Interview: The Traps

Counteract were fortunate enough to catch up with Jamie Berry, front man of the relatively local indie band, The Traps, after their show at Birmingham’s trusty ‘ole favourite pub, The Flapper. The Flapper has been a local to this indie four piece for a while and Jamie went as far as calling the venue a “stalwart of the Birmingham music scene.”

I quizzed Jamie about the band. “We’ve been together for about ten years actually but in different guises. We’re all from Shropshire originally. We met at school and we’ve just gone from there and have been together ever since.” It was clear to see from their incredibly tight performance that this band has been together for a while. This gig was the official launch for their latest track, ‘Moving Pictures.’ With an undeniably catchy guitar riff along with Jamie’s oxymoronically soft yet edgy vocals, it’s no wonder why it had such a great reaction from the crowd. “We’ve released stuff in different bands before but as The Traps, this is our first official release. About a year and a half ago we just decided we were going to make a record. Moving Pictures was the second track that we wrote for it. We wrote it together just in the rehearsal room; I wrote the melody and the lyrics.”

I asked Jamie about specific influences behind the track. “At the time we were really into Phoenix. We were listening to their ‘Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix’ record a lot and we just liked how they seemed like an indie band making a pop album with big songs on it. It didn’t seem like there were many bands around at the time doing the same thing. The production of it is really great. We felt that this fitted with what we were trying to do so that was a big influence.” The Traps can definitely be seen as a band making big songs. Their music can be described as ‘grown-up’ indie as their tracks seem to have a carefully thought out structure as well as being performed professionally. I felt as though as I was watching a fully fledged rock band in the midst of their world domination tour rather than an up and coming band in the basement of a local pub.

It’s inevitable that four musically aware guys are going to have different tastes. “We like all sorts of different. I think that’s important because it makes everyone think differently. We don’t get stuck in one way of doing things necessarily. I think that’s important for any creative process really. You should take influences from all kinds of creative projects.”

Not only have these guys got a great set of music, but they’ve also got their own record label where they’re humbly helping up and coming bands make it. “It’s called Speech Fewapy records. We’ve got a couple of bands singed to it at the moment and we’re releasing our own stuff via the label as well. Tom Peel’s on the label.” Tom peel was The Traps’ first support act of the night. We laughed together as we reminisced about his set, however not in a mocking way, but with a general sense of awe. The only words we could muster were “unique” and “cool.” Tom Peel; singer songwriter/musician/comedian. He’s pretty much indescribable; you most certainly need to check him out. “His second EP will be out soon,” Jamie informed me. “We’ve also got a guy called Greg Bird and Flamingo Flame who has an album out now off the label which is really exciting. A band from Birmingham called The Bombergs is also on the label and we’ve worked with a band called Black Heart Generator from Birmingham too. We just wanted to help make stuff happen for artists we really liked; artists that we feel want to do something out of the ordinary.”

I righty assumed that releasing their own stuff from their own record label would have an impact on how things happened. Jamie told me the pros and cons. “It gives you a lot more independence I suppose. I mean, obviously money is always a problem when you‘re releasing stuff yourself but in terms of creative freedom it’s superb. I don’t have any experience of being in a band that’s been signed to another label so I don’t know what the flipside of it is.” February will see the release of their debut album, produced by Rob Jones; the man behind The Voluntary Butler Scheme who were coincidentally The Traps’ second support act. “We’ve done a lot of jamming together; we’re like Kindred spirits. He’s superb.” The Voluntary Butler Scheme, complete with saxophones and trumpets really caught the attention of the crowd with the jazzy yet indie-pop sounds. Rob and his trumpet even made an appearance during The Traps’ set.

Seeing as though they’re a pretty local band, I chatted to Jamie about the current indisputable B-Town hype. “I really like Peace and Swim Deep; they’re really good bands. I think it’s nice that there’s a focus on Birmingham if that’s the case. From my time of playing in this city, there’s always been a really rich vein of great bands. I’m quite surprised that it’s taken so long for the focus to come on to this city. A lot of bands who I know and thought would really do something kind of slipped away and haven’t really done much. In particular those two bands are great; I don’t know a great many others, although I did hear a band called Jaws and thought they were really good.” Although astonishingly different from Swim Deep, Peace and the like, in the sense that they are so much mature in style, sound and lyrics, perhaps The Traps can jump on the B-Town bandwagon and finally get the recognition they deserve.

Is this truly The Traps’ time to shine after being together for so long? “It’s hard to say really. It’s always hard to tell if it’s your moment to shine. The thing for the four of us is just that we really love playing the music that we’ve created. We’re immensely proud of the album and we’ve had a great experience making it. We just want to do it justice as much as possible.”

This is such an exciting time for The Traps as they’ve got a lot lined up! “They’ll be a new single called Calypso, which is the title track of the album, which comes out in January and will get national radio coverage and that sort of thing which is exciting. We’ve actually started making the second album which has about 13 or 14 tracks already written. The plan is to just get in and record it as soon as possible.”

With a new single, a debut album and another album in the pipeline, we’ve got a lot to look forward to from this promising band. I wish them all the very best!

Check out the published article in Counteract Magazine