As Chevelle has been working on their tenth album for several years following their 2021 release “NIRATIAS”, there has been a noticeable growing gap between releases. For most of the band’s career, there has been a gap of 18 months- two years between releases prior to the 5 year wait between 2016’s “The North Corridor” and “NIRATIAS,” and there are valid reasons as to why. “NIRATIAS” marked the end of their long-term relationship with Epic Records, which began in 2002. Since then, they have joined Alchemy Recordings, a rock-focused label co-founded by promoter Danny Wimmer and Dino Paredes of Shelter Music Group.
This time, Chevelle decided to self-produce their upcoming album (whereas Joe Barresi has produced the last several), a decision that has been quite a learning curve. Drummer Sam Loeffler discussed the band's current status and more in an interview via triblive.com.
Loeffler explained the extended creation process and the challenges of working mostly on their own:
“We kind of did expect to have [the album] done (already). It’s like pulling teeth… Writing an album and doing all that is like pulling your hair out and then trying to put it back in. Writers love having written, is what I learned. It’s just torturous on my brother. It’s torturous because there’s just so many factors to making something great.
And then the longer you can live with it, the more changes you’re gonna make. So that makes you never want to put it out. You never want to pull the pin and throw the grenade because you’re like, well, it gets better every time I look at it.”
Approximately 10 songs are expected on the final product, which they hope to release this fall. The band has stated that the songs are headed in a “heavier direction,” which is on par for their latter catalog of La Gargola (2014), The North Corridor (2016), and NIRATIAS (2021).
In 2021, Sam provided a grim view of the music industry, revealing that despite Chevelle's 6 million album sales, the band had yet to earn money directly from those sales. However, they have done well financially through touring, merchandise, and other related aspects.
Chevelle's situation is not uncommon for artists during the major label era. As stated in previous pieces, the issues of consolidation of competition via record labels, live venues via LiveNation and Ticketmaster, and the overall cost of production and touring has taken a toll on many longstanding acts, and Chevelle has not been immune to this. Labels would advance significant sums to produce an album and cover promotion and touring costs. Until the label recouped its investment, the artists saw little return from their recordings. This was compounded by the master recordings often being owned by the label for decades.
Considering Chevelle's success, their financial situation was surprising. Their 2002 sophomore album “Wonder What’s Next” achieved 2x multi-platinum status in the U.S. Their 2004 follow-up “This Type Of Thinking (Could Do Us In)” went platinum, and their fourth studio album, 2007’s “Vena Sera,” went gold. Their catalog also includes five gold-certified singles, with “The Red” earning 2x multi-platinum status and “Send The Pain Below” going platinum.
Years later, Chevelle is more hopeful and optimistic about the state of rock music. Loeffler detailed this in his interview, stating:
“We definitely learn to live within it. Although, you can’t be in the music business and not be burnt out on it. That’s impossible because the internet came and essentially beat the music business to a pulp so that it was on life support. And then streaming came in and stomped on the cord that was keeping the music business alive.
So it is regrowing. I think that is happening. And rock music right now specifically feels like it has a pretty cool resurgence. I think we’re seeing some people take really good things and make them into, integrating them into more music. And then we’re also seeing straight rock have a resurgence as well, which is great.”
In addition to self producing their album that is tentative for the end of this year, Chevelle has an additional milestone in celebrating the 25th anniversary of their debut record, “Point #1,” which was released initially in may 1999 via Squint Entertainment, a label that has since kicked the bucket. Chevelle stated that while most of the songs from their debut aren’t very popular within their current fanbase, it would be great to bring back a few songs here or there. “That [performing songs from Point #1] would be fun to do. And Alchemy actually brought up us rerecording that album, like you should re-record it and put it out again. Although with Steve Abini just having passed, it would be nice to promote that as well.
But the person that owns that album, which is not us, we cannot get it back. We’ve tried so many times. And they just, they don’t promote it. They won’t give it. They won’t sell it to us. They won’t do anything with it. It’s pretty frustrating.”
Here is to hoping that the band is able to reclaim some of the rights to their catalog. And while it is up in the air as to whether that will happen for their debut music, we can be confident that more Chevelle is well on its way.
The band is currently set to go on tour in the late summer and fall. Tickets can be found at https://getmorechevelle.com/tour-dates.php
