Meet Big Deep: A New Project From Former Spafford Bassist Jordan Fairless

Former Spafford bassist Jordan Fairless has a new project in the works. While Big Deep grew from the adversity Fairless faced with Spafford, starting a new band — something that often carries its own pitfalls — was relatively adversity free. That’s not to say there weren’t challenges, but Fairless and new musical partner, guitarist Luke Schwartz, put in the work to better navigate any pitfalls that might arise.

JamBase recently spoke with Fairless and Schwartz, as well as keyboardist Kevin Cooper and drummer Brendan Dillon, as they introduce Big Deep to the world and prep their debut album.

Fairless and Schwartz met in July 2025 when Fairless attended Luke’s show with his band The Review in Woodstock, New York, where Fairless now resides. The musicians exchanged numbers and made plans to meet again.

“It was like a month later, we finally linked up and got coffee,” Fairless said. “We ended up sitting at a local coffee shop here and talking for a little over two hours in our first conversation. We just had a real talk about where we were at and I told him what I was looking to do. ‘I want to start a new band. I’m looking for a guitar player or somebody to start it with.’ I was away from the road for a while — the accident, a lot of that stuff is public knowledge — and yeah, it was like ‘I think I’m ready to start playing again,’ and Luke was the person that I chose to start playing with.”

The setting for the meeting in Woodstock is important. The upstate New York town in the Catskill Mountains has been an artist haven since the early 20th century. Bob Dylan famously lived in Woodstock in the 1960s alongside The Band. The iconic Woodstock festival — which took place 60 miles away near Bethel, New York — was named Woodstock as it was conceived as a fundraiser for a recording studio in Woodstock. In short, there’s some musical magic in the air.

“I do think it’s interesting that it was in Woodstock where the Big Deep seed forms, because it just lends itself so much to a creative kind of atmosphere and landscape,” Luke added. “I had been working with my band, The Review, but also weaving in and out of probably a dozen projects over the past couple of years. For me, hearing Jordan express where he was at, was a much-needed wave of inspiration. I just wanted this kind of creative unity, and Jordan was looking for that kind of thing in rebooting his whole world and performing again, writing again. So yeah, it was kind of like a great connection point in time and place for both of us, I think, in our careers, and just a great meeting point.”

Fairless and Schwartz began writing new material between August and October 2025. As Big Deep’s sound began to take shape, it was clear that, along with their hard work, they had also tapped into some of that Woodstock magic.

Enter Asbury Park, New Jersey native and keyboardist Kevin Cooper, a longtime participant in the Catskills institution Roots Rock Revival, which was founded by late The Allman Brothers Band drummer Butch Trucks and now helmed by ABB/Dead & Company bassist Oteil Burbridge and others. However, Cooper’s connection with Big Deep involved longtime member of Parliament Funkadelic, Michael “Clip” Payne.

“Luke and Jordan ended up seeing a video of me posted by this guy Clip that I met who plays with Parliament Funkadelic,” Cooper said. “So we connected on Instagram and they brought me into their world, what they’ve been working on. It’s been really interesting seeing how much they put into this and what they’ve whipped up during Jordan’s hiatus.

“I’m just truly impressed,” Cooper continued. “After playing with so many bands for so many years —- a lot of them being local bands or ones that, you know, aren’t as motivated on the writing end, or at least touring and stuff like that —- I was just so blown away by how thoughtful, passionate and driven Luke and Jordan were and how much stuff they had prepared. They were so organized, and it was really impressive. It made me excited to be a part of this team and help drive things forward, because bringing their ideas to light has been so fun and everybody in the band has been so cool and easy to get along with. So I’m really excited to see what’s in store.”

The final piece of the Big Deep puzzle fell into place when in-demand drummer Brendan Dillon came aboard shortly after Cooper in December 2025. Dillon crossed paths with Fairless when his former band Quadrafunk played ahead of Spafford at the 2018 Levitate Festival, where he also met Fairless’ wife Lizzie. The meeting left an impression on both parties and planted a seed for future collaboration, as Brendan explained.

“Lizzie, who I kept in touch with through [her publication] Tour Stories, messaged me out of the blue one day and was like, ‘Hey, Jordan’s starting up a new band. Would you be interested?’ And I was like, ‘What? Absolutely I am. I’m in.’ So it all comes back around full circle, like 6 years later or so, and I was super stoked to hear what [Jordan] had been cooking up and [when I heard] the demos, I was like, ‘oh man, this is right up my alley.'”

With Fairless’ roots in playing drums, he and Dillon connected right off the bat, creating that all-important rhythm section mind meld.

“A lot of the demos were Jordan’s drum parts,” Dillon said. “It was a big challenge for me to take it from the demo, put my own twist on it, and then put it into the album. I think one song we spent probably like five hours trying to get it down in one solid take. But it was incredible to see that there was a roadmap. Everything is planned out. Everything is ready to be executed. So all we had to do was just come in, know the parts, lay it all down, and then take it from there. It’s been incredible to be a part of. It’s amazing stuff. All of it is just ready to go, and I’m super stoked about it.”

The stoke level is high all around at Big Deep. Their debut album, recorded at Utopia Studios in Woodstock, is set to arrive this summer and the quartet has plans to burst onto the live music scene.

“This band also has a lot of fun when it plays live,” Fairless stated. “So we’re hoping to be on tour in the fall. The album’s coming out this summer, and we’ve got a lot of other stuff to support that album and a bunch of things that aren’t the album that we’ve done, or will do, that will come out alongside it. The goal is, this is a new touring band and we wanna play festivals. We want to be out there and we want to connect with people.

“That is our goal and that’s what I told Luke when we met,” Jordan continued, “we want to make something new, we want to tour. But we want it to be fun and inviting, and we will take our time building it. We’re looking to be out in the fall, and just really getting people aware and listening to the album over the summer so we can get everybody as excited as we are to play the first show, to be at the first show.”

Keep an eye out for Big Deep’s debut album. Also, check out the band introduction video below featuring a live studio cut, “Eclipse,” with footage by Vic Brazen and illustration by Michael Arthur: