Boston-based pop-rocker Chris Trapper of The Push Stars will be making his Phoenixville debut at Steel City Coffee House this Friday night, November 17, 2006 at 8:30 p.m.

Trapper said that he was asked to come to town by his friend, Anne Heaton, who'll be performing along with Lanky this Friday.

"I've played in Reading, and this summer I was in King of Prussia, so I've been close but not exactly," said Trapper. "What brings me there is a friend of mine from Boston, Anne Heaton. We've played together and she asked me to co-headline with her. I've heard it's a great place and I've seen the roster of who's performed there. Quite a lot of great names and I'm glad to be one of them."

Trapper's music has been winning him awards since he arrived on the Boston music scene in 1995.

"I started making efforts to make music a career in 1995," he said. "It's been my full-time job since 1997. My first record deal took place in 1996 and began touring in 1997."

He's known in the industry as the front man for the nationally acclaimed pop/rock band The Push Stars, who've gained exposure opening for Matchbox Twenty last year. However, he said the band is taking a break with occasional gigs to their suiting.

"The Push Stars are on indefinite hiatus," he said. "We've been performing for 10 years straight and you feel like you're in a 10-year up-and-coming band. We play together once in a while, picking and choosing our gigs. But since I don't have any other talents, I have to keep writing and recording. Our last tour as a band, we opened for Matchbox Twenty and we were playing in hockey arenas. However, I simply love just plugging in the guitar and playing. Both have their place and I love doing them both.

"With a band, the only issue is that much more can go wrong. There are so many things, artistically and business-wise, can happen. You have 1,500 things to plug in. You can get by on one good drum beat. You pay management, agents, and it's more of a process. When I'm on my own, I just bring my guitar and perform. I don't prefer one over the other. Being solo involves less logistics but more focus. You can't play drunk. I've been asked to sing at several weddings, and people will say to me, 'Oh, singing at a wedding must suck' and I tell them that it's the greatest gig. I show up, sing a special song for them, and I'm done. It's something that they'll remember."

With The Push Stars, Trapper has written material for four studio albums and three self-produced discs. Several of his songs have been picked up for major motion picture soundtracks including "There's Something About Mary" and "Say It Isn't So" and for television shows such as "Pepper Dennis," "ER," and "Malcolm in the Middle."

"It's always amazing. I don't know why it is, but its the abstract feeling of not knowing whose hearing your music," he said. "It could be someone in Iowa hearing your song. It freaks me out - 100 percent. I had just written a song in my apartment and then literally six months later, it was in 'Something About Mary,' the biggest movie at that time. It's weird how far a song can travel when other people believe in it. The directors loved that song and they wanted it to be a part of the movie. One day you're writing it and then it's in the background as Matt Dillon is driving along the beach."

Trapper also spoke about the last two times his music has appeared in movies and television, which got him praise from his mother, and an opportunity to appear in a TV show.

"My last song in a movie was in 'The Devil Wears Prada' and my parents were able to relate to that," he said. "Mom said, 'Oh, your song is in a Meryl Streep movie.'

"I was able to be in the television show 'Pepper Dennis' as they used one of my songs. It was great for the pure experience of it - to see how they put on a television show. I was in a bar playing my song and Rebecca Romjin was staring at me while I was performing. She was pining over a lost love while looking at me. It was strange. My friends told me that I couldn't do the show because it is full of good-looking people. I performed for four hours and it became like work. Rebecca is a nice person and she treated me great. She said that she loved the song and she was awesome."

Trapper will be performing songs from his latest release - his third independent solo CD, "Hey, You." Recorded during the summer of 2006, "Hey, You" boasts an eclectic collection of 14 new, original tunes from Trapper.