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Hello My Name Is Sam
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them say that they dig what we're doing is
really cool. A friend of ours, Rob Hultz, he
plays bass for them now. He was playing
with us when we first started jamming, so
it was really cool to be able to play with a
friend.
Mosh: What are your upcoming touring
plans?
Emily: May 1st, we're starting a tour for a
little over two weeks. We're planning on
going out west and back. Once we get
back from that tour our first night is here
in Chicago. We're just trying to play with
different bands and in different cities that
we haven't played in before. We've been
out to the East Coast and we've been in
the middle of the country, so it's going to
be cool to go out west now and meet some
new people.
Mosh: What are your expectations and
what are you hoping to achieve, especially now that you're signed to Metal Blade?
Emily: We have no expectations concerning the band because we've all been
friends for awhile, and this friendship was
something that meant getting together on
the weekends. So it's totally exceeded
anything we've ever expected. When it
stops being fun, I think we'll stop doing it.
There's no point in forcing yourself to do
this. We're just really excited for the record
to come out and for people who might not
have heard it yet or might not have had
access before Metal Blade came in. They're
going to get it out to way more people
than we ever could have. I'm just excited
for people to hear it and I hope they like it.
I hope that we can eventually tour over in
Europe. I think that's everybody's next big
goal and we're trying to do that in the fall.
MOSH-WORTHY: Nervosa Victim of
Yourself (Napalm Records), Holy Moses
Redefined Mayhem (Steamhammer/SPV),
Benighted Carnivore Sublime (Season of
Mist), Whitechapel Our Endless War
(Metal Blade Records).
MOSH-WORTHY LIVE: Carcass, Black
Dahlia Murder, Gorguts, Noisem (House
Of Blues, 04/05), Iced Earth, Sabaton,
Revamp (House Of Blues, 04/06),
Destruction,
Krisiun,
Exmortus
(Reggie's, 04/10), Ghost (The Vic, 04/19).
MENTION-WORTHY: Local rockers High
Spirits are set to release their highly anticipated second album, You Are Here, on
May 13th through Hells Headbangers
Records. It's loaded with hard-charging
tracks that will certainly raise the band's
stock. New supergroup of sorts, VHF, featuring legendary bassist Tony Franklin
(The Firm, Blue Murder), guitarist Joel
Hoekstra (Night Ranger, Trans-Siberian
Orchestra, Rock Of Ages) and drummer
Todd "Vinny" Vinciguerra, are working
on their new EP, Very High Frequency. It's
being mixed by Tommy Kessler of
Blondie and is tentatively scheduled for a
"spring" release.
just kinda weird and really sums up the
feel of our album and we liked it, so we
went with it.
What do you look forward to most about
being back on the road?
We are pretty much always on the road.
We haven't played a Chicago show in
quite awhile though, so we're excited to
play here in April at HOB (4/17). The challenge with Chicago is that there's been no
real rock radio until now with the return of
"Q101" (now WKQX). But that's been a
challenge because we went to them all
excited for them to play our new stuff
(especially with us being a Chicago band),
but they said they won't play it. So that
really disappointed because "Q101" was a
staple here while we were growing up. In
fact they were the first station to ever play
our music. But we're just really happy that
there are people who still love rock music,
so we are excited to get out there on the
road and play for them.
How much has the music business
changed since you guys first started?
The biggest difference is that nowadays
people need and want stuff at exactly the
moment they want it – and if you don't
give it to them at that moment, they
instantly lose interest. So the question
becomes, how do you create and build
something when nobody is patient enough
to sit by and let it build? I think that rock
& alternative have been devastated more
by all these changes in the music world
than every other genre. And, nowadays as
a band, you really have to just work within the confines of what you're handed – so
we do. For instance, as a band, we run our
own website, Facebook, Twitter, etc. That's
been really cool being able to connect with
people directly, and they know it's us and
not someone else answering stuff on our
behalf. We just always gotta figure out
how to make time for it, but it's been great.
You're coming up on 20 years together as a
band – what's still the same, and how
have you grown and evolved the most?
We are still exactly what we set out to be –
a hard-rock melodic band. And, we always
wanna keep being on stage playing these
types of songs. But, of course our styles,
our ideas, and our ideals always keep
evolving. You never expect to be able to
actually have a career in music, so we are
always grateful for that. The hard part
though is that even after all we've done
(six #1 singles, thirteen Top 5 singles, four
million records sold, sold-out shows
worldwide), it's still hard for people to
know who we are. We still get turned
down. You can do all these things in a
career and one person turns you down,
and it still affects you, and you wind up
asking yourself, 'What am I doing wrong
that people still don't know me?” For
example, we were interested in working
with this certain guitar manufacturer
because we use all their stuff, but they
turned us down and said they just weren't
working with any bands right now. But
then, we go on their website and see all
these bands they're working with, and we
feel like our band has done more than 95
percent of the bands on there. It's frustrating because we worked our asses off for
this, but still get turned down. I'm still surprised every week by it. It's amazing how
hard it is to make an impact.
Chevelle appears at House of Blues, Chicago
on Saturday, April 17. Q&A conducted by
Carter Moss.
april
2014
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