Honolulu Weekly

Blitzen Trapper / Even with a bad cell phone connection, wind blowing and voices in the background, Blitzen Trapper frontman Eric Earley comes across as thoughtful and intelligent. He’s a musician so constantly entrenched in the creative process and has been playing for so long that a question about learning new instruments is answered with a simple, “Not really,” because, well, “I’ve played lots and lots of instruments.” Then there’s a laugh.

Blitzen Trapper, a six-member band from Portland, Ore., has been together since 2000 and is known for lyrically intelligent and musically innovative works. Again, it comes down to something simple.

“I don’t like to do the same thing over and over again,” says Earley.

Instrumental in shaping a new Northwest rock sound, Earley himself describes his music as “more traditional folk music, which is kind of British, Appalachian stuff. And that’s the storytelling aspect of it, the vocal harmony–It’s that mixed in with electric music, with hard rock. I think that my music leans more toward the hard rock.” Earley adds, “No matter what people do in American popular music, it always maintains the influences of blues and traditional folk music.”

The release of the band’s last LP on Sub Pop Records, 2008’s Furr, signaled its breakthrough to a larger fan base. Blitzen Trapper self-released three albums previous to the critically acclaimed Furr, using DIY methods such as using an old telegraph booth as a studio.

In the wake of this year’s release, the Black River Killer EP, Blitzen Trapper is touring the world (again). After this stint, the band will be on indefinite hiatus, during which Earley plans spend more time writing novels and riding his bike, he says. But fans shouldn’t worry too much, as part of the time off will be devoted to putting out another album.

Earley hints that there will be new string arrangements on the upcoming album. But otherwise, “I’ve recorded like 13 tracks, but I mean, I’m probably not going to use any of them. Maybe two of them. Or three of them … Even for Furr, those were just 13 songs pulled from about 35 songs. And they weren’t all necessarily all my first picks, but it’s sort of a democratic choice of what the record would be–how it would make sense,” he says.

This will be Blitzen Trapper’s first time performing in the Islands. It’s natural for Earley to wonder, “What bands come from there?” At the Hallowbaloo Arts and Music Festival, where the band will be playing on Halloween, Earley and his fellow musicians will have the opportunity to be surrounded by the local talent that’s been making musical waves as of late. Painted Highways precedes Blitzen Trapper and Haberdashery follows. As the joyous vibes from the street festival fill the air, Earley and the rest of Blitzen Trapper will show that there’s no “Sleepy Time in the Western World” when they’re playing.