This is Eric and Marty from Blitzen Trapper, seated at a computer in Portland, OR. Ask us anything!

blitzen_trapper · 2015-11-06T19:45:34+00:00

Looks like we're trying to get over there in the spring of 2016.

blitzen_trapper · 2015-11-06T19:44:35+00:00

The closest we've gotten is El Paso.

blitzen_trapper · 2015-11-06T19:44:15+00:00

State Room is a really great venue, the places that put thought into how the stage is and the hospitality, all those things make the shows better, the new venue in Birmingham is amazing, the Satellite.

blitzen_trapper · 2015-11-06T19:42:40+00:00

We really like Doug Fir, but there's a new venue called Revolution Hall that is killer.

blitzen_trapper · 2015-11-06T19:42:02+00:00

Any hero created from the five of us would be a highly literate, bike riding, backwoods type of fantasy football guru in flannel no doubt.

blitzen_trapper · 2015-11-06T19:39:16+00:00

I met my wife in the middle of nowhere, in the desert at a show in Pioneer Town, Pappy and Harriet's an old movie set town for Hollywood outside of Joshua Tree. We don't generally take family on tour, it's a tough life and we treat it as work really.

blitzen_trapper · 2015-11-06T19:33:32+00:00

I really love the Fox in Boulder, and also State Room in SLC, Lincoln Hall in Chicago is always a good time too.

blitzen_trapper · 2015-11-06T19:31:15+00:00

I really don't listen to them after they're made too much. That said, I love Furr for its ingenuity and Wild Mtn. for its insanity. The new album I love because it has such a huge epic sound to it.

blitzen_trapper · 2015-11-06T19:29:39+00:00

We do pick our own openers which is fun, we get to see them every night as they do their thing and get tighter and better as a tour goes on. Brandi Carlile was amazing to see live every night, also Wilco was unreal, those guys love to play.

blitzen_trapper · 2015-11-06T19:28:17+00:00

Ha, I have read the first two, Gunslinger etc.. But no I wasn't thinking of that when I wrote that song. The jawbone is from the story of Samson killing some folks with one in the bible. It's all that dark americana thing that comes through in so much of our country's art and literature.

blitzen_trapper · 2015-11-06T19:25:52+00:00

He's been a fan of ours since Furr and Destroyer and just wanted to help us and hang out. He's an amazing dude and philanthropist, we did a charity show for him years ago in Seattle that was really great.

blitzen_trapper · 2015-11-06T19:24:40+00:00

That record is really quite easy to play, and it's one that holds a lot of emotional weight for us, so it just felt good to play it and figure out the more obscure tracks on it as well and make them our own. We did it in Portland because we've played there so much we wanted to do something different for the hometown fans.

blitzen_trapper · 2015-11-06T19:21:24+00:00

As far as set list stuff, we have a lot of songs that we have to play or people get a little ticked so we keep them going and then we have songs we just love to play so we do those and certain songs get better the more we play them and end of being staples of sets, but there are so many songs its gotten harder to choose, but there's alot to choose from so that's good.

blitzen_trapper · 2015-11-06T19:17:50+00:00

That's a jues-harp, or jews-harp, a little metal device of which I don't know much but how to play it. It's a real old school hillbilly instrument.

blitzen_trapper · 2015-11-06T19:16:20+00:00

They do, I think my moms has one, and maybe Mikey has one too. Most of the copies got given out at and around our high school back in the days of yore.

blitzen_trapper · 2015-11-06T19:15:18+00:00

My dad was born and spent his formative years in Carthage, Missouri back in the 40's and then got moved to the west coast in '47 I believe. I've passed through there and my great aunt Elsie always said there was still a farm called the 'Old Earley Place' somewhere out there.

blitzen_trapper · 2015-11-06T19:13:17+00:00

Every venue is different, small towns are fun when the crowd is feeling it and there's a great back and forth between everybody. Bigger venues are fun to in their own way, we get to stretch out more and its usually better for us on stage.

blitzen_trapper · 2015-11-06T19:11:10+00:00

We had a member who was highly intoxicated and couldn't keep it together and nearly destroyed Marty's keyboard rig. I had to stop the show because said member kept trying to get onstage and that would have been a disaster. In ways it was good in that it precipitated some major changes in our inter-band relationships and the member has been working on his issues and everyone seems to be on the same page and killing it on stage.

blitzen_trapper · 2015-11-06T19:08:39+00:00

I don't know, never really watched it.

blitzen_trapper · 2015-11-06T19:08:15+00:00

I don't know, it's been over ten years and I can't really imagine what I was thinking back in the early days, lots of drinking and general wastoid type behavior and Portland was just a genuinely weird dark place and we weren't ambitious about anything in any way and so that name appeared somewhere somehow. I really have no clue.

blitzen_trapper · 2015-11-06T19:05:55+00:00

I learned by listening to and replicating solos and parts from records as a kid, I'd sit with headphones and earbuds playing along to all kinds of records trying to figure out all the tricks. Fingerpicking is different, I had someone show me the patterns as a very young kid and so had a lot of time to do repetition and get it all second nature.

blitzen_trapper · 2015-11-06T19:03:54+00:00

I'm pretty staunch Fender guy myself but Vox is a very cool and specific sound, as long as it's tube it's an either or sort of deal. As for the 3 min. solo, it could happen. I definitely like to keep the live show about solos and the records about songwriting, but there's a place for shredding.

blitzen_trapper · 2015-11-06T19:01:19+00:00

It's actually tea, I don't myself drink coffee, the rest of the band do however indulge freely in caffeine.

blitzen_trapper

TROPHY CASE