With three albums behind them, a few changes in the band, and a string of hits, touring is different for Trapt these days, but different is good.  With the release of the band’s third album, “Only Through the Pain,” Trapt has been made the transition from support band to a headling act.

“We just finished up a headlining tour with Red, Halestorm and Inept. It’s the first headlining tour since the album came out, so it was really good to be headlining again and play shows for our fans rather than you know a support thing,” Trapt bass player Pete Charell tells Alternative Addiction. “It’s been a lot of fun. We hope to be doing more in the fall.”

In 2008, Trapt released its latest CD titled, “Only Through the Pain” that featured “Who’s Going Home with You Tonight” as the album’s first single. Charell has found fans have taken to some of the other songs on the CD.

“I think our big favorite of our fans is Black Rose,” Charell said. “It’s one of those songs that wasn’t really one of the songs that was going to end up being a single, but it ended up being  definitely a fan favorite. People like it a lot.”

Trapt’s fan base began Southern California where the group originated and was part of a music scene that included groups like Papa Roach, Smash Mouth and Dredg.
 
Then In 2002, everything changed. The band scored big time with the release of a self-titled album that featured their biggest hit to date, “Headstrong,” which reached No. 1 on both the US Modern Rock and US Mainstream Rock charts.

Other singles, “Still Frame,” and “Echo” were released as the album went platinum. It also produced a unique Trapt sound with songs like “Made of Glass.”

“That’s (Made of Glass) like a Trapt original. It’s like a signature Trapt sound, we still play that pretty much every show. It’s one of the non-singles we play from the first album,” Charell said. “That encompasses our sound. It’s not really, super heavy. It’s still kind of creative and everything. It’s a good song.”

The band’s breakthrough album was original, diverse, and caught the ear of music fans in a time where the music industry was changing.

“We hadn’t really toured at all up to that point. Everything was new to us when that album came out. The fact that it did so well opened the doors to us,” Charell said. “I think it put a lot of pressure on us, but you can’t really let that pressure force you into doing something that you wouldn’t done before regardless of that song being a hit or not. It’s kind of hard to not hear what other people are saying who are in business with you. You try and listen to what they say and at the same time following your gut and know what’s right.”

It may be great to hit a home run with your Major League debut, but it also brings additional pressure in expectations in your next at-bat.

Trapt’s folllow-up record did not get the same air play or action at the cash register, but despite the drop in sales, Charell said the group was proud of “Someone in Control” that was released in 2005.

“We’re definitely happy with that album. We accomplished what we wanted to do. Going form the first album to the second album and having toured a lot more, we wanted to create more of a live sounding album and deliver what we thought what a live sound was on a CD. We definitely accomplished that,” Charell said. “As far as commercial success I guess that would be termed a failure at the time, but it sold 300,000 records. To the record label whose was trying to pump out millions of records at a time, it was a failure, but to us it was a successful record that we’re proud of.”

Trapt is also proud of their new material. Their newest single “Contagious” is catching on. It’s an uptempo song that brings out the best in Chris Brown’s vocals and has translated very well live. The Contagious Tour has been going for newly a year and shows no signs of slowing down.

“Hopefully we’ll be still touring off this record. I don’t think there’s any plans to take a break and writing any time soon,” Charell said. “It could come sooner than we know, but  as far as right now our plans are to keep touring and promoting our album we have out right now, so hopefully we’ll be doing that for next year.”