Claudio Sanchez Talks About The Band’s Latest Album and Band Member

Background

Coheed and Cambria’s albums are concept albums that reveal a science fiction storyline called The Amory Wars, a series of story mediums written by lead singer Claudio Sanchez. The band has released five studio albums, two live albums, and several special-edition releases. In 2008, the band held a four-day concert series, Neverender, during which they played their first four studio albums in succession. Their fifth studio album, Year of the Black Rainbow, which is a prequel to the series, was released on April 13, 2010.

Coheed and Cambria has recently finished their fifth studio album Year of the Black Rainbow. It is a prequel to their conceptual story, having events that take place before The Second Stage Turbine Blade. A novel was released to accompany the album co-written by Sanchez and Peter David. This novel is currently only available with the special edition of the album. The second track from the new album, “The Broken”, was released on iTunes on February 9, 2010. “Here We Are Juggernaut” became available for streaming on MySpace on March 4, 2010 and became available to purchase through iTunes on March 9, 2010. On April 7th, the entire album became available for streaming on Myspace. The album was released on April 13th in both a standard, iTunes special, and deluxe edition (with the deluxe edition including the “Year of the Black Rainbow” novel and a special Year of the Black Rainbow “Black Card” that provides the holder early access to some Coheed shows.

The first three tracks, excluding the instrumental opening track, were released on the Rock Band music store on April 20, 2010. These include “The Broken”, “Guns of Summer”, and “Here We Are Juggernaut.”

What can we expect from the new album? 

Expect the unexpected as Chris would say. It’s certainly a mature sounding album, there’s a lot of interesting textures, there’s something for everyone really.

Has your style or sound changed?

We’ve definately explored a lot more territory with this album, as opposed to the past, in terms of the things we used, some of the starting points and the song-writing.

The concept behind the abum?

With Coheed there’s always the concept behind it. The Black Rainbow is not actually a literal rainbow, it’s actually its absence in reality and kinda sparks questions as to how it occurred, is it God or is it a dictator ruling everything and that kinda sparks the creation of Coheed and Cambria to kinda correct what’s happening.

What was it like working with Peter David?

I met Peter David, my co-author, through a friend. I actually knew about Peter’s work on The Incredible Hulk and his creator-owned comic book series, Fallen Angel, but I wasn’t too familiar with his pros work. But my wife, Chandra, actually read one of his pieces called Tiger Heart and she thought it was very strong. So I met with Peter and he seemed like an interesting character, and he posed a lot of questions for the mythology which allowed me to work on it a bit more and allow it to grow. It just felt like the perfect pairing as opposed to some of the people I’ve worked with in the past who didn’t really ask a whole lot of questions…

And you’ve worked with new producers…

For this album we actually chose a production team of Mr Atticus Ross and Mr Joe Barresi, and both have great bodies of work behind them including Teeth, Year Zero, NIN, Tool, and Queens Of The Stone Age. It just felt like the perfect pairing - where one had strengths and one might have had a weakness, if that makes any sense, they very much balanced each other out and brought their own unique approach to the table. It was a great experience for me, it was certainly the most fun Coheed record I’ve made.

How was new drummer Chris?

This is actually the first album that Chris had a chance to participate in. And he definately owns it and he brought an incredible work ethic to the table which made me and the others want to match it. He definitely shines on it - you can definitely hear it on ‘Guns Of Summer’ and ‘The Broken.’

Are you excited about returning to the UK?

I’m excited in general about touring everywhere. I’m really proud of this record and anxious to kinda share it with everyone, so when we return to the UK in June it’s going to be a great time.

So, what’s next?

It’s too far off to really know. I mean right now we’re really focusing on the US run that we’re doing and what kind of presentation we’re going to bring to that tour. And so I’m not exactly sure what it’s going to be for even that. So it’s hard to say and a little too far off to know right now.

Portrait Photos by Davey Wilson