The PUSH STARS

The Push Stars
by Lexi

On May 22 of this year, The Push Stars
celebrated the Capitol release of their new CD with a hometown show at the Paradise Rock
Club. The show was sold-out, My Favorite Relative opened, and WBCN’s Shred introduced
The Push Stars to the stage. Brandishing a copy of the new CD, After The Party,
rumored to be the most anticipated major label debut this year, Shred yelled into the
mike, “THIS is what we’ve been waiting for!” The Push Stars took ownership
of the audience as they kicked off with “Me,” from 1996’s Meet Me At The
Fair (Imago). The audience knew every word, and singer/ guitar player Chris Trapper
ended up leading hundreds of people in a grand, exuberant sing-along. Some of the biggest
cheers of the night came for the spirited rocker “One Summer Day,” during which
Ryan MacMillan performed a rare drum solo, and the more subdued “Any Little
Town,” the new single, in which bassist Dan McLoughlin switched to keyboards.

Depending on who you talk to, this
Brighton-based trio are either the biggest pop sensation to skyrocket out of Boston since
Letters to Cleo, or they’re just another well-intentioned but unsuspecting indie
outfit sucked into the perilous and fickle world of the mainstream music industry.

On a rare night off, Ryan, Dan, and
Chris sit at a warmly lit corner table at Christopher’s Restaurant in Porter Square,
savoring apple cinnamon tea and discussing the merits of keeping things in perspective.

“Look at Steven Tyler from
Aerosmith,” offers Ryan. “He’s grounded. He seems to enjoy each day as if
he’s lucky to be here. He still calls WBCN, and is always really cordial and nice to
everybody. Guys like that, guys who are STILL out there doing it—compare guys like
that to people who say ‘this is all bullshit.’ Where are THEY now? They’re
gone, because they don’t have the ability to keep going, because they don’t
appreciate where they’ve gotten.”

Chris nods agreement and adds,
“When we were in LA, we got a kind of ‘rock star’ training. Basically, the
three of us laughed it off. We are who we are. We’ve never felt like the point of The
Push Stars is vanity. We’ve always felt that we can bring some good to people when we
play. If we can make them dance, or think, or laugh, or cry, we’ve succeeded.”

“Yes, of course, the music business
has a lot of bullshit,” acknowledges Dan. “But EVERY business does. Even the
venetian blind business has a lot of bullshit. And the truth is that the music business is
very enjoyable, and making music is very satisfying. Gratifying. The minute you start
bitching about things, you have to remember that every business is F’ed up in some
way. You’ve got to avoid the negative and concentrate on the positive: the fact that
we’re real lucky to have these jobs in the first place.”

To longtime fans, The Push Stars’
success has nothing to do with luck, nor does it come as a surprise. It’s hard to
deny that The Push Stars have got all the goods the majors are looking for: a humble and
handsome lead singer who combines the pouty sensuality of James Dean with the passionate
vocal tones of Eddie Vedder, catchy pop melodies, compelling and timeless lyrics, and most
of all, a genuine love of performing.

The Push Stars formed in 1994 when
Chris, who’d been captivating small coffeehouse crowds with his solo acoustic
balladry, was playing one night at the same club as Ryan’s band. The two liked each
other’s music. When Ryan left his band, the pair formed a duo that soon hooked up
with bass player Dan, whom Chris had known in college. “I was a recording engineer at
the time, and I wanted to work with Chris,” Dan recalls. “I wasn’t planning
to play bass. Ryan and Chris were just going to come down so we could do some songs
together. We did “Me,” “Shy,” and “Well, Anyway.” I just
hopped on bass and we hit it off creatively. Those recordings, we kept around until Meet
Me At The Fair came out.”

Chris sums up the tilt-a-whirl years
between 1994 and 1997 simply: “We played our asses off.”

“After awhile we’re doing
’ERS, ’UMB, all those college stations, and ’AAF and anyone who would have
us,” recalls Dan. “Eventually, people started recognizing us.” The
recognition spiked in 1997, when a radio programmer from Woodstock, NY, entered The Push
Stars into an EMI Music Publishing contest, where they walked away with the prize for
“Best Unsigned Band in America.” Last year the Boston Music Awards chose them as
“Outstanding Rock Band,” and Chris won for “Outstanding Songwriter.”

Ground zero for The Push Stars’
success is The Common Ground, a small Irish club in Allston. They played The Common Ground
nearly every two weeks, slowly gaining the momentum that would eventually propel these
amiable rockers into the center of a bidding war between Geffen, Columbia, and Capitol.
“We’d just talk to a lot of people after the show,” explains Dan simply.
“We had fun with it. People would bring friends, and they kept coming back over and
over again until finally there was a line out the door.”

Soon The Push Stars realized that in
order to move up in Boston, they’d have to start booking bigger venues, and try to
draw in all the people who were coming to The Common Ground. The band did not play out for
several months, and then booked a sold-out show at the Paradise with Ruby Horse. It’s
not that they make it sound easy, but I do have to ask about some of the trials along the
way. Wasn’t there ever a bad night? “We have a top ten!” laughs Dan. The
band describes a show where they played for four people in Portland, Maine on Ryan’s
twenty-first birthday. They opened for a band that was three kids, and their grandfather
playing drums.

“And the sound man, while we were
playing, was, let’s just say, participating in, uh—” Dan breaks off,
shaking his head and grinning across the table at Chris.

“Getting oral sex in the sound
booth,” finishes Chris.

“And how about Deaf Night at
Gerlando’s?” remembers Dan. Gerlando’s was an establishment that featured
bands once or twice a month, and it happened to be located near a school for the deaf.
“It was basically like playing at the Ground Round,” explains Ryan. “And
there was no applause because they couldn’t hear us.”

“It was a packed house,” says
Chris. “We were like, this is cool! We’re going to get some fans from this show!
So, we played, and the first song ended— and noooobody clapped. We looked at each
other like, ‘this is weird’ because the crowd looked very expressive while they
were talking. Then we put two and two together.”

Ryan reminds Chris and Dan about another
awful night, in Kansas City. The other band on the bill was loudly taunting the Push Stars
from off-stage during their set. Finally, Dan scribbled off a note to the taunters that
ended the tirade.

“Hey, that was on my birthday,
too.” Ryan suddenly remembers.

“Oh God,” says Dan, “You
know what, we better not play on your birthday anymore.”

“Half our gigs were like that for
the first year or two,” admits Chris. “Real tough. But that’s what it
takes.”

Awards and prizes, hit movie soundtrack
credits, songs on MTV’s Singled Out and The Real World, the daytime
soap All My Children, the nighttime drama ER, and a photo layout in Rolling
Stone magazine are some of the things that have since eased the pain of Deaf Night at
Gerlando’s and, according to Chris, “it was a chain reaction” that all
started with the fans. The Push Stars have an adoring audience, and it’s not just
because they make quality rock music. The fact is that The Push Stars are genuinely…
nice.

“And we’re not being nice in a
FAKE way. We don’t pretend to be best friends to everybody,” Chris explains.
“But when we find someone who appreciates us, we don’t take it for
granted.”

“It comes around,” claims Dan
simply. “Wherever we play, we’re very open to talk to people and meet people. A
guy we met once in New York actually turned out to be one of the guys that got us in
another film. And we didn’t know until later it was that person.” Dan thinks for
a minute and then adds, “Basically, your music will be out there. If people like it,
that’s great. But you can piss them off and then, even if they like it, they
won’t help you. So it just helps to be really cool with people, and it’s only
fair. People who act solely on ‘what can you do for me’—that’s the
wrong attitude.”

Testament to the right attitude can be
found in gestures such as, during the interview for this story, the band ask if they can
make mention of two local bands they like (Sabot and Smokstik), and during their CD
release show, they plug a beloved Brighton donut shop (on the corner of Market Street).

The Push Stars get to make more friends
this summer as they take After The Party on tour. They’re sharing stages with
Better Than Ezra and Julian Lennon who, in all likelihood, won’t taunt them from
offstage.

For more information, visit the official website at www.pushstars.com