The Pacific Northwest has become a hotbed for bands espousing a certain pastoral folky aesthetic. Fleet Foxes, The Decemberists and The Shins are all doing their part to keep this burgeoning tradition thriving, in a most relaxed manner, of course. But Eric Earley singer and guitarist of Portland’s Blitzen Trapper isn’t ready to nestle into this bearded, plaid-wearing lovefest. On American Goldwing, the band’s latest full-length, the four-piece come off sounded like unabashed Rolling Stones fans, eschewing the folk in favour of some honest to goodness rock. And Earley isn’t pulling any punches about it.
“I like playing rock’n’roll music. I just want to play live, that’s it,” says Earley matter-of-factly from his Portland home. Earley is certainly a man of few words, preferring, in a totally ‘un’ clichéd way of course, to let his music do the talking. He answers most of my questions in little more than a sentence or two; when he does speak, it’s as if he’s pissed off that his music needs any more explanation than it already has provided on record.
American Goldwing is a straight-up, countrified rock record. It’s a direct contrast to Wild Mountain Nation, their first record. Nation garnered critical acclaim across the board, even from certain reputably snooty media outlets that would undoubtedly prefer their folky northwestern counterparts. When the shift in sound is mentioned, Earley seems to shrug off the idea of tastemakers to begin with.
“Whatever is cool changes all the time. You can’t keep up with it all. I just wanted to make a record that I could listen to while I was driving or something like that.”
The bare-bones feel of American Goldwing is certainly the kind of record you’d want to have cranked to 11 with the windows down; for the most part, Earley honest desire to create a record he can be proud of is palpable. And when asked if this approach to writing is something he’ll stick with in the future, Earley admits he likes the road he’s on.
“Yea maybe,” he says nonchalantly. “Maybe we used to be ambitious as far as keeping up with what’s going on and trying to figure out the trends. But I’m at a place now where I’m quite free in terms of when I write. I try to write stuff that I think is interesting.”
The writing process for Blitzen Trapper is an understandably simple one. As the principle songwriter in the band, Earley chooses not to mess around with an idea for a song once it’s conceived, instead choosing to hammer it out live. No studio trickery for these guys; the band has also recently dealt with a few lineup changes but still manages to make things click with relative ease.
“A lot of times I’ll write something, I’ll bring it in and then it’ll be arranged live. We’ve recently changed band members too, so it can change. We try to keep things fresh by always changing.”
So will this constant attempt to keep things fresh lead to Blitzen Trapper walking down that folky, beardy road? Don’t count on it. Earley chuckles in a snarky manner when certain other Pacific Northwest acts are mentioned. The band does however, manage to find influence from their peers, but it mostly comes in the form of touring mates who share a certain vision for how rock’n’roll should sound.
“When we were younger and coming up, we were hanging out with other bands a lot. But we’re touring so much now, I think a lot of influence comes from bands that we end up touring with and playing festivals with. In the past, sure,” he says, when asked about Portland’s rich musical history and how much the bands in the city have had an effect on Blitzen Trapper. “We used to play with local bands all the time.”
While Portland will likely continue to be recognised as one of the most fruitful cities in North America in terms of artistic output, you likely won’t find Blitzen Trapper’s name being brought up in conversation. They’re a band that, though they’ve stuck to their guns as far as letting their love of ’70s rock show, aren’t part of any kind of scene.
American Goldwing has been described by the band in press releases as their “real record,” in terms of how much they let their influences show. This can often be considered the kiss of death for bands; they run the risk of sounding more derivative than venerating. It’s the sort of thing that critics love to pounce on.
Earley, expectedly, can’t be bothered with how Blitzen Trapper is recognised. He’s happy with where the band is at and doesn’t think of the music he makes as something of a science. Turns out that both Blitzen Trapper and Earley operate under a very similar ethos: simple is best.
“I’ve never worried too much about how we’re perceived. On this record, we just wrote songs that were very personal. Sometimes it’s easy to make music without thinking too much.”
BY JOSHUA KLOKE
BLITZEN TRAPPER play The Prince Bandroom on Tuesday April 3, as well as Bluesfest, which takes place in Byron Bay between Thursday April 5 and Monday April 9. American Goldwing is out through Sub Pop via Interia.
