Ripe!
Fresh outta Boston, these seven musical soulmates – Robbie Wulfsohn on vocals, Tory Geismar on guitar, Jon Becker on guitar, Sampson Hellerman on drums, Josh Shpak on trumpet, Calvin Barthel on trombone and Nadav Shapira on bass – will soon be touring through the Central New York area. You can catch this new exciting act on July 31, 8pm at the Yard Amphitheater in Bouckville, NY.
The members of the group met while attending the Berklee School of Music in Boston. The group is a rising, instant hit in Boston, noted for mix-and-matching elements of funk, rock, R&B, jazz and pop through unlikely melodic choices and improvisation. With an unstoppable groove, the group thrives on and is all about energy, citing that their collective energy is an incredibly robust one. They took a few minutes from shaking things up as a premiere dance band to talk with us here at Table Hopping.
Chuck Schiele: Tell us what brought Ripe to fruition.
RIPE: Depending on how you choose to look at it, maybe Berklee, maybe an underlying friendship that stands alongside and in collaboration with the music making, maybe a mutual connection in the catharsis of music and concerts, and maybe we’re still growing and aren’t yet even at fruition.
CS: Characterize the mission and sound of the group. What are we going to see and hear when you come to Syracuse?
RIPE: Every show still carries the catharsis of “I can’t believe we’re back here,” and that’s been coming out on our end as a spirit of revelry. Everyone’s energy is certainly as high as it’s ever been right now.
CS: How does it feel to be touring after the Covid-era pause?RIPE: Good. Very Good. Honestly Great. Overstimulating but exciting. It was a long pause. It is lovely to be back.
CS: What do you like to write about?
RIPE: There’s no one good answer, but specifically I have recently enjoyed writing about the relationship between my anxiety and Mark Wahlberg, and an acquaintance who was disappointed by a pop-up DJ set.
CS: Tell us about the band and the people in it.
RIPE: We are Boston transplants who met at Berklee, started making noise in Boston basements and continued to make more and more noise from there. Sampson has a puppy who is a precious angel. Nadav spent an entire tour making hummus for us from scratch, Calvin brews his own beer and loves the Oakland Athletics. Jon is the most expert tennis player in our organization, and Robbie types out the interview questions and prefers to otherwise remain mysterious.
CS: What would be your advice to someone aspiring to be a musician?
RIPE: There is no one thing that is most important, but it has continued to surprise us how much it comes down to mutual love and respect between everyone on our team. The family metaphor feels kind of overused, but keeps feeling true in deeper and deeper ways as this story continues for us.
CS: Please share with us a funny tale from the stage-road-studio. You know… like the night aliens came down and accidentally knocked your toddy off yer amp, whatever…. something fun, funny, yet tellable. if y; got it.
RIPE: I feel like every time we’re asked to remember something we freeze up, but two moments that happened near water were on my mind today. The first was when we were on a music festival cruise, at a stop in Mexico, and someone was so certain that I was Zach Galifinakis that he wouldn’t leave me alone until I wrote the name Zach Galifinakis on a sheet of paper in pen and handed it to him. The second was late at night after a show in Nantucket where me and a few bandmates were effectively talked into getting in the water because there were bioluminescent plankton in the water that were triggered by movement, and just the sight of glowing trails of little living things being left behind our every movement at like 2:30 am in the ocean.
CS: What do you look forward to most on this tour?
RIPE: The shows. Without a doubt.
CS: How do we all stay in touch with Ripe?
RIPE: Ripetheband.com, ripelove on Instagram, ripe_love on Twitter, and anywhere y’all listen to music.
CS: Thanks, so much for dropping by, guys. Have a great show and have a great tour.
RIPE: Thanks, Chuck.