Levitate Music Festival spotlight: Ripe rebounds to bring the funk
Ripe, pretty much the funkiest band around, nearly had to scrap its appearance at the Levitate Music & Arts Festival this weekend following a gnary golf cart accident in New Hampshire in late June that resulted in a concussion for lead singer Robbie Wulfsohn and other injuries to bandmates. The band did have to postpone its Hampton Beach show, and headed into Levitate with strict medical orders for Wulfsohn to forego his usual “head banging,” which as he told the Levitate crowd would be next to impossible (in more colorful language than that…).
Drummer Sampson Hellerman escaped the accident physically unscathed. Though as Hellerman told us in a pre-set interview, he also was the only one to remember the incident vividly, leaving an emotional toll on him.
With his bandmates on the mend, we tried to focus on more positive developments, including Ripe’s return to Levitate, which it has played numerous times. “It feels like coming home for us, not just geographically, but musically as well,” says Hellerman, who praised the festival’s band curation.
Last year, Wulfsohn made a cameo appearance during a set by Cory Wong at Levitate and the band popped up for a set in the VIP section. If you don’t know Ripe or haven’t seen them, they’re an ultimately danceable and rhythm-propelled band formed in 2011 by Berklee College of Music students and now based in Los Angeles.
Ripe’s got a busy tour schedule ahead, including a Nov. 21 date at Boston’s MGM Music Hall (where in the past it has played with Wellesley favorite Couch). By the time that show takes place, Ripe will have rolled out a new album in tandem with accomplished producer Joe Chiccarelli. A few songs have been released, and the bank offered a sneak peek during its Levitate show.
New songs like “Cheap Seats” and “Try Not to Look” are undeniably catchy. Ripe broke through years ago when a video for “Goon Squad” went viral. Could one of these new songs, or the forthcoming “Play the Game” album bring the band wider attention?
“This helps me sleep at night. There’s almost little rhyme or reason in today’s world as to what pops off and becomes a hit,” says Hellerman, who in addition to performing in the band is a painter. “If you go too far down that rabbit hole you can lose your mind. For us, we just make the best music we can make and keep every line in the water… tour, write, record, make TikToks…if something bites, it’s great.”
Ripe was feeling “a level of gratitude and relief” heading into the Levitate show given the recent accident and uncertainty until a few days ago about whether the band would be able to perform, Hellerman says. Lead singer Robbie Wulfson indeed made several references to the accident during the set, and pointed out that the screen behind the band even featured an image of a tilting golf cart.
I tried to pay extra attention to the drum parts in Ripe’s songs ahead of our interview, and asked Hellerman about his style. “My drumming style is all about serving the song,” he says. On “First Time Feeling,” Hellerman says he does about as little as you can possibly do on a drum set while still providing rhythm, whereas on “Settling” there’s a lot of things going on across the drum set.
His first lesson in drumming was that “drumming exists to accompany dancing,” and so Hellerman’s approach is to consider whether he wants people to sway or tap their toes or just listen to they lyrics. In a similar vein, I asked Hellerman how he would approach writing a music review, and he says he’d focus on how the concert made him feel. “It has to be about the personal experience… it’s a moment in time that can’t be relived,” he says.
Hellerman really got into music after his dad exposed him to the Grateful Dead and the related band Furthur, and he attended their concerts as a young teen. “I’d be crying because I’d never seen this beautiful thing that brings people together and makes them feel all these things,” he says.
Hellerman began drumming at the age of 10. He had expressed an intention to play music, and the night before his 10th birthday his dad asked him what instrument he wanted and to sleep on it. “In the morning I said drums,” he says, believing that girls liked drummers.
Years later as Ripe’s drummer, Hellerman says “I’m certainly not complaining about my gig” given that the drumming is step one for so many of the band’s songs.
As Ripe’s drummer, Hellerman says he has found his own combination of what gear works for him somewhere in between John Bonham (Led Zeppelin) and Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters).
“So I have your rock kick drum, a 22-inch drum, and I’ve downgraded my amount of toms to 10-, 12-, and 16-inch ones… I used to have a lot more, but at least for now I don’t need all those toys around me,” he says. “In the future, this could change based on the music. If we have a song that needs a cowbell, I’ll go get a… cowbell.”
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