Trapper Schoepp announces album with new single + video out now
TRAPPER SCHOEPP announces new album, MAY DAY,with “RIVER CALLED DISASTER”
WATCH THE VIDEO | STREAM THE SINGLE
May Day will be released on May 21st on Grand Phony Records
“River Called Disaster” official video
“Rootsy, cinematic rock that charms as it soars.” – NPR Music
“Confident and flourishing, Schoepp’s songwriting is influenced by classic rock songwriters but he has his own style and successful ways.” – Glide Magazine
“Employing metaphor and an intimate understanding of the natural world, Schoepp unveils a fitting entrance to his post-pandemic resurrection.” – American Songwriter
(New York, NY) Milwaukee-based singer-songwriter, Trapper Schoepp, has announced the release of his upcoming album, May Day, out 5/21/2021 via Grand Phony Records, with the release of the single, “River Called Disaster.” The accompanying video finds Schoepp lighting his piano on fire in a river, which he says felt ceremonial and therapeutic, symbolic of both the song and year we’ve all endured. Watch the video HERE / stream the single HERE.
“River Called Disaster,” is about feeling broken down by the compulsion for more. “The river is an apt metaphor for the way we can get swept up in our destructive desires. This past year, social isolation has exacerbated these kinds of feelings and challenged the way we cope. Many of us are bottoming out and trying to make our way back to the surface,” Schoepp says. “On May Day, I use the natural world as a motif because I feel a strong connection to it. Nature is something real that I can feel, see, smell and touch, and it’s a place where I’ve found comfort in these times.”
This is the follow-up to Primetime Illusion, Schoepp’s acclaimed 2019 album produced by Wilco’s Patrick Sansone, which featured a serendipitous co-write with none other than Bob Dylan. On the day Dylan entered Columbia Studios in 1961 to begin recording his first studio album, he wrote a song about Wisconsin. The lyric sheet sat unseen with a former roommate, and was later unearthed and put up for auction. Schoepp saw the story and seized the opportunity to set music to words, and was granted Dylan’s approval to jointly publish the song, entitled “On Wisconsin,” leading to features in Rolling Stone and Billboard, as well as nearly a hundred international tour dates.
Photo by Mitch Keller
“River Called Disaster” single art
May Day explores themes of ghosts and rebirth, springtime and renewal. “May Day is an ancient holiday that celebrates the arrival of springtime, the natural world, and also workers’ rights. It’s also my birthday,” Schoepp says with a laugh. “After this trying winter, we found solace in making an album for the spring.” The halfway point between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, the holiday has historically been observed with dancing and singing around a maypole. Schoepp’s album cover features a Roaring Twenties era photo of women dancing around a maypole alongside the Washington Monument, which was found in a Library of Congress archive by his brother and bassist/singer, Tanner Schoepp, and adapted into album art by designer, Daniel Murphy (Bon Iver, The War On Drugs).
The music of May Day is both a celebration of more hopeful times and a reflection of a darker past. The 10-track album was recorded near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, amidst the pandemic and citywide protests for racial equity. “In between vocal takes, I stepped outside in my surgical mask and saw a fleet of military Humvees driving by the studio to a protest,” Schoepp says. “Helicopters overhead. Surreal and scary for the people taking to the streets to stand up against police brutality.”
For all the darkness surrounding May Day, Schoepp hopes it will be a respite for listeners he was unable to reach on the road. “The pandemic devastated the live music industry but the need to be transported through song remained. I hope May Day offers that sort of escape.”
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‘MAY DAY’ album art