In the coming months, music fans are going to get some heaping doses of Hurricane Sugar, a dynamic new Los Angeles-based band led by singer, songwriter and guitarist Alex Chamis. The quartet, which also includes guitarist Josh Brazinski, bassist Donovan Hernandez and drummer Jeff Galland, is set to release a series of hard-hitting, modern rock tracks as they bring their equally propulsive live show to the stage.
  “The best groups aren’t always comprised of members who share the same influences,” says Chamis, whose musical heroes run the gamut from pop royalty (the Beatles) to psychedelic masters (Jimi Hendrix) to Southern rock icons (ZZ Top) to stoner rock (Queens of the Stone Age). “The other members of Hurricane Sugar are way into heavy, grungy stuff like Rage Against the Machine and Alice in Chains, so they take the songs I write and put them into a heavy-duty grinder and it all comes out pretty fierce.”
  Music has always been part of Chamis’ DNA. Born to two musician parents – his singer-songwriter mother had success in a band called Poor Valentino, and his father played drums in a series of cover bands – he remembers being constantly surrounded by music while growing up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. “My parents continued to perform after I was born, and they even owned a recording studio and live music venue, so they were always holding shows there,” he says.
  Under the tutelage of his father, Chamis started playing drums at age six, and by the time he was 10 he moved to guitar, teaching himself chords and picking out Beatles songs from music books. His first high school band was called Operation of What, consisting of Chamis and three girls. “It was the first time I played guitar and sang in front of people,” he says. “We did a few songs at my dad’s gigs in bars. Right away, I knew this was for me.”
  A couple of years later, Chamis’ parents divorced and he went to live with his mother in Tennessee, where he played drums for another group (NAME OF BAND) that wound up winning a battle of the bands competition. The prize was the opportunity to cut a full-length album at a studio in Knoxville. “We did the whole thing in two days with no real guidance,” he recalls. “It was kind of crazy, but it my first real taste of proper recording.”
  Switching back to guitar, Chamis got serious about songwriting. He moved to Atlanta and formed a band called Flashback Flash, with whom he recorded an album that was released on streaming services (“It’s still out there if anybody wants to find it”). When the other members of the group floated the idea of pooling their resources and buying a house, Chamis realized it was fight or flight time – so he flew to Los Angeles.
  In L.A., Chamis found himself smack dab in a sea of hungry and talented players, and in no time at all he hooked up with Brazinski, Hernandez and Galland. The four jelled quickly and named themselves Hurricane Sugar, and soon they were playing the clubs – the Mint, the Virgil, the Old Town Pub in Pasadena. “Right away we could tell that we had something and that people were responding,” says Chamis. “For once, it seemed like things were falling into place.”
  In the first few months of 2020, Hurricane Sugar recorded four original songs with the intention of releasing them and taking their live show on the road. “We were thrilled with everything we recorded and couldn’t wait to get going,” Chamis says. “Right as we were able to put everything in motion, the pandemic hit and everything just stopped. It was really frustrating, because we had a bunch of gigs lined up. But that’s the way it is with bands – sometimes it feels like you’re pushing a boulder up a mountain.”
  Coincidentally, that sentiment is at the core of Hurricane Sugar’s barnstorming, hook-laden track “The Grind.” “It’s taken from the Greek myth of Sisyphus,” Chamis explains, “which is the guy who pushes the boulder up the hill ad nauseum, only to have it roll back to the bottom. The lyrics are about how, in my view, that’s a call to action. You should try to break out of that pattern and figure out another way of doing things; otherwise, nothing’s going to happen.”
  The swaggering, stomping groover “Narcissist” is Chamis’ commentary on the self-obsession inherent in today’s social media landscape. “You’ve got all these outlets on which everybody is talking about me, me, me all the time,” he says. “You’re better off living in the moment and developing the ability to simply talk to other people. Everybody’s forgotten how to do that.”
  “Eros” is a sparkly and spunky ear-candy gem in which Chamis sings about loving somebody who is unavailable. “It’s a little open-ended, whether that other person is either already taken or lives far away,” he says. “But I think everybody can relate to the idea of loving somebody you just can’t have.” And the dark and moody “Tightrope” is a powerful expression of depression and isolation. “I think we all go through this at one time or another. You’re trying to balance your feelings and literally not fall off a tightrope.”
  Now that lockdowns across the country are lifting, Hurricane Sugar are finally releasing their music, a song at a time starting with “The Grind,” and with each track they have a dramatic accompanying video helmed by rising L.A.-based filmmaker Joshua Barnett. “Having Josh in our corner has been a huge asset to us,” says Chamis. “He’s a brilliant director who has a really clear vision, and he’s made a commitment to us to match our songs to really powerful images in videos that are super entertaining. He filmed and edited each video himself – the guy is amazing.”
  Despite the lockdown and the forced time away from live gigs, Chamis stresses that the band’s morale is as high as ever. “It’s been weird not being able to play,” he says, “but fortunately that looks like it will change soon. We’re looking forward to getting back out there and doing shows. If anything, the pause in our career has made us even hungrier. We’ve been rehearing like crazy, and we’re all set. It’s time to go.”