From White Reaper’s debut full-length album, “White Reaper Does It Again”, out 7/17/15.
There’s no mistaking Louisville, Kentucky for any sort of new music mecca. The South is decidedly less concerned with keeping up with fleeting cultural trends, and Louisville lacks the kind of tastemaker cache that’s made places like Brooklyn and Austin perfect nesting spots for legions of up-and-coming rock bands. But what it might lack in hipster cred it makes up for in easy living, a quality that has made all the difference for the guys in White Reaper.
“That might as well be its slogan: It’s easy in Louisville,” said keyboardist Ryan Hater, calling in from the road en route to a show in Washington, D.C. “It’s a very comfortable place to live. There’s not a whole lot of traffic or anything like that.”
Simplicity suits the four-piece, which, along with Hater, is rounded out by guitarist/vocalist Tony Esposito and brothers Sam (bass) and Nick Wilkerson (drums). White Reaper, whose members have barely entered their 20s, is charmingly disaffected when it comes to where or how they fit in with today’s fragmented musical culture. Many have been quick to lump them into the ever-so-easy “garage” category, but even that rather broad stroke is too narrow for the band. “I don’t even know why that is,” Sam wrote by email prior to our discussion with Hater. “We’ve never even played in a garage before.”
White Reaper might operate from a pretty grounded sense of self, but the rest of the musical world is trying its damnedest to pull them out of their humble cocoon. In the last 18 months, they’ve gone from penning a modest six-song EP to awaiting the release of new album “White Reaper Does It Again”, which is already gathering buzz despite not coming out officially until July 17th.
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