Whether returning, awakening, rising, or striking back, Coheed and Cambria have long been crafting a high-concept fictional universe — through and alongside their music.
If you're talking space-opera odysseys, the looming dark shadow of Star Wars is almost inescapable, so needless to say, bandleader Claudio Sanchez was absolutely skywalking when the New York prog rockers were likened to the ever-expanding anthology.
In a new interview with Guitar World, Sanchez relayed a particularly flattering exchange he'd had with the band's A&R executive, who likened the outfit's aesthetic output to George Lucas's transcendent franchise.
"It was a great conversation: 'What does a new Coheed fan look like coming into this, 20 years into our career?'" the bandleader recalled. "It must be something not unlike Star Wars. You're young, [and] you get into The Force Awakens only to find out that there's this whole mythos for you to go back and [discover]."
He explained: "I was excited when somebody said that to me, because they got it — for a long time nobody got it. This isn't just about music; this is about a culture that this band has been trying to develop since 2002, but it was just a hard thing for people to swallow." It's hard to be ahead of your time.
Sanchez added that listeners also don't need to follow Coheed's elaborate sci-fi storylines to engage with their music — an example of which being forthcoming new album Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking Mind, where criminal characters Nea and Nostrand escape a prison planet with a newborn child that only interacts with a higher plane of existence.
"There's something that people can latch onto, personally, as opposed to being force-fed this strict concept," he said.
Just like the force, each Coheed and Cambria episode — and their many inevitable spinoffs — are yours to be with.
The band recently recruited Alkaline Trio to sub-in for Dance Gavin Dance as their North American tour support following allegations of sexual against Tilian Pearson.
If you're talking space-opera odysseys, the looming dark shadow of Star Wars is almost inescapable, so needless to say, bandleader Claudio Sanchez was absolutely skywalking when the New York prog rockers were likened to the ever-expanding anthology.
In a new interview with Guitar World, Sanchez relayed a particularly flattering exchange he'd had with the band's A&R executive, who likened the outfit's aesthetic output to George Lucas's transcendent franchise.
"It was a great conversation: 'What does a new Coheed fan look like coming into this, 20 years into our career?'" the bandleader recalled. "It must be something not unlike Star Wars. You're young, [and] you get into The Force Awakens only to find out that there's this whole mythos for you to go back and [discover]."
He explained: "I was excited when somebody said that to me, because they got it — for a long time nobody got it. This isn't just about music; this is about a culture that this band has been trying to develop since 2002, but it was just a hard thing for people to swallow." It's hard to be ahead of your time.
Sanchez added that listeners also don't need to follow Coheed's elaborate sci-fi storylines to engage with their music — an example of which being forthcoming new album Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking Mind, where criminal characters Nea and Nostrand escape a prison planet with a newborn child that only interacts with a higher plane of existence.
"There's something that people can latch onto, personally, as opposed to being force-fed this strict concept," he said.
Just like the force, each Coheed and Cambria episode — and their many inevitable spinoffs — are yours to be with.
The band recently recruited Alkaline Trio to sub-in for Dance Gavin Dance as their North American tour support following allegations of sexual against Tilian Pearson.
