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| CHEVELLE 03.22.03
Our first interview with Chevelle took place last July, summer of ‘02. Back on the scene just a few months, they anxiously awaited the release of (long overdue) sophomore effort "Wonder What’s Next." Since then? Somebody is doing a good job 'cause these boys have been omnipresent. Consistent radio and video rotations, solid album sales, multiple tours with great support slots and the jump from last year’s Ozzfest second stage to this year’s Ozzfest main stage. We caught up with brothers Pete (vocals, guitar) and Joe (bass) during the Music As A Weapon Tour (where they slotted between opener Unloco and headliner Disturbed). Show & Tell: Take us through the last year as far as expectations vs reality because from out here it's been a whirlwind. Pete: Yeh, pretty much. And it all starts to flow into one tour because we haven’t really had a break. [to tour manager Dan Ciruli] Have we had any break? Dan: There was 3 weeks between Ozzfest and Stone Sour. P: I don’t remember the break so it all seems... S&T: I remember you were sick at the Stone Sour show, that whole leg. P: Yeh, that’s right. It's crazy because you do two month, three month tours at a time and they all blend into each other. Its been kind of a blur. S&T: Right. P: But it's been a good blur! S&T: Even further back, before the album came out, you guys had a few dead years in there, waiting for the legal wranglings to be resolved [ed. note: when their original label folded but wouldn’t let them out of their contract, the band spent almost a year in court]. Are you making music during that time? Are you just killing time? Working? P: No, definitely I was writing a lot during that time, that legal mumbo-jumbo crap. S&T: Are you working on this album while that’s getting sorted out? P: Yeh. [First album] Point #1 ended, the tour of Point # 1 ended, and we went home and kept writing and so when the time came... we did shows in NYC at Montana’s, some studio and a bunch of labels came down and we wound up going with Epic. D: Part of the time writing though, you didn’t even know if you’d ever have a contract again. P: No. We’d thought that Point # 1 was it. We thought that we’d toured with Filter for a month, main support, that was the plateau. So it was wild when things started going again. Of course they take a long time and I remember thinking I wanna get in the studio and get these songs down and get it done and get back on the touring circuit. And Rose [manager Rose McGathy] was always saying "As soon as it starts its gonna snowball and keep going and you’re not going to have any time so take this time to relax." And I remember that summer was really nice because it was right before we went in to do the record and we had all this time to do whatever we wanted. We wrote a lot but then we just hung out and enjoyed life. And then after the record it was like BAM. S&T: You’re anxious to get out on the road and management is telling you to go easy and you’re like "whatever." P: Yeh. She was right, though. Its been non-stop since March of last year. This tour has about another six weeks, we go back to Europe for a few festivals, we’ll do some headlining shows in-between this tour and Ozzfest and then Ozzfest starts. S&T: Where were you when you got the message you had main stage Ozzfest? P: Where were we? I think we were on our way to LA? Then we went to the Osbournes house, brunch with the Osbournes. But I think we got there too late because there was no food. S&T: (laughs) They’re notoriously cheap that way! Invite you over for food and then say, "Oh you guys are late it's all gone." P: We did a bunch of interviews and met Ozzy and a bunch of other people, Marilyn Manson. Felt very out of our element. I did anyway. S&T: Why? P: Well I was up on stage with Ozzy, Manson and Jonathan Davis from Korn and just four chairs and 30 cameras and 30 interviewers... right there. You know I tried to play it cool. Not a whole lot of questions were pointed at me so that was fine. Its funny too, we’re happy to do Ozzfest again, it's a great thing for the band, but I don’t think we’re really their target band for the fans that go there. Its more of like a metal scene, hard. S&T: We’re kind of fighting about that idea. Maybe this year it's a little heavier than usual but I’ve thought they’ve always salted it with radio-friendly or mellower... P: I would say second stage is usually pretty diverse. S&T: So I haven’t seen the new video [for "Send The Pain Below"] yet but she [Show & Tell’s Kristina] has, she tells me it's pretty good. Joe: [to Kristina] Tell us what you really thought. Kristina: I thought that the visuals could be really brutal at times and then really beautiful at times. They could have edited it a little tighter. P: That was, um, you’re never supposed to be negative in interviews, you know? So I’m not going to be. A video is there... Its another way to get the band out there. The video wasn’t our idea. We went for a very artistic, a more scattered approach and the snowboarding theme that was brought into it but basically a fix because the director had botched it up the first time. J: His name’s not even on it. P: It was an unbelievable experience to shoot that live footage ‘cause it was like zero [degrees]... It was probably the worst experience I’ve ever had [laughs] to be totally honest. J: I don’t think it was much worse with my shirt off, it was so cold I don’t think having a shirt on would’ve made any difference. S&T: Tell us about playing the Jimmy Kimmel show. P: It was great. S&T: I saw it, you guys sounded really good which is suprising because everybody sounds like shit on television. P: Absolutely, I agree. S&T: How was the budget on that show? J: The best. P: They treated us really well. J: They put so much money into the building and everything. It was very, very nice. P: Yeh, that was a very cool experience. Way better than Kilborn, which was stale. Kimmel was the opposite... have fun with it, break the rules, do whatever you want. S&T: I don’t like Kilborn, he comes across as such an ass. J: He was really nice. S&T: Really? J: Yeh, it's just the mix they did on us was so terrible. D: In the studio you’re right next to The Price Is Right and Young And The Restless, literally. You’re just on another television show. S&T: So another single after this? P: Supposedly. S&T: Who picked "Send The Pain Below" as the last single? P: The label. S&T: Do you have any say in it or do they just say "this is the next single?" P: We don’t really have any say and that’s okay. We kind of leave that up to [management] and the label, they talk about it, figure out what’s gonna go. I don’t know anything about radio. I know more than I did before but... S&T: They’ve been doing right by you so far, we probably hear you [on the radio] every day. D: They kept pushing the album back [ed. note: the album’s release date was pushed back multiple times last year] and you guys were like "what’s going on?" But then when it hits like it does and you start to think "Well, we know how to make music and they must know how to run a record label." J: Although I really hope the next single is "Don’t Fake This" instead of "Forfeit." "Forfeit" is a good song but it just goes on and on toward the end and I think it's too heavy for the radio, for normal listeners. D: See if you can get five singles out of this record. K: Just Linkin Park it and keep going. S&T: Two years... Two years on one album and they just remixed it. J: We should do that, all dance versions of all our songs. S&T: So just take us through the next few months. Europe and then back to do Ozzfest... P: We finish out Disturbed and then I think we have a week off, two weeks off. S&T: What are you gonna do with all that time off? P: [laughs] Yeh, I’m really excited, seriously, when I think about the end of this tour. S&T: You’ve been basically living on a bus for the last year. J: Totally. P: So we have the 2 weeks off then we go to Europe. We come back for 4 days and then we do a 10 day headline tour and then we start Ozzfest which is 9 weeks I believe. And that’s all that they’ve mapped out for this year so far. We don’t know what’s gonna happen in September. Some people want us to keep touring, some people say you gotta write [the new record] but some people are saying, "No, that’s when you’re gonna want to tour, you’ll be able to bring in the big bucks." J: And they might be right. Even though at that point, we may hate it, we may have to. P: It’ll be 19 months straight at the end of Ozzfest. Touring is what we do, it's our day-to-day life, it's how we make money. But I would love to go home and write a new record too. S&T: Do you get to write on the road at all? P: Not really. Its really up to me to write the music and I really can’t do it around people. I kind of have to be in a room by myself. I can take over the back lounge but all I have is an acoustic and I don’t want to write sappy songs, I want to write aggressive, heavier stuff. So I haven’t really been writing much. S&T: Is that what you do? Lock yourself up in a room somewhere? Is it the same room? P: I don’t have a house right now. We moved out of our house, that Sam [third brother and Chevelle’s drummer] and I lived in, beginning of Ozzfest last year... S&T: No sense in keeping it if you’re on the road. P: Yeh. I’ll have to do something about that when I get home. S&T: Whenever that might be! interview by scott sisti |
