How Coheed and Cambria Broke Concept-Album Streak on New LP
“At the time I was writing the record, I didn’t realize that I was writing an album,” Claudio Sanchez says of the process that led, slowly and uncertainly, to The Color Before the Sun, the new album by prog-pop-metal quartet Coheed and Cambria, out October 16th. In a dramatic departure for the band, which turns 20 this year, the new album dispenses with something that previously had seemed essential: “The Amory Wars,” the ongoing science-fiction storyline that not only has formed the basis of all previous Coheed albums, but also has sprawled outward into Sanchez’s work in comic books and literary fiction.
Confronted with the prospect of making a new home in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with his wife, writer Chondra Echert, Sanchez faced what he terms an identity crisis. But with the discovery that they were expecting their first child, Sanchez says, came a sense of direction, the feeling that he could channel everything he was feeling into his work without recourse to fiction and fantasy.
What resulted is in some ways Coheed’s most direct statement, one that the band chose to record live in the studio in order to emphasize its personal nature. In a telephone conversation from Brooklyn, Sanchez addressed the changes he’d been through. First, though, he revealed why he had paid homage to the late film director Wes Craven, whose death two days earlier Sanchez had noted on Twitter: “You were a huge inspiration to us, Wes Craven. I could only dream of creating a character as iconic as you have.”
Wes Craven was the auteur of some notoriously violent slasher films. How did his work inspire you?
It’s really about the creation of Freddy Krueger, honestly. Not too long ago, I put out a song on a seven-inch with a solo project of mine, called “Elm Street Lover Boy,” which was about: Had Freddy Krueger truly loved Nancy? Maybe she was misreading him. For so long, I had always put Freddy Krueger up there with Darth Vader — someone that was huge, coming up. Whether it was Wes’ writing of the script or Robert [Englund]’s delivery of the character, I don’t know, but something about that creation, I think, for me, stands the test of time. Very few people can accomplish that in life. George Lucas has that with Star Wars, and Wes and Robert have that with Freddy Kreuger: They’re just these characters that will always resonate for the rest of my life. Being a creator of characters myself, I can only wish to attain that thing that they just have.
Even when you go to see the not-so-great Star Wars prequel films, there’s something about sitting in that dark room, hearing the 2oth Century Fox fanfare… You’re shivering with anticipation, and you’re 11 years old again.
I’m not going to lie to you: I saw that first Star Wars [prequel] like seven times. I’m not necessarily saying that I loved the movie, but that sort of experience that you get from knowing that you’re in a Star Wars feature is really special.