FROM THE ARCHIVES: Interview with Coheed and Cambria (2006)

This interview first appeared on Delusions of Adequacy in January 2006.

Coheed and Cambria are not really an emo-core band. Nor are they really punk, or hardcore, or some metal hybrid, although there is much of all of these styles in their music. Progressive rock comes to mind, and if you ask Claudio Sanchez, lead singer and guitarist for the New York-based quartet, he won’t discourage that notion. “I’ve noticed that some bands take it to heart and dislike names or labels,” he explains, “but I don’t really care, I’ve always thought of the band as a progressive rock band.”

The reality, however, is a bit more complex. Too visceral and ferocious to be prog-rock, too refined and articulate to be punk or hardcore, Coheed and Cambria combine quiet reverie with cathartic bombast. Their ambitious debut album, The Second Stage Turbine Blade, is a seething amalgam of post-hardcore’s furious aggression, punk’s volatility, and emo’s dynamic tension. It’s an enthralling, sometimes difficult record that remains true to the band’s spirit of innovation without sacrificing either substance or clarity. Their unique diversity has allowed them to tour with loud, abrasive groups like Thrice and Hot Water Music, more subdued college radio acts like the Juliana Theory, and most recently, MTV radio rockers the Used. Along the way, their electrifying live performances and stellar musicianship has converted many skeptical listeners into fans, generating an underground buzz that only continues to grow.

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with Claudio Sanchez, whose high-pitched Geddy-Lee-on-steroids vocals and wiry, hay bale hair are slowly turning him into one of hardcore/emo’s instantly recognizable figures. Standing by their van before their April 4 performance at Club Ovation in Boynton Beach, Forida, we discussed the past, present, and future of Coheed and Cambria.

Moe Castro: I wanted to start from the beginning, when you were forming the band. Individually, the four of you are very skilled and articulate musicians and I wanted to know if it was just good fortune that you all knew each other or was this a case where somebody waited it out and said, “I’m going to find the best people to play with”?

Claudio Sanchez: The relationship between the four of us now, it’s kind of funny. We weren’t always in a band together. We were all in different bands in different areas. Like (guitarist) Travis (Stever), and I actually live 30 minutes from New York, the city, and Josh and Mike actually live like about an hour, hour and a half, away from us north. I don’t know, Travis and I have known each other since we were like 13 and we’ve always kind of played in bands together, but when Shabutie started (the band that originated Coheed and Cambria), that was a three-piece of me and two other guys. Eventually we lost a bass player and I met Mike Todd. Mike is actually a very skilled guitar player who happened to own a bass, but because he was so good on guitar we were like, “Well, he’s got to be good on bass.” So he became a part of the band. Josh (Eppard) has always played in this band from Woodstock called Three … they’re actually still a band, that band is amazing … but he had left the band. I’ve always loved Josh’s drumming; I’ve always considered him my favorite drummer ever. I don’t know, just his whole approach is amazing … as soon as he left that band we were having problems with our drummer, so we said, “Why not? Let’s see if we can get Josh.”

MC: So how long did it actually take you to get the whole band as it is now together?

CS: With this lineup it’s been about three years.

MC: And the band as a whole?

CS: Almost, like, seven or eight.

MC: Really?

CS: Yeah.

MC: You’ve been at this for quite a while. How has the music changed from what you were playing before?

CS: Before when we were in Shabutie, there was no real ambition in that band, we never set out … well it was always in the back of our minds, “Yeah let’s go make records and try to get signed to a label,” but it was never something we, like, truly wanted to pursue, or at least never had the momentum or motivation to pursue it. So that band played, like, a wide variety of just weird things. Like it was a combination of funk, metal—just weird. I don’t know, it was a weird band and not many kids really liked the band because the music … it’s like the vocals and the music didn’t go together very well. It was this high voice with these really intricate musical pieces that kind of made no sense really. It was weird. But in this band—the four of us together—we work really well and have kind of honed all that we’ve done in the individual bands and brought it to this picture and now we have made this. It’s definitely different; this one is more melodic, and a little more driving, and not as cuckoo as Shabutie was.

MC: I was looking at your website and you have a mission statement on it. One of things that caught my attention was your frustration with music in general and what you describe as buying $50 worth of music, but only getting $10 worth of satisfaction.

CS: (laughs) Yeah, Travis actually wrote that.

MC: When you were putting together this album, did you have the idea—because of that frustration—of maybe throwing down the gauntlet and having it be a challenge to the scene or other bands out there? Did that ever cross your minds?

CS: Not really, because when we were recording the record, there was no label, and we were just kind of recording it as demos, and we weren’t really into it for making a record for sale. But eventually as we continued recording, we started submitting to Equal Vision, and by the third or fourth submit they were into the band. We didn’t want to just wait for material that we recorded, so we were like, “Let’s use this material for the record.” So we never really went into the studio with a conscious effort to do something different or to challenge anyone … I don’t know, is this making any sense? (laughs)

MC: How did your relationship with (Bad Brains guitarist) Dr. Know come about?

CS: Doc and Darrell of the Bad Brains, they actually live in Woodstock, New York. They’ve always been acquaintances with the band and Michael Birnbaum of Applehead Studios, who mixed our record, is really good friends with those guys and has done work with Bad Brains. He just called (Dr. Know) and was like, “You like this band, they like you, why not help them out and put a guitar part on here?” I mean, he’s known Josh forever, so he’s a pretty good friend of ours.

MC: Have you ever had him come out on stage and play live?

CS: (laughs) No, no, but I wish. That would be pretty cool.

MC: Not even in New York? Have you ever thought about asking him?

CS: Well, we have thought about it, but I guess that he doesn’t really have the time. I guess he has a bunch of things that he has to do.

MC: Another thing about your mission statement. I know you didn’t write it, but you’ve been embraced by this hardcore, post-hardcore, emo type of crowd, yet you say you would rather be identified as a more traditional rock band; not necessarily in the classic sense, but the idea that you are pushing just ‘rock’ in general. Is that something that you strive to do?

CS: Yeah. Me personally I always thought of the band, even in the days of Shabutie, as a progressive rock band. The songs are kind of long; there are a lot of things that go in the songs, like a lot of parts. I mean, I don’t necessarily dislike the term emo or any name given to a particular style of rock. I just feel that rock music is rock music and the emotion has always been there since the days of traditional blues. But it doesn’t really bother me that it’s the name given. I’ve noticed that some bands take it to heart and dislike names or labels, but I don’t really care, I’ve always thought of the band as a progressive rock band.

MC: At the same time the diversity in your music has allowed you to go out and play with really loud, abrasive punk bands as well as more melodic college radio indie-emo groups, and now you’re touring with a band that is breaking out big on MTV. How has playing in front of these different crowds shaped your success?

CS: Personally, it’s made me very happy that the band can be perceived as that diverse and allowed to play with these different kinds of bands. And, umm … I forgot where I was headed. (laughs)

MC: (laughs along) I was asking how playing with all these bands with different styles has shaped your success. I guess what I want to know is if you’ve had any backlash from punk or hardcore fans questioning why you are playing with this or that band, or has it been a more positive experience where you have been opening up avenues to new fans?

CS: I think overall, from day one, it has been pretty good. It’s been in our favor and we haven’t had too many hecklers or people that have voiced a dislike for the band, asking us why are we playing with From Autumn to Ashes or Shai Hulud. We’ve been pretty well received on every tour we’ve played. I think we have been doing pretty good.

MC: How has it been playing with the Used?

CS: It’s been good so far. Every tour we have been on, I’ve had a blast with the other bands. I haven’t found a problem with anyone we have played with. My favorite tour so far has got to be Hot Water Music and Thrice. That tour was great. Overall this tour has been pretty cool. We had a hard time in Tucson. I thought that crowd was a little more like Lollapalooza, like, “Fuck you! Let me throw some bottles at you!”

MC: Did anyone throw anything at you?

CS: They did, and I have never really reacted like that on stage before. I was just kind of like yelling and being angry. That was probably the only show I have ever disliked playing in my entire life. It was almost at the point where I thought a kid was calling me out from the audience wanting to fight me. I was like, “Do you want to fight me? Travis, does this guy want to fight me? What’s going on? Just wait patiently, we’ll be off in two more songs, don’t worry.”

MC: You’ve been on tour steadily now since last September. Has it started wearing on you guys at all?

CS: Not really. There were points in the beginning where I was doing a lot of the talking to booking agents and kind of accepting every tour that came our way, and that, for a while, was wearing on the band. But we figured a way to get over it and just realized that this is our life and that this is pretty much where our home will be from now on. That was the hard part, the beginning and getting to accept it. As of right now, we’re having a blast! The last month we had off, it wasn’t even really time off because we were in the studio working on the next record. This band is pretty dope when it comes to touring; it’s pretty cool.

MC: So everyone is into the live experience and getting out there? Would you say that is your favorite part or are you more of a studio band?

CS: For me it’s definitely both. There is always something you can’t get out of the other. But yeah, I definitely love playing in front of an audience. I mean, we have been playing these same songs for a while, but I haven’t gotten tired of it. It’s always different every night.

MC: Have you been playing any new material?

CS: We have. On our headlining tour we were playing two new songs. On our supporting act tours like this, when we’re just supporting we … like last night we did, but that was an exception because we got a little more time. Usually we’re only allowed 30 minutes to play and that only allows us to play like five songs because our songs are kind of long.

MC: You’re working on a new album. When you are done with this Used tour are you going to go back into the studio?

CS: Yeah. We’re working in Woodstock, New York at Applehead Studios with Michael Birnbaum and Chris Bittner. They are the same two guys that mixed our last record. They’re awesome. They’ve just been really good friends of all of ours for such a long time, and they have this really high-end studio, and are allowing us to take our time. They’re losing money as we work there. Our budget doesn’t really call for such nice studio, but there is so much love between us and them that they are willing to take the sacrifice. They just want to be a part of it, they like the band so much.

MC: In terms of the music then, what can fans expect?

CS: It’s hard to say. Part of me thinks that a lot of the songs are in the same vein as Second Stage, but then there is a song on the record that is not, umm, … well this is the tentative title—it’s “2113,” which is kind of funny because everyone gives us this Rush comparison and 2112 was their record, the concept record. Everybody says we sound like Rush, so we made a song called “2113,” that kind of holds a lot of significance to the story of Coheed and Cambria. The song rides almost 10 minutes long. To me it sounds like Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull, like all these bands just kind of mixed into one. It’s almost our high-five to all the people, all the bands who we dug when we were younger.

MC: That’s funny, because I was going to ask you … There are a lot of songs on Second Stage, which are really intricate: lots of parts, with different moods and tempos in the same song. I wanted to know if you were going to go for something more ‘epic’ like Rush or Tool and stretch the limits of your songwriting, go for something 10 or 11 minutes long. Is that the only song?

CS: It varies. That is probably the longest song on the record, but they all vary from three minutes to six to eight to 10.

MC: Do you worry about crowds getting impatient? Have you seen any of that?

CS: With the long songs?

MC: With the long songs, because a lot of the kids that come out to your shows are used to the three minute, four minute, fast, punk, high-energy songs and here you are going to hit them with a lot of changes…

CS: You know, I kind of have. I’ve noticed like sometimes we’ll be playing “Junesong Provision” and the first minute of the song kids are like buggin’ and they’re really into it, but then as the song progresses they’re like, “I forgot this song was so long. There’s too much happening.” I don’t know if that is how they want to react or if they are getting bored. I mean, whatever they want to do is fine by me. I love to write the music that we write, and if kids aren’t into it then they’re not into it. We’re just going to do what we do.

MC: I imagine fast, high-energy songs are easier to play and it’s much simpler to maintain the mood and groove. Are the long songs any more difficult to pull off live?

CS: Sometimes. For me it’s not so much the playing of the guitar, that’s no problem; it’s the lack of oxygen. With all the singing and moving there is no real rest. But overall, that’s what kind of drives me, this feeling that I might pass out or die.

MC: Your music is very complex. You have these really melodic vocals, and these competing guitar lines, and these intricate rhythms. I was wondering how the band goes about songwriting. Is it a group affair or do you individually bring things into the mix?

CS: Usually on our time off, I’ll go home and use that time to sit at an eight track and just record ideas. For this next record I recorded all the songs acoustically on an eight track and showed them to the guys while we were on the road, and they all came up with their ideas in the van. Pretty much, I’ll write the original guitar part and melody and we’ll go into the studio and kind of just jam out on it until we construct a song and arrange it among the four of us. That’s usually about it.

MC: So you are generally the initiator?

CS: Pretty much, yeah.

MC: Has that ever lead to any sort of resentment within the band—the fact that every one is so individually talented and yet you are the one composing most of the music?

CS: Umm, I know that these guys are talented musicians and it’s not like I’m a dictator in the band and am like, “These are the songs that I write, these are the songs that we are going to play.” It just happens to be that I’m the one that comes to rehearsal with the ideas. That’s just kind of how it has worked the past couple of years. But on the next record there is a song that Travis initiated, that’s like, his song. But there is no competition or ego thing; there is no real problem in the songwriting.

MC: You said before that you are always being compared to Rush, and certainly it seems that you can’t read any review of the record without reading something about them. Does that bother you?

CS: It does in a way because I have never listened to Rush. When this band got signed and we started touring, I was still working at this pet store and one of my coworkers was like, “Yo, man, you sound a lot like this dude Geddy Lee! Blah, blah, blah.” I mean, I’ve always known Rush and Geddy Lee, and that is another whole story in itself why I dislike the band. It has nothing to do with them and their records, that’s just something else. But he was like, “You should get this album 2112, and you should give it a go.” I bought the record; I listened to it. They are amazing musicians, but for some reason I don’t get it. If I were to listen to that record when I was like 11 or 12, maybe then I would be a Rush fan now. But being how old I am now, the lyrical content kind of just threw me away.

MC: Too much fantasy and sci-fi?

CS: Like that whole 20-minute song, It’s just too abrupt, too blatant, too descriptive. I like the mystery of concepts, and not really fully getting the grasp, and trying to find your own way into it, and not being told this is how it is … Are you familiar with the concept of our records?

MC: I hadn’t actually pinpointed a concept. I saw themes running through it, but….

CS: Well, basically, the next three records after Second Stage are all a running concept. It’s like a quadrilogy, if you will.

MC: A quadrilogy!?

CS: (laughs) Yeah, it’s basically in the first two stories—Second Stage Turbine Blade is part one—it’s kind of like a science-fiction that is in the past, but it tells of the creation of Earth and the solar system. And eventually what is going to happen is that they are going to get converted into graphic novels, like comic books.

MC: Really? And you already have people out there working on this?

CS: I have an artist that I am working with from L.A. I don’t know if I should give out his name just yet. I don’t know if that will upset him. But it’s just going to be the story that is on the records. That’s my thing, with writing songs, like, not everyone is going to be into the concept, so for those people that aren’t, why not just make the lyrics stand apart on their own, maybe make them a little vague so kids will think it’s just a record. But for those that really want to inquire about the concept, they’ll look into the record and eventually want to buy the graphic novels. Does that make any sense? (Laughs)

MC: Absolutely. But now that you have this concept that you have to work within, does that make it more difficult for you to come up with the lyrics, or is it easier because you already have an idea of where you are going?

CS: With this next record, it’s pretty easy because I definitely know where the concept is going. The next record is called In Keep Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 and it’s actually the third part of the story, second record. It’s a lot easier now because the concept is a little more flushed out and I understand it in my mind. It’s hard to explain verbally, when we talk, but it’s easier for me to just write it down and give it to the artist. Not all the songs are completely written, but I know where it is going.

MC: How did the whole idea come about? Is it something that you’ve had in your head for a while?

CS: In 1998 I went to Paris, France, and when I was there I bought a guitar. This was around the time of Shabutie, and I started Coheed and Cambria as a side project. It was going to be this acoustic electronica thing that I did that had this running concept with it. When the band decided to drop the name Shabutie and adopt Coheed and Cambria, I brought the concept along with the name.

MC: Does the cover art have anything to with the story, you know, the dragonfly, the two faces, and such?

CS: The dragonfly has significance in the story. The two characters are supposed to portray younger versions of Coheed and Cambria. A lot of the cover was designed by the in-house art guy at Equal Vision. Around the time when I started writing the content for Second Stage, a lot of it was pretty open-ended, and when he designed the cover the dragonfly was such a cool thing that I decided to bring that into the concept. Initially what the dragonfly does is that it is the carrier of this serum that opens up a virus in one of the main characters. I was trying to figure out a way of putting the serum into that character and when I saw the dragonfly I thought, ‘What better way to do that?”

MC: Any guests on the new album? Maybe Dr. Know again?

CS: There are going to be guests, but probably not anyone known. I know that on this record we want to incorporate a lot of different players. Not just, “Oh, I can kind of play the keyboards, so let me put this keyboard part here.” I want to try to get some flutes on there, so violins, some crazy shit. Woodstock is filled with wonderful musicians and artists and I want to take full advantage of that. People are willing to do whatever out there for the sake of their art. Hopefully we can get people to come out to give it that vibe.

MC: Would you say that the next album will be less straightforward and more ambitious?

CS: Maybe. I hope. I know I’m putting all of my ambition into it. We’ll see. That’s a lot of the talk that we have had in the studio: ‘Oh man, we should get blah blah blah to play the flute here.” It all depends. It’s something that we want to see happen, but whether it does or not …

MC: Will this next record be on Equal Vision?

CS: Yeah.

MC: How have they been to work with?

CS: It’s probably the best experience I’ve ever had with an employer. They are really cool. I’ve heard so many horror stories from other bands about their labels and their dislikes. Yet I have not one complaint about the label that I’m on.

MC: Has it been a struggle or are things going pretty well for you?

CS: It’s been off and on. Not so well that we can be like, ”Woo-hoo! We’re rich and famous and we’ll never have to work for anybody!” Well enough that we can go home for a month and not have to go back to work. We can just relax and know that next month we have to go back to work. We have been paying off debts. Personal debts, merchandise debts, there is always a debt somewhere. Now we are doing well enough where we don’t have to take anything out on loan. We just pay when we are done.

MC: Do you have any aspirations of moving to a major label?

CS: I don’t know. It’s kind of hard to say. There has been a lot of talk of that because there has been interest through majors for the next record. But we said no because we felt it wasn’t our time to make such a move. We’re in no rush to make any drastic changes.

More Info:
Web: www.coheedandcambria.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/coheedandcambria
Twitter: www.twitter.com/coheed