Like bread and butter, Brad Elvis and Chloe Orwell, of the Chicago-based band The Handcuffs, work together to spread peace, passion and the power of rock with their second album, Electroluv.
Elvis (no relation) and Orwell (again, no relation), met while members of the now-disbanded Big Hello, but there is a hint of innuendo as to their original encounter.
“Which story do you want to tell Brad?” Orwell asked of the dark-haired drummer.
The Handcuffs evolved from the chemistry sparked during Orwell and Elvis’ original matchup, after Big Hello had run its course.
“Big Hello was really Brad’s band,” Orwell says. “Big Hello was the company, he was the president, and we were all employees.”
“Times changed, we needed to do something different,” Elvis agrees. “And we hit it off.”
“I can’t remember the last time I got along so well with someone creatively,” Orwell says, stating the obvious to anyone who has attempted to hold a conversation with the duo.
After their last project, the pair wanted to create a sound that was sexy and edgy, but still accessible, so the pair needed a straightforward name. The Handcuffs is shocking in its simplicity, and simple in its shock value.
“It sounded like a good rock ‘n’ roll name,” says Elvis. “Everybody was just stunned that nobody else had used it. We felt that everybody, young and old, could be grooving on it.”
“Yes, infants and the elderly,” Orwell retorts.
Thus, the ambitious pair struck out in this venture to experiment with different sounds, an array of mixes and varying levels of production values.
“When we first started, we weren’t really sure what we were going to do, so we sought out people after we figured that out,” Orwell states.
When they were ready for their debut album, the duo became a foursome with the addition of bassist Emily Togni and guitarist/keyboardist Ellis Clark. “Make sure you talk about our band,” Elvis says. “We love our band.”
Of her own accord, Orwell is a classically-trained musician who plays several instruments including the saxophone. She fell in love with songwriting from a popular standpoint.
“One thing that sold me on Chloe, is that her songs have cool chord changes,” Elvis asserts. “There were things I couldn’t come up with because I didn’t have that training.”
“But understanding music theory can be a fault in rock,” Orwell offers. “And I’ve learned from Brad that sometimes you just have to throw away things that you think are proper in music. He’s got this innate talent. It’s nature for him; I have to nurture mine more.”
“I always wrote songs in my weird little way that I write songs,” Elvis says. “It’s kind of nerve-wracking sometimes. Whatever I do, I have a song in my head.”
Though the pair did write a few songs on their debut album together, they don’t normally collaborate during that particular part of the creative process. Elvis wrote twelve songs for Electroluv and Orwell authored one. The majority of the music is created in the studio, where Elvis and Orwell play equal parts in the production process.
“I’ll think, ‘Brad’s really going to like this song,’ and he writes for me and my voice…I don’t want to call myself his muse, that’s a little silly, but we create together,” Orwell offers. “We write for each other.”
Their musical tastes collided in Electroluv, the result of personally tumultuous times and the pair’s jointly huge vinyl collection.
“People say it’s kind of glam,” says Elvis. “But we didn’t set out to purposefully make that kind of album. We just added some saxophones, some piano stuff, some of the rhythms. But we don’t have a specific period in mind.”
“I kind of like when people say that,” Orwell enthuses. “It’s what we were sort of in the mood for, perhaps. We were listening to a lot of T.Rex, and Bowie too, a lot of different influences, and we were both in a different place in life.”
The two had unconsciously created an association with the quintessential glam rock album, T. Rex’s Electric Warrior (1971). And like that album, Electroluv is a joyous foray into the futuristic world of outrageous lyrics and eye shadow. They’re all glitter without the Gary (though Elvis appears to have the same penchant for striking scarves).
According to Elvis, “We called the record Electroluv, kind of like Electric Warrior, because we wanted to connote love and power.”
Orwell and Elvis had both emerged from bad relationships in between albums, and Orwell had survived cancer twice. Electroluv is more empowered and cathartic than their first album, though none of those themes seem to be explicitly addressed.
“We’ve always kind of been there for each other,” Elvis says. “It’s an open, bonding experience. It’s in the lyrics.”
However glam they get, however close to the abyss of power pop they may stride, The Handcuffs are not ones to be labeled, and prefer to be referred to, simply, as a rock band.
“We want to move on, do something a little edgier, less jangly,” Elvis says. “Power pop bands have a lot of that ‘I lost my baby, I found my baby, I want my baby,’ and we try to come up with fun, quirky things.”
“We enjoy just being quirky and creative with words,” Orwell adds.
The result is an onslaught of an atypical fare of song titles, and together, they have at least another album of new material, which they plan to self-produce.
“We’re completely do-it-yourself,” Orwell said. “We’ve had offers to be on labels, but have passed, because it’s a good climate right now for D.I.Y.”
“We are on a label,” Elvis retorts. “It’s OOFL. ‘Our Own F------ Label.”
“Yes, OOFL has served us well,” Orwell affirms.
--Gretchen Gaskill [February 9,2009]
Photo: Davis Brel
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The Handcuffs' Electroluv is available now on OOFL Records.
http://www.thehandcuffs.com
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