Peter Loeffler ( ; born October 19, 1976) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter of the

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band Chevelle alongside his brother, drummer Sam Loeffler, who are the only continuous original members of the band. Pete, Sam, and bassist Joe Loeffler formed Chevelle in 1995. Joe left the band in 2005, later being replaced with their brother-in-law

Dean Bernardini Dean Bernardini (born December 27, 1973) is an American musician, best known as the former bass guitarist and backing vocalist for the rock band Chevelle. He joined the band in 2005 after the departure of Joe Loeffler, who had been a member of t ...

. As of February 2024, Chevelle has released nine studio albums.

Early life

Loeffler started off in music when he started taking piano lessons in his family at seven years old.

Career

Pete and his two brothers formed Chevelle in 1995. The band's name came from the band members' passion for fast cars. It was also a car their father liked, the

Chevrolet Chevelle The Chevrolet Chevelle is a Mid-size car, mid-sized automobile that was produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors (GM) in three generations for the 1964 to 1977 model years. Part of the GM GM A platform, A-body platform, the Chevelle ...

. They released their first album, Point #1, in 1999. They later signed a 20-year contract with

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), cong ...

. Since then, they have released nine studio albums under Epic. On October 8, 2012, while performing a show in

Tucson, Arizona Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

, Loeffler fell off the stage, which injured his knee and caused swelling. The show continued after a brief intermission and Pete later went to the hospital where it was revealed that he did not break any bones. In a March 17, 2021, interview with

Loudwire ''Loudwire'' is an American online media magazine that covers news of hard rock and heavy metal artists. It is owned by media and entertainment business Townsquare Media. Since its launch in August 2011, ''Loudwire'' has secured exclusive i ...

, Loeffler stated that despite the band selling over six million albums, they haven't gotten any money out of it. The money all went back to Epic. He blames it on signing a bad contract early on in his career. Their tenth album, which is expected to release in 2025, will not be under the record label.

Equipment

From the start of his career to mid-2014, Loeffler used

PRS PRS or prs may refer to: Science and technology * Peripheral Reflex System, an implementation of autonomous peripheral operations in microcontrollers * Personal response system, in audience response * Phenotypic response surfaces, in medicine * P ...

brand guitars, two of which were custom-built for him. He also uses two PRS Custom 22s, one red (which can be seen in the music video for "Send the Pain below") and one white custom 24 (his main live guitar), as well as 2 Custom 24

baritones A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...

(one of which is a baritone with red "Xs" on the neck as inlays; the other is gold-top). Pete also owns

Fender Stratocaster The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of double- cutaway electric guitar designed between 1952 and 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corpora ...

Sub-Sonic Baritones, but two were stolen along with the rest of the band's gear on May 9, 2007. In earlier live sets, (prior to the band's EP) Pete had played a blue

Ibanez RG The Ibanez RG is a series of electric guitars produced by Hoshino Gakki. The first model in the series, the RG550, was originally released in 1987 and advertised as part of the Roadstar series. That series was renamed "RG" in 1992 and all model ...

among other guitars. Pete also reportedly used a

Gibson Les Paul The Gibson Les Paul is a solid body electric guitar that was first sold by the Gibson Guitar Corporation in 1952. The guitar was designed by factory manager John Huis and his team with input from and endorsement by guitarist Les Paul. Its typic ...

for some parts on the 2011 album Hats off to the Bull. As of recently, Loeffler has switched and favored Fender guitars, taking on the road one of his Sub-sonic Stratocasters, as well as a modified

Jim Root James Donald Root (born October 2, 1971) is an American guitarist. He is one of two guitarists for heavy metal band Slipknot, in which he is designated #4, as well as the former lead guitarist for rock band Stone Sour. Life and career Ro ...

Stratocaster. As of 2014, his pedalboard currently consists of these effect pedals: * Boss GE-7 Equalizer * Boss TR-2

Tremolo In music, ''tremolo'' (), or ''tremolando'' (), is a trembling effect. There are multiple types of tremolo: a rapid repetition of a note, an alternation between two different notes, or a variation in volume. Tremolos may be either ''measured'' ...

* Dunlop Cry Baby Wah * Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail

Reverb In acoustics, reverberation (commonly shortened to reverb) is a persistence of sound after it is produced. It is often created when a sound is reflected on surfaces, causing multiple reflections that build up and then decay as the sound is a ...

* G-Lab True Bypass Wah Pad *

MXR Phase 90 The MXR Phase 90 is a phaser effects pedal introduced in 1972 by MXR. History The Phase 90 was the first pedal sold by MXR and helped launch the company in 1974. The original model had a simple orange enclosure with a script style MXR logo. In ...

* Peterson StroboStomp 2 Tuner * Tech 21 SansAmp GT2 * Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus

Style

Pete Loeffler's vocal style has been compared to

Maynard James Keenan Maynard James Keenan (born James Herbert Keenan; April 17, 1964) is an American singer, songwriter, philanthropist, record producer, and winemaker. He is best known as the singer and primary lyricist of the rock bands Tool (band), Tool, A Perfe ...

Tool A tool is an Physical object, object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many Tool use by animals, animals use simple tools, only human bei ...

. In an interview with ''

Ultimate Guitar Ultimate Guitar (Ultimate Guitar USA LLC), also known as Ultimate-Guitar.com or simply UG, is an online platform for guitarists and musicians, started on October 9, 1998 by Eugeny Naidenov and based in San Francisco, US. Its website and mobile ...

'' about their fourth studio album, ''

Vena Sera ''Vena Sera'' is the fourth studio album by American rock band Chevelle, released on April 3, 2007, through Epic Records. Many of the tracks on this album were based on material from unreleased songs the band had previously recorded. The term "V ...

'', Loeffler talked about his vocal style: The band's ninth studio album, ''

NIRATIAS ''NIRATIAS'' (an acronym for "Nothing Is Real and This Is a Simulation") is the ninth studio album by American rock band Chevelle, released on March 5, 2021. It was preceded by four singles: " Self Destructor", "Peach", "Remember When", and "End ...

'', balanced the band's melodic and aggressive style. Loeffler compared it to the band's more melodic albums like '' Hats Off to the Bull'' and ''

Wonder What's Next ''Wonder What's Next'' is the second studio album by American rock band Chevelle, released on October 8, 2002 by Epic Records. Spawning the singles " The Red", " Send the Pain Below", and " Closure", it proved to be Chevelle's breakthrough albu ...

'', as opposed to the heavier sound of '' The North Corridor''.

Discography

Studio albums * '' Point #1'' (1999) * ''

'' (2002) * '' This Type of Thinking (Could Do Us In)'' (2004) * ''

'' (2007) * '' Sci-Fi Crimes'' (2009) * '' Hats Off to the Bull'' (2011) * '' La Gárgola'' (2014) * '' The North Corridor'' (2016) * ''

'' (2021) * ''Bright as Blasphemy'' (2025)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loeffler, Pete Living people Musicians from Illinois People from Grayslake, Illinois Year of birth missing (living people) Chevelle (band) members Alternative metal singers Nu metal singers American tenors American rock guitarists Alternative metal guitarists