If you're confused by the moniker you're not the first. To clarify, I do not trap game, and the recordings you hear were not produced in an attic, but rather ironically, in a basement. My name is Connor Jay Liess, and my greatest pleasure in life — and the sole purpose of this label — is pioneering songs of old in the days of new. 

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Trapper's Attic was officially hatched in 2020 when I completed my first self-produced album with the same name. At that time, I was living alone out in the middle of sagebrush country with goats and 'yotes. It was a quiet little sanctuary away from politics, people and urbanism, a place where an old soul could lay out in a hammock reading 1950's outdoor literature, sight-in rifles, and skin roadkill. All of which I became quite skilled at. 

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But my favorite activity of all was making music. In a tiny spare living room sat a rolltop desk, a 1904 piano that served as a liquor shelf, and walls covered in various animal hides I'd skinned and tanned myself, rather crudely. I learned that animal hides made for fantastic sound treatment in a home studio, and when I put thought into a name for the little space, Trapper's Attic — a phrase, in my mind at least, that perfectly epitomized the circus of senses you might encounter in an 1800's cabin. Might be home to a family of fiddle players, or a fur trapper's refuge during a blizzard, a lonely banjo-playing poet, or a sad and broken miner. Stories were ever-present, and whiskey was always kept in stock.

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The early days were rough, and the songs that trickled out of the studio even rougher. Never will I claim to be an expert engineer or producer. Instead I'm set out on a lifelong journey to find new ways to make old music, or music inspired by the days of old I suppose. Trapper's Attic Records' focus is more on the process than the end product. Recording and engineering techniques are constantly being tweaked and toyed with like rabbit ears on a 1950's television cabinet. 

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Folks, rooted at its core is a passion for American roots music. And if that's your passion, too, then bygolly come on inside, help yourself to the piano bar, and make yourself comfortable. Welcome to Trapper's Attic Records.