Rockers aim to capture live sound on CD

By John Benson

The band has been told it sounds better in concert than on recordings.

With a new studio album slated for release this August, rock act Chevelle — brothers Pete (singer/guitarist) and Sam (drums) Loeffler, along with brother-in-law Dean Bernardini (bass) — decided to take a departure from the sound heard on the group’s previous effort, 2007’s “Vena Sera.”

“‘Vena Sera’ was pretty polished and clean,” said Pete Loeffler, calling from his Chicago home. “There was a lot of Pro Tools trickery done with that album. The process that our producer used was to make everything as perfect as he could. Every beat perfectly in place and every note was tuned. With this album it’s different; everything is played a little bit more organically and nothing was tuned within an inch of its life.

“So it was a little more honest, which is what we’re trying to get back to — the honest sounding record. ‘Points #1,’ our first album, was incredibly honest. That was done with Steve Albini, and none of it was digital. And we sort of started going along the lines of using technology, and then it started getting a little overboard. So we’re pulling that back now, and it’s very sparsely done.”

New songs slated to be on the currently untitled new effort include the first single “Jars,” which is a rocking tune dealing with environmental consciousness, as well as an unnamed acoustic track that finds Loeffler alone with only his guitar and a microphone. When it’s pointed out the unplugged tune could end up being a radio hit, Loeffler dismissed the notion saying Chevelle is known mostly for its hard-rock sound.

In fact, it’s the band’s live sound that actually played a key role in the way Chevelle wanted the new album recorded.

“People would say, ‘You know what, you sound better live,’” Loeffler said. “And we’d say, ‘That doesn’t make sense.’ Obviously, what we’re doing on the record is not capturing the live sound. And that’s what we’re going for on this one. If they say you sound better live, there’s obviously something there we need to tweak.”

Well, it’s better than being told you sound better on the album than in concert.

“Yeah, because the album is there to get you to come to the show, which we don’t make money off album sales,” Loeffler said. “We make money off of shows, and that’s how we pay our bills. So more than selling albums, I want people to come out to the show.” While Chevelle has landed a sweet opening slot on Staind’s summer “Stimulate This” tour, the outfit is getting its feet wet with its own spring headlining jaunt, which includes a Monday show at The Wedge in Austintown.

A decade removed from Chevelle’s debut album, Loeffler looks back at the past 10 years without a hint of regret.

“I feel like the band is really in a good spot right now,” Loeffler said. “We always have songs that are at rock radio, and we’ve never gone Top 40. We’re strictly a rock band, and we’ve been able to tour that way for all of these years. So I’m happy with where we are. And we’ll have a huge push on this album. The label loves it. I’m actually hoping for bigger things to come. It’s not like we changed what we do; it’s just the sound is better on this album.”

He added, “It’s funny, record sales are usually how people judge you ,but you can’t do that anymore. I judge our band on our touring fan base. And we don’t even have a song at radio right now, and we’ve been selling out shows and headlining radio festivals across the country. I don’t really know what else I’d want to do.”