In a town as artistic as Ocean Beach, where musicians spill out onto almost every street corner and garages hum with guitar feedback, local musician and promoter Chuck Schiele is still the easiest guy to pick out of a crowd “” he’s usually the one running the show.
Schiele has long been a fixture in the local scene, bringing good music to neighborhood venues and events, while keeping the spotlight fixed on the talent.
A self-described wanna-be musician whose formal training lies in creative design, Schiele has been an Ocean Beach regular since 1989. It was after he saw an opportunity to fill a few gaps in the acoustic scene that he decided he had something to offer. As a result, Ocean Beach became home to Schiele and his wife, business partner and band member Joanna.
“That became my motivation to make my business in music in OB because every other person you know plays something and the rest wish they could,” he explained. “I’m like these people so I figured this is where I want to be.”
Johnny and Heather Janiga of Podunk Nowhere count Schiele as both a professional mentor and friend of almost six years. “He was a really good friend to us when we started playing around town,” Johnny Janiga said. “He always thinks of the local musicians first.”
Schiele has kicked around these parts long enough to become part of its musical folklore. He remembers when Java Joe’s, the famous coffee shop that christened national stars like Jewel and Jason Mraz, was part of the neighborhood landscape. “I used to play there in the old days, like back in the early to mid-’90s, when it was at the Starbucks location,” he said. “I always thought it was a great location and I always wanted to shoot a video in there.”
These days Schiele keeps busy by working on solo projects and producing music with various bands, including The Grams, which won a 2005 San Diego Music Award for Best Americana, and Bad Science Fiction. Schiele said that each of his bands allows him to work through different streams of creativity, explaining that while The Grams are a serious, dedicated band with an agenda and a schedule, his other group, Bad Science Fiction, comprises a bunch of his backstage drinking buddies who mutated into a band over the course of a few years.
“It’s kind of like our bowling night band “” that’s the way we look at it,” he joked.
In an effort to harness their combined skills in music, producing, promoting and design, Schiele and his wife started promotion company Beach Music Mafia. They describe it as “an organization of movers and shakers in the San Diego music scene with the sole purpose of fostering a better scene.”
“We’re two sides of the same coin. In fact, we can do a lot of what each other does,” Schiele said of working with his wife.
“The Mob,” as they’re called, are currently in their third year as hosts of Music on the Avenue at the Ocean Beach Farmers Market on Newport. They continued their tradition this year of teaming up with the Ocean Beach MainStreet Association (OBMA) to host the Ocean Beach Holiday Music Festival and Toy Drive. They even had a float in the Dec. 2 holiday parade.
As a token of gratitude for his work with the farmers market, OBMA recognized Schiele with a community volunteer award last year.
Recently, Schiele opened StudiOB 92107, a recording studio out of his home primarily for his and local musicians’ projects. He explained that one of the reasons he opened the studio was so he could work when he was inspired, as opposed to just working by appointment in other studios.
“He’s got a great room. It’s kind of sexy in way “” that’s what he calls it,” Janiga said. “I think it’s very inviting. He listens to you and he works with you. All in all, he just furthers the work.”
Podunk Nowhere just finished its debut album in the studio under Schiele’s care and will release it at Winstons, 1921 Bacon St., on Feb. 14, at 9 p.m.
As for the future of the neighborhood music scene, Schiele is hopeful. “I would just like to see the same growth that we’re taking, you know, because from where it is now is different from where it was, say, three years ago.”
He also has plans to work toward goals outside of music, though still in the community.
“I’d like to get a daily street washing thing going on somehow,” he said. “I think that’d be cool.”