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| CHEVELLE 07.18.02
The brothers Loeffler, AKA Chevelle, first burst onto the music scene in 1999 with their debut album "Point #1." The Chicago natives quickly drew favorable comparisons to the likes of Nirvana, Helmet and Tool. The album was received with critical acclaim and the band began gathering a small yet loyal following. And then, just as they’d started to build momentum, poof, they were gone. Fast forward to 2002. With a slot on this year’s Ozzfest tour and their second album "Wonder What’s Next" due out October 8th, Chevelle is ready to pick up right where they left off. We sat with brothers Sam [drums], Pete [vocals and guitar] and Joe [bass] to get the scoop on where they’d been. S&T: Why so long between albums [3 years]? PETE: We had to get out of our first record contract and that took time. We toured for fifteen months on the first record and then it took a year to get out of the contract. SAM: Our record company folded so we couldn’t put out a record. Even though they folded they didn’t want to let us go. We had to take them to court. We literally disappeared. We couldn’t play shows, we couldn’t do anything. They took 11 months in court. We settled out of court and signed really quick with Epic because we had already started doing label shows, showcases and stuff. PETE: We wanted to do it as fast as possible. SAM: We signed with Epic in June and we were in the studio by September doing the record. It was done and mixed in December. S&T: "Point #1" was more raw, the new stuff is a lot more polished. Was there intent there? PETE: Oh yeh, absolutely. The first record was really indie sounding. We weren’t actually going for that sound. We didn’t really know Albini’s [Steve Albini - Nirvana, Bush] deal. SAM: What we were trying to do didn’t really fit with the way he worked. He’s not a producer, he’s an engineer. An engineer is [usually] the best person to get your sounds but Steve’s not like that at all; he’s like whatever comes out is what I’ll record. This record’s all about growth. PETE: We got ahold of the Mudvayne record [L.D. 50] and loved the production on that. When it came time to pick a producer we just thought of our favorite record at the time. We tried to get the same team they had and luckily we didn’t have a problem because Epic had just done [Mudvayne’s] record. SAM: The reason we wanted to use those guys too is because we knew when we saw Mudvayne live that Garth [producer Garth Richardson - Rage Against The Machine, L7] had really captured their sound. We were hoping Garth could [do the same for us]. We did pre-production for a year and a half before this record, too. We just kept doing demos and demos. We had the worst case of demoitis. S&T: Do you ever think, we’d like to go back to the first record and redo some of those songs? PETE: Yeh, we’d love to do that. SAM: The song "Long" on "Point #1" was probably my favorite song and it turned out the worst. For some reason the guitars are mono on the whole beginning of it, they’re only in one speaker. PETE: The quality of this record is so much better, it’s like night and day for us. S&T: You’re six shows into Ozzfest. How’s the responses been with the album not out yet and you guys having not been around for awhile? PETE: Better and better. Partially because your time slot rotates. As the day goes on the crowd is more warmed up, people react more, get more comfortable. SAM: A lot of people know our record already. We’re getting really good radio play [plus] a lot of people download the songs or whatever. S&T: You can download the video for "Red" as well now. SAM: Yeh, I was told that today, that’s good. When you make a video I think it’s stupid not to make it downloadable because most of the time nobody else is going to see it. S&T: Right, it’s not like there’s a music video channel that actually plays rock videos anywhere. Chevelle is finally back. Trust me, it was well worth the wait. interview by scott sisti |
