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JPR Live Session: Radical Face

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Radical Face is the musical project of singer/songwriter and composer Ben Cooper.  Cooper never expected it to become his primary focus, but life threw a couple of roadblocks in the way of his earlier pursuits, and a fortuitous connection launched Radical Face into the forefront.

The soft-spoken and thoughtful Cooper had originally envisions skateboarding as a profession, but a back in jury shelved that plan.  And so armed with a penchant for deft storytelling, he set out to write a novel...a computer hard drive crash put a quick end to that as well.

Instead, he turned to music.  And after a well-regarded well largely unknown 2007 album called Ghost, Cooper was approached by representatives for the camera company Nikon interested in using his song "Welcome Home, Son" in an advertising campaign.  40+ million Youtube views later (and streaming numbers to envy), Radical Face has been put on the front burner.

Radical Face doesn't set out to create ear-wormy pop music.  Case in point, in 2011 he started work on a trilogy of albums called The Family Tree - a dense chronicle revolving around a fictitious 19th-century family.  The project occupied the the next decade.

Cooper now spends most of his time in Los Angeles, still making records in a living room. His latest EP is called Therapy. He was joined in the studio by Josh Lee on viola da gamba and Griffin Kisner on percussion.

JPR Live Sessions are recorded with Audix microphones. Located in Wilsonville, Oregon, Audix designs, engineers, and manufactures high performing, innovative products that contribute to the advancement of the professional audio industry.

As FM Network Program Director and Music Director, Eric oversees many aspects of JPR's broadcast day. He still hosts the occasional Open Air or classical music shift, and is the driving force behind JPR Live Sessions - our popular series of live in-studio music performances and conversations.