By Dustin Lothspeich
What do you do after you’ve written arguably the longest-running concept album story arc in the history of recorded music?
Well, you get personal.
In the case of Coheed and Cambria — and more specifically, the band’s principal songwriter and singer/guitarist Claudio Sanchez — you finally get some “me” time. After 12 years and seven lauded albums that tell the story of an intricate sci-fi universe brainchild (referred to as “The Amory Wars”), he has finally eschewed imaginary interplanetary battles, messianic figures and heroic journeys for a subject matter on the band’s new album (“The Color Before the Sun”) that hits a little closer to home: family.
And how could he not? Sanchez has had an interesting last couple of years: While living abroad with his writer wife, Chondra, they received a call from police that unbeknownst to them, their tranquil home in New York state had been broken into and turned into a massive cannabis farm. Born out of the stress and subsequent nightmare of having to move out of their beloved house and into the city, the new record soundtracks Sanchez’s anxieties while also chronicling his fear, joy and apprehension about the birth of the couple’s first child, Atlas.
“I was going through a struggle that became the record, and I certainly think, though hard, it helped,” he confessed to me via phone recently. “[The new album] is a time capsule of these moments within my life: Living in an apartment, torn from my comfort zone and having the struggle of identity come into play and become the theme of the record — until the idea of this human being coming into my world created hope and wonderment, while the destruction of my country home created uncertainty and fear … when turmoil is born and presents itself to your consciousness, you get a lot to pull from.”
Interestingly enough, Sanchez will be the first to admit that even though the band’s fans are used to being transported to some otherworldly place and time, the band’s previous seven albums — however cloaked in the fantastical, mystical shroud of science fiction — were always about his personal life anyway.
“All of the Coheed records come from a personal place,” he explained. “I created the idea and concept [for ‘The Amory Wars’] in 1998 when I was unfamiliar with what was asked of me as a frontman. I mean, I created this curtain to hide my feelings behind. I, myself, was insecure about the position I found myself in … I was just sheltering myself. I didn’t want to be judged by the music I wrote so I created this disguise. Now, at 37 years old, I feel very comfortable with myself and [the new album] felt like I was removing a mask in a way.”
On “The Color Before the Sun,” the prog-rock band (which, aside from Sanchez, is comprised of guitarist Travis Stever, drummer Josh Eppard and bassist Zach Cooper) goes for broke stylistically in a musical move Sanchez called “liberating.”
There are the to-be-expected rock powerhouses chock-full of metal-esque riffing, shredding guitar solos and inventive, kitchen-sink song structures (“Atlas,” “The Audience”), but they’re placed alongside serene acoustic odes to new fatherhood (“Ghost”) and exuberant anthems (complete with horn section) (“Peace to the Mountain”) — all delivered with Sanchez’s penchant for crafting unforgettable pop melodies. It’s not a stretch to say the new material is a far cry from the songwriting featured on the band’s debut studio full-length, 2002’s “The Second Stage Turbine Blade.”
“With every record, we grow,” the frontman agreed. “Time is an influencer. You grow every year. You see new things, you experience new things, and that gets reflected in your art. I don’t want to remake the last record. I don’t want to play it safe. And that’s scary because you could ostracize a fan base and things could change. But for me, to feel artistically fulfilled, I need to grow and branch out and try new things. Once you start manufacturing — and ‘manufacturing’ is really the word — the same thing over and over again, that sounds like the end to me.”
For a band that’s woven quite the impressive musical tapestry over the better part of two decades, the new album is a testament to their singer/guitarist’s undying passion to stay true to his artistic vision — whether veiled by imaginary worlds, heroes and villains, or spun from a life at once turned both tumultuous and celebratory. Wherever it comes from, there is a process involved in accepting and embracing it. For what it’s worth, Sanchez seems to be at peace with where he — and his band — are at.
“I think that’s why we’ve adopted the progressive title,” Sanchez said. “Not because we’re a progressive band in the sense that music traditionally knows it, but because we’re always progressing. Take Led Zeppelin for example: Their first record was primarily songs that were old blues standards. But you look at ‘Houses of the Holy’ and it’s a different band! With each record, there’s a little more confidence … personalities evolve as you age. And now here we are: comfortable in our skin.”
— Dustin Lothspeich writes about music in San Diego, books The Merrow in Hillcrest, and plays in a few local bands (Old Tiger, Diamond Lakes, Chess Wars and Boy King). Contact him at [email protected].
