The Chevin: Champions Of The World
written by Taryn Wallis
Very few bands can claim to have left David Letterman completely awestruck after performing on The Late Show. But it’s a feat that The Chevin achieved effortlessly when they made their US TV début in August 2012, a testament to the band’s anthemic sound and the sheer power of singer Coyle Girelli’s voice. Blown away is pretty much the standard response to hearing The Chevin’s music, and it’s a reaction that persists no matter how many times you listen to it.
The band – consisting of Coyle Girelli, Mat Steel (guitar/keyboards), Jon Langford (bass/keyboards), and Mal Taylor (drums) – was formed in 2010, and named after the ridge overlooking their small hometown of Otley in Yorkshire. Their first album, Borderland, was released in 2012. It is Borderland’s opening track, Champion, that The Chevin performed on Letterman.
“Champion’s the perfect introduction to our music,” said Coyle when I spoke to him recently. “It has the bigness of our sound, and it’s maybe the best mix between the electronic and the organic elements that we put in.” But The Chevin don’t only do big epic songs well; the slower, quieter songs on the album are no less impactful in either melody or lyrics. “There’s a lot more depth sonically to Borderland, especially with the slower songs like So Long Summer, Beautiful World and Love Is Just A Game, than you would know if you only heard Champion or Drive.”
The Chevin’s songs and Coyle’s voice, with its incredible range from raw rock to almost operatic, reflect the music he heard growing up, a mixture of opera and Americana. “Subconsciously, I was influenced by everything that my dad would listen to, which would be a lot of Americana like Roy Orbison, Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. I never actually liked them as a kid, but it definitely had a huge influence on me and they’re all my favourite artists as an adult. My mum and my grandmother played opera all my life. I always loved it and always sang along.” It’s still a firm favourite: “I’m a big opera lover, so I go see that quite a lot, pretty much every show. It’s amazing, especially the Puccini operas. I remember I saw Turandot, and I just couldn’t believe the effect it had. I don’t know what was going on with me, but it was extremely deep. I was in an elevated state for about three days after seeing the Nessun Dorma in the final scene. It absolutely blew my mind. It’s unbelievable. It’s just genius on another level really.”
The singer has had no vocal training, though; the power and range reflect pure natural talent. “When I first started singing, I was quite self-conscious, so I wasn’t singing properly when I was at school. But when I loosened up, a very powerful, very high-ranged voice was there, and people couldn’t believe it at first. And now, I couldn’t imagine life without it. It’s so therapeutic to be able to sing like that. It’s crazy, I don’t know where it comes from. It’s almost otherwordly, the experience sometimes. I’m very fortunate.”
As are we! Fans will be happy to hear that The Chevin are working on their next album. “I’m writing it at the moment,” said Coyle. It’s a stage he particularly enjoys: “It’s always fun. I like to think of it as just playing with toys right now… keyboards and noises, and trying to figure out what I want to talk about. I work on everything at home and record the demos of it all at the same time. Then we’ll listen through to what we have and work on it in the rehearsal room, and then play some it live. When we feel we’re ready we’ll go in and record it. But usually by the time we get into the studio everything’s quite advanced in terms of recording, because so much has been done between my home studio and the rehearsal room. By the time we usually go in the studio, the album’s already pretty much half finished and it’s more about capturing performances than it is really shaping the songs. So we’re just in the middle of that process and looking to get everything finished for it written-wise by the end of the year and maybe record it in January, and then release it from next spring onwards, I guess.”
The next twelve months will be a busy one for the band: “There’s a lot to do, there’s a lot going on. By this time next year… we’ll be a couple of singles in, so it would be nice for those to be towards the top of the charts and for the new record to be well received and doing well. We were happy with the reaction to Borderland. We barely got any negative reaction anywhere from it which was very rewarding. So, a continuation of being well received and a step up to the next level would be good. And another album that we’re proud of. ”
If the last twelve months are anything to go by, The Chevin are sure to experience a continuation of their incredible journey so far. Coyle is very grateful for the opportunities he’s had the past year: “Being able to travel and meet new people, and play all over the world a record written in my bedroom during a shitty time, is very rewarding.” The Letterman performance remains a standout highlight, though, an experience that Coyle described as both great and terrifying: “We were on the same show as Michelle Obama, and it was insane. The whole block was shut off, and there were guys with shades and earpieces. We couldn’t get anyone to smile, no matter how many jokes we cracked! It was crazy. I tried to meet Michelle Obama, but they actually locked us in our dressing room while they moved her so we couldn’t get anywhere near her.”
I think Michelle definitely missed out. I’m sure she would have been as blown away as the rest of us.
The Chevin on David Letterman:
You can find the band here:
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*photo credit Wes Henstock