Playing Catch-Up: Blues Traveler launches 'Moon'

This week in Playing Catch-Up, Paste BN's feature on veteran artists returning to the spotlight, Kristin Musulin talks to John Popper of Blues Traveler.

'Moon' shot. Since 1987, Blues Traveler has made its mark in the "middle class of rock 'n' roll," says frontman Popper. Big hits in the mid-'90s, such as Run-Around and Hook have been followed by a succession of well-received albums, all leading up to this week's release of 13th studio album Blow Up the Moon.

It takes a team. The group's latest album doesn't feature the typical bluesy-folk sound that fans have associated with the band for nearly three decades. Instead, Moon features collaborations with artists from a wide stylistic range, including Thompson Square, Plain White T's, 3OH!3, Hanson, Jewel and Bowling for Soup. "Each interaction was a new adventure for us," says Popper. "You don't know what's cool about yourself until somebody (new) can kind of exploit it."

True to self. "I think it's important for a band to constantly be doing new things in order to keep its identity," says Popper about the style of the album. Each song on Moon — from the chill, reggae sounds of Castaway to the upbeat, silly lyrics in I Know Right — displays the band's creative avenues. "When you have a different relationship artistically with someone, you discover a new power that you have, a new aspect to yourself, a new context to put yourself in.''

Social butterfly. Since Blues Traveler was founded in 1987 in Princeton, N.J., technology and the Internet have shifted the way their music has been produced. The band has made a point — especially while writing this album — to use social media outlets as a way to keep up with fans and find inspiration. "Connecting with fans is really awesome," says Popper, 48. "What I love about Twitter is that it's all one-liners, so it's kind of a hostile. It's sort of like road rage but nobody gets hurt.''

Blues brotherhoood. After almost three decades of playing together, Popper, Chan Kinchla, Tad Kinchla, Brendan Hill and Ben Wilson have become more than just bandmates. "It's the same as it's always been in that these are my brothers, so there's times when I can't stand them and times when I love them more than anything," says Popper. "It's a family. And we've been going at this for almost 30 years now, so whatever we go through, we go through together."