Chicago hard rockers Chevelle were in Grand Rapids Friday night (February 24) to play a SOLD OUT GRD show at The Orbit Room along with Middle Class Rut and Janus. The trio took the time to meet a few lucky GRD winners and sat down with me for an interview before they performed. Pete, Sam and Dean talked about the evolution of the band, tweeting about the Grammys, 90's one-hit wonder Hanson and more.

Chevelle released their sixth studio album, Hats Off To The Bull, in December. The record has been one of the best reviewed for the group to date. The theme of Hats Off To The Bull is about rooting for the underdog. Chevelle moved a bit outside of their comfort zone in both lyrics and production of the album.

"Basically we just approached it as a try-anything-once kind of thing, and our new producer (Joe Barresi) was really great at throwing things at us and see what would stick," frontman Pete Loeffler says. "Like organ. Never done that before. It's still the same old Chevelle with just a couple new sounds."

Even though Hats Off To The Bull is just months old, the group are always thinking about the next album. R&R doesn't seem to be in the vocabulary with these guys.

"I'm always writing, always jotting ideas down," Pete reveals. "I'd like to get a new album out as soon as possible. We don't want too much down time. You lose your edge."

Despite releasing an album that features songs about current events, Chevelle do not want to stray from the escape that a rock concert can bring to people.

"We are trying to provide a little bit of a barrier so that you can go out on a Friday night and forget your problems for a couple of hours and go to a rock show," drummer Sam Loeffler explains. "With 'Face To The Floor', a lot of people did talk about it being political, but it wasn't actually political. The song is about greed. For the most part, our songs are safe from politics and religion. It's a 'come out and have a good time' kind of thing."

Watch the interview in its entirety below. Don't forget to check out our photo gallery from the show.

Chevelle will continue to tour across the U.S. through mid-July. That also includes a stop at this year's Rock On The Range festival in Columbus, OH in May.

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