Crosstown Cafe: How was this last tour for you? Are you happy to be taking time off the road and recording again?
Chris Trapper: Usually, when we come off tour, it takes about a week to just decompress, as the lifestyle is VERY different from any semblance of normality (being on tour). Experience on tour is usually in intense doses. Drama and dragging hours mix together. At home, it takes practice to go through a day not wondering why the people at the corner drug store aren't clapping as I walk down the aisle.
Recording, on the other hand, is like working out, in a creative sense. It gets you pumped and exhausted and it's the one time when a band feels like it's actually doing something good for itself.

CC: What direction is the new album going in? Will there be any experimenting with new styles, or will you be sticking to the raw Push Stars sound?
Chris: Recording is giving birth to a child that may either go to the peace corps. Or go to prison. You never know what's gonna come out. My guess is that we will want to rock a little more, strip down a little more, and maybe bleed a little more feeling onto the tracks.

CC: What are some of your favorite cities to play in?
Chris: I love to play pretty much everywhere. I loved playing in Iowa, 'cause it was the one place where we truly knew no-one and we ended up driving out of there with an audience and a keyboard player (Scott Leslie) who came on tour with us for awhile. We also got to see the Surf Ballroom there, where Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens played their last concert. We tried to find the site where their plane crashed, but couldn't get there. It's probably better that way, as we're already paranoid enough.

CC: What bands do you like to tour with?
Chris: Our favorite bands to tour with so far, although now there are many, would probably be these: Julian Lennon (He is a sweetheart), Better than Ezra (Cool guys, great writer in Kevin and a very compatible audience), Great Big Sea (from Newfoundland, 'cause they have funny accents), Jump Little Children, The Samples, Guster.... The List could go on....

CC: What is the craziest thing a fan has ever done?
Chris: I would like to think fans don't do crazy things,just "Highly Enthusiastic" things. We've had people flash breasts, throw bras, travel cross- country to see us, someone actually built a little shoe-box showcase, where all of our songs were physically represented by little action figures in the shoe-box. The strangest thing is when guys offer their girlfriends to me, which has happened a couple times. It usually goes like this: "My girlfriend loves you, man!" I say "thanks." Then they say,"No, I mean she REALLY loves you." Weird......

CC: What (besides being in a van for several hours at a time) do you not like about touring? What do you like?
Chris: I like being able to see growth. Not just in audience size, but also in the enthusiasm within the interaction between us and the audience. I like to see that the music is actually reaching people, entertaining and sometimes actually moving people. Touring is both lonesome yet a constant party of which you're the host.
And I like Philly Cheese-steaks, although, I imagine, at some point I may have to stop liking them so much, or else I'll have to quit donuts.

CC: How do you determine what goes on a setlist for a show? Is there any difference between what you play in certain cities and don't play in others?
Chris: The setlist usually comes out of my own feeling of where everyone in the band is at for the day. Sometimes we'll be in a pissy mood or a great mood, and that steers the list. Also, depending on where we play, certain songs are more popular, and you can tell from being there a couple times as to how the audience responds. For instance, the song "Minnesota" seems to go over well in Minneapolis. I haven't quite figured tht one out yet.

CC: Describe the songwriting process for you. Do Dan and Ryan play a part in it, or is it something you do yourself?
Chris: Te songwriting process goes like this: I sing melodies that come to my head into a little tape recorder. I put it away until a later date, when I'm driving somewhere, and I'll take the compiled batch of melodies and see which ones stick out to me. Then I grab a guitar, find chords that work and then find lyrics that agree with the feel of the music. The lyrics are the key for me as to whether a song get's put on the assembly line or not. I've got some songs that people who have heard them love, and I've thrown them away 'cause the lyrics were either forced or not totally honest. Dan and Ryan are like the angels in my head and heart now, who influence what I write about, 'cause they're such a part of my life. They also help me decide sometimes what to throw away and what to keep; lines, songs, clothes...you name it.

CC: Your songs seem to relate to people who are not the accepted and beautiful in our world...it seems your telling these people's stories. Why do you prefer to write this way, as opposed to other writers who seem to forget about telling the story?
Chris: I write mostly just what comes naturally. There is no method to it. I tell stories sometimes if I have a story to tell. Hopefully, I'm not like the guy at the party who can't shut up, and makes stuff up so he can keep his mouth running.

CC: How much do you relate your songs to your upbringing and life experiences?
Chris: I think your upbringing completely influences your perspective on life, which in terms influences your writing. I come from a very humble, hard working family, that in many ways has never had a break, from worrying paycheck to paycheck, from fighting with drug and alcohol problems, from dealing with shattered relationships and confidence. Love has been our flashlight when the power goes out, as it is for many families. We have been blessed with an abundance of that. Hopefully, if music is worth anything, it feeds off love and wishes to share it.

CC: What was it like covering the Steely Dan song, "Bad Sneakers"? Any other bands that you do/would like to cover?
Chris: I had never heard Steely Dan before, in a real sense. We were stranded, due to crappy weather in New Jersey in a Hotel with glass showers, mirrors on the ceiling and vibrating beds (I made sure I got my own room). I borrowed Ryan's CD player and went to learn the song. My first reaction was "uh oh, there's no way I can learn this song." After a while, I started hearing another way to play it, so it fit our style and sound. I butchered it and then went to Dan and Ryan said "I think it's ready to be recorded." They immediately understood that I was going for a lighter feel for the song. They nailed parts down instantly, and we recorded it. We brought in some friends from a Boston traditional Jazz/Dixieland group to play on it...and the next thing you know, Rolling Stone gives it props, and we're playing it on the Craig Kilbourne show.
Usually, the songs I like enough to want to cover, I feel guilty covering 'cause I don't think we're doing the original version justice.

CC: I recently read your (the band's) take on the whole Napster situation on the RIAA website. Do you think there might be a solution to where the public can enjoy online music without the artists feeling "ripped off"? Do you think that the public is being "ripped off" by record companies and the high prices of CDs these days (a point that I've seen made a lot in interviews with napster users)?
Chris: My hope is that out of the controversy of Napster will grow a tree of change in the music business. It is a srange and lopsided industry in which the artist generally lives in the shadow of the record company. It would be nice to see people get music for cheaper. It would be nice to see the music industry lose weight. But my only hope is that these changes don't come at the expense of artists who are right now in need of nourishment, from either the record companies or the people.

CC: What's your take on the whole internet fan phenomenon, where several fans meet online and then meet in person at shows? Other than Napster, do you like where the internet is taking the music industry by making things more interactive?
Chris: My only concern is that the internet may take away some of the mystery that has always prevailed in music. The danger is that the fan has TOO MUCH access to a band, it's ideals and it's ideas. Believe me, I've seen some pictures of me on the internet that made me want to quit my day job and go into self-mutilation. I realize I can't stop it, and probably wouldn't want to.
Conversely, I have seen the internet do amazing things. Mostly, I have seen lonely people meet friends, and not just friends, but COMPATIBLE ones (what better way to weed out friends than taste in music) through chat boards and concerts. I love the fact that people are meeting to our music, and even falling in love to it (as a guy just wrote to me and informed me that "Any Little Town" was his wedding song).

CC: Have you guys thought about releasing a live or acoustic album at all?
Chris: A live album we probably wouldn't do for awhile. An acoustic album is a more interesting prospect for us as we've danced a little bit in that direction already. I'd guess 2 records from now. (After we've released our techno-polka album.)

CC: What's in your CD player right now? Dan's? Ryan's?
Chris: I've been listening to a Charles Brown CD almost exclusively. Charles Brown is an old Blues guy who was popular in the 30's through the 50's and then disappeared, only to re-emerge as a janitor whom Bonnie Raitt sought out in the late 80's to open for her on tour. He died with dignity, playing music again. His stuff is very late night, I mean LATE, and very romantic, like summer sex in a steamy city bedroom.
Ryan's been listening to 98 Degrees and Dan's been listening to the Backstreet Boys. (I honestly don't know what they're listening to,as I haven't seen 'em for a month or so.)

CC: What books are you reading right now?
Chris: I'm reading a book on Muhammed Ali right now. I just finished an Elvis biography. I like to read biographies, as it helps me figure out how to deal with some of the stuff that comes my way.

CC: What bands do you like to see live?
Chris: My two favorite bands to see live are Bruce Springsteen and the E-street band, and a band called Marvelous 3. Both take the live thing and bring it up a notch.

CC: What would you be doing if you weren't in The Push Stars?
Chris: If I wasn't in The Push Stars I'd probably be fat, bald, and watching football.

Ohhh, I highly doubt that, Chris. :)