Trapper Schoepp, Andy Hughes, Bear in the Forest

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Valerie Lighthart

Trapper Schoepp

$12 ($10 adv.).

press release: Xtra Mile recording artist Trapper Schoepp announced the premiere of "What You Do To Her," the latest track from the Wisconsin-based singer-songwriter's eagerly anticipated new album, PRIMETIME ILLUSION. Featuring vocals from Nicole Atkins, the song presents the grim story of sexual assault's continued impact in our communities and serves as a call to action in the cultural fight against sexual violence. The video was created by Milwaukee-based animator Casey Hoaglund and premiered via Billboard. PRIMETIME ILLUSION arrives worldwide via Xtra Mile Recordings on January 25.

"This song is about the epidemic of sexual assault and the ripple effects these attacks have within our communities," says Schoepp. "The verses tell the all-too-frequent story of a man who gets away with his actions, while the the chorus reminds us how we're all affected - survivors, their families, their friends, and the community as a whole.  For too long, men have stood on the sidelines on this issue.  I wrote this song to call out behavior like this, and we need to do this in our daily lives, too. It's one thing to show solidarity behind the scenes, but men need to become vocal allies and do the work to change our culture. The time for accountability is now."

Animator Hoaglund says, "Sexual assault and other forms of interpersonal violence  are, and have been, difficult topics to talk about in society, and directly addressing these issues can help rid the taboo customs we've built around them.  While I was animating the video, I wanted it to be for my fellow women who feel like they can't come forward.  Too many women feel like they can't report sexual violence because our society has, historically, failed them.  The video is meant to empower survivors. It is to let them know they're not alone and the community knows that what has happened to them is wrong. There are people who hear and support them. 

"With this in mind, creating visuals in the video that convey the pain and struggle of women who have dealt with sexual assault was important. Opening with the morphing faces of different anonymous women is meant to represent the fact that anyone can be a victim. With statistics estimating one in five women have been raped in their lifetime, odds are that we all know survivors. The repeated use of eyes is another vehicle for this message. Other imagery, such as the gavel and the character who throws the flower down that eventually grows into prison bars, is meant to convey that society is not blind to these perpetrators' actions. The culture is finally beginning to shift on this issue, and the shapeshifting of the various subjects is meant to portray that as well. Repeated use of the eye plays into this because the people who commit these acts cannot hide anymore. Society sees them, and it needs to end."

Produced in Milwaukee by Patrick Sansone (Wilco, Robyn Hitchcock), PRIMETIME ILLUSION sees Schoepp reaching for his own place in the canon with a truly remarkable collection of character-driven songs and stories, a carefully etched series of sonic snapshots in which people we all know struggle to fulfill their own American dream. With its extraordinary melding of the personal and political, songs like "Drive-Thru Divorce" and "If All My Nines Were X's" firmly place the Badger State troubadour amongst the long American continuum of singing storytellers, a pedigree and place on the family tree that inspires and drives him each and every new day.

Having spent the last half decade "getting home just in time to leave again," playing countless dates and sharing stages with such like-minded Americana mainstays as The Wallflowers, The Jayhawks, and Old 97's, Schoepp will celebrate PRIMETIME ILLUSION with a truly heroic 2019 tour schedule.