these guitar players I grew up listening to had that effect on me. There are a lot of great guitar players out there, I just happened to be influenced by these particular players.

 

• Why have you chosen to keep the band as a three piece? T.R. Marshall of ‘Blues On Stage’ said of your second album Bottled Up Blues; “I like the un-complicated sound of the three piece, nothing seems to be missing or added un-necessarily”, is this why? You don’t get cravings for horn sections?
• A: It just works personality wise & musically with us 3. We have thought about it, but why fix something that isn't broken? I may in the future write a song where it would need horns etc, but we would only do it that way in the studio. I can't see us at this moment ever wanting to change the way we do things "live". We have done songs in the studio where we added keyboards, but "live", it is & will probably always stay just the 3 of us. So no matter how we record it, we'll always go out "live" this way unless someone comes along that can just fit right in. But you know what? Never say never...

 

• You’ve appeared on a fair few compilations and other artists albums, including Taxim Records; Desaster City Blues, Fallouts; The Fine Art Of Dining Alone  and Bootleg; Speakeasy. How did they all come about?
• A: Thru friends, thru playing out "live" & someone walking up to you saying they would like to have you on their CD. Again, it's all luck I think.

 

• As She Moved In (My Guitar Moved Out) from Bottled Up Blues was ranked number 1 on Rolling Stone Magazines ‘Mp3 and More Blues Chart’. Despite the obvious, what inspired the song?
• A: Thru the years I have watched this happen to many friends of mine that were just fantastic players, then met someone & just walked away from it because the new person in their life wanted them to. Not because they themselves wanted to. Then of course, years later, when I go home to visit family & friends & we go out, they always say to me, I wonder if..... So, we were recording "Bottled Up Blues", we needed another song & it just came to me.

 

• What was impetus for the new live album Onward?
• A: The "Family". The group of people in Redondo Beach that have stayed with me all these years. I wanted to return all of their loyalty, their kindness & support, so what better way to do that than to record a "live" CD at the place & in front of all the people where it all began.

 

• There was talk of you getting out to Australia for ‘The Melbourne Blues Festival’, what’s the go? When will Australian audiences get a chance to check out Rich Harper and where?
• We got pushed back to April. We will be at the East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival instead on April 8 & 9. We then will be in Newcastle on the 10th, Sydney the 11th & then in Melbourne the 15th & 16th. All the clubs & times we will be & when will be up on our website's schedule page

 

• Over the next couple of months you’re doing a lot of gigs with ‘The Cynthia Manley Band’, for those of us not in the know, who are they and how did you hook up?
• A: Cynthia had a couple of hits back in the late 80's early 90's. Frank, my bass player, has been playing with her for quite some time when we were taking time off for recording whatever. Recently, the guitar player she had went on to do other things, she asked Frank who he would suggest & after I agreed to pay him $5, he suggested me! (ha ha... I am kidding) It's fun for me to play in different situations, that's why I play such a wide variety of blues. I like Delta Blues, but I also like Electric Blues. I like playing slide one minute, acoustic the next etc. I like to push myself  & see where I am going to go. That's why I like playing & recording with Cynthia & other bands besides playing & recording with my own. It stretches the way you think & it always seems to help you out down the road. I don't ever want to stop learning & experimenting. Blues is & always will be my "only love" but there is a lot of great music out there. Why not play it all?

 

• What’s next?

A: Right now we have some things pending in Europe, some for sure, others we are still waiting for the contracts etc. We have 5 songs written for the next CD already. It is going to be a real "group" effort this time. I have written 2 songs with Chris (the drummer), in the process of writing a couple with Frank (bass player) & then I have already written 3 myself. Plus we still have a lot of material to listen to from 2 full days of recording "live" so I'm sure we will put a couple of more "live" cuts on it. Also, Frank & Chris will be producing it because it's time to delegate authority, so to speak. Plus, who better than those 2 to produce me? They have worked with me for over 7 years. They know what I can do & what I can't.  Cynthia is recording a new CD & she is talking of doing a tour in Europe & there are a couple of other people I will be recording CD's with. It is looking like it is going to be a busy year. But we'll see. I'm just going to do what I can today & I'll worry about tomorrow tomorrow.

Rich Harper's Web site: http://www.richharper.com