Chevelle

Pete and Sam Loeffler discuss the sci-fi themes of their new album NIRATIAS, which touches on missions to Mars, Elon Musk and simulation theory. It also rocks extremely hard. The band of brothers also get real about making music in lockdown and what’s next for Chevelle. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, everyone, Welcome to our little corner of cyberspace that
we call inside the studio on iHeart Radio. Thanks so
much for being here. My name is Jordan run Tug,
but enough about me. My guest today are a band

(00:20):
of brothers who have been making music together since they
were kids in their parents garage. You probably started tuning
in around two thousand two, and they dropped their double
platinum disc Wonder What's Next, which features smashes like the
Red and Send the Pain Below, and they have not
stopped rocking since. They're gearing up to release their new record, Nearatias.
And that's an acronym, but I won't spoil the surprise.

(00:41):
The disc is steeped in their passion for sci fi,
with references to Elon Musk, missions to Marrows and simulation theory.
I promised to focus on music as much as the matrix.
I'm so happy to welcome Pete and Sam from Chevelle.
You're about to release your ninth album, Nearatius. I believe
I'm saying that right. Uh. An acronym were stands for
nothing is real and this is the simulation which I

(01:03):
have to say after a year, I take a lot
of comfort in that. How did you end on that
for the title? Yeah, you know, um, that's just how
we felt, like. You you know, we finished the album
in March and we flew home the day they shut
down all the restaurants in like Los Angeles area, So
we were flying out March eighteen, and we we landed

(01:26):
at home and then you know, we had thirteen tracks
too that we're done, and you have to sum those
up in a in a title. So we thought, this
just feels insane for one, like everyone else felt, you know,
and how what a better way too? It just didn't

(01:46):
feel real. So we're like, are we maybe this is
a simulation. I was getting into a lot of simulation
theory and and that whole topic that that wormhole down YouTube.
You know, there's a lot of videos on that. Yeah,
that's so funny. This at age thirty three, I watched
The Matrix for the first time this summer purely because

(02:07):
of what you were just saying, like everything felt so weird, Like, yeah,
I started going down the whole simulation theory rabbit hole
and great movie man. I saw it in the years
when I was I don't even know what year that
was or something like that, and something like that. It
was like real prime Y two k A right, It's great.
There's so much stuff that you can pull from too
when you watch it. Like one of my favorite things

(02:28):
about that was the deja Vu explanation, which is brilliant.
You know, I'm sure everybody who's seen the Matrix members
of the Deja Vu. It's a it's a glitch in
the matrix. So every time I get a deja Vu,
I'm just like, you're thinking about that movie. Yeah, exactly.
Do you ever read the really interesting Chuck cost from
an essay that he has about about simulation theory, and um,

(02:50):
I forget which book of his, but it's it's really
fascinating stuff. No, no, yeah, we'll look that up. I mean,
so to this album, I mean the mood. I know
it was finished before COVID, but it really just seems
to fit this era so much. I mean, you knew
single self destructor the lines just they don't care what
science says. I mean, it just feels so relevant. And

(03:12):
yeah this was all written before that. Well yeah, but um,
science denial has been going on for long. Yeah this Yeah,
these lyrics all stem from a conversation I had with
someone and I was just kind of dumbfounded and wondering
where the world was headed. So that song just it

(03:33):
just came out of me. It was, you know, from
personal experience, and it was before COVID, so it is
about the anti vaxers, and so it did kind of fit.
It kind of fits now too, So I didn't you know,
I we we don't usually get into like hot topics
like that. We're a little more tame, you know, as
far as like I mean, we don't always tell people
what these songs are about. But this one is is

(03:55):
pretty obvious and it's pretty like but you know, any
you know, and time you have someone who's like Sam said,
of science denier, For me, it's just a little gut punch,
like we're headed in the wrong direction. So the song
is aggressive, and you know, I hope people dig it,
but you know, it's a hot button issue. I know
it really is. In order to in order to be

(04:15):
an anti baccer too. And I've done a little bit
of research into this why people are anti bactors And
you have to you have to literally ignore the truth,
right at some point you have to say, okay, well,
if I put these two things in front of me,
they're in front of me, right, but you have to
deny that and say no, just because I see them

(04:36):
and can touch them, and everybody agrees that doesn't mean
that it's there. And you're like, okay, well I can't
argue with you. I can't argue with that. So that's it.
I mean, on the flip side of all the science denying,
you have a lot of space themes and interstellar travel
on this album. I mean, I'm thinking of the of
Mars Simila with the elon musk travel in the Mars.
How did how did that come into into the mix?

(04:58):
You know? Um, I think it's just that whole like
Ray Bradbury growing up reading his science fiction and there's
so many stories about Mars that stuck out. And then
you know, once I had a kid, Um, those things
start coming up and you start digging out you know,
old books and things like that, and um, that was
a big influence on me when I was growing up.

(05:19):
So it's just always been there, you know, the mars
um concept getting there. You know, it's just which is
completely fascinating. I mean, you know, we went to the
Moon and then um it just kind of like stopped.
We now we don't go back to the Moon. I don't.
I don't, So I'm fascinating and I'm kind of like
waiting to see what we're going to do to get
even further to Mars, because I'd love to see it happen.

(05:41):
But I just also when you start learning about the
complications of uh space travel with the radiation problem of
keeping people healthy and then mentally as well. That's why
I called it Mars simular because for me, it's like
you're getting off the Earth to you know, maybe ship
it is um arashing and burning here, so you know

(06:02):
you need to go, you need to populate another planet,
interplanetarry species, keep it going. But this riff just needed
a heavy just kind of like a fun heavy topic
for me, and it kind of fit. And I was
just calling it Mars for a while. And then actually
when I was looking back the lyrics when we were
finishing the album, I was like, you know, this is
more like it's almost like a you know, it's just

(06:23):
not it's not we're not there yet. So I'm gonna
attack on Simula here because you know, there are those
videos where you can virtually travel on YouTube to Mars,
but m it's just a fun topic. It's not. You know,
we're all just sitting here waiting to see what Ellen
is gonna do. Right, isn't you know would you take
a ride if he if he had ends up having

(06:44):
the Space tourist vehicle? Oh wow, like up into the
the hundred and fifty thousand miles up or whatever, Like,
isn't that what they're talking about? Something like no way, No,
I'm gonna keep my feet on the ground. Um, we
had this agreed. Sorry, I want I want to add

(07:05):
Pete than when I found out how I just want
to say how many? When I found out how many
people were willing to sign up to go to Mars,
that gave me anxiety just knowing that there's people that
were willing to do it. There's a really fascinating mini
documentary Maybe I might have been a New York Times thing.
It was like ten fifteen minutes long that just interviews
I think five people. It might be called If I
Die on Mars or something like that was people that

(07:27):
it's like, yeah, I'm signing away, like I am happy
to do this and go do this, and I'm I'd
be fine if I never come back. It's so fasting
to hear all their their reasons and everything. It's it's
really interesting because on one hand it's heroic, but another
hand it's fine. There was a great program I think
it was just called Mars on I think National Geographic
Um in the past couple of years. I don't know

(07:48):
if you saw that series, the three seasons, but man,
is that good. Check it out. It's phenomenally done. Yeah,
I agree, and they should have called it if I
dropped trying to go to Mars, because that's much more likely.
Are you are you willing to go to Mars? Yeah,
I'll die in Mars. Are you willing to die before
you get to Mars? Yeah, that's a different, different questions. Yeah,

(08:10):
well you mentioned those great you know, seventies sci fi
novels and stuff, and that gets me to your album
covered by the great Boris Palleo, who did all sorts
of incredible uh seventies novels and of course the posters
for National Lampune's Vacation and night Rider. How did you
first approach him for this? Well, I would love to
say that, you know, Sam called him up and I

(08:32):
had a nice conversation, or I did, but we just
went through the label and it's not very exciting. But Um,
I had this, uh about a decade ago. I came
across a it was a massive kids book, like an
oversized kids book like three ft I too, like seventies
who was early eighties book in a in a thrift
store and it was it was selling for like ten

(08:53):
bucks or whatever, and I bought it and I've had
it in my just in my collection of things that
I like from the road, and it's it's awesome. You
could open it up. It's like these you could frame these,
these these posters you know, in book for him, if
you were to cut him out and frame them. They
look that good. So it was just this little score
I had of his work, you know, from a children's book. Um,

(09:14):
So for the Last Man, probably the last decade, I've
been like, I wonder if you could, I would love
to have some of Boris's work for a cover. I mean,
it's just it fit, it fit up fit the time
right now for us, in our in our in our album.
So UM hit him up and he was into it
and we were super excited. And you should go check

(09:36):
out his website because it is um it's it's it's yeah.
It's's rad I mean, he it's funny because he runs
the gamut, doesn't he He's got like now he's he's
doing a lot of like you know, it's the sci
fi nude. It's so like, wow, they're red. I mean
they're they're really chiller to look at. Lots of dragons,

(09:56):
lots of tales, lots of space space travel with the
naked people, a lot of naked dudes too. So he's
you know, he's he's open everything absolutely. So yeah, saw
that as well. In fact, one of the one of
the ones that we actually we're looking at to make
to use as a record cover was just we sort

(10:18):
of deemed it too much. So yeah, it was just
a little too close, um with the creature that was
on it. So but we love the visuals for all
of us are so cool. I mean, of course, the
video for Self Destructor is like Men and Black with
way better cars and vehicles that look how when did
you when did you put that together? Was that all

(10:39):
filmed before COVID? I mean it's just it's like a
mini movie. It's awesome. Um, And that's a good question.
It did turn into a little mini movie. Pete and
I sat and brains brainstormed over over that thing and
just kind of came up with that and then we
gave it to um our director and our production people,
Rob Gibson and and they just sort of built it

(11:02):
from there. Um, it was weird to shoot it. We
shot most of it outside. It was a small team
six people because you have for insurance and everything, you
have to wear masks, you have to check, you have
to get COVID tests and all that stuff. It's difficult
to work right now you had to do anything. So
but we did it. We did it the way that
they required us to do, and everybody was good. But

(11:24):
it was fun to shoot. Is probably most of them
we've ever had shooting a video, to be fair. Yeah,
I mean it looks absolutely amazing. I mean just the
visuals for this are just so striking. It's so cool,
and of course the music. Obviously, you worked again with
Joe Barressi, who produced your last four albums. I believe
since No Bull. Um, what is it about Joe that

(11:45):
makes it such a fruitful collaboration? Like, what what does
he bring to the table for for you when you're recording, Well,
right out of the gate, he's just he's just there
for the artist. So it's really difficult to give that up,
you know, once you have that working relationship, you know,
I mean I, you know, Sam and I will will
do demos and I'll just email them where we're at

(12:09):
and he gives us his notes and we you know,
either you know, either he's digging it or he's like
this song is complete and utter. Ship you need to
go back to the drawing where which happens to you know?
So he sent back seven songs. He was like, I
don't like these seven Yeah, so those are just kind
of waiting there, you know, to be adapted to be Yeah,

(12:33):
I don't know what I'm gonna do this, but yeah,
it's it's a demoralizing, it's a it's a it's a
hard conversation to have because you're like, wow, so nothing redeeming,
but we'll see. But he's honest, he's so that helps.
You don't want to dick around when you're trying to
get something great done. So that's what you're always shooting for,
is to beat your last project and beat the last
song you send him. So it's just a good working

(12:54):
relationship is really what it is. You know, we like him,
you know, yeah, you'd be mad about it. He didn't
get so much better music out of us, So it's
like you can never be mad about it because like
he was right, I wrote this much better of a
song after that, I think after me said he sent
those original seven back. I think he wrote mother Earth right.
Mother Earth was probably the first one back, and then yeah,

(13:16):
others came from there. And it was great because he
called up Pete and he was like, dude, I'm sitting here,
me and June. June's the engineering the engineer, and and
he's just like, we're sitting We're sitting here and me
and June, and we just listened to this three or
four times in a row. We can't stop listening to it.
This is what we've been waiting for. And he's so encouraging,
made you want to keep working because then he ended

(13:39):
his conversation with now go right seven more of these. Well, Pete,
I think there was an interview recently where you said
that this was sort of the most difficult time that
you've had writing material for an album. How do you

(14:00):
push past that or is it just is it just
endurance like sheer force of will? Or is it a
case of just waiting until you feel inspired. Yeah, it's
it's part um, you know, it's part not wanting to
be bored, it's part inspiration. And it's part of being
brainwashed over my career, okay, because we were brainwashed and

(14:20):
you can never sit idle right you like you can
you always they keep you on the road, you know,
and um, which is good and bad, you know what
I mean, because you you love it at the same
time you're like, you don't know which way is up
half the time. So but that's more in the beginning.
But it's just kind of like this um, this machine

(14:42):
that you know when you when you when you stick
to it, you're you're you're happier. That's where I am.
That's why I just I just start, you know. So
it's not a huge, you know, secret behind it. It's
just what we do, which is what makes you know,
so awful for musicians, you know, you're just prevented from

(15:08):
getting into groups clusters of people and sharing your your
music and your art. So I know that it's affected everyone,
but you know, in the in the arts, it seems
like it's really um, it's just been like this you know,
this bulldozer that just like went through your career. So, um,
it's been it's been tough. Not gonna say it was easy. Um,

(15:29):
and it's still not and we're not back yet either,
so we're just waiting to see what's going to happen.
Like everyone, have you been able to get together the
two of you in in in studios together? Is it
mostly been over zoomed for? Yeah. We have a studio
at Pete's house, so I go there, um four times,
five times a week work. It's just his family and

(15:52):
my family. We have little kids, so there we're all
kind of like in our own bubble. I mean we
are in our own bubble. So so we're still that
would work, but it's hard because I think the part
that makes it hard to work is you you write
the music, you record the music, and then you play
the music, and since you can't play the music, it's
just it doesn't ever feel like it's going to feed back.

(16:13):
So you're just just keep working. Yeah, and you keep
working in and you're just kind of like, when when
does this get to see the light of day? And
who knows if it will? I feel be able to
play the songs, but um, I mean right now, it's
like our management, our attorney, people like I say, just
keep writing, just keep writing, and you just kind of going,

(16:34):
I just I want to do this thing. My pattern
process has been this for so many years. You write
record and it's the full circle of that process. And
right now we're just kind of like it's like a
glitch in the matrix again. Going down to that, you're like,
it's something's off here, you know, right, And I'm not

(16:56):
complaining about it. I'm just saying that. It's almost like
you're just you're waiting to do it, is all. And
so without doing that, it's difficult to just keep writing.
I mean, I know Prince did it, so so we
can do it. Writing and writing and writing, right. So, yeah,
he was always writing, but Pete's always writing too. So
are you ever superstitious at all when you write? Like

(17:16):
is there a place you'd like to do it, or
a time of day, or or an instrument you'd like
to use? Uh? No, not really No, I mean I started,
uh using a keyboard on this album a lot, so
I wrote, I wrote a couple of well, like a
piano on the end of a self destructor and I
you know, that was the first instrument I learned. As
a kid, we were all we all had piano lessons,

(17:36):
and that was I think it probably a good thing.
It kind of gave us a It gave us eight
octaves of you know, notes to um sort of train
your brain. So I'm actually getting back to to my
my roots in the piano world and keyboard world. So
you're gonna hear a lot more of that on on
this new album as well. Learning an instrument is difficult
in that you don't understand the writing process of it.

(17:59):
So when you're a kid, you're playing these, you know,
crappy little songs that somebody developed that are easy because
they're easy to play and easy to learn, and then
you start learning classics, you know, Beethoven and things like that,
and but you're not really learning. Somebody's just teaching you
the notes. You're not learning what it's useful for. I

(18:20):
think that that's I'm sure there's people teaching that. I'm
sure there's people that are great music teachers, piano teachers,
teaching people to expand beyond that. But when we were kids,
we weren't learning that. We're just learning this thing. And
it was like, I do not want to sit and
play how much. Is that dog in the window anymore? Yeah,
you hated playing piano, Brot, you needed to find your

(18:42):
your instrument there, which it turns out I just like
to bang on ship. So I mean you did it.
You located your passion there. So but man, yeah, I
I love piano. But um, once I got ahold of
the guitar, I was, you know, by bye piano for
a minute. But like I said, yeah, I'll write on
any thing, you know, so um, you know, did John

(19:02):
Lennon say, you know, give me a tuba, I'll ret
your song. It's like, you know, really, if you just
need to start, sit down with that and you'll end
up somewhere. It might suck, but it might be great.
Piano is such a cool thing to learn on because
I remember taking music theory classes in school and they
would say, you know, we're not trying to train you
to be a good pianist. We just want you to

(19:23):
see visually what this all is, like, how this all
fits together, and then you know how the notes correspond
to the page. And it's such a great even if
you you know, if you do do want to write songs,
even if they are you know, guitar oriented. Yeah, I
mean being able to have a background in piano makes
it I think so much easier too. That's a really
good point. I mean being sort of more I guess
house bound these days, is there is a feeling of

(19:45):
almost like returning to your roots, like being back in
in the garage at your parents house or something like that,
like that, is there any sense of that with you? Yeah,
what do you think, Sam? Well, well, we have little kids.
So I have a six year olds, a six year old,
and a four and a two. So what is six,
four and two? So Sam's he's in the thick of

(20:06):
it right now. I'm coming out of like the real
stressful baby part of it, and now it's really like
six year old is is is great? I mean you're
like he's doing minecraft on his own and he's like
make he does these train train simulators. That's really big
into that, which is amazing. I don't understand it. Uh,
they create these worlds with train tracks and they can

(20:30):
pick and choose and make all their own like freight trains.
He's like, that's a passenger train. That's a blah blah blaff.
So yeah, but I mean it's uh, you start digging
out your old toys and then you see the that
amazing thing he's playing with the same hot wheels that
you played with as at six years old. Great, but
um yeah, so, I mean I think we're Sam and

(20:50):
I are trying to motivate each other while we're home,
when you're not with the kids, when you're not doing
the family stuff, to to keep continuing on. And that
is why we got a video done, and that is
why the album is being released. You know, it's for
our mental health and moving forward. Even though we can't tour,
we still have to move forward in some way, and
we had to get back to our fans. I mean

(21:13):
it's been like five years. Yeah, pizza right, And for
me personally, the struggle is being home so much that
you get so involved in the kids lives, where before
you wouldn't be quite as much, you'd have more of
a I don't know, you're just traveling so much, but
now that I'm home so much, now I struggle to
get away. So I'm just struggling with the work and

(21:37):
family life. Um. It's that's why you go to a
studio two thousand miles away from your home, right, so
that you you focus twelve hours a day and you
actually get something done. So it is tricky to work
at home, it is, and and of course you like
your kids and you want to be around them and
all that, but you also have to work. You need
to work. So that's a little bit of a that's

(21:58):
a little bit of a struggle that I had ever
put up with me. So I've been traveling the world
for twenty two years. That's when we really started traveling.
And uh, it's weird not to. It's very strange not
to what's filling that space for you with connecting with
fans now that you can't tour. I mean, it saysn't
it can't really be filled I don't think. I mean,

(22:21):
you're not going to do it through social media, that's
for sure, because that's something you're doing anyway. I mean,
there's no there's no way that can fill that in
between and that that's the hard thing is that seeing
somebody play a song live, I mean as a fan
of bands and things, and it's just there's just no
replacing it whatsoever. Yeah, No, there, you're right, there's no

(22:42):
replacing the live show. I mean, we we've only rehearsed
with um with our new bass player, twice and then
COVID hit and then we haven't seen them. So you know,
we're talking about doing a live stream for the release,
but in reality, Sam and I are in a bubble
together and we we we don't even see friends or

(23:03):
family in person, and so even to get ready to
play a show right now is a little difficult. We're
going to figure out how to do it, you know,
um through testing and things like that. We're waiting for
these home tests to arrive, and then we're going to
get back on the horse see if we can. You know,
this year at least to a live stream, but the
live shows don't come back, so you know, it's tough.

(23:23):
We're all encouraged that we're hoping the live shows come
back starting in June July. That's what we're all. We're
all holding our breath. This is kind of a strange question,
but I've been finding in them over the last year.
I've been listening to stuff I haven't listened to since
I was in high school, just like musical comfort food.
Have you been feeling that too, Absolutely, man, I've loved
it in movies too. Um Our our web guy said

(23:45):
the same thing is like everything is about everything that
makes you feel comfortable or remembering something something positive. Um, yeah,
I've seen so many movies that I grew up with
and I've been I mean, Pete and I spent yesterday
we were doing a couple of things together and we're
listening to um Corn's album Issues and went through that
whole album twice and just I mean, it's a great records,

(24:06):
still a great record and reminiscing a little bit, Yeah,
reminiscing a little bit about and just the songs and
all that. So yeah, definitely that's true. Yeah, I've been
eating a lot of croissants lately for some reason. That's
you know, that's comforting. And uh, I don't know if
maybe it was like when we were in Paris at
one time, Sam, remember that coffee shop that great? Yeah,

(24:29):
that's was that Jean Claude, Jean Luke, Jean Luke, that's
old coffee commercial. There. You go see those things pop
up in your YouTube feed and you're like, why am
I watching a what's that? What's that coffee? And know
it's like coffee in International coffee or like Greade eighties commercials.

(24:50):
Oh and I'm gonna watch this on YouTube? What is
wrong with me, Oh, they're totally in your mind though.
I mean like I'll have a phone in the other
room and I'll think of something and I'll go get
my phone and there'll be an ad for whatever that is.
Like I I fully believe that. I mean, it's the maze. Guys,
goes back to the matrix. Yeah, hey, Sam, what she's
saying that? Like you you came across a like a

(25:11):
nineteen eighties b X bike magazine and you're like, holy
sh it, this is what I saw when I was
like okay, yeah, it was like Neon, you know, pink
bikes and ship and like we're reminiscing over that. Yeah, yeah,
I think I would. I think those magazines would have
been like EIGHTI six, something like that, and yeah, it was.

(25:33):
It was amazing because all those feelings. I have, all
this I have all this vintage early freestyle BMX stuff
in my head and it won't fall off the conveyor
belt and they put new stuff on. I can't get
rid of it. So it's all there and it's printed.
My brain died with it. They're like, I know all
the part numbers or something. It's crazy stupid, but but
it was such a great time in my life that

(25:54):
I focused on it so much that it just stuck.
But it's a good it's good feeling to have something
like that in your light that you can look back
on and it just brings all those memories and all
that those ideas and what you were feeling at the
time back. And I just went through that the other day.
It was fascinating and funny. I gotta ask you, I

(26:21):
wasn't going to but that truck in the self destructor
video that was a sick truck. Who's was that? Was? That?
Was that a rental? Is that one of yours? The
green h Yeah? It uh was really built by a
place called the Roster Shop that's down the street. It's
like a town over from us. And yeah, we're we
grew up with hot rods. Our dad was a sort

(26:41):
of a greaser and um we have you know still yeah,
still a greaser, Yeah greasy. You know. We didn't go
to sports events. He wasn't that type of guy, you know,
it wasn't He wasn't actually a He was kind of
hands off, we'll say he was. He was hands on
in the garage on his on his hot rod. So
we would wander in what's going on? What are you

(27:04):
doing today? And he was like, listen up, I'm I'm
welding something. Don't look at the light. You know, there
was no safety involved. Don't look at this blue light here.
But it wasn't like get out. He wasn't like saying
I don't want you there. It was like it was
just complete and utter dangerous danger for a child. So anyway, um,

(27:25):
so Sam and I like we were still into cars.
It's just this residual thing from growing up around a
dad like that, and we hoped we hopped into this
truck one day that was in the show room and
it's all original patina on the outside, so that's the
original color. It sat and baked after it was used up,
baked in the Arizona Sun Sun which is what they

(27:47):
tell us. And um, you know, they redid enough of
it so that you could drive it and it starts up.
It's fuel injected, and it's just a hoot because our
six year old love it. You know, they just they
want to go for a ride in a in a
vintage car. To them, it's full on, you know, the

(28:08):
hell is this thing? You know, it's it's actually kind
of dangerous. I would say, you know, there's no air bags.
It's um you know, but it has harnesses. It was
built for autocross, so it's a full chassis, it's full everything.
So it drives. It's great, but your face is going
into that metal steering wheel if you if you at
four miles an hour and you hit a curb. You know. So,

(28:30):
but it has a has a modern um steering column
and stuff, so it's not a long steering column that
will go through your chest and it's a it only
goes to the Yeah. Yeah, no, I mean you shouldn't
getting knocked out. Yeah, if you're wearing the harnesses here,
you should be fine. You should just snap your neck,
just your face. But no, it's crazy. Yeah, it's it's

(28:53):
a lot of fun. It's a lot of it's way
too much power and it's dangerous and that's why it's cool. Yeah. Yeah.
It actually has a actually has a roll bar in
the back of it too, so it's not completely you
can't see it. It's hidden behind the seat. Yeah, that's
why it's fun. Yeah, we took and the fuel tank
is in the rear instead because on those old trucks
the fuel tank is on the inside. We took that

(29:16):
out as well, you know, I mean it's it's like
a modern vehicle, but it just looks old and cool.
It's obviously it's so hard to plan anything these days,
but mean, what's next for you? What can fans look
forward to? Uh? In addition to the album coming up soon? Yeah,
that's tough to say, yeah, because I always Sam and
I always talking about touring because that that's the full

(29:36):
circle thing here. So if it doesn't come back, I
guess we'll open up a Dominoes. What do you think of, Sam,
Papa John's pizzeria or you want to start you know,
your own sort of thing there. We'll see Papa John's.
That's really gonna catch you. Yeah, we have the square
pizza idea, might do that. It's a pastor RELI not rectangle,

(29:57):
but square. No, I mean we'll we'll probably Um, you know,
I'm I'm getting interested in doing um more of like
the soundscape sort of things, almost like for movie soundtracks.
So I've been dabbling in that. So if we have
to take a little bit longer of a break from
the rock world, um, I'm I'm I'm going to be

(30:18):
continuing on in some capacity, which you know, I'm gonna
do it anyway, but this would just I'd probably shift
a little bit more, Um, you know into that. It's
just it's just something that's different and exciting, you know.
So Um, I I don't know. I think we'll see
what happens. Man, I don't know. Do you know where

(30:40):
you're gonna be? Sam? If if touring doesn't come back
this year, I mean, what are you gonna be up to?
I mean, I have a whole other plan. I mean,
because that's something that a lot of people don't know
about bands. Um Uh, you pretty much don't make any
money whatsoever from record sales, right, Actually nothing pretty much.
Anybody that's not a major label really doesn't make any thing. Yeah,

(31:00):
unless you're selling like thirty million albums of ten million
albums of one album. But if you're selling like a million,
two million albums of each record, you're not making any money.
It's so the only way to make I mean, you
have to. If you don't tour, there's nothing I mean.
And when I say nothing, I mean nothing. So um,

(31:20):
if the music, if touring went away for for years,
you've got to do something. You have to work. I
mean we have to work, so um, I've got a plan.
I don't want to do it. I'd rather do what
I'm doing. Um, I like touring and I like writing,
I like recording all that stuff, and that's what we
want to do. But I mean, music's got to come back.

(31:43):
It's got to. I mean, these are just the things
you think about every day when your job isn't completely
in limbo. Yeah. Yeah, what you're seeing right now is
the the active, optimistic side of HIVEL. Right now, We're
we're actively trying like every day. It's like be positive,
you know, because it's uh, it's it's such a weird

(32:07):
just weird time, you know. Yeah, it's I mean I'll
go I'll take it too. I'll take you to what
the normal the five days out of seven is. If
you want to hear it, it's fucking terrible. He's like,
I don't want to hear that. You don't want to
hear that. But I mean, it's not gonna come to that.
I I have absolutely all faith that things are, you know,

(32:27):
getting a little better every day. And come summer. I mean,
I saw you had some some dates in uh, I
think Michigan and a few other places in June, July
and yeah, we do. We're really hoping those happen, and
I mean we're encouraged. I mean our agents talking about it.
They they're like, we're pretty sure those are going to happen. So, um,

(32:49):
I don't know how. I don't know what the system
is because as these festivals and things that insurance can't
cover those things. Insurance can't cover a pandemic. That's that's crazy.
No insurance company could do that. So um, so how
do you put on these shows without insurance? Well, the
answer is you cannot so until the insurance companies are agreeable,

(33:11):
that's when that that's when the shows will start happening. Well,
my my last question for you, and it's been so
fascinating asking everybody this because they answers always really run
the gamut. If you can snap your fingers and everything
go back to to normal, whatever your definition of normal is,
call it. Um, what would be the first thing that
you would do? Obviously you would go go go tour
and go back on the red I mean after we

(33:32):
took the pill, exactly after you took the red back
is it the blue bill? You have just taken the
red pill? I was, I think, But what would be
the very first thing you do. But people, you hug, trips,
you go on restaurants, you go to whatever would be
the very first thing you do. Um, I would fly
my mother in law in from US. That's a good question.

(33:53):
The first thing I do. Whoa head out to Australia
visit her better beaches there. That's true too, um, But
I think realistically I would have work, so I wouldn't
be able to do that. So I'd buy her in
so that she could be with the kids and see them,
and my my wife could actually be with your mother

(34:13):
for a little bit because she hasn't seen her and
you know, almost two years. So yeah, you know what
I think. I think I do something similar. I would
probably just call up about ten of my closest friends
and family and I'd say come on over, or I
would rent out a room and be like, we're gonna
we're gonna go party because I haven't seen any of

(34:33):
you in person. So I think that's probably would it be.
And you know, just download and talk, hang out, feel normal,
you know, and drink beer, lots of beer, maybe some
tequila and you don't get some breath. Some number one
sam number one number one tequila Ron white tequila. Yeah,
get some breath in my face and put my breath

(34:54):
in someone else's face. Be close to somebody. It is
a solid answer. Pete Samp, thank you so much for
your time today. It's been such a pleasure. Thanks for
talking to you, got it absolutely, Thanks for having us.

(35:16):
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