Beach Music Mafia

Beach Music Mafia

Word on the Street

Music Advocate Makes Ocean Beach the Hottest New Venue

By Kelly Thomas

Chuck Schiele has two passions in life: music and his community. Over the past years Schiele has made it his mission to bring a variety of quality music into the wonderful community of Ocean Beach. Schiele can be found working in every corner of the industry, whether he is promoting and coordinating talent for the local scene, playing in one of his many bands or writing reviews for the SD Troubadour.

Schiele has been a veteran of the San Diego music scene for 22 years. He is undoubtedly the busiest musician and music advocate in town. Schiele and his band The Gandhi Method were recently nominated for a 2004 San Diego Music Award for "Best Acoustic Act." But lately, Schiele is putting most of his musical efforts into being the ringleader of his new band, The Grams. He and his bandmates, Elise Ohki and Craig Yerkes, are recording their debut CD, "One Thing to Say."

When Schiele is not performing, he spends most of his time coordinating music-related activites. Schiele organizes the talent for events like the Ocean Beach Farmer's Market every Wednesday, the summer's "OB Sun Jam" and, has almost single-handedly changed the way Ocean Beach listens to music, bringing in new and different talents and sounds.

"The music scene in Ocean Beach can be a little stoic, but is also very unique," said schiele. "I love it here in Ocean Beach. The car is parked, I work from home, I can walk around or ride my bike to my favorite places. I'll never leave. A few years ago I realized no one was aware of the music outside of Ocean Beach. We had a buncha great jam bands but that was it."

His love for the guitar spawned him to help the community expand its listening ear.

"I wanted to instigate a(nother) new scene, so I started by bringing in the scene I've been a part of."

"The first thing I wanted to do was to expose the abundance of acoustic guitar-oriented talent in Ocean Beach," said Schiele. "I did that. The next thing I wanted to do was to bring music networks outside of Ocean Beach into the area," said Schiele. "I did that, too."

Since Schiele has made it his mission to spice thing up on stage he has become Ocean Beach's music ambassador.

"People are hungry for music here," Schiele said.

And he knows how to deliver. Schiele has turned shopping for produce into an event at the Ocean Beach Farmer's Market - and music at the market has become more than "just" music at the market.

When he is not focusing his efforts locally, Schiele is busy recording a bi-coastal album via the internet. Schiele will be working with Tyler Walton, a rap artist in New York who will tour under the sponsorship of Queen Latifah. Walton recently won "Best Producer" at New York's Urban Music Awards.

Schiele has also undertaken the role of producer working on different projects with up and coming artists.

It is only natural that Schiele's next step would be to review music. He has been writing for the San Diego Troubadour for almost 2 years now. He's become a sort of assistant to the editor and now shares responsibility for content, design, web design, and advertising.

So what will Schiele do next? Now that the "OB Sun Jam" concerts, which ran ever Saturday and Sunday through the summer, are over, he is currently working on a revision for the winter series - one that is sure to bring even more new fresh acoustic faces to the Ocean Beach scene.

"I have the rather selfish ambition to be part of a better scene. And so rather than complain about the scene, I prefer to simply attempt fostering a better one," Schiele said. "No whining."

Thats what he has done. Schiele has evolved Ocean Beach into a venue full of variety and camaraderie, where no matter where you turn there are good tunes and an a bundance of talent.

For more information on Schiele and his band, visit http://TheGrams.net

The Wave of a New Music Scene Rolls Into Ocean Beach.

By Bob Biscoli

For some time now, there's been a pack of cooperating musicians, artists and other creative types making quite an impact on the Ocean Beach music scene. A case of independent musicians, artists, writers, studios, venues and other interests coming together as a cooperation that they loosely but affectionately refer to as the "Beach Music Mafia."

Until now, Ocean Beach music is well noted for Winstons and the Ocean Beach Chili Cook-off. In the past few years, Oktoberfest has also become a great idea. You can always count on a weekend keg party with some featured unknown reggae or punk band to send you staggering home. Aside from that there is Dream Street, but Obecians don't really go there. And thats pretty much it.

Enter the Mafia.

Over the last year, Chuck Schiele has been chipping away at a hardly existing Ocean Beach music scene and, by now, is involved with bringing well over 30 new artists to Ocean Beach at a rate of 15 (plus) new dates per month to 4 venues - two of them new. With a mob of other industry-related associations based in and outside of this seaside community, music and art is beginning to fill the streets of Ocean Beach in a big way. While the energy of this new movement is born, propelled and functioning in Ocean Beach, it reaches Mission Beach, Pacific Beach, La Jolla, Del Mar, Encinitas and even as far east as Allied Gardens.

Schiele coordinates music for the Ocean Beach Farmers Market, every Wednesday on Newport Ave at the Bacon Street intersection, bringing in new talent every week that generally would never make it into the Ocean Beach loop. The people seem to love the new artists, and the fact that they are not a jam band according to their typical expectation; the vendors just plain like it, and the bands love to play here because they find hungry new audiences.

On Saturdays and Sundays he's turned the Sunset Plaza located at 5083 Santa Monica Avenue at the corner of Abbott... (Qwiigs, Tower Two, Shades), in to the OB Sun Jam, which goes from 11am til 6ish every weekend."Its perfect, because you can have lunch in the sun, make new friends, check out the 'locals,' have a few brews, take in the music and watch surfers. You can even bring your kids. Or show up in your bikini. Its what the California weekend dream is all about. In one visit most folks are hooked and they go tell their friends. We see them next week.

The fact is that even though there is only one real scene here, Ocean Beach wants more music. I thought about it for a short while, found the right people, and started building another scene altogether, knowing the people will com." explains Schiele. "For the musicians its perfect too, because this community is salivating for something new. And it shows because we see them coming out more and more, every week. And you now what else? Obecians LOVE original music. Even the music biz vultures are beginning to circle, looking for a way to get a piece of the action. That alone tells me our shit is working. As far as the Sunset Plaza goes... there's been an empty plaza there for years. I always looked at that thing and imagined, music, pretty people eating lunch at tables with umbrellas, drinking mimosas. I wondered why nobody ever did anything with it. I saw they had somebody else play one day but they were doing it wrong, it didn't work and it dissolved. So, I went over there one day and proposed the idea. They said "okay, how bout next week?" Its been a hit and growing ever since. By now everyone at the plaza is enthusiastic and doing their part to make this go. And I found out they LOVE original music, too. Original music, infact, is what gets requested most, and I see people I don't know singing along to original songs. How cool is that? Its fun, everybody wins and everyone is happy. We're already talking about bigger things."

SDAM.com is also based out of Ocean Beach with the mission of making local musicians available to the world with their on-line menu of San Diego talent. According to OB resident/icon, Sean Simpson, "Our website not only serves as a complete resource of musicians, but also as a resource to musicians. Even if you aren't a serious musician interested in our "serious musician" services and tools, we still list you or your band with your contact information because we know it encourages the overall wealth of the music scene. After all we live by the credo that the musician comes first." SDAM.com also gets involved with local concerts including the annual OB Chili Cookoff, even throws a few of their own events every year while acting as an integral networking presence.

And so rolls in this wave of 'music mafioso' into one of the world's coolest neighborhoods. A neighborhood so repletely bathed in paradise no one ever feels the need to leave: making it more its own cultural and social bubble. And now instead of leaving the paradise bubble to find something new all you have to do is stick your head out the door and listen.

NEXT CASH ONLY! 2/23/06 WINSTONS

April 2005
San Diego Union-Tribune
BEST BET

GEORGE VARGA

CASH ONLY: the late Johnny Cash was an American Music icon who excelled at country, folk, blues, gospel and - early in his career - rockabilly. A master of economy, he made every note count, and his concise yet eloquent writing style and deep, deep vocals inspired several generations of fans and musicians. You can hear fro yourself Thursday at the "Cash Only!" a tribute concert organized by Ocean Beach singer-songwriter Chuck Schiele. The lineup includes former Cash lead guitarist Jim Soldi, ex-Beat Farmer Joey Harris, The Coyote Problem, The Grams, Mark Jackson, Rose, The Neverly Brothers, Whisky Tango, Deadline Friday, and the aptly named Band in Black. the music begins at 9pm at the 21-and-up Winston's, 1921 Bacn St., Ocean Beach.

MOB BOSSES CHUCK & JOANNA SCHIELE MAKE OCEAN BEACH THEIR HOME


				*Beach Music Mafia* *Word on the Street*



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