Interview with The Push Stars’ Chris Trapper According to The Push Stars front man Chris Trapper, he majored in skipping classes and dropping out while attending Fredonia State College in New York.  When he wasn’t busy with that, he says, he was cutting his teeth in song writing, playing music and making his first demo in one of the college’s music studios.  Although Trapper didn’t graduate from college, he did succeed in his major and his passion.  In 1996 Trapper and band mates Ryan MacMillan and Dan McLoughlin formed The Push Stars and since then they have released four albums and played countless shows across the country.  Trapper’s songs have been featured in major motion pictures including The Devil Wears Prada and Theirs Something About Mary and television shows such as Pepper Dennis, ER and Malcolm in the Middle. He has played with bands such as Third Eye Blind, Matchbox Twenty, Guster and Train, and going solo, he has released three self-produced albums, including his latest album Gone Again. BostonEventGuide.com chatted with Trapper this week to find out what intimidates him and he’s been up to during his hiatus from The Push Stars.

Interview with Chris Trapper

By Devin Bramhall

DB:     Have you been to any concerts recently?

CT:      Not really, when I’m off-tour the last place I want to go to is a club.  Usually if I see something I see something out of the realm of rock and pop.  I’m going to see my friend’s band, a Dixieland jazz band, in Sherborn Mass, but they are way out of the realm of the club scene in Boston.  The last band I went to see is Rob Thomas.

I think my favorite spot for rock shows in Harpers Ferry.  It’s a good hang place and it has cheaper drinks for fans, and it’s more comfortable. My last gig there was insane.  It was a Push Stars show and it sold out.  It had a great vibe.

DB:     Of all the people you have played with, who intimidated you the most?

CT:      I think maybe Julian Lennon when I toured with him because he was such a legacy that it was bizarre seeing him in person and thinking, “Wow, that’s John Lennon’s son.”  In the first week I was freaked out talking to him.  It was the respect not just of him, but of his legacy.  Another one was when I met John Prine.  I planned a whole speech about what to say to him when I got there, and I rehearsed it in my head.  And when I saw him I just said, “Hey, nice show” and walked away. 

DB:     On your website, www.christrapper.com, you say that one of your career aspirations is to “Bring good feeling to people and to write songs that matter.” What constitutes a song that matters to you?

CT:      The perfect example is this past year I’ve been asked to play ten weddings where my song was the couple’s first dance.  You get to see your music affecting somebody’s life and that they will remember it forever. Then there’s this other song, a hopeful death song called “Keg on My Coffin.”  A fan recently approached me and said that he played that song at his dad’s wake.  That’s what I’m talking about.  It’s not about having a hit song; it is way more meaningful than that. 

DB:     What is the strangest question you have ever been asked in an interview?

CT:      Whenever you do college radio, they ask you vague questions like, “So, do you like playing music?”  I did a radio show in Omaha, Nebraska where the DJ asked me, “So, what does your stuff sound like?” 

DB:     What have you been doing since you took a break from The Push Stars?

CT:      I’m finishing up my own record now that The Push Stars played with me on.  Next year we are doing a “Best Of “ album, record some new stuff and then tour with the band. 

Coming up on August 23^rd at 7:00PM, Trapper will play an exclusive solo set on BostonEventGuide.com’s Summer Party Cruise aboard the Provincetown II, taking off from 200 Seaport Blvd. 

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