Chevelle Draw Inspiration From Zombies and Real-Life Monsters
46 minutes ago
Everything about Chevelle's seventh album, La Gargol, seems pretty bleak. There's the cover art, which depicts frontman Pete Loeffler wearing a plague mask, a beak-like contraption that 14th century doctors donned in the futile hope of being protected from the bubonic plague. Then there are the ominous, ringing guitars of "Twinge" and "One Ocean," the creepy sound effects in "Ouija Board" and "An Island," and the macabre song titles including "Choking Game," "The Damned," and "Under the Knife."
Armchair analysts might guess Loeffler has experienced some unpleasant stuff since Chevelle's 2011 release Hats Off to the Bull. But the singer and guitarist mainly blames the macabre tone on his fascination with horror movies.
"Before we left to tour for the last album, the questions were, 'How am I gonna deal with leaving for so long?," he tells Yahoo Music. "'What am I going to do with my time?' And I guess I just found myself watching a lot of dark flicks, which is kind of disturbing when I think about it, but it's entertaining at the same time. It's kind of like riding a rollercoaster. And I think that kind of a vibe came across on the new album."
Even in the rare moments when Loeffler was off the road, kicking back with friends, his brother and drummer Sam ,and his brother-in-law and bassist Dean Bernardini, he felt most at home when his big screen LCD set was on and everyone was digging into a new episode of The Walking Dead.
"We'd drink beer and watch the show. We're all totally into it," he says. "The stores are so good so it's a good release to look forward to, and when it goes away [between seasons] it's a sad time."
Lately, zombies have become a favorite creature comfort for Loeffler. He enjoys the classic George Romero movies like Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead, as well as Sam Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy. He also likes more esoteric zombie stories like the low-budget German film Rammbock. However, when it comes to horror, Loeffler draws the line at movies that delve too far into the occult. He's still freaked out by The Exorcist and doesn't enjoy most ghost stories.
"I grew up in a very conservative Catholic household," he explains. "It's funny, I tell people we're recovering Catholics. I was taught that there's a demonic force out there that you may not want to tamper with, and that kind of stuck with me.."
Loeffler addresses such childhood indoctrination in the song "Ouija Board." "We're growing a fire/Self-explore your egoism/Pulling out your Ouija board/Oh no!"
"I was always battling the idea that there are evil spirits from when I was a kid. I was never allowed to use a Ouija board or even a Magic Eight Ball. Of course, I've grown up since then, but there are still areas I don't want to address in my songs or my life."
As ominous as much of La Gargola sounds, the lyrics aren't all about things that go bump in the night. The single "Take Out the Gunman" is a political song that condemns the media for providing a platform for misanthropic individuals who commit violent crimes on multiple people.
"I understand the need to report on the shootings, but the way the TV stations cover them seems wrong," Loeffler says. "A lot of these psychos tweet everything or post their manifestos online and the media eats it up and kind of glorifies it. Maybe that makes these kinds of people think, 'Oh, man, I could become famous if I just crack up and go on a shooting spree.'
By contrast, "Hunter Eats Hunter" is five-minutes-forty-five seconds of tension-filled nonsense. "It's a big stupid fantasy song," Loeffler says. "The album is called La Gargola, which means The Gargoyle, and I thought, 'Well, what if you were actually stalked by some creepy, gargoyle-type creature?' I came up with that idea when I was taking the trash out to my curb. It was dark and silent, and my mind started playing tricks on me. It's not a serious song in any way."
Some of the stress and frustration in La Gargola may come from being on the road three-quarters of the year or more just to maintain the lifestyle Chevelle have grown used to since 2002, when their second disc Wonder What's Next yielded the mainstream rock hit "The Red." Much has changed since then. Chevelle used to be a trio of brothers, which included bassist Joe Loeffler. But co-existing with two siblings on the road proved impossible. Depending on who you ask, Joe quit or was fired in 2005. But everyone agrees there was no love lost.
"Touring so much didn't help the situation, but it wasn't the problem," Pete Loeffler reveals. "Without going too deep into it, he just didn't get along with us. It's hard to talk about because there are so many things I want to say, but it leads me down that road I don't want to go on. Let's just say it didn't end well and it never changed, so I haven't spoken to him in 10 years."
Family men even without their brother, the Loeffler's filled the vacant bass spot with Dean Bernardini, who was dating and is now married to the Loeffler's sister Natalie Loeffler.
"He was an old friend that we grew up with before we were in a band," Pete says. "Dean being with our sister was never a factor of him joining the band. It just happened organically. When Joe left, we needed someone. We had a few prospects and ean said, 'Hey, I'm gonna work on this for six months,' and he nailed it and became a member."
As much as the Loefflers enjoy hanging out with their brother-in-law, Pete admitted that being on the road for month after month, year after year has taken its toll. He still loves to play shows, but he finds that the older he gets, the more he craves stability and down time.
"When you start out in a band it's great, and it still is," he says. "But suddenly you turn around and you're 37 years old and you wonder where all the time went. It's not an easy lifestyle, and after 15 years of touring you're traveling all over the world, which is the cool part, but you're alone a lot of the time. And that's kind of hard."
He pauses, then concludes, "Maybe that's why some of the music I write sounds so dark."