Without even taking into consideration what came before or after, Jefferson Starship was a transformative act throughout 1970s and early ‘80s that blasted into outer space to explore every kind of psychedelic, progressive, heavy and soft rock sound imaginable.

Both the anthems (“Jane,” “Find You Way Back,” “No Way Out”) and ballads (“Miracles,” “Count On Me,” “With Your Love”) hold up to this day, which alongside Woodstock alums Jefferson Airplane (“Somebody To Love,” “White Rabbit,” “Volunteers”) and MTV regulars Starship (“We Built This City,” “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now,” “Sara”), result in a multi-generational reach.

The bridge-building band also finally got back to the studio for 2020’s “Mother Of The Sun,” which features founding vocalist/multi-instrumentalist David Freiberg, veteran drummer Donny Baldwin (who joined in 1982 and went on to Starship), lead singer Cathy Richardson (personally picked by the late lifer Paul Kantner in 2008), longtime keyboard player/bassist Chris Smith and newer lead guitarist Jude Gold.

Freiberg and the Windy City’s own Richardson conferenced with Chicago Concert Reviews about putting the project together, guest contributions from fellow co-founders Grace Slick, Pete Sears and the late Marty Balin, along with how their respective roles in acid rockers Quicksilver Messenger Service and the musical “Love, Janis” laid the ground work for lift off with Jefferson Starship.

What accounted for the lengthy gap and made you want to get back to recording?

Cathy Richardson: I’ve been wanting to record new songs since I came in the band. The very first thing I did was go into the studio with them. We did “Jefferson’s Tree of Liberty” in 2008. Paul loved old folk music and he wanted to do an album of all these old songs. We were, of course, using the Jefferson Starship name, which means a lot of different things to a lot of different people [laughs]. There was a very mixed reaction to us going out and playing these folk songs back then, but really more than that, I feel like it was Paul’s band, and at the time, he just wasn’t interested in writing new songs, learning new songs and playing new songs, so we just toured…Before we put out an album, I used to say a joke, “tonight we’re gonna play some old songs, and some older songs,” and that always got a good laugh.

David Freiberg: A dozen years, oh my God!

Richardson: Then when Paul passed away, we were given the rights to the name and encouraged by Paul’s family, mostly his daughter China, to make new music. Then we thought, “absolutely, we’re gonna do that!” A lot of people out there are saying that we’re a tribute band and all this kind of stuff. Well, no, we’re not [laughs]. I don’t have how you have a tribute band with original members? But also, we don’t want to just be a jukebox. The times that we live in are so ripe for commentary and we just wanted to. Now we’re doing more and we can’t stop.

Freiberg: I know. More, more, more!

How would you two describe Jefferson Starship’s sound nowadays?

Freiberg: I’d say we still try to carry the fire, as it were, of the spirit of the old stuff. We aren’t afraid to strike out and do new ways, but always respecting [what came before]…We went through a lot of changes.

Richardson: Obviously, there were the core members that were there the whole time and have passed away or retired by now. Grace is retired. Paul and Marty have passed away. We wanted to touch on that, which is why the idea of writing a song with Grace [came about], which we did for the song “It’s About Time.” Then we brought in Pete Sears to play bass [on three tracks] and it was cool to have him come back. He and David traded bass playing back in the day, but [David] just plays guitar now…We have a song that was co-written with Marty by our keyboard player Chris, “Don’t Be Sad Anymore,” which David sings beautifully. We wanted to add that song as a tribute to Marty and his wonderful songwriting.

So it touches on the old, but it’s new, [plus] the politically-minded aspect of the band, which comes from Paul mostly I would say. The cool thing about all the different eras and the changes of this band is that it’s an ensemble and it gives everybody in the band their chance to shine. I’m a songwriter and it’s so amazing to be able to bring songs into Jefferson Starship. I think it’s in the spirit of that collective that Jefferson Airplane started out as individual personalities [with] everybody bringing their own thing in. Except with us, I think that we’re in a more harmonious vibe than the band has ever been in, as far as personalities and getting along [laughs].

Freiberg: We don’t seem to clash too much. We seem to really get along [laughs].

David, with many of the original members as solo stars in their own right, how were you able to navigate around all of the different personalities?

Freiberg: I found it pretty easy because I’m always kind of like a supportive person anyway. My favorite thing is singing in harmony really, not that I don’t like to sing lead or anything. Being in that band with Paul, it was all three, four-part harmony all the time, so that was just heaven for me. It was easy for me, I thought, until it wasn’t [laughs].

Richardson: David’s like the most easygoing person in the world. He’s not one for drama or conflict or anything, but sweetness, as far as I can tell. I don’t think he was the issue [laughs].

Cathy, what was it like working with Grace and getting her blessing?

Richardson: Oh God, well, first I was terrified [laughs] because she’s such an icon. As far as female rock and rollers, she’s the queen, along with Janis Joplin, as far as I’m concerned. She’s the ice queen, so I was nervous that she would hate what I was doing. When I found out that she really was into it, I was like “oh, phew, thank God!”

Freiberg: One of the first questions she asked was, “do you have a strong woman?” Yes, we have a strong woman! Then she was all in as soon as she met Cathy.

Richardson: Long before I had even met the band, I met Grace at an art show. She was selling paintings. I got to ask her a few questions and she was just so cool. I wrote in my journal I had the weirdest feeling, like I just talked to an older version of myself, and I had no idea that I was ever gonna be the singer of Jefferson Starship. I mean, that’s one of those “beyond your wildest dreams, couldn’t even make that up in my head” [scenarios]. It’s insane cause they’re literally one of my favorite bands and I still have all the vinyl. Now our vinyl record is coming out and it’s gonna take the place amongst these classic albums that I grew up loving. It’s just wild.

Grace is just a really cool person. She loves our song, “What Are We Waiting For?” She cried when she heard it, which really surprised me. You don’t think of her as being an emotional person, but she loved it and I said, “we’re doing a whole record. What if we wrote a song together?” “Oh, that might be cool.” So one day, [after] I’d totally forgotten all about it [because] I didn’t really think anything was ever going to happen with it, I go to my mailbox and I got an envelope from Grace Slick! I open it up and its handwritten lyrics. I was absolutely floored! I hid them and kept them to myself for a few days [laughs]. This is like a crazy weird rock & roll treasure thing that never happens to anyone. I wrote the vibe of a chorus and then Jude brought in that riff he’d been playing. I said, “I really think I can marry [the two] and make it this anthemic, women’s empowerment song.” I think musically it really nods to Paul Kantner, whether or not anyone agrees with me on that. I feel like Paul would love this song. It’s just outrageous to write a song with Grace Slick.

Have you had a chance to perform this material live yet?

Freiberg: We were just starting to add it when the pandemic hit actually. We’ve done about three of them live.

Richardson: Actually, one of our last shows was the Arcada Theatre in St Charles, Illinois, which we filmed and recorded. I’ve been working on getting that mixed. This fall, we’re gonna have a double live album with four or five new studio songs and a DVD, so that’s really exciting. We did record those songs live, three of them anyway, and that will be on the new double live album…The working title is “Jet Pack” because we have a song called “Jet Pack.” It’s kind of a boxed set and we’re conceptualizing a rocket-shaped container, so it’s gonna be pretty cool.

“Jane” and “Miracles” continue to be staples. David, what do you recall about playing such a significant creative role?

Freiberg: Well, “Jane” wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for me. It was about a girlfriend of mine [laughs]. But I did have help from a good friend of mine, Jim McPherson, who’s no longer with us. He and I wrote the lyrics. I already had the melody, and changes, and [guitarist] Craig Chaquico came up with the fantastic rock arrangement. The demo was going for something like The Rolling Stones’ baroque era, like “Ruby Tuesday.” I was just trying to get the words to sing it and I always figured the band would figure out how it’s arranged. But Craig came over and just heard it apparently. He’d been listening to a lot rock at that point and the influence came right through. Lucky for all of us, it came out great [laughs].

[On “Miracles”], that little organ lick at the beginning of it just appeared in my mind as we were recording the basic track. We had months [of preparing, but it was] never a thought until we got in there and started playing…It was nice how it worked all the way through. That was the start of another era. This was all orchestrated, be it actual orchestras, on most of “Red Octopus.” “Miracles” just has tons of background vocals in it.

What made this group incorporate some of general Starship-era songs into your sets prior to the pandemic and will those keep popping up?

Richardson: Yeah, absolutely! Paul would’ve never played those songs. I love those songs and that’s my era, the ‘80s. I saw Starship a few times in concert. Donny Baldwin, our drummer, played on them, sang back-ups on ‘em and he was a huge part of that band. I feel like he should get to feel the response from the audience when we play those songs. A lot of the old fans may have hated it, but there was a whole new bunch of fans. For years we were not playing them and people were complaining about that [laughs], so we just wanted to do it for the fans. They’re just fun to play and it’s just music man.

Freiberg: Yeah, they are a lot of fun to do, even though I didn’t do the records.

David, why didn’t you continue aboard after the band dropped the Jefferson and what brought you back to this band?

Freiberg: Kind of mutual consent [laughs]. I felt kind of useless. What they really needed was a virtuoso keyboard player, which wasn’t me, and they would’ve had to get one if they kept me anyway because most of the stuff was really synthesizer heavy, which I really don’t have the keyboard chops to play. I was [thinking] “what am I doing here? Okay, I’ll sing backgrounds and play whatever I feel like on the keyboards,” but whole thing was completely produced by one person more or less, the producer. They changed into being produced rather than everybody getting together and making music organically. That kind of soured me. I was trying to figure, “how am I going to get out of this?” I know Paul left. I felt bad not leaving with him because I understood how he felt, but I’ve stayed in a band before when I hated it because I didn’t want to quit the band and cause problems…

[Finally] I said, “if playing in a band has to be this way, maybe I shouldn’t be playing in a band” [laughs]. I just went off to my other musical interests, built my studio, helped other people and I just kept on playing wherever I could…Then Paul asked me to sit in with him when he played at a very local gig. I went in and sang about two or three songs and it was fun! I thought, “oh, this is how it used to be!” So it was back to playing in a band that Paul was in. Paul was one of my best friends. We shared houses together as folk singers, long before we even plugged in, so we were pretty close. They asked me, “do you want to go on this little tour?” and I said, “sure” and I haven’t stopped. That was like 2005 I came back and Donny was real close. The first gig that we played on the road, Donny was the drummer.

Cathy, even with San Francisco origins, how has everyone embraced your hometown?

Richardson: Well, I can’t get ‘em to move here, but I think they like it [laughs]. We’re actually recording at the Jam Lab, which is Colin Peterik’s place, and we’ve been mixing the live record at Jim Peterik’s place. We shot three music videos here, so there is a lot of Chicago. Jude Gold, who’s been in my Cathy Richardson Band longer than Jefferson Starship, has been coming here to play gigs with me for years. I like to think of it as “station two” of Jefferson Starship [laughs]. We do quite a bit here and we actually have two shows [in the area] this summer, [which are slated for the Effingham Performance Center on August 12 and Milwaukee’s Summerfest on September 10].

David, do you any memories of playing here from way back?

Freiberg: Sure. I remember playing in Quicksilver at the Auditorium Theatre and also on my only Jefferson Airplane tour, which was probably the last Jefferson Airplane tour of the more or less original band when I took Marty’s place. But we played the Auditorium Theatre on that tour too. We recorded that date and the Winterland [Ballroom] when we got back [to San Francisco]. There’s an album, “Thirty Seconds Over Winterland,” which is the Jefferson Airplane album that I am on and that was partially [recorded] in Chicago.

Richardson: Do you remember playing the Holiday Star Theater in 1984?

Freiberg: Yes, I remember that one.

Richardson: Did you see me? I was in the balcony?

Freiberg: Oh yes, was that you?

Richardson: Yes [both laugh]. I was just a kid and I still have the ticket stub. I went to go see them every time I could. I believe that was the last Jefferson Starship tour, so after that I had to go see Starship, which I was really into anyway because back in those days, I was like 14, 15-years-old, and my favorite bands were Heart and Jefferson Starship. They had kind of fallen out of popularity, but in the ‘80s when Heart came back and Starship came out, it was really exciting. Now the bands that I loved were popular again and I could get my friends to go with me [laughs].

And Cathy, what about any local shows that stand out from your tenure?

Richardson: We’ve had some fun shows here. We played Arlington Heights Frontier Days, and all my friends, and all of our kids ended up on stage at the end. It brought a tear to my eye. It was just so great. My son Hendrix is such a ham. He got up on stage, started posing and there were these girls in the front row screaming for him. It was just making me laugh so hard. It was amazing.

David, how do you feel like Quicksilver Messenger Service helped you have this lengthy career with Jefferson Starship?

Freiberg: Not really very well, actually [laughs]. I don’t know. We were always a step behind everybody else, so far as getting out. We didn’t really care about being famous apparently. All we wanted to do was have enough dope to smoke and play for people. And it was really easy for us to play around San Francisco a lot anyway, so who cares? Going on the road made it weird I think, but it was good and it was rock & roll. I’d never played bass before I was in Quicksilver and I ended up playing keyboards in the end, which was very funny, so yeah, it was perfect [laughs]. It set me up for when I started in Jefferson Airplane. I played one song on guitar and sang one lead song called “Blind John.” Other than that, I was just singing harmony and being a vocalist, doing what Marty would’ve done…Then it seemed like Jefferson Airplane wasn’t happening anymore. Although, [Paul, Grace and I] were all willing to do it, [guitarist] Jorma [Kaukonen] and [bassist] Jack [Casady] apparently were done [to form Hot Tuna], so we said, “well, we’ll go out. What are we gonna call it?” Paul had already invented the term on his solo album, “Blows Against The Empire.” He said it was the Jefferson Starship crew that made that album, so we called it Jefferson Starship and then the rest is history I guess [laughs].

Cathy, how do you think leading “Love, Janis” and her band Big Brother And The Holding Company prepared you for this position?

Richardson: Without “Love, Janis,” I don’t know where I would be right now. I slugged it out here in Chicagoland forever and never quite made it out. I can sell out a venue here and probably nowhere else [laughs]. Thank God with Chicago being such a great city. I think that all the years fronting my own band really prepared me to do both things, although “Love, Janis” was definitely a career booster for me. It also hugely made me such a better singer and a performer. There’s nothing like having to do something over and over again to get really good at it. I was probably not the best Janis Joplin when I started that show, but by the end, I lost myself and she took me over completely. I ended up in San Francisco doing the show and I moved there for a couple years. During that time, Big Brother asked me to go on tour with them with Jefferson Starship and I was like “oh my God, this is like the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me!”

It was my first real touring situation, going out and doing 20 shows. Before I was touring around the Midwest in a van, but now we’re flying on planes, we’re going here, there and everywhere, there’s press and it was a really exciting time. When I was with Big Brother, these guys asked me if I wanted to join and I was like, “are you f—ing kidding me?” Paul came to my apartment in San Francisco and I got out all of my aforementioned vinyl albums so that he could see what a fan I am, but I only asked him to sign one album and that was “Blows Against The Empire.” I was a shoe in at that point [laughs]!

Freiberg: You were a shoe-in from the moment we heard you honey [laughs]!

Richardson: As it turns out, I can actually sing and front a band, but being so aware of it really helped me to be able to do this gig as authentically as I can. The music is such a part of my influence growing up, so I think it’s a perfect fit. I’m so excited about what we’ve got coming up. We just want to hurry up and get there. We’ve been working on stuff, but we want to play, be in the same room together, go out and meet the fans. We have the biggest blast on the road.

Freiberg: We have pretty good Zoom meetings, but it’s nothing like the real thing [laughs]!

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For additional information on Jefferson Starship, visit JeffersonStarship.com.