By Brian Mansfield, Special for USA TODAY
Chelle game: With Tonight Tonight, Hot Chelle Rae has the makings of one of the catchiest pop-rock anthems of the summer. The biggest hit of the Nashville band's career, Tonight Tonight is No. 21 on USA TODAY's top 40 airplay chart and has sold 271,000 downloads. It's the first single from the group's as-yet-untitled second album, expected out in the fall. "We've written 15,000, 15,020 songs ? something like that," says guitarist Nash Overstreet, 25, of the new album. "I think it's going to make people move, roll their windows down, have a theme song, a song to cry to when they're breaking up. We're going to give them a lot of pieces to have as a life soundtrack on this record."
By Walid Azami, Courtesy Jive Records/Sony
Ian Keaggy, Nash Overstreet, Ryan Keith Follese and Jamie Follese (clockwise from left) make up the the Nashville band Hot Chelle Rae.
By Walid Azami, Courtesy Jive Records/Sony
Ian Keaggy, Nash Overstreet, Ryan Keith Follese and Jamie Follese (clockwise from left) make up the the Nashville band Hot Chelle Rae.
A common Chord:Glee cast member Chord Overstreet (who plays Sam Evans) is Nash's younger brother, and can be seen making out with a girl on a photocopier in the Tonight Tonight video. "He brought a lot of comedy to the video," Nash says. "He was like, 'I'm not just going to play the role you guys had in mind; I'm going to step it up and be funny.'"
The family business: Chord isn't Hot Chelle Rae's only family connection to the entertainment industry. Overstreet's father, Paul Overstreet, has written hits for Randy Travis, The Judds, Kenny Chesney and Blake Shelton. Keith Follese ? father of lead singer Ryan "RK" Follese, 24, and drummer Jamie Follese, 19 ?- also has penned several country hits, Faith Hill's The Way You Love Me and Lady Antebellum's Lookin' for a Good Time among them. Bassist Ian Keaggy, 23, is the son of Christian singer/guitarist Phil Keaggy. Going into the family industry was more or less inevitable. "When your dad lets you have some of your college tuition to record demos, you kind of know where you're going," Ryan Follese says.
Life lessons: Growing up around musicians helped the bandmates learn key lessons early. Follese recalls being in the room when his father wrote Tim McGraw's Something Like That. "I wouldn't have known what a hit was if it was right next to me," says Follese, who was in his early teens at the time, "but I was like, 'That's a really good song.'" Overstreet remembers his father talking about trying to bail on the songwriting session that ended up producing Travis' Grammy Award-winning hit Forever and Ever, Amen. The moral he took away from the tale: "I don't care how tired I am, I don't care how many songs I've written that day, I'm going to go to work. And when I pass out, that's it."
The T-Swizzle connection: The band, which formed in 2005, first got on a national stage as collaborators with Taylor Swift and T-Pain on Thug Story, the parody of Swift's hit Love Story that aired on the 2009 CMT Music Awards show. "It was one of the coolest experiences I've ever had," Follese says. The group released its first album, Lovesick Electric, later that year.
The importance of being Googled: An early version of the band called itself Miracle Drug, after a U2 song. The musicians soon realized the name could relegate the group to a career of obscurity. "Good luck getting Googled over U2," Overstreet says. Adds Follese, "It's weird to think about making a band name that's Google-friendly, but it's really kind of necessary now." The current name alludes to an early online stalker/fan.
Long hot summer: Hot Chelle Rae sets out on the Friday is Forever tour July 10 at Six Flags in St. Louis. They'll share the bill with We the Kings, the Summer Set, the Downtown Fiction and Action Item. "We've played so many shows with these guys, we're excited to be on an official tour," Follese says. "It's going to be a summer party, honestly."
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