2007–2015: Early work at the Mainroom of
First Avenue in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2012 At age 17, he started a band called The Trapper Schoepp Band with his brother, Tanner Schoepp (bassist) and local friends, while attending
Ellsworth High School. Schoepp graduated from UWM with a degree in journalism focusing on radio broadcasting and obtained a Certificate in Rock-and-Roll while studying under the late Dr. Martin Jack Rosenblum, who was a music history and literature professor at the University. The song, a tribute to the Schoepps' grandfather and his 1964
Mercedes-Benz, was also featured on
Car Talk's ''
Whad'Ya Know?''. The band toured on a 25-stop with
The Wallflowers The Jayhawks, The music video for the song "Settlin' or Sleepin' Around" features
Richard Riehle and was shown at the 2016
Milwaukee Film Festival. In 2017, Schoepp released
Bay Beach Amusement Park, a six-song concept album based on the rides at
the amusement park of the same name in Green Bay, Wisconsin. "Each song takes the listener on a different ride. I had this idea for years but it took me years to piece together how I wanted the songs to flow and what rides I wanted to sing about... It was pretty funny, the whole process, because when I started telling my band about it, they thought I was a crazy person until I had all the demos of the songs. It kind of started as an inside joke and the whole idea kind of exploded". The album was recorded in Pachyderm Studio in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. as well as nationwide tours with
Ha Ha Tonka and
BoDeans. "The Scat" became the theme song for
the Onion's inaugural podcast “A Very Fatal Murder." In 2018, Schoepp wrote music and additional lyrics to the unfinished
Bob Dylan song "On, Wisconsin", originally written in 1961. Sharing a co-writing credit with Dylan, Schoepp recorded the song at
Wauwatosa's Wire & Vice studio for his 2019 album
Primetime Illusion. The album was produced by
Patrick Sansone of
Wilco and released on January 25, 2019. The songs for the album came at a time when Schoepp "was at a personal rock bottom. I had re-herniated a disk in my back that I had surgery on a few years prior. My longtime partner and I had just split and my creative well was just running dry". Two weeks prior to the release of
Primetime Illusion, Schoepp released his single "What You Do to Her" featuring
Nicole Atkins. He joined
Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network's National Leadership Council as an advocate in supporting survivors of sexual violence and bringing their perpetrators to justice.
2020–present: May Day After the cancellation of his European tour due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, Schoepp returned to the studio and recorded
May Day, which was released May 21, 2021 on Grand Phony records. The additional downtime due to the pandemic also meant he could finetune his piano skills, which were featured for the first time on this album. The album title comes from the pagan origins of
May Day, with Schoepp explaining, "On
May Day, I use the natural world as a motif because I feel a strong connection to it. Nature is something real that I can feel, see, smell and touch, and it's a place where I've found comfort in these times...The pandemic devastated the live music industry but the need to be transported through song remained. I hope
May Day offers that sort of escape". Tom Lanham of the
San Francisco Examiner referred to the album as among the best of 2021. Writing for
Rock Cellar magazine, Jeff Slate referred
May Day as "a remarkable new album...Classic-sounding, old school pop songs that pack a bigger punch than just about anything currently on the charts".
Siren Songs was release April 21, 2023 (Grand Phony Records). ==Discography==