Chuck Schiele is never one to rest on his laurels. One of the local music scene’s lynchpins, Schiele is a promoter, a performer, a graphic artist and a producer, literally involved in all aspects of the local music community.
A visit to his StudiOB recording facilities for a quick chat reveals Schiele to be in constant motion, as if his ideas are moving faster than his body is capable of responding. This past September, his group, The Grams, took home two trophies from the San Diego Music Awards, including one for “Best American Group.”
In the intervening time, he’s completed a new album for the trio titled “Love Factory,” due out in January. With a release date pending, rather than take a well-deserved breather, Schiele has opted to put his focus temporarily on a harder-rocking side project, Bad Science Fiction.
The band performs Dec. 19 at Winston’s Beach Club with an album due as soon as The Grams’ album is officially released.
“The last 7 years have been good to me as an acoustic musician,” Schiele said. “But, I miss my electric guitars.”
Sitting behind the large recording console, he can’t resist playing a few tunes from the work in progress over the large studio speakers. The pride Schiele takes in his craft is clear.
Bad Science Fiction emerged from Schiele’s home-studio efforts to make more noise than The Grams.
“It started to become a band when I invited my friend, Mike Head, to play lead guitar on a few tracks. He wound up playing on all the songs and in the process sort of became a partner in the project.”
The band’s remaining members came through socializing in the music community.
“A lot of times musicians are handing around saying, “Hey, man, we should jam sometime … .” and with that, Rob Garbo (drums) and Simeon Flick (bass) got involved. We played a show on a fluke, and wound up having a great time.”
Schiele said he appreciates the opportunity to let loose musically.
“There is really no way to describe how good it feels to rip out a good E chord and let the sucker hum,” he said.
Schiele sees Bad Science Fiction as the exact opposite of The Grams.
“It’s two different ideas and attitudes altogether,” he said. “I see them as [yin] and yang. The Grams are about art, whereas Bad Science Fiction is about rock ‘n’roll with a new dance beat and the idea of random weirdness. And noise is an overt element in the equation.”
The meaning behind the group’s name is not as obvious as it might seem.
“It’s sort of a comment on the state of our world, politically and spiritually speaking,” Schiele said. The moniker is actually from a song he wrote called “Rise Up!”, a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr.
Schiele pauses before admitting the connection to classic ’50s movies was also part of the attraction of the name.
“I dig watching those cheesy old science-fiction movies. I love the camp of them,” he said.
With so many other projects on the table for the band’s members, Schiele isn’t certain of the quartet’s actual status, but he knows he’s having fun.
“I’m still not sure we’re a ‘band’ yet,” he said. “This falls under ‘side project.’ We all play heavily in a variety of other groups so we’ve been looking at it as ‘bowling night.’ We hang out, catch up on life, drink a few brews and then rock out with the angst of any adolescent.”
Despite a feverish work pace, he only sees himself getting even busier.
“I just love what I do,” Schiele said. For him, accomplishment is a motivation.
“We’re all gonna die someday. I feel if you’re gonna do something, be passionate about it or get out of the way. It is a privilege to do something to your best ability, with passion,” he said.
Schiele cranks up the speakers and blasts out another Bad Science Fiction tune. While the band may be considered a side project, it’s clear that they are just hitting their stride.
“We’re still just sort of wingin’ it, but we have both essential items to being in a rock group: we are loud and are giving it everything we’ve got without fear,” he said.
Bad Science Fiction performs at Winston’s, 1921 Bacon St. in Ocean Beach, on Friday Dec. 19 at 9 p.m. Admission is $5. For more information visit www.winstonsob.com.