In 2011, former Action Verbs frontman Joey Chehade joined forces with members of the indie rock band Gold Star Morning. The musical charge between Chehade and Ben Leang (guitar), Cory Bean (bass), and Joel Silloway (drums) was undeniable; so much so that they decided to form The Life Electric. Now on their third release, The Real You, The Life Electric has established a sound that fuses a little bit of psych rock, a lot of sincere pop and a dash of a disco beat. Chehade describes his music more accurately: “[It’s] big stadium rock songs with a soft, sincere pop underbelly.” He adds, “This album especially, songs are jumping from genre to genre. You will be singing along without that guilty aftertaste. Don’t worry. We mean what we sing.”

Chehade and Leang talk to Myspace about how they formed (thanks to Myspace!), being Boston musicians, and what Donald Drumpf means to them.

Hometown:

Joey: I’m from a town right next to Worcester, Massachusetts called Shrewsbury. Great place to grow up.

Ben: I’m from Kokomo, Indiana. It’s a typical small town in the Midwest. Some great things, some not so great.

Homebase: Joey: Right now we all call Boston home.

How did you all decide to form a band together?

Joey: We all shared a mutual friend and sound engineer, Chris Thomas, who I had worked with on a few EPs with my old band Action Verbs. Ben and Cory had worked with on an album for their old band Gold Star Morning. Action Verbs was coming to its natural end and I wasn't quite sure what to do next. Come to find out through Chris that GSM had ended and was looking for new singer to complete an album they had been working on. I listened to what they had done so far and was blown away. I happily auditioned and here we are. A couple of not great situations that ended up better than I think either of us could've imagined.

Why are you called The Life Electric?

Ben: Well… it sounded nice (laughs). But to me it represents an aspiration for a life that’s greater than what we currently have. All of us have lives that could be, you know, just okay if we weren’t doing music, but we recognize that we need and want to be in a band that makes great music.

What was it like coming from bands that had been successful into a new project? What do you bring from Action Verbs and Gold Star Morning into The Life Electric?

Joey: I hold a very fond place for Action Verbs. I was able to really start getting comfortable writing and singing with a group of great guys who shared different musical and stylistic influences. Like most things in life, confidence will make or break what you do. It’s tough to be confident when you first start out because you’re essentially singing these very sincere poems to your friends, most of whom didn't even know I was in a band. Luckily, Action Verbs allowed me to say ‘fuck it’ and just sort of figure out who I was as a writer and singer.

Ben: I think we were naive in thinking we could pick right back up where we left off, but the reality was that we were starting almost completely over. Gold Star Morning ended up being such an uphill battle in many ways, so everything we did had a learning curve to it. It was like boot camp. When TLE became a reality, I’d brought that work ethic along with me.

Why is your album called The Real You?

Ben: We realized after the album was complete that all the songs had something to do with finding the best in someone, either with ourselves or in relationships. So in the title track, the song is essentially about finding the true, authentic self. I heard somewhere that you become who you are by the age of seven, so the lyrics were kept very basic on purpose, almost juvenile. You can be a “dancer”, a “diva”, and we can be “like family.”

Who are your biggest musical influences?

Joey: Classic bad answer is that I like everything. It’s true. However, I would say Elvis, The Beatles, Pearl Jam, Frightened Rabbit, the first two Weezer albums, Radiohead, The Platters, The Wrens, The National, U2 and on and on.

Ben: The Beatles for sure, from the beginning and still to this day. U2 is huge for me in their sonic landscapes. David Gilmore’s a big influence to me. And when I realized I couldn’t sing like Freddie Mercury, I try my best now to be the Freddie Mercury of guitar.

Does being from Boston influence your music?

Joey: I love Boston. I love the music scene in Boston. Even when you’re away for a little while, it always feels like coming back to a family when you stop by a show. I can’t count the number of excellent bands we’ve had the good fortune of playing with. As far influence goes, I would say that this city lets you be who you want to be as long as your not being an asshole. That may seem silly, but when you’re making music and you don’t have to worry about some imaginary audiences judging you, it goes a long way towards a better product.

Who would you love to collaborate with?

Ben: Dave Grohl. Or Paul McCartney.

Joey: Eddie Vedder.

Drumpf or Trump? What are you feeling this election season? Would you ever infuse politics into your music?

Ben: We don’t really side with one particular party or another, but in this case, it’s most certainly 100 percent Drumpf. For one, I love John Oliver. But two, we have no tolerance for hate speech in this band. Otherwise, I think we’re more interested in universal topics to explore in our songs. I wouldn’t rule anything out in the future, but that’s where we are right now.

Joey: Donald Drumpf is a very tan actor and decent business man with a large head start from his dad. I’m not against anyone taking any advantage they can to be a success, but to pretend that he is a self made man is absurd. I can’t imagine another time in our country where this wouldn't considered a very funny joke, and yet here we are. His off the cuff nonchalant racism is weird but also scary for the amount of traction that it gets. I don't want the US to turn into our drunk grandmother just waiting to spout off about immigrants at the dinner table. Any ideology based exclusively in fear is guaranteed to not turn out well.. I’ve always felt a little put off when a band gets overly politicized. Not that I don’t often agree with what they are saying, but more that you can almost feel the air get sucked out a room when a famous musician starts rallying for a cause. Often I think it can do more harm than good. Only the truly great ones can walk the line of entertainment and politics. I don’t think we’re there yet.

If you were a hashtag, what would you be?

Joey: #rockstarjesus #bigsweatymansings.

Ben: #ridiculous-O-face-guitar.

Do you have an awesome Myspace-related story as a musician?

Ben: You know, before Joey joined up with us, he did his research and found my original demo of The Real You on my Myspace page. And he’s like, “what’s this song?” I had to tell him our old lead singer refused to use any songs that he didn’t write the melody for, so it went unused for years. He couldn’t believe that someone wouldn’t want to use that song, he liked it so much. It showed me that even before we really got to know him, Joey had the right attitude going into this. So yeah, I think it all started with that Myspace demo.