It’s time again for another installment of My First Time, the series where I ask some of my favorite bands to share stories about their musical “firsts.” Everything from the first song they ever wrote to the response they got when they first played their songs for their family. It’s all here.

MP3: Blitzen Trapper - Furr

Today we’re joined by Eric Early of Blitzen Trapper who’s going to tell us all about the events that shaped the mind that made Furr, his band’s newest record.

My First Time …with Eric Earley of Blitzen Trapper

First record you bought
Sweet Pickles, All Aboard Pickle Bus. Received gratis with sweet pickle literature at the age of three and a half.

First record that changed your life
John Denver’s Greatest Hits which my father owned on eight-track and played on road trips in the green VW bus we owned.

First concert you attended
Doc Watson I think though I could be wrong.

First concert that blew you away
Mazzy Star, she wore a glittery sequined dress and played tambourine like a white trash angel.

First time playing live
I played a wedding with my parents when I was twelve, guitar, wearing a poweder blue leisure suit.

First tour (horror stories, unexpectedly great shows, etc)
The Hold Steady Tour, which included shooting buildings with roman candles, tikkit torches on stage, loads of whiskey and too few women.

First instrument you learned and/or first piece of equipment you loved
Banjo was the first instrument I learned, but my white Westone electric guitar was the first one I loved.

First band you were a part of
A band called Autumn in high school was the first, a sort of acoustic folk rock thing I think, brian was the bass player.

First time getting press and/or being interviewed
First real interview was with a girl that profoundly reminded me of my sister causing me to talk too much, in Portland for some city weekly.

First song you wrote and/or recorded
Can’t remember that one, too many, too young.

First awesome thing that happened solely because you were in a band
A girl I didn’t know in a city i’d never seen took me to her apartment to go swimming in the desert.

First horrible things that happened solely because you were in a band
Twice had a precious pink couch puked on by a girl in a plastic kimono.

First reactions from your family when you played them your music
They fell asleep, but I think they were tired.

First musical obsession (band, song, singer, genre or otherwise)
In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg at the age of four my sister would play it on the record player and jump around like a crazed monkey causing me to cry in horror, but I still love that song to this day.