Every Trapper Schoepp album/era features an unexpected twist. There was the one with Mark Maron on guitar. There was the one with that guy from Office Space. There was the one where Trapper finished a Bob Dylan song. There was the one where Trapper recorded in Johnny Cash’s cabin. A sinkhole!
So what’s the story behind Trapper’s next album, Osborne, set for release on Blue Élan Records September 19? Well, it’s a little heavier than most. Osborne was inspired by Schoepp’s 2024 stint at the Hazelden Betty Ford addiction treatment center. Yeah, not as fun as palling around with the “Jump To Conclusions” guy. We’ll let a press release tell the story:
After a decade of dependency on prescription painkillers stemming from a spinal surgery, Trapper checked himself into the Minnesota-based facility—and was assigned to the Osborne unit, a subtle nod to Ozzy Osbourne, who famously underwent treatment there. “There was heavy metal-themed artwork, a guitar Clapton left behind, and DVDs of The Osbournes laying around,” Trapper recalls. “It felt like home.”
“Recording this album was an exorcism of my demons,” Schoepp says. “I kept asking myself if this was a test or torture. I realized that if cleaning myself up was the torture, putting it all down on paper honestly was the test. I needed both.”
Still, Osborne isn’t all darkness. “I wanted this album to feel celebratory and not maudlin,” Trapper says. “Nothing about recovery has to be gloom and doom.” That attitude is apparent in the Nels Lindquist-directed video for the album’s first single, “Loaded.” Hell, it features Milwaukee legend Mark Borchardt as an overprescribing doctor! And it’s set in Milwaukee’s Bust-N-Stuff rage room! Fun! Let’s take a look!
“A pain management doctor said to my face that he helped patients get on these drugs but not off of them,” Trapper says. “They wrote me advance prescriptions that I could fill at my leisure. I thought they were like loaded guns just sitting in my desk, which is where that title comes from.”
Stay strong, Trapper/everyone. Also, this video is great, this song is great, and we can’t wait for the full album!
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