The Plastic Traps

What’s up Philly! I’m back after sitting down for a chat with The Plastic Traps, a Philadelphia based band who just released their debut album “Find a Home” earlier this month. They’re two brothers working hard, even through college, to make their music heard! Check out what they have to say and be sure to visit the band’s sites after so you can grab a copy of the album!

So how’d The Plastic Traps come about?

Gary: Well we were in another band and when that band stopped we just continued with our writing and we just wanted to keep making music together.

Congrats on releasing your debut album! How can you best describe the sound of the album?


Gary: I think there are some songs that are kinda my style, the one’s that I sing, and some of them are Andy’s, the ones that he sings. Kinda like a lo-fi garage indie. Reverb definitely characterizes the style, so it’s definitely lo-fi reverb.



What was the recording process like for your album?

Gary: We recorded it at home in our parent’s house. We used a 4-track recorder analog. I don’t know how long it took. We did it all ourselves and we didn’t use any outside producers or mixers. We did bring it into a recording studio to make it sound all digital for the album though.

Andy: We recorded all of our songs at the beginning of the summer. We had all the songs in line and once we had a bunch we decided to make all the nine into an album. We were shooting for an EP, but we wanted all the songs to come together it wasn’t like a planned ‘let’s make an album’ thing. It just sort of all came together.

You hooked up with Monster Entertainment and Redeye Distribution last year, how did that come about and how has it helped you so far?

Andy: Well, the way I found out about Isaac was when I found out about Revolution, I Love You who I found from online, or maybe from Hometown Heroes Delaware, and I found out they put their album out through Monster. I emailed them asking if they wanted to do a show, and they told Isaac about us and then he emailed us asking if we wanted any help with distribution and about a month later we realized we were at a point where we wanted to make the album happen. Monster has played an extremely important role in terms of helping us distribute and promote Find a Home. Without them, the album probably would not be on iTunes, Amazon, and literally everywhere else online. And it's awesome that they're based in Philly! The process has been great so far and we look forward to continue having their help with promotion this year.

I heard your music could be featured on eMusic, how is that process going for you?

Andy: A couple weeks ago, Isaac told us that eMusic wanted to feature our album and they are thinking about doing a free download of our song corridor. So, that’ll definitely be cool if they feature our single.

So Andy, you go to school in Baltimore and Gary, you’re here in Philly, does that have any effect on your recording or touring? Or does going to school in general affect the band at all?

Gary: It definitely has an effect cause we can’t get together to write and record as much.

Andy: As for touring mostly if you look at our previous tours they’re bunched around breaks, like around Christmas and Thanksgiving so it’s when were both off from school.

Gary you are about to graduate High School, tell me about that. Are you glad to get it over with?

Gary: I would have to say no I'm not glad about high school ending. I've met a lot of cool people at Spring-Ford and there's no one I have a problem with, so it's going to suck never seeing most of them again. And plus it's just one step closer to becoming an adult which I know is going to be okay but you only get to go to high school once so I'm trying to embrace it.

So, I’m assuming it may be a bit hard to book shows at the moment. When's the next show?

Andy: Yeah, this is the time of the year when I’m at school and Gary’s at home we don’t really have the opportunity to do that so the next time we’d be able to do shows is the summer unfortunately.



When you do get back into the swing of things... where's your favorite venue to play?

Gary: I like Kung Fu Neck Tie.

Andy: Yeah, I definitely like Kung Fu Neck Tie too.

Gary: Another one I like is Space, it’s really cool and really unique I’ve never really seen a place like that.

Is there anything exciting coming up for The Plastic Traps in 2012?

Andy: The eMusic single would definitely be cool for exposure and we’re still looking for some online buzz so we can start growing our fan base. We’re looking to play some Philly shows in the summer.

Gary: Yeah nothing too set in stone just trying to gain an online presence for "Find a Home".

So, if you could give a quick pitch to people out there on “Find a Home” what would it be?

Gary: If I had to pitch Find A Home I would just suggest that someone listen to it and form their own opinion about it. If they like it, great. But if not, that's also no big deal because in the end, the album was made purely for me and Andy's enjoyment. We love music. Its hard to put into words the sound of the album.


http://www.facebook.com/theplastictraps
http://theplastictraps.bandcamp.com
http://www.reverbnation.com/theplastictraps
http://www.youtube.com/theplastictraps
http://www.twitter.com/theplastictraps

Thanks again to The Plastic Traps and I bet everyone out there hope to catch one of your shows this summer, I know I do!

Lauren Resnick
Monster Entertainment LLC
lauren@wearemonsterent.com
www.wearemonsterent.com