Chevelle is an alt-metal trio that produces dark ballads that evoke angry young men in their basements, making loud music for fun without caring so much about fame.
So it seems pretty damn strange when I'm chatting with affable Chevelle drummer Sam Loeffler and he mentions U2 and the Police as bands he looks up to. But then he elaborates a bit, and I completely understand.
Chevelle, made up of Loeffler and his brothers, Pete (who sings and plays guitar) and Joe (who plays bass), is "not about what color my hair is or what jeans Pete's wearing," Loeffler says. "We look back a lot at the things we love. There weren't a lot of gimmicks. U2's a pretty straightforward band. Look at them or the Police. We aspire to be timeless. It would be cool to not be associated with a time period."
Chevelle (the brothers share writing credits) even has a song, "Get Some," that tears apart the idea of disposable pop stars having any import whatsoever.
"It's about wanting to be famous and picking something to be famous about," Loeffler says. "It's about wanting the fame rather than being interested in what you're doing."
Luckily for the brothers, the chunky, riff-driven music they're creating is exactly what they want to do and is simultaneously earning them fame as platinum-selling artists.
Right now, they're headlining the SnoCore tour, which also features Helmet, a band Chevelle has clearly learned some things from.
Loeffler fondly remembers rocking out to Helmet when he was in high school more than a decade ago.
"It's going to be hard for me not to watch Helmet every night on this tour," he says.
But it's not like the tour's going to be nonstop fun. Being on the road with your brothers all the time has its price, Loeffler says, who adds that he doesn't want to come off as yet another musician complaining about the grind of touring nonstop for months.
"It's a little stressful, but we've gotten to a point in our relationship where we kind of treat each other like business partners," Loeffler says of he and his brothers. "It's easy to get along when things are going well, but we still fight about everything. If I open my mouth around Joe, we fight."
And, yes, there are often moments when the fellas, who've been in this band for almost a decade, question whether they should even play together anymore.
"I think Joe's quit like five or six times," says Loeffler, who says he recently almost quit himself. He opted to keep going, but he admits his coping strategy isn't healthy.
"I started drinking a lot," he says. "It's not really a good way to go. On the last tour, it was pretty heavy drinking for me because I was so burned out. But you have to get perspective. It's better than hanging drywall ... You have to remember why you're there."
As we speak, Loeffler is in his hometown of Chicago, where the gloomy weather doesn't enhance his mood.
"I've actually been thinking about moving to Las Vegas," he says, longing for sunnier days.
Condos are cheap here, dude. You could get something nice for $150,000.
"Wow," Loeffler replies. "Here, condos are 400 grand."
As he starts doing the happy math in his head, I wonder aloud if Chevelle might make sunnier music if they lived in a different locale. After all, it doesn't seem like a coincidence that the video for their single "Vitamin R" involves snow falling.
Loeffler laughs.
"I don't think so, but you never know. It could happen," he says. "I'd be interested in trying. Maybe I'd go to Fiji and try to write a record."