Photo Credit: Andrew Barkules
As Chevelle nears its 20th anniversary, the band can say they’re part of a vanishing breed in rock ’n’ roll. They’re the rare hard rock band that is signed to a major label. What’s even more unusual is that Chevelle has been with Epic Records since 2002, recently releasing their sixth album for the label, La Gárgola. This stability has occurred even as major labels have purged many rock bands in recent years in order to concentrate on pop and hip-hop acts that have come to dominate Top 40 and pop radio formats.
In fact, Chevelle has fared better on Epic than top executives at the label.
“Every record we have done, we’ve had a different regime at Epic Records, except for this one,” Chevelle drummer Sam Loeffler said in a recent phone interview. “L.A. Reid is actually the general manager of Epic Records, and he’s on his second record with us. And he has been good to us. He’s just been like, ‘Hey, you guys have a thing that you do and it works for you. Just keep me involved. Let me know what’s going on.’ He’s been great about it.
“Usually if you just lose your A&R guy, you can pretty much kiss your career goodbye,” Loeffler said. “So yeah, we feel very, very fortunate we’ve been supported that way.”
The shifting personnel at Epic has meant that things have not always been smooth for Chevelle. But La Gárgola has gotten off to a strong start. It debuted at number three on Billboard’s albums chart in April, making it the highest-charting release of Chevelle’s career.
The group members—Loeffler, his brother Pete (singer/guitarist and chief songwriter) and bassist (and the Loefflers’ brother-in-law) Dean Bernardini—have often said over the years that they don’t want to make the same album twice or sound like other hard rock/metal bands.
And Chevelle’s albums have tended to each have their distinguishing characteristics.
La Gárgolacertainly offers some new wrinkles, while retaining Chevelle’s trademark melodic hard rock sound. For starters, the band puts an industrial feel into songs like “Jawbreaker” and “An Island,” while also exploring a softer-but-still-tense sound on “One Ocean” and “Twinge.” And the album as a whole has a bit darker mood than other Chevelle albums.
Sam Loeffler said the album didn’t start out sounding quite as dark as it became. The direction changed when producer Joe Barresi offered his feedback on the songs Chevelle had originally presented for the album.
“He said these seven songs are great,” the drummer recalled. “I think these other three here need work…. What he ended up really saying is those [songs] didn’t work.”
While stung by seeing those songs get rejected, Pete Loeffler accepted Barresi’s assessment and the band spent another month writing.
“The songs that came out of that were ‘An Island,’ ‘Hunter Eats Hunter’ and ‘Ouija Board,’” Loeffler said. “Those, I think, are arguably the darker songs on the record.”
The band is clearly pleased with La Gárgola, but has resisted the urge to weight its live show too heavily in favor of the new material.
“We try to split it up between a couple of songs from each record,” Loeffler said. “But it gets hard because people want you to play singles that they know from the radio. Then there are certain crowd favorites and songs we want to play, so writing a set list is certainly difficult.”
Still, the group has been squeezing in about four new songs at each show.
“We’d love to play the whole thing,” Sam Loeffler said of La Gárgola. “But I don’t think people would appreciate that.”
Chevelle headline the Rave on Saturday, Dec. 20 with Crobot and Raw Fabrics at 8 p.m.
