Buffy The Vampire Slayer

UNIVERSAL CITY, California - Trapt’s upcoming "Echo" video stars singer Chris Brown’s current girlfriend, Michelle Trachtenberg of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," but the story portrayed is based on experiences with his ex of four years.

"It starts off with a guy who is with a girl and he thinks she’s cool, but he’s not really into her so much ’cause he’s always thinking about the girl who he really wants," Brown explained at KROQ-FM’s recent Almost Acoustic Christmas. "He always sees the one he really wants in his imagination and he wishes that she was there. So when he sees her he goes to touch her and she’s not really there."

The girl he really wants is his ex, and in the video, shot at the end of December by Meiert Avis (U2, Bruce Springsteen), Brown goes to a party with his new girlfriend, only to recall a similar date from a few years ago. He eventually sees his former lover at the party, but she too is with someone else.

"She’s trying to do the same thing you’re doing when you’re going out with some girl, to get over it and to move on," Brown continued. "All they really want to do is just go away and forget about it, just close their eyes and go, but the thing is, the reality is stuck in your head and that’s what’s keeping them from doing it."

Trapt wrote the music for "Echo" just before entering the studio to record their self-titled debut, which features one of the most-played singles of 2003, "Headstrong" (see "Trapt Succeed By Being Headstrong, Wish Their Lighting Guy Would Wash"). Brown penned the lyrics, including the chorus, "I need to let go, let go, let go, let go of this pride ... Until this echo, echo, echo, echo can subside," soon after, in the wake of a fight with his ex.

The couple were struggling to rekindle their relationship, but since they were neighbors, they had watched each other try to move on with others.

"We were in Santa Barbara in college, we had beers everywhere and debauchery and all that, and I saw that and you get jealous and do all that kind of stuff," Brown said. "It’s just hard, it’s like you can either just forget about it and move on if you want to keep the second one going or you have to call it quits because you can’t keep badgering someone about the past. So, that’s what the song’s about, just being torn between being able to let everything go and wanting to be able to do that, but at the same time just kinda having a hard time doing it and having a stalemate there."

The "Echo" video, the follow-up to "Still Frame" (see "Look Out, Tony Robbins - Trapt Delivering More Musical Motivation"), will be released in late January. Afterward, Trapt are eyeing "Made of Glass" or "Stories" as a possible fourth single.

"There’s plans for maybe a fifth, we’re just ... playing it by ear," Brown said. "We’re definitely not going to take too long to make a second record. That’s the one thing that we promised our fans, that we’re going to continue to make music and keep it going and keep touring."

Trapt wrote some new material during a couple of weeks off in December and are hoping to have several dozen more tracks completed before entering the studio.

"We definitely have a direction," Brown said. "The second album is kinda about just going out there and trying to find who you are, trying to find what you really want out of life."

The band has not yet thought about producers but hopes to record sometime in 2004. Touring, however, is still the priority. Brown and cohorts will play some Canadian shows with Nickelback in January, followed by a headlining trek in the spring.