In many ways, Coheed and Cambria might as well be from outer space. The bands latest album, Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow, wraps up an ambitious four-album, sci-fi story cycle, complete with corresponding graphic novels. Throw in some extraordinary stage design and it's easy to get so wrapped in the mythology surrounding Coheed that you forget theyre a band at all. But Coheed's constantly-evolving sound is every bit as futuristic as its backstory. Their space-epic experimentation has always gone hand in hand with their experimentation in prog rock. I got a chance to talk to guitarist Travis Stever about what really drives Coheed and Cambria -- the music.
Jay Hathaway: Hey, how's it going out there on tour? Travis Stever: I'm pretty excited about everything we're doing. We've been out for a few weeks now, and it's been going pretty well. JH: What are you guys doing for the stage setup this time around? I know that's something your fans get really into. TS: I kind of want to leave it a little bit of surprise, but I'm sure it's mostly online now anyway. It's kind of a play on the cover of the album, with some other things thrown in there. It's a cityscape from our album. It's really cool, we mixed up the cover art and the Keywork [Coheed's logo], and some other cool stuff in front of our amplifiers. It's probably the best live setting we've had, ever. JH: How is the new touring lineup working out? I know Coheed went through some lineup changes before you finally got everything in place. TS: It's going awesome. Obviously, if you know the band, you know that we have Chris Pennie playing with us, and he's been playing with us for a long time now. And Mike Todd, who had actually left the band for a while, is back, and he's better than ever. He's doing really well. So things are really going great. I mean, the lineup is perfect the way it is. And we have background singers and a keyboard player touring with us right now, which really makes it sound full, and adds to the whole thing. So I'm pretty excited about that, too. JH: But the touring lineup is different from the lineup on the new album, right? TS: Well, the only difference is that Chris didn't play on the album. He was a big part of how the album came together, and the writing process, but because of contractual reasons with his other label and the band he was in before, he could not join us in the studio. But Taylor Hawkins ended up playing on the album, and he did an amazing job. We got hooked up with him through our producer, Nick. We told him we were in a tight spot because Chris couldn't do it, and Taylor agreed to help us out. It worked out really well. We were obviously very disappointed that Chris couldn't play on it, but we're excited for the future. JH: Speaking of the future, now that the story is wrapped up, I heard you're going to make a prequel next. Is that true? TS: That's exactly what's going to happen. It's always been the plan. Claudio's the lyricist, and therefore the storyteller. He's going to take it back to the beginning and the origins of the Coheed and Cambria saga and touch upon all the things that happened at the beginning. I mean, this being Volume II and the end of the saga, we're going to return and do part one. JH: Have you thought about where you're going to take part one musically? You've added instruments this time - keyboards - do you think you're going to something totally different for the next one? TS: To be honest, I think with every album we grow as musicians, and it's different than the last one. But there's always mainstays - there's always things that we as musicians are going to be doing that are very much the same. It's us playing, so no matter what, there are parts that are recognizable because of what we sound like as a band. There's already ideas floating around. We'll probably start working on it while we tour - all the ideas everybody has floating around. If you're asking if it's already written, done, and ready ... no, of course not. JH: But does Claudio have all of the lyrics written to go with the story before you start writing the songs? TS: Claudio usually has an idea of where the story's going to go, so usually a lot of the ideas are there. The way the songwriting has gone in the past is that usually Claud would have an acoustic skeleton song and give it to the band, and we would all work off that, get together and arrange it and everything. On this album, there were all different ways, there was a lot collaboration between him and me. On one song in particular, The End Complete, we sat down and wrote the whole song together in a day. And there were a couple of songs where the initial ideas were written on keyboards by Claud and we wrote around that. But lyrically, he already knew where the story was going to go, so whether we sit down and write a song together, or whether it came around from me or keyboards - no matter how it goes, he's got an idea of where he's going with the story. Now on that, I will add that the lyrics and the story have a lot to do with personal experience. A lot of the things that happened for this band in the past year, and a lot of things that happened for Claudio in his personal life dictated - actually, it worked out perfect, because the end of the story couldn't have come at a better time, with all of the bullshit we had to endure this past year with the band. JH: Let's talk about something that's not known about Coheed and Cambria. What's something you don't think people are aware of about your band? TS: Something that's really hard to get across to people is that we're not all huge sci-fi comic book freaks. That's something that confuses a lot of people. We all have a love for storytelling and movies and stuff. Especially Claudio, obviously. But most people will be like, "Oh, these dudes love comic books." Claudio's the only one that really - I've had comic books in my past, and I love horror movies more than most, but people get confused and they think we're some group of guys that love sci-fi and comic books and Dungeons & Dragons and shit, which couldn't be further from the truth. Because we're a rock band first and foremost - before anything else, we are a rock band, and we all purely love to play rock. Love to play music, I shouldn't even say rock. There's such a wide variety of influences in this band that it's amazing. We did it because of our love of music first and foremost, it had nothing to do with loving comic books. It's something that I'm really happy our fans get to indulge in, and something Claudio's really passionate about, so I think it's cool that we have that. It just gets confusing to fans who think we're a bunch of comic book heads, which is not true. JH: What do you think the future of music is going to look like? TS: I think it could go either way. One way is that bands could be very different, everything could be digital. Or people could strip it down to the earliest forms of music. I think tape will obviously become obsolete, that kind of recording and production. Do you mean music itself? Will bands sound like Return of the Jedi? JH: Yeah, music itself. Do you think rock will survive for another 20 years? TS: I think there's always going to be different forms of rock. I think so. As for what'll be going on, I don't really know. But I know there'll definitely still be rock. It's funny, you don't think there's any other areas you can explore in rock music, but I'm sure there are. I'm sure somebody'll figure something out. For years to come, kids'll find out about things that their parents listen to, or their brothers and their sisters, and they'll always be turned on by that kooky, crazy rock attitude. JH: Yeah. But it seems like a lot of bands are digging up retro stuff right now. You guys are a band that's taking a new angle, but a lot of bands are doing what's been done 10 or 20 years ago. Do you think they're going to run out of retro? TS: I think the retro will always be there. People will take their favorite things about rock and roll and add their own flavor. And then there'll be the straight-up, just biters. I think people will just keep going - I know for us, a lot of our influences come out in our music, some of which are classic rock, but we like to do it in a way where we add our own spice to it. I think a lot of bands will come around doing that kind of thing. I think it's fine when you can hear a band's influences, but to basically be a cover band is just kind of lame. So throw in your influences and use them well, but there's a fine line, I guess.
For any and all things Coheed and Cambria go to totalassault.com and coheedandcambria.com
Jay Hathaway: Hey, how's it going out there on tour? Travis Stever: I'm pretty excited about everything we're doing. We've been out for a few weeks now, and it's been going pretty well. JH: What are you guys doing for the stage setup this time around? I know that's something your fans get really into. TS: I kind of want to leave it a little bit of surprise, but I'm sure it's mostly online now anyway. It's kind of a play on the cover of the album, with some other things thrown in there. It's a cityscape from our album. It's really cool, we mixed up the cover art and the Keywork [Coheed's logo], and some other cool stuff in front of our amplifiers. It's probably the best live setting we've had, ever. JH: How is the new touring lineup working out? I know Coheed went through some lineup changes before you finally got everything in place. TS: It's going awesome. Obviously, if you know the band, you know that we have Chris Pennie playing with us, and he's been playing with us for a long time now. And Mike Todd, who had actually left the band for a while, is back, and he's better than ever. He's doing really well. So things are really going great. I mean, the lineup is perfect the way it is. And we have background singers and a keyboard player touring with us right now, which really makes it sound full, and adds to the whole thing. So I'm pretty excited about that, too. JH: But the touring lineup is different from the lineup on the new album, right? TS: Well, the only difference is that Chris didn't play on the album. He was a big part of how the album came together, and the writing process, but because of contractual reasons with his other label and the band he was in before, he could not join us in the studio. But Taylor Hawkins ended up playing on the album, and he did an amazing job. We got hooked up with him through our producer, Nick. We told him we were in a tight spot because Chris couldn't do it, and Taylor agreed to help us out. It worked out really well. We were obviously very disappointed that Chris couldn't play on it, but we're excited for the future. JH: Speaking of the future, now that the story is wrapped up, I heard you're going to make a prequel next. Is that true? TS: That's exactly what's going to happen. It's always been the plan. Claudio's the lyricist, and therefore the storyteller. He's going to take it back to the beginning and the origins of the Coheed and Cambria saga and touch upon all the things that happened at the beginning. I mean, this being Volume II and the end of the saga, we're going to return and do part one. JH: Have you thought about where you're going to take part one musically? You've added instruments this time - keyboards - do you think you're going to something totally different for the next one? TS: To be honest, I think with every album we grow as musicians, and it's different than the last one. But there's always mainstays - there's always things that we as musicians are going to be doing that are very much the same. It's us playing, so no matter what, there are parts that are recognizable because of what we sound like as a band. There's already ideas floating around. We'll probably start working on it while we tour - all the ideas everybody has floating around. If you're asking if it's already written, done, and ready ... no, of course not. JH: But does Claudio have all of the lyrics written to go with the story before you start writing the songs? TS: Claudio usually has an idea of where the story's going to go, so usually a lot of the ideas are there. The way the songwriting has gone in the past is that usually Claud would have an acoustic skeleton song and give it to the band, and we would all work off that, get together and arrange it and everything. On this album, there were all different ways, there was a lot collaboration between him and me. On one song in particular, The End Complete, we sat down and wrote the whole song together in a day. And there were a couple of songs where the initial ideas were written on keyboards by Claud and we wrote around that. But lyrically, he already knew where the story was going to go, so whether we sit down and write a song together, or whether it came around from me or keyboards - no matter how it goes, he's got an idea of where he's going with the story. Now on that, I will add that the lyrics and the story have a lot to do with personal experience. A lot of the things that happened for this band in the past year, and a lot of things that happened for Claudio in his personal life dictated - actually, it worked out perfect, because the end of the story couldn't have come at a better time, with all of the bullshit we had to endure this past year with the band. JH: Let's talk about something that's not known about Coheed and Cambria. What's something you don't think people are aware of about your band? TS: Something that's really hard to get across to people is that we're not all huge sci-fi comic book freaks. That's something that confuses a lot of people. We all have a love for storytelling and movies and stuff. Especially Claudio, obviously. But most people will be like, "Oh, these dudes love comic books." Claudio's the only one that really - I've had comic books in my past, and I love horror movies more than most, but people get confused and they think we're some group of guys that love sci-fi and comic books and Dungeons & Dragons and shit, which couldn't be further from the truth. Because we're a rock band first and foremost - before anything else, we are a rock band, and we all purely love to play rock. Love to play music, I shouldn't even say rock. There's such a wide variety of influences in this band that it's amazing. We did it because of our love of music first and foremost, it had nothing to do with loving comic books. It's something that I'm really happy our fans get to indulge in, and something Claudio's really passionate about, so I think it's cool that we have that. It just gets confusing to fans who think we're a bunch of comic book heads, which is not true. JH: What do you think the future of music is going to look like? TS: I think it could go either way. One way is that bands could be very different, everything could be digital. Or people could strip it down to the earliest forms of music. I think tape will obviously become obsolete, that kind of recording and production. Do you mean music itself? Will bands sound like Return of the Jedi? JH: Yeah, music itself. Do you think rock will survive for another 20 years? TS: I think there's always going to be different forms of rock. I think so. As for what'll be going on, I don't really know. But I know there'll definitely still be rock. It's funny, you don't think there's any other areas you can explore in rock music, but I'm sure there are. I'm sure somebody'll figure something out. For years to come, kids'll find out about things that their parents listen to, or their brothers and their sisters, and they'll always be turned on by that kooky, crazy rock attitude. JH: Yeah. But it seems like a lot of bands are digging up retro stuff right now. You guys are a band that's taking a new angle, but a lot of bands are doing what's been done 10 or 20 years ago. Do you think they're going to run out of retro? TS: I think the retro will always be there. People will take their favorite things about rock and roll and add their own flavor. And then there'll be the straight-up, just biters. I think people will just keep going - I know for us, a lot of our influences come out in our music, some of which are classic rock, but we like to do it in a way where we add our own spice to it. I think a lot of bands will come around doing that kind of thing. I think it's fine when you can hear a band's influences, but to basically be a cover band is just kind of lame. So throw in your influences and use them well, but there's a fine line, I guess.
For any and all things Coheed and Cambria go to totalassault.com and coheedandcambria.com
erin_broadley:
In many ways, Coheed and Cambria might as well be from outer space. The bands latest album, Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow, wraps up an ambitious four-album, sci-fi story cycle, complete with corresponding graphic novels. Throw in some extraordinary stage...
horrorflick:
wow...