Prog rockers Coheed And Cambria returned to the Amory Wars concept last year with their new album “The Unheavenly Creatures” which sees the band push forward into new territories, storylines and more within the Amory Wars universe. We talked to the visionary behind the idea, frontman Claudio Sanchez about how the new songs came together and what lies ahead in the future.
Andrew: As far as the new stuff is concerned, how have the fans been responding to it at the live shows so far?
Claudio: Oh great! I think just the new record in general has been received really well. I think with the return to the story, some of the choices in the music that we put together, I think just overall it’s been a pretty satisfying reception and the shows have been great too. In the States we did a tour with Mastodon, we took Mastodon out and that was a lot of fun, made a lot of friends and was just a cool package so I mean ultimately it’s been a great year for the band.
Andrew: So as you mentioned you’re coming back to the Amory War story which obviously a lot of fans love and I know you had a lot of positive feedback with the previous album where you kind of strayed away from the story but has it been an overwhelmingly positive experience because of the fact you are returning to that concept again?
Claudio: Yeah for sure. I mean I think a lot of of the Coheed diehard fanbase is very much invested in that dimension of what we do with the comic books and anything inside the Amory and to see us kind of return to it, although in a mysterious kind of way because we haven’t revealed exactly where the story takes place within the timeline of the Amory Wars. But overall I think everybody has sort of latched on to the new characters and some of the new themes of the record and story, so yeah ultimately it’s been welcomed.
Andrew: And what about you guys with coming back to the story, was it like coming back and putting on some old shoes again or did you approach it differently? How did you tackle this one?
Claudio: A hair differently. To be honest when I think of The Unheavenly Creatures, it’s almost like how I wish we would of approached it when we first started. When we started Coheed And Cambria however many years ago, the idea of the concept following the records was still very new. I didn’t really understand how I wanted to execute that and now here we are, it’s a new story, it’s the first part of a 5 part anthology. We kind of do this right, not to say that the others were wrong but let me really allow them to live hand in hand and so when I approached the writing of the record I wrote it like I would any Coheed record. I allowed my life to sort of inspire the events that would happen in the fiction, Vaxis being the son of these 2 characters which very much mirrors my life with my son and my wife so there’s a big connection there.
But ultimately in terms of introducing the band to what the story was, approaching it in the studio, I had a bunch of concept artists on hand that basically sort of illustrated characters in the story, landscapes and things like that. I also had a pretty detailed outline of the story so I had all of this fuel to sort of present to the band so that they could feel involved because in the past it’s always kind of been a mystery, like I always had these ideas of these stories, there was nothing to really show except things that I would explain very loosely. So this time around it was, let me bring a lot of information to the table, a lot of fuel to sort of stoke the fires of the creativity of the album.
Andrew: Yeah when I listen to the album I get a very big cinematic feeling and I guess that was probably the idea you were going for I suppose.
Claudio: Yeah absolutely that was kind of where I was at. I also really wanted to make a big piece of art, especially as we were returning to the story, I wanted to have a lot of little things here and there that would excite the base. Things that would reoccur for example, like in the song “The Dark Sentencer”, the statement ‘Welcome Home’ clearly has it’s relationship to the song “Welcome Home” although ‘Welcome Home’ in the actual song never says those words. But there’s clearly a connection there, it also has a lot to do with us returning to the story so the fanbase ‘Welcome home, welcome back to the Amory Wars’ is a part of what Coheed And Cambria does. So there’s all these little things that kind of help create this whole big picture.
Andrew: You also mention there’s a continuing story here because it’s obviously called Act 1, you mentioned another 4 more parts coming along. What’s the idea behind that and where do we see that going?
Claudio: You know, I’m not sure. Slowly I’ve been kind of constructing what part 2 is, I mean I understand where each part is supposed to go in terms of the climax of each episode but it’s really about designing the story around that and so slowly I’ve been designing part 2. But again I just want to sort of take my time with it as I did with The Unheavenly Creatures so it’s really tough to say, I could have a moment of where I would start creating like crazy and maybe next year but that’s really hard to say at this time. I also just like relaxing and being a Dad and really falling into the “old man” if you will, so we’ll see.
Andrew: Last time we spoke we actually talked about both of us being new fathers for the first time so how’s it all been going so far and what’s it like being a father?
Claudio: Oh I love it! My son just started Kindergarten, he really inspires a lot of what these stories are. What’s so great about the whole Vaxis storyline is, yeah it’s a new part in the Amory Wars but it’s also this platform for me to express myself in this new phase of my life. Whereas I think a lot of the previous Coheed records have been very confused, I’ve always been this apprehensive, reclusive individual that had a hard time of expressing himself and that’s what those records were. It was trying to understand myself as a human being with the records, with the story and now with this new phase in my life as a father, it goes well together this story. Because now I have a more complete idea of who I am, I mean that sounds kind of courageous to say because that’s not entirely true but it just feels that it makes sense at this moment in time and like I said he’s been inspiring a lot of it.
Andrew: Yeah I totally understand and it’s an inspirational thing to have, you draw from that and it’s not just creativity but motivates you to do whatever you want in life I suppose.
Claudio: Oh yeah absolutely, I mean everything. Just the way he looks at certain things, it just feels kind of inspiring. Everything about seeing the world through child eyes or at least over his shoulder.
