Chevelle released “Face to the Floor” to radio on October 10, 2011, as the first single from their sixth studio album, Hats Off to the Bull. Its subject was financial exploitation, with singer and guitarist Pete Loeffler drawing on Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme for the lyrics.
Drummer Sam Loeffler told Loudwire that Pete wrote the words while watching a documentary about Madoff. Sam was struck by the scale of the fraud, how long it had continued and the business Madoff had constructed around it. Pete’s explanation focused on the people left to deal with the losses. “The lyrics are about all the people who have been taken advantage of,” he said in the announcement accompanying the song’s video.
Speaking with CityBeat in October 2011, Sam described the human cost through the example of an older person discovering that money they expected to retire on had disappeared. Suddenly, selling a house and moving in with their children could replace the life they had planned. He connected that sense of betrayal to the broader financial crisis, describing the song as an expression of being cheated by people who should have been trustworthy.
That concern for people on the losing side also informed the album’s title. Sam described Hats Off to the Bull as an expression of support for the underdog. Pete explained the bullfighting reference to Screamer Magazine, discussing his opposition to animal cruelty. Their explanations placed sympathy for those being exploited at the center of both the single and the album’s title.
For the recording, Pete, Sam and bassist Dean Bernardini worked with producer Joe Barresi. His credits included several bands they admired, and Sam admitted to Loudwire that they initially wondered whether his approach might be overwhelming. Instead, they found someone interested in developing what Chevelle already did, with an extensive supply of equipment and ideas to explore. Pete told Screamer that the album leaned further into grooves and new sounds, describing it as less heavy than some of their earlier records.
Barresi’s openness came with a practical requirement. As Sam explained to MusicRadar, the songs needed to be prepared before recording began. He worked with the trio during preproduction, and they entered the studio with 13 songs. Pete often started with fragments that the band developed together; Sam helped identify parts that did not work before they became bigger problems. Sam also recalled hearing a Clutch and Queens of the Stone Age feel when they wrote “Face to the Floor.”
On that track, Sam kept his own performance centered on the guitar figure. He heard the riff as a melody in its own right, so his drum part needed to support it without obstructing the vocal. His aim was steady, economical playing with “nothing too flashy,” he told MusicRadar. The restraint was deliberate: the riff and melody needed room, even within a heavy arrangement.
Hats Off to the Bull followed on December 6 through Epic Records. The single’s official video premiered on December 23, directed by P.R. Brown and filmed in Los Angeles. The performance-based clip extended the song’s focus on economic turmoil.
“Face to the Floor” reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart and spent 12 weeks there.
