Straight Outta Wichita

Shuvel has shared the stage with some of the most respected principles of the new school of rock. From Sevendust to Soulfly to the current tour with Crazy Town and Slaves on Dope, this Wichta quintet is creating a solid base of fans with a combination of aggressive live shows and an intensity and drive that many bands simply hope for.
And you thought Kansas didn’t rock.
With two MC’s and an energetic live show bordering on insanity, Shuvel fuses this duel vocal onslaught with a dynamic rhythm section combining elements of both hard rock and hip-hop. The heartland-based five-piece — Jeff Hollinger and Isaac Ayala on lead vocals, Kyle Hollinger on drums, Carlos Sandoval on bass and Ryan Stuber on guitar — got their break after playing at a house party in Southern California where they met a stripper who knew an A&R guy at Interscope Records. Sure, it all sounds easy — meet a well-connected stripper and get a major label contract — but a lot preceded meeting the stripper and the gig at the house party.
Jeff and Isaac formed Shuvel in 1997. Jeff convinced his brother Kyle (who never played drums before in his life) to be their drummer. The trio then enlisted Ryan on guitar and Carlos on bass to complete the circle. Upon deciding to leave Wichita, Shuvel moved to Phoenix, Arizona, which isn’t exactly a rock Mecca. Hey, they figured, anything had to be better than Kansas.
"There really wasn’t too much of a scene there. There’s literally, like, two places to play in town," says Ryan. Phoenix wasn’t that much better.
"We were really only a band there for six months, playing a handful of shows, and we were already playing where all the other good bands were playing," explained Jeff. "We lived there for like five months, then we moved to East LA."
Shortly after that was the house party and the stripper — the rest is history.
Flash-forward to the second stage of this past summer’s Ozzfest stop at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, and picture about 800 kids in 102-degree heat screaming for a band they’ve never heard before. It’s amazing to see the masses react to music they’ve never heard; it usually takes a song or two for the crowd to feel it. In the case of Shuvel it was almost instant, the frenzy began — the crowd was a swirling mass of bodies. This was an impressive show of motivating force not only because of the heat, but it was also a Monday at 11:45 in the morning — kinda’ early for the rock.
"This is our first major nationwide tour" says Jeff. "So the response has been great, the crowds have been great."
And any band that survives an Ozzfest leaves with a ton of stories to tell, like how some people will do anything to get closer to the rock.
"We saw this kid eat dog shit" recall both Jeff and Isaac, breaking into laughter almost simultaneously.
"He ate one of Sharon (Osborne) dog’s shit" adds Jeff.
"He did get $800 though." Kyle interjects. "Taproot got it on video."
"And then, like four days ago in Houston, we were shooting a part of a video and we threw that kid up in the air. And he was like, ‘Yo, you got to spring me up and then catch me,’ and he just shot way up in the air. I was the only one around and nobody was going to catch him, and he just slipped through my hands and fucking ate it. He bounced," laughs Jeff. "We have that on tape, too."
Along with the infinite amount of tour stories, nationwide tours end up at some undesirable locations. "Idaho had all those fucking 14-year-old girls who looked 30," recalls Jeff. "They had, like, one porta-potty" Kyle adds. "There was a pile of shit in the fucking porta potty."
"Idaho was bad but Buffalo, that was the worst," Jeff explains. "It was a fucking shit pile."
Then there are the women of Ozzfest.
"Incubus brings in some hot fucking girls. If you run into a hot girl at the show and you ask her who she is there to see, she’ll say Incubus," says Jeff.
Bad weather pretty much followed the entire summer tour, too. It was almost like the busses were pulling the storms; throughout the country, many of the shows were played in the rain. During the show in Ohio lightening struck a part of the stage just after the Shuvel set.
"There were two or three thousand people there, and right when we got done playing, lightning struck," says Jeff. "A lot of people who were holding on to the guard rail got electrocuted, they got second degree burns."
Despite the bad weather, hectic schedule and general trials of the last Ozzfest tour, it put Shuvel on the map and gave them a massive amount of attention.
"Right after Ozzfest, we did a Canadian tour with Kittie and Disturbed, then we shot the video for ‘Set It Off,’ then we started writing for the next record — all while touring," recalls Jeff, whose now sitting on a cell phone, waiting for the tour bus to get fixed. "This has been the coldest tour we’ve experienced ever and our bus broke down. The brakes froze, it was in Minneapolis."
Lucky for them it all happened near the Mall Of America.
"They’ve got a roller coaster and all kinds of shit in there. We hung out at the bar and drank our sorrows away," says Jeff. "Me and Ryan went to a GNC store and this guy knew who we were and he just hooked us up with all kinds of vitamins and teas."
They even got some holiday shopping out of the way. "Isaac picked up a bunch of porno magazines," laughs Jeff.
Wandering the mall, Jeff says the hard and nonstop working is beginning to pay off.
"We’re now seeing kids singing the songs back to us," he explains. "When we first started touring we were enforcing what we do and the kids would receive it. Now they have the record or they know the songs and you look down there and they are singing it back to you — it’s a rush.

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