Blitzen Trapper’s latest album, “100’s of 1000’s, Millions of Billions,” is timeless: built from a box of four-track tapes that Eric Earley made in the ’90s, it exists outside a particular moment, or maybe in all of the moments.
“I’m of the opinion these days that a lot of the songwriting sort of doesn’t exist at any time,” Earley says. “So I’ve found that I’ll go back and listen to a recording and realize that I was talking about myself now. It just feels like it’s all one web, it’s sort of just all at the same time or something. I can’t explain it. Because I’ve got lots and lots of songs I’ve written for the last 25, 30 years, and some of them, I’m just like, huh, that’s cool, and then some of them are like, that’s horrible, and then some I’m like, oh wow, I could have written that right now. And maybe I did, you know what I mean?”
The heady approach should not surprise longtime listeners of the Portland, Ore., band, who were at the forefront of the Pacific Northwest ’00s indie-folk scene, alongside groups such as then-Sub Pop labelmates Fleet Foxes and The Head and the Heart. Blitzen Trapper, however, differentiated itself from the crowd with nods to prog and psych rock.
“Back then, in a lot of ways we were all trying to create our own identity and stuff. I definitely worked closely with Fleet Foxes for many years and played a lot of shows with them, and I learned a lot from Robin [Pecknold] and all those guys. You know, same with Wilco, and the same thing with Brandi Carlile, just about how to be a human and play music.”
The sense of balance is connected to Earley’s meditation and Buddhism practices. He said he has developed his meditation throughout his life, “first as a means of self-preservation,” along with keeping a dream journal. His Buddhism has developed over the past six years, with a sharper focus over the last three. “It’s not like being Catholic or something, because it’s not a club,” he said. “It’s a practice that you undertake and it changes throughout your life.”
The visual presence of “100’s of 1000’s, Millions of Billions” includes a cover painting by Guided By Voices’ Robert Pollard that Earley purchased and a bizarre, humorous video for the song “Cosmic Backseat Education.” The song is an ode to Earley’s fascination with the music he had heard on his family’s car radio. The video, which is not an extension of the song’s lyrics and tells a different story, was the idea of Blizten Trapper drummer Brian Adrian Koch and was directed by his friend Mychal Sargent.
Earley said he’s considering releasing archival live albums in 2025.
Blitzen Traper will perform at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn on Friday, Nov. 8.
hat we’re sitting on a number of full show live recordings that we’re thinking about thinking interview things to streaming so we’ll see if
we’ve never really done with that very much for these liberties like full shows yeah so maybe I might do that next year yeah do you record all the shows or just some of them or what depending on what we’re playing usually after a year we’ll end up with a handful or by recording from different location
Nov 8 Baby’s All Right
Photo by Jason Quigley
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