Born in San Jose California and raised in New York, Chuck Schiele arrived in San Diego at the end of the 1970s, to attend art school at San Diego State University. He came to local attention as guitarist/singer/songwriter for the Grams, whose debut self-titled CD was released in March 2006, co-produced by Schiele & Jeff Berkley, written by Schiele and arranged by the Grams. The band won a 2006 San Diego Music Award as Best Americana Group and a 2007 award for Best Americana or Country.
Schiele has also been an integral part of bands such as the Gandhi Method, Modern Peasants, and Chuck Schiele and the Mysterious Ways. He runs STUDIO B, a full-service recording facility, and has produced several projects, including Podunk Nowhere and Johnny Different.
A longtime devotional resident of Ocean Beach, he has designed graphics for the Ocean Beach MainStreet Association (OBMA) and booked the OB Farmers Market’s weekly concerts. Schiele and his wife have also promoted local events as Beach Music Mafia, which books local venues and events like the Ocean Beach Street Fair and the O.B. Chili Cookoff.
In addition, Schiele has promoted New York City shows, many featuring San Diego acts. "New Yorkers really like San Diego music," he says. "They came. They clapped. They bought CDs. All the New York musicians have the impression that we have a very healthy music scene."
Schiele has booked several SoCal bands at famed Gotham venues such as the Bitter End, Kenny's Castaways (where Joey Ramone met Dee Dee Ramone at a NY Dolls concert), the C Note (now closed), and CBGB (also closed).
In 2010, Schiele relocated to Syracuse, New York, where in 2012 he collaborated on tracks with San Diegan David Ybarra, with the duo swapping files cross-country. A new solo EP debuted in 2021, Love Letters, with a music video for its first single "Justice."
Schiele's band The Quatro made their concert debut in 2019. The group features pedal steel guitarist George Newton, double bassist John Dancks (who worked with Schiele in Salt City Chill), and cellist Heather Kubacki, a former student of Schiele's from his digital art class at Cazenovia College. A self-produced debut EP, Chuck Schiele's Quatro, 4.1, featured three original works: "Sixteen Seconds," "Velvet," and "One Wish." A Quatro album called Square Peg was released in 2023 via Subcat Records.