When ACED Magazine recently interviewed Coheed and Cambria, they had just come back from the worst tour experience in the band's history.

"We were in Columbia and we were playing this festival called "Rock al Parque" and there was 90,000 people there or something and the whole thing was such a cluster f***," the band said.

"The day before it snowed in Columbia, which it has never done in the history of Columbia. And so the show got canceled and all the bands got mushed together. We got muscled on by people. Nobody could understand each other and when we walked out there to play, none of the front of the house was ready."

In front of 90,000 concert-goers, Coheed and Cambria played with no sound coming through the PA system. "It was pretty embarrassing, but we did the best we could and everybody toughed through it."

Now, touring again as the opening act for Linkin Park, band members Claudio Sanchez, Travis Stever, Michael Todd and Chris Pennie are reveling in the release of their latest album,Good Apollo, I'm a Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow. "It seems that everybody's down, you know. Which is rare. It’s good feedback. So that means we did our job."

No World for Tomorrow follows the storyline presented in the band's previous albums starting with The Second Stage Turbine Blade, the second part of the band's four-part musical series.

The storyline follows a married couple, named Coheed and Cambria, through a sci-fi world facing peril after Coheed discovers he was implanted with a deadly weapon, the Monstar Virus, which can cause Armageddon if activated. The parts of the tale that have been released in record form have also hit the stands as graphic novels illustrated by Christopher Shy.

"It’s something we thought about when we were starting out and it seemed like something really different at the time. Claudio loves the work so we stuck with it."

Despite their enjoyable tunes and unique storyline theme, creating the record was not smooth sailing for the band. About two weeks before the band's studio time, drummer Chris Pennie found out that it would be impossible for him to record all the material he had written for the album due to an old contractual agreement.

"That was a big set back but we've come through it and we were lucky to have Taylor Hawkins (of the Foo Fighters) to fill in on the drums. The pills were Taylor and the drum parts were Chris’, but Taylor’s such a professional that, you know, it came out and the material's there."

Recording with Hawkins was such a pleasant experience that Coheed and Cambria became friendly with the Foo Fighters. In the future, the band would like to hit the road with the Foos if they could ever work out a schedule.

The band plans to release a prequel to the series in the near future, and they expect to retain the special qualities that make their music so ear-catching. "Musically I don’t think it’s going to work any differently. It’s going to be a natural evolution. The music always comes first. But lyrically it’s going to be the setting up of the story of Coheed and Cambria and telling the origins of those characters but that’s probably a year away."

Outside the time spent in the studio, Coheed and Cambria plans to spend their time touring. The band has had some special concert experiences that make the long stretches on the road really worth their while.

"One show that I always remember, 2 or 3 years ago, we had a couple of shows called An Evening with Coheed and Cambria; one in New York, one in Chicago and one in LA. The one in Chicago was the first one. There were no other bands, we opened for ourselves acoustic and then played a full electric set. There was something just magical about that night and the fans were right there with us and it was really personal. It was like one of those times when you walk off and go That’s how it was supposed to be done."

Long before the days of solo evening concerts, Coheed and Cambria was still all about the music.

"I went to a school like in Woodstock, and schools like that. Some artists were more revered than the jocks. The jocks are kinda ridiculed, but the artists held all the cards in that school. There was a little too much pot, but aside from that it was great."

It was there that the band members first began to dabble in all types of music...except one. "I didn’t receive any special schooling for rock. I’ve always wanted to play music and it’s just fate and rock and roll."

"I did play bass in the orchestra, I was a percussion major and it was pretty much all-encompassing. I played the xylophone, marimba, vibes, things like that. In the orchestra, I dabbled in some stand-up bass, but all the guitar in the rock music was all on my own time."

The guys are also influenced by a wide variety of bands other than school orchestra. "I was born in 1980 and I have older brothers and sisters so they hit me with a lot of classic rock; Zeppelin, Police, and everything like that. But when I was coming into my own, playing music in the 90s, early 90s, it was a lot of Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Jesus Lizard, Sunny Day Real Estate is one of my big ones, Home, Jane's Addiction, things like that. I was also inspired by Jazz composers Dave Brubeck and Bill Evans."

When it comes to the band's own success, Coheed and Cambria remain humble. They realize that their dreams have come true thanks to word of mouth, and their avid fans. In fact, the members give credit to a form of musical discovery that most other bands usually discourage.

"We’ve sold some records, but I don’t think we’d have nearly the show popularity and the show turn out if it wasn’t for the file sharing. It definitely put us were we are. It’s word of mouth and stuff like that, but you know, we’re lucky we started around the turn of this thing."

Riding on a wave of powerhouse records and singles like "A Favor House Atlantic", "Welcome Home", and "Feathers" (the video for which was just released the first week of February), Coheed and Cambria has a simple philosophy that keeps them steadfast and united.

"I think it’s our work ethic, and everybody in this band has the desire to constantly get better at what we do. I mean, like when we’re sitting around all day, half of us are practicing half of the time and playing together in dressing rooms. It’s really good, the love of music and the appreciation for our craft. I don’t think people expect enough from their musicians these days and we’re trying to give a little more effort, you know. We’re here so we might as well act like we deserve it a little bit."

The members of Coheed and Cambria are moving forward with their modesty and talent in tact as they look forward to the time surrounding their next studio release, which will finally reveal the origins of two characters the band created and named themselves after.

"We’ll probably still be on the road then. We'll hopefully keep it together and keep doing what we do and keep getting better at it so we can put out another record... I mean we’re four albums deep now and people are still there with us and that’s incredible in today's standards. So really, we’re just going to play these shows and get better and we’re not going to disappoint people."

Learn more about Coheed & Cambria at their official website .

---

Comments

Add New Search RSS

April   |2008-03-13 11:29:38 Coheed is amazing and Claudio Sanchez is a musical genius Reply 0   0

justin   |2008-02-20 20:48:11 interesting album concept. Reply 0   0

Write comment
Name:
Email:	do not notifynotify
Title:
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."