High-Octane Supercharged Rock
Chevelle Are Hot Off the Line

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>> Chevelle's Pete Loeffler at the House of Blues. >>

Usually, when you hear about bands that contain brothers, it's because of the disaster that the whole scene can degrade into.  Think of the Black Crowes or Oasis and you get the idea that sibling rivalry can be great when a band gets started, but eventually it leads to destruction - the band ends up creating more tabloid headlines than music.

Enter Chevelle, three (yes, three) brothers who are far more concerned with hard rock than headlines.  Drawing comparisons to Tool and even Black Sabbath, the Loeffler brothers, bassist Joe, singer/guitarist Pete and drummer Sam, are able to take Tool's driving rhythms, remove the prog-rock pretensions, add in some alternative flair and come up with a sound that is decidedly their own.  They seem to just be able to control their ferocity and their songs always sound like they're about to explode.  That tension is what drives the songs along and engages the listener.

>> Sam Loeffler looks to maim some brass. >>

Live, the songs take on an even more aggressive and palpable emotional edge.  As the band took the stage at the Anaheim House of Blues, the crowd seemed a little unsure of what they were getting this evening - would three guys be enough?  Chevelle quickly delivered, with Pete Loeffler having the necessary charisma to get the fans going.  His head banging and crystal-clear voice were plenty to get the crowd solidly behind him.

It was that voice and that guided the band through their set - he's able to work things much the same as Maynard James Keenan; at times smooth and melodic, but knowing just when to get aggressive and deliver the perfect growl.  Many were hearing the band's songs for the first time, other than radio hit "The Red," which was immediately recognizable, yet the music was very well received by the vast majority.

An hour or so prior to their set, we met up with Sam to get some background on what Chevelle was all about.

>> Brother Joe seems to be the quiet one. >>

VOX: First, where did the love of cars come from, and why not a Charger or a Mustang?
Sam Loeffler: Well, a Dodge Charger is a great car, and so is a Mustang, but we grew up in a Chevy family.  From when you’re a kid, and you’re growing up, your dad or you mom or whoever is in your family, they sort of…they lean you one way or the other about what’s important.  You know, like a lot of families are football, a lot are baseball, or cars, or whatever.  And our family, anything with wheels, that was our thing.  That’s where the love of cars came from.

VOX: So why a Chevelle and not a Caprice or some other Chevy?
SL: A Chevelle…in 1970, the Chevelle was like, the LS-6, 454, you know, posi-traction, 4-speed, was the epitome of muscle cars, probably ever.  I mean, if you were to ask, people would debate it, but a lot would say that was the best muscle car ever made.

VOX: How do you guys deal with sibling rivalry?
SL: Umm…well, it’s not difficult as far as us taking our positions in this band.   Geez, I don’t remember how we deal with sibling rivalry.  I mean, every day brings something different, we give each other our space, and we keep our mouths shut a lot, because if you don’t, you can’t get through the next day.  I guess that’s it – you just gotta bite your tongue and not be petty.  You try being an adult about things.  That how you deal with it.
VOX: Joe did quit for a while…
SL: He did.  He was tired of it, before were done touring, he said he was tired and he didn’t want to do it anymore.  There wasn’t anything we could say to change his mind.  He took a lot of time off, then he came back and said he wanted another shot at it.  We were cool with that.
VOX: What was it like when he wasn’t in the band?
SL: That was a time in our careers when we didn’t know what was happening anyway.   We were trying to get out of one record deal, so we didn’t really have a day to put out a record, and we couldn’t play any shows because we didn’t have a bass player.  It was a very negative time.  But we used that to help write this record.  We were writing all the time.  That a lot of where this record came out of.  A lot of this record came out those hard times – dealing with our label, being in court, our brother not being there…so I guess in the end it seemed to sort of work out.

>> Sam mans the kit. >>

VOX: How did the band come into being?
SL: Well, we, Pete and I have been playing together since we were young – I was 14 and he was 12.  We just started playing songs together.  That’s just what we did.  We had other friends we had played with.  We had a good time doing that.  At some point we decided, hey, lets play some shows.  We found a guy that was a decent bass player, but we were young.  That other guy called us and said he couldn’t play a show we had, and Joe was playing bass in another band, so we said fine, we’ll have Joe learn some songs and we’ll do this show.  So he did, and after that we were like, this is going to be our band.  This is so much better.   He was so good and it was a cool dynamic.  Then it became Chevelle.

VOX: How do you think things changed for the band between Point #1 and Wonder What's Next? 
SL: Oh my gosh, I can’t even tell you how much things have changed, it’s been so dramatic, because the way things worked with our first record and the way things worked with this record we so different.  We signed with Epic in 2001…June…we were in the studio in September, we were finished with the record in December, and we were on tour in March.  That’s really, really fast.  They had a plan and we had a plan, we knew what we wanted to do, we had been a bunch of other things, we were smarter.   We were just smarter and able to put it together, in all aspects: the record, shows, touring…the whole thing.  We’re just not the same band.

>> Sam talking to us before the show. >>

VOX: What made you decide on Epic?  Has signing a major label deal been what you thought it was?
SL: Well, we had a lot of labels that were interested in us, but Epic really had a good plan for us.  They came to us with their plan, and they were sort of very interested early on, with very little proof that we were what they really wanted.  All they had we some demos – I think we had sent them a three-song demo, through our management, and they were into it right away.  We thought it was great, and Ben Goldman at Epic thought it was something they wanted to do.  They were supportive from the very beginning.

VOX: We're hearing about how the music industry is suffering - what do you think needs to be done to get it right again?
SL: I think there’s a combination of things: one of those things is the music has to be good.  Sometimes sales are down because music sucks.  And I think that’s happened a few times in rock history.  I think there’s that and I think there’s a problem with the prices of records.  Records are really expensive and a lot of people don’t want to pay eighteen bucks for a record they can go and download.   And another problem is that people can download records for free.  I don’t care what anybody says; that’s going to hurt record sales.  If people don’t buy the records, band can’t continue to record them.  Those are pretty major things.

As far as getting us to the masses, I think Epic’s really doing it the way we need to.  They’re doing it through radio, through low record prices and we’re doing it through touring.

>> Sam digs the small, non-corporate web sites. >>

I think that MTV2 is a good thing, but the problem there is that it’s not accessible to everyone.  MTV2 is what MTV used to be, sort of.
VOX: There’s MTV-X now, too…
SL: Right.  And there are a lot of indie shows, too.  People need to check out their local indie video show.  Those shows will show stuff that no one else shows.   They have no constraints, so they can show stuff that’s not on MTV’s radar but that people should be able to see.  The indie shows are great. Lots of, lots of major bands, I would say most of them, have made videos that never got played on MTV that indie shows can and have played.  I would say put some stock into those shows.
VOX: What about the smaller, non-corporate web sites out there?
SL: I think they’re great.  That’s another thing: it’s really hard to get onto people’s computers.  There’s so much going on out there that’s trying to get their attention that it’s hard to get them to know where you are and how to check things out.  The Net’s absolutely great…because it’s free.  It’s great for people who’re interested in music.  Sites like that are great because they’re not sponsored by a label, a corporation or an agent or MTV or whoever.  And that’s great.