by Zach Fraley
Photo by Jason Quigley
It was a busy year for the United States in 2003. American forces captured Baghdad and crippled Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq, Finding Nemo was released nationwide, and in Portland, Oregon, a psychedelic and progressive-rock band called Garmonbozia underwent a transformation and became Blitzen Trapper. Twelve years later, the band is releasing their eighth full-length album, All Across This Land.
Eric Earley, who fills many roles for the band but mainly acts as lead vocalist and lead guitarist, notes that compared to previous albums, All Across This Land is more akin to what you might hear if you watched the band perform live. “I wanted to do something that reflected our live show – that energy and simplicity. I wrote these songs for the live five piece, not a lot of bells and whistles.”
Complete with 10 songs, All Across This Land dropped last week on Vagrant Records in the U.S. The title track features a homage to two of the band members’ family members, including Earley’s father, who taught him to play guitar. Earley believes that as the band has grown, it was inevitable that family as a theme would creep its way into his songs. “There’s always an element of family going on with us now, and my songs contain that coloring more and more as family has gotten more important for us.”
An extremely multi-faceted group, Blitzen Trapper contains five primary members, all of whom serve no less than three roles in the band. Earley sings and plays four instruments, and most of the other members play at least that many instruments as well. While this has helped provide the band with a fresh sound for each album, Earley believes the most influential reason why the band has remained together for over a decade is their deeply-woven roots, around themselves and around music in general. “I think we just operate as a family and we grew up in the same town and share so much history together. There have been hard times where it seemed like things might come apart, but we’ve managed to keep enjoying what we’re doing on stage and maintaining that same goof off attitude on the road.”
While Blitzen Trapper was officially born in 2003, Earley notes that it was in 2007 that the band took off in terms of live appearances. “When we started to actually tour in ’07 it changed us, turned us into a band instead of some dudes messing around with instruments in a garage. We had to get tighter, more involved and serious about the business. But essentially our attitude toward music has remained the same, experimentation and song writing and trying to get the live show as good as it can be.”
In addition to today’s album release, the band has unveiled two live albums in the past year. Live In Portland debuted in December of last year, and received positive reviews from fans and critics. Just months later, Blitzen Trapper released Live Harvest in April of this year to celebrate Record Store Day. Earley notes that making a produced and polished sound is much different than the raw, uncut live performance they placed on their two live records. “Studio albums are their own process. The live albums were easy – just do some shows and record it all and have someone mix it. Studio work is more exacting and takes more time and delicacy. We wanted to get every part of this record right.”
To promote their new record, Blitzen Trapper is taking on tour dates from now until late November. The band will stop by Philadelphia on October 14, when they play at Johnny Brenda’s. Aside from the show, Earley can’t wait to get to Philadelphia in order to sample some local cuisine. “Always looking for good food wherever we go. [We] like to try the local favorites.”
I couldn’t end the interview without asking Earley if, since the band has both an Eric and an Erik, it ever gets confusing for the band to find one of the Eric/k’s. “I get called Earley mostly and he gets called by various nicknames we’ve developed over the years, so no one gets called Eric/k.”
