Artist description Suave Chavez is a seven-piece ska/punk band from Southern New Jersey. We play a style that is unique - it's a blend of all of our musical influences. It can be called ska, punk, rock, metal, funk, reggae, and everything in between. Along with playing shows we also draw influence and creativity from our mascot (the dancing Mexican mouse), our trampoline (Tramapoline), and of course, Burger King.

Music Style Ska

Musical Influences Goldfinger, Five Iron Frenzy, Sublime, Incubus, Dave Matthews Band

Similar Artists Five Iron Frenzy

Artist History The origin of " Suave Chavez " goes back to April of 1997, with a little band named " Elvito 139 Express ". This band consisted of Andrew Mather ( vocals ), Jeff Hill ( guitar ) , Harry Brown ( bass ) and Chris Scwertzler ( drums ). The band played a couple of shows, a high school talent show, and Harry's party. The band decided to end during the summer, because Beav ( Andrew ) left for Rhode Island.When Beav returned, he gave Jeff a call and said " Hey, let's start a ska band! " And he said " ok ". He decided he would relieve his position on the guitar and move to bass. The quest to form a ska band had begun. The next two members to be found were Mike Petroff and Shawn Mecchi. They were seen in a band called the " Backseat Drivers " at a talent show. Shawn originally played guitar, but moved to saxophone to create the horn section. Next, Adam Powell was found to be a nice fit in the guitar slot. Now all that was needed was to find some brass! Allen Hazelton, Andrew Halter, and Bill Zimmerman we're found in the Shallick High School band, and Jay Norcross ( to be later known as Squirrel ) was found over the internet and met at a bowling alley.We started writing songs and doing humorous cover songs, and we realized that it was pure magic! We had some supporters that stuck with us from the beginning - Joel, Hunkele, Chris, Mel, Tiff, Sarah and the Petroff's. Mr. Petroff generously bought us a PA system.We were ready for our debut at Joel's, the date was February 7th, a cold winter night. After a glorious set, and the great crowd reaction ( check the photo archive for some visual aid ) we decided that Suave Chavez would be together for a while and possibly achieve ska greatness!After our show at Joel's, we decided we clicked! We went on to play many more shows, eventually two more at Joel's! Allen made his playing debut at the second show, because he was our on family vacation during our first! After much thought and consideration, the Suave Chavez horn section was reduced to three instead of five. Andrew Halter and Bill Zimmerman left the band... But mind you, they did put in their hard work! We played many places including school events, and town festivals! All the while, we were building up to our main goal of playing at the Chameleon Club in Lancaster, PA! And we did!!Our main goal was finally complete! But then we saw ourselves with all this great and original material and we had a bigger goal in mind! We had to record! However, money lacked... It was nearing the time for our lead singer, Beav , to go off to college. There wasn't a way for us to raise enough money to record while he was still around. So, in August 1998, we bid Beav a fond farewell as he trucked off to Rhode Island University. We all miss Beav, and we wish him well...We continued working on a couple new songs we were writing at the time Beav left. The horn lines were getting more difficult, and the guitar parts were getting more divers and complicated. We knew we had to find another new lead singer, and soon. After a three tryouts, we found Squirrel's friend Nick Lock, from Millville, to be the perfect candidate for the new lead singer of Suave Chavez! Nick wrote words to, the now heavily popular song, " I Always Will " , which was our turn-around point to get us out of our no-lead-singer-slump. But there was still more tragedy to befall Suave Chavez... We lost our bass player, Jeff, due to some disagreements and conflicts of with points of view. He left in November of 1998.Now, Suave Chavez has found a new bassist. Adorning the name of Dan, he hails from Vineland as the old bass player from JFR ( Justice For Ron ). He contacted Squirrel showing interested and instantly clicked with every band member at his first practice! Suave Chavez now moves on to bigger and better things, now having a complete and full sounding band again! Who knows what's ahead for us??

Group Members Nick Lock - Lead Vocals, Adam Powell - Guitar, Vocals, Dan Kuzma - Bass, Mike Petroff - Drums, Shawn Mecchi - Alto / Tenor Sax, Allen Hazelton - Trumpet, Jay "Squirrel" Norcross - Trombone

Instruments vocals, guitar, bass, drums, sax, trumpet, trombone

Albums Skatomic Bomb

Location Pittsgrove, NJ - USA

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