The Star Wars movies weren’t that great of a series if you consider they have roughly a 50% track record – which is still better than the Rocky series (low blow!).  However, Star Wars has irrevocably touched peoples’ lives in a way that they are emulating – or just plain biting – the movies in their own creative endeavours.

Coheed and Cambria is a millennium falcon of a band – they don’t always work out and they are ridiculous to look at.  Yet they have created a veritable marketing scheme in the same way that Star Wars hawked chicken bucket lids with ugly aliens (and uglier humans) on them.  The prog-metal band is the proud parents of toys, comic books and a legacy of music that apes Star Wars to an embarrassing degree.  Of course, if you look past that, the New York-based band actually has some pretty catchy songs.

With their latest album, No World For Tomorrow, Coheed and Cambria have concluded their running story about the Amory Wars, which fans can also follow along in a comic book (and play with their new Claudio Sanchez figurine to boot!).  Of course live, the epic prog-opera falls short of making any sense (did it ever?) but viewing saucy hair-whips is always delicious.

Threeohsix.org recently caught up with guitarist Travis Stevers to briefly (he was on a payphone at a rock festival – go figure) discuss Coheed and Cambria’s upcoming Saskatoon date with Baroness (who do to metal what Motorhead would do to a wedding cake), No World For Tomorrow and other touchy nuggets.

Threeohsix: So if you’ve concluded the Amory Wars with your latest album, No World For Tomorrow, do you feel like a literal chapter of the band has closed?

Travis Stevers: No because we’re doing a prequel.  It was always the plan to do four albums we’ve done and then do an album that told the beginning of the story.

So I guess Star Wars comparisons are inevitable?

Yeah, I guess.

So when you write your songs do you ever feel weighted or hindered by telling the story – or prog-opera – of the Amory Wars?

Musically we’ve done what we were going to do anyway.  We’re a band that plays what we want musically.  But lyrically, that’s where the story falls into.  Of course the music flows with it.  But when it comes down to it, Claudio’s lyrics are really what tell the story.  A great deal of our lyrics is based on real-life events.  That’s the way his approach has been the whole time he’s been writing it, especially this last album where we went through a lot of turmoil in the band.  All the lyrics that came out of No World For Tomorrow I could feel very close to because what we had been through for the past year.  When it comes down to it, lyrically, he talks about things that are going on in his life anyway.  Yes, there is a story involved that we all have a part in telling but it’s an enjoyable one to tell.

With things like toys and comic books being connected with the band, do you ever feel like these things distract from the music?

Honestly, we love to do what we musically so the comics and whatever are a choice for the listener to get more involved.  If they want to buy these things they can.  I think it’s a really cool extra.  I don’t see these things as a necessity for somebody who listens to our music.  But I think if somebody was going really get into [the Amory Wars storyline] they would want more anyway.

Do you feel like you’ve made the music and the lyrics accessible enough for someone to jump into the Amory Wars story and still get it?

Like I said, a lot of it based on real life events and that they could listen to the album and get that there is a lot of turmoil going on.  And even connect it to what’s going on with society and the world.

So with all the other projects the band has done, can fans expect a Coheed and Cambria motion picture or animated series in the future?

No, there are no plans for that.  Not yet, anyway.

2 Comments

J May 08, 2008 207.47.244.211	"Coheed and Cambria is a millennium falcon of a band – they don’t always work out and they are ridiculous to look at." Get this man a Pulitzer!
paperweight May 08, 2008 70.64.151.49	The term isn't hair-whip! It's windmill!!!!