As long as he can remember, Milwaukee, WI-based singer-songwriter Trapper Schoepp has felt the draw and allure of nature. He grew up a park ranger’s son with his older brother Tanner in a county park not too far from the Mississippi River. He continued to find inspiration in his current home of Milwaukee along the shore of Lake Michigan as well as from his travels around the globe.
While the pandemic put a halt to touring for a while, it gave Schoepp a chance to spend more time in nature and rediscover the world around him. That includes paddleboarding in Lake Michigan during the winter. The cold and challenging activity allowed him to connect with nature and his inner child in a unique way and inspired a new song “Good Graces,” off his latest album Siren Songs, which was released in April.
“It’s very meditative,” Schoepp says. “One stroke at a time, one wave at a time. It’s humbling to be out there.”
Schoepp’s interest in nature can also be heard on “Devil’s Kettle.” He says it was one of the album’s most challenging songs as it took a decade for him to complete. The song’s lyrics are inspired by a visit to Devil’s Kettle in Minnesota.
“It’s a mysterious geological wonder where a waterfall breaks off into two streams…one goes off into Lake Superior and the other underground to an unknown location,” he says. “It’s said Al Capone and others disposed of bodies in the kettle. I had the lyrics but never had the progression until I discovered the open tuning.”
For his session for Scummy Water Tower, he decided to continue the nature theme by performing “Devil’s Kettle” at the Shorewood Nature Preserve, with Mitchell Keller filming. The preserve is about 10-15 minutes north of Milwaukee in Shorewood, WI. The preserve, which is located on the shores of Lake Michigan, is about a half mile long. Visitors can get immersed in nature as well as see wildlife such as eagles, ospreys, and herons.
“The Shorewood Nature Preserve is a peaceful hideaway right along Lake Michigan. It’s a bit hard to find but I’d recommend it if you’re in the neighborhood,” he says. “It’s along the shores that inspired this record, so I thought it would be fitting. You can hear wildlife and the waves if you listen closely.”
Hearing Sirens
Another result of the pandemic is that he had a lot of free time to write songs. It offered him more time for experimentation with song ideas. It’s how he stumbled upon a treasure trove of Irish and folk music.
“I was up late one night and came across an Irish folk singer, Paul Brady, playing in an open tuning,” Schoepp recalls. “I paused the YouTube video and learned the chord shapes. It cracked open a whole new world for me.”
For Schoepp, who has largely ventured into rock and Americana and rock music the past decade, his new album Siren Songs finds him venturing into new sounds, folk and Irish music. He instantly fell in love with the dual nature of Irish music.
“Irish music makes me laugh and breaks my heart. There’s a nice balance to it. Partly tragic, partly humorous,” he says.
As far as folk music goes, he says that much of the music that inspired him came out of the Greenwich Village folk scene. The Clancy Brothers were a big part of that scene and Bob Dylan and others used their songs and spirit to create some big hits. For Schoepp, there was plenty of familiarity with these new sounds. “It has always been there,” Schoepp says. “I just had to brush the dust off it.”
To Schoepp, Siren Songs, is an apt title for “an album filled with folklore and nautical imagery.” Sirens in Greek mythology are “enchanting half-bird maidens who sing to entice sailors off their ships, and ultimately to their doom.
“I spent a lot of time immersed in nature and Lake Michigan during the pandemic, so the title felt right,” he says.
Connecting With History
In addition to his fondness for nature, Schoepp has an affinity to connecting with history. For example, in 2019, he turned unreleased Bob Dylan lyrics into a co-written song, “On Wisconsin.”
For Siren Songs, he turned to The Man in Black, Johnny Cash. In May of 2022, he traveled to Hendersonville, TN, to record the album at Johnny Cash’s Cabin with the help of producers John Jackson (The Jayhawks) and Patrick Sansone (Wilco). The Cabin was originally built by Cash in 1979 as his “private rustic sanctuary to recharge,” including cooking, watching movies and leathercraft, says Schoepp. It eventually evolved into his personal studio. Everyone from Dolly Parton to Snoop Dog has visited the Cabin.
According to the studio’s website, Cash was also a “great lover of nature and the outdoors” and surrounded the cabin with his own personal zoo filled with “exotic” animals including buffalo, fallow deer, black buck antelope, ostrich, and wild boars.
Inside the Cabin, Schoepp found inspiration around every corner, gazing at historic photos on the wall and discovering vintage instruments. He cherishes the opportunity to play instruments like Cash’s 1930s “shitkicker” Martin guitar and June Carter Cash’s Steinway piano.
“The Cash Cabin was an inspiring and homey environment to record, no doubt,” he says. “It was an unforgettable experience I am eternally grateful for…I know Patrick because he’s the multi-instrumentalist wizard in the band Wilco and he’s one of the nicest guys I’ve met. John and I go way back to an open jam in New York organized by Golden Smog’s Kraig Johnson.”
They recorded the songs live together. This allowed them to forgo click track technology and “allow the ebb and flow of a live performance.”
“By the fourth or fifth take, we’d have most of what you hear,” says Schoepp. “There’s an intensity and joy to being in that shared moment, especially after going through the isolation of the pandemic.”
He’s excited to go out and play shows and share his music with others.
Joshua is co-founder of Scummy Water Tower. He’s freelanced for a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites, including: Rolling Stone, The Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, Guitar World, MTV News, Grammy.com, Chicago Magazine, Milwaukee Magazine, MKE Lifestyle, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, A.V. Club, SPIN, Alternative Press, Under the Radar, Paste, PopMatters, American Songwriter, and Relix. You can email him at josh@scummywatertower.com.
