Biography
A vocalist and tunesmith whose robust timbre, blues-country-hard rock-infused melodies, and incisive lyrics on life’s trials first earned notice as frontwoman of the roots-rock outfit Heartless Bastards, Erika Wennerstrom issued five studio sets with the group from 2005 through 2015 before stepping away in 2018 to issue more intimate songs under her own name.
Born in Dayton, Ohio in 1978, she absorbed her mother’s vintage soul and jazz holdings, counting Ray Charles and Otis Redding among early favorites. At sixteen she received a guitar from her father yet waited several years before committing to the instrument. Drawn to the city’s independent scene that had already birthed the Breeders, Guided by Voices, and Brainiac, she joined the art-rock group Shesus soon after leaving high school before her senior year ended. At twenty-one she began a relationship with musician Mike Lamping and relocated to Cincinnati; while tending bar she started composing, circulated a demo among patrons and staff, and watched the resulting CD-R land on the venue’s jukebox. Encouraged, she assembled a quartet—Wennerstrom on vocals and guitar, Mike Weinel on lead guitar, Adam McAllister on bass, and Dave Colvin on drums—but persistent scheduling clashes prompted her to trim the lineup to a trio featuring Lamping on bass and Kevin Vaughn on drums. The name Heartless Bastards was drawn from a trivia-game card that listed it as a possible answer for Tom Petty’s backing band.
In 2004, while the trio played a sparsely attended Akron bar date, Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney caught the set and urged Fat Possum Records to sign them. The label followed his recommendation, releasing the band’s debut, Stairs and Elevators, in 2005. After extensive road work, including opening slots for the Drive-By Truckers, the group delivered its sophomore effort, All This Time, in 2006. Wennerstrom and Lamping ended their personal relationship the following year, dissolving that iteration of the band. Wennerstrom settled in Austin, Texas, wrote material for a third album, and enlisted producer Mike McCarthy to convene local musicians; the resulting The Mountain appeared in 2009 on Partisan Records, marking the start of a new label deal. She recruited Colvin and bassist Jesse Ebaugh for touring, highlighted by a performance on the PBS series Austin City Limits, and added guest vocals to Langhorne Slim’s Be Set Free that same year.
Expanded to a quartet with lead guitarist Mark Nathan, the Heartless Bastards issued Arrow in 2012; the album climbed to number 78 on the Billboard 200. Wennerstrom also lent her voice to !!!’s Thr!!!er and Jesca Hoop’s Undress during breaks from the road. The same four-piece recorded 2015’s Restless Ones before the group entered hiatus in 2016. Wennerstrom focused on personal recovery, attending an ayahuasca retreat in the Amazon and hiking across the United States, all while capturing hundreds of melodic and lyrical fragments on her phone. Those ideas shaped her first solo album, Sweet Unknown, released in 2018; although Ebaugh appeared on eight of its nine tracks, Wennerstrom emphasized in accompanying statements that Heartless Bastards remained intact.
Born in Dayton, Ohio in 1978, she absorbed her mother’s vintage soul and jazz holdings, counting Ray Charles and Otis Redding among early favorites. At sixteen she received a guitar from her father yet waited several years before committing to the instrument. Drawn to the city’s independent scene that had already birthed the Breeders, Guided by Voices, and Brainiac, she joined the art-rock group Shesus soon after leaving high school before her senior year ended. At twenty-one she began a relationship with musician Mike Lamping and relocated to Cincinnati; while tending bar she started composing, circulated a demo among patrons and staff, and watched the resulting CD-R land on the venue’s jukebox. Encouraged, she assembled a quartet—Wennerstrom on vocals and guitar, Mike Weinel on lead guitar, Adam McAllister on bass, and Dave Colvin on drums—but persistent scheduling clashes prompted her to trim the lineup to a trio featuring Lamping on bass and Kevin Vaughn on drums. The name Heartless Bastards was drawn from a trivia-game card that listed it as a possible answer for Tom Petty’s backing band.
In 2004, while the trio played a sparsely attended Akron bar date, Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney caught the set and urged Fat Possum Records to sign them. The label followed his recommendation, releasing the band’s debut, Stairs and Elevators, in 2005. After extensive road work, including opening slots for the Drive-By Truckers, the group delivered its sophomore effort, All This Time, in 2006. Wennerstrom and Lamping ended their personal relationship the following year, dissolving that iteration of the band. Wennerstrom settled in Austin, Texas, wrote material for a third album, and enlisted producer Mike McCarthy to convene local musicians; the resulting The Mountain appeared in 2009 on Partisan Records, marking the start of a new label deal. She recruited Colvin and bassist Jesse Ebaugh for touring, highlighted by a performance on the PBS series Austin City Limits, and added guest vocals to Langhorne Slim’s Be Set Free that same year.
Expanded to a quartet with lead guitarist Mark Nathan, the Heartless Bastards issued Arrow in 2012; the album climbed to number 78 on the Billboard 200. Wennerstrom also lent her voice to !!!’s Thr!!!er and Jesca Hoop’s Undress during breaks from the road. The same four-piece recorded 2015’s Restless Ones before the group entered hiatus in 2016. Wennerstrom focused on personal recovery, attending an ayahuasca retreat in the Amazon and hiking across the United States, all while capturing hundreds of melodic and lyrical fragments on her phone. Those ideas shaped her first solo album, Sweet Unknown, released in 2018; although Ebaugh appeared on eight of its nine tracks, Wennerstrom emphasized in accompanying statements that Heartless Bastards remained intact.
Albums
Singles
