Coheed and Cambria | No World For Tomorrow

Cobalt and Calcium Interview with Claudio - Video Transcript

Matt: Hey everyone! It’s Matt from Cobalt and Calcium here with Claudio in Calgary on the Baroness Tour, so how is the tour going so far?

Claudio: Ah so far so good, we’re all having a good time, just kind of plugging away pretty much, spending a lot of time on the bus really just kind of reading and working on stuff.

Matt: Sweet, any highlights of the bus ride so far?

Claudio: We talked about this yesterday! We were driving thru…where the hell were we driving thru?

Matt: Jasper

Claudio: I think so, it was just beautiful countryside and you know I thought it was awesome, and I had a great time. I woke up and it was probably 6 or 7 in the morning and Mic was up, we were kind of just starting out the windows looking at the mountains it was awesome.

Matt: Awesome, the mountains are great. Good stuff!

So I guess we should get to the meat of the material *laugh from both* that we have here that our wonderful forum users want to know all about. So these questions, like you know were gathered from our forum. There were probably about 400 replies to a thread that we made, so everyone is really interested to know what is going on in the world of Coheed.

So one of the first questions we have here is: When can we expect any new Coheed material? If you can let us know anything about that?

Claudio: Um ok, I am not too sure, we have been working on new material, we’ve been touring around with a few songs here and there, you know at sound checks, sending files back and forth and at home and we have just been kind of working on stuff but we haven’t really dove into the album yet, just touching on things. You know there is a lot going on, I mean with Travis and the Davenport Cabinet, myself with Kill Audio and The Amory Wars, just a bunch of stuff right now that kind of taking up a little bit of our time, and something very secret!

Matt: Excellent! Now I know everyone is looking forward to a live CD or a live DVD, are there any plans for that in the works?

Claudio: You know, not right now. It is hard to say, I know we have been talking about it, but it’s I don’t know. *Laugh from both* Sorry, there is some things I can’t say because I kind of want to keep it a bit of a mystery.

Matt: Mystery for sure. *Laugh from both* The Coheed world is very mysterious!

Claudio: Yes it is! *Laugh*

Matt: Realm of mystery!

I know one of the big things that everyone always gripes about is the set list, is there any chance of modification in the set list?

Claudio: Yeah definitely! That is a big thing that we have been working on at sound checks along with new material is actually playing old songs. You know songs that haven’t really seen the light of day. I mean we’ve touched like in the past few weeks…we have been touching like “Al the Killer”…

Matt: I heard that here actually earlier.

Claudio: Oh yeah! We did a bunch today actually! Did you get a chance to hear a bunch of them?

Matt: No but in Edmonton yesterday, I heard “Crossing the Frame”, “Once Upon Your Dead Body”…

Claudio: Yeah! “Crossing the Frame”, we never really played. We’ve actually rehearsed at one point; we just touched on it - “33”…

Matt: Oh awesome!

Claudio: Which is like, never… I think we’ve only ever played that like once. But yeah, we have been touching material and so the set list will get changed on our next tour.

Matt: Perfect, awesome! Is there any chance of like more “Evening with Coheed and Cambria” type shows?

Claudio: You know something is in the works, this is just the big secret kind of. I mean going back to your question about a live DVD and all that stuff, there is all talks about things like that. I mean nothing has really come to fruition obviously but we are thinking about it.

Matt: Excellent!

I know another one of the Coheed mysteries we’ve uncovered is something called Spencer Doll *Laugh from Claudio*

Nobody knows anything about Spencer Doll! Is there anything that you can share?

Claudio: Yeah, yeah without a doubt!

Matt: Perfect!

Claudio: You know, Spencer Doll is well I had a few…you know like Inferno, I had a few like sequenced songs that I just kind of tossing around and didn’t really do anything with them and actually for fun I passed them to Chondra, who is my girlfriend and she started singing over them and it actually sounds really good…

Matt: Awesome!

Claudio: …so we have been kind of thinking about of creating a project out of it. It just again is time; we haven’t had the time to do it. I mean we have demoed a bunch of material but we are a little hesitant to put it up online just yet, I mean eventually something will come out with that project.

Matt: Great to hear!
We’ve noticed your foray into odd instruments live, like the Theremin. Are there plans to use some of these instruments in some recordings coming up?

Claudio: Without a doubt! I mean I have always tried to use the Theremin. I remember getting that Theremin around the time of In Keeping Secrets and wanting to put it on there and I think we did to some extent with “Once Upon Your Dead Body”, but I think we realized then it didn’t really fit so much into the song and I think it kind of got canned. And plus at the time I wasn’t playing it right, I still don’t play it right, but I have more grasp of the instrument now than I did then, so…

Matt: Well it sounded awesome last night for sure….

Claudio: Oh Hell yeah! Well, thank you! You know, I would love to at some point incorporate it in.

Matt: Great, great! Well, moving right along. What inspired you to create Kill Audio? Being so busy with touring and the Amory Wars?

Claudio: Well, I have this love for vinyl toys and art, and Chonny and I were kind of sitting in the house, I mean this was a project I wanted to do and we started kind of sketching out ideas for toys and for stories and other stories and Kill Audio kind of came later. We were talking with our prototyper and he really wanted to do a likeness doll and we were very opposed to it and so we kept doing our own thing and one day it kind of just sat there and I thought about the doll and I thought about doing a likeness doll, but it was just for me… I don’t really want to do something that is you know me and Coheed with a guitar or something like that; I wanted to do something with a little more personality and I have always toyed around with the name Kill-Audio

Matt: Nice play on words there! *Claudio laugh*

Claudio: So I thought this was a nice way to kill two birds with one stone, so Chonny actually outlined the character a little bit and we started toying with it and going back and forth with Josh Sutton who is the prototyper and eventually Kill Audio came to life. And then looking at the doll, I was like you know there is a story behind this somewhere, but I wasn’t quite sure and it just kind of came to me I think one night, I was working and I jotted it all down and so here we are….. Sorry! *Claudio laugh*

Matt: Great! Do you ever feel that you’ve ever had to compromise some of your artistic vision because of pressures from the label, or from popular culture, radio stations…things like that?

Claudio: I mean yeah sometimes, being in a band it’s tough when you want to put out a video and things like that, you can’t put out the you know…I know for me if “Feathers” would be way more gruesome…

Matt: I heard the director’s cut was up on Fearnet….

Claudio: Yeah, and that’s awesome, but when I was writing the treatment, I was like ok I know what my boundaries are because I have to hit those walls before so when I write this treatment let me just keep that in mind, that way I don’t present it to someone and they are like “oh this is too gory, we can’t do this”, you know what I mean. This way we can throw a little bit of comedy in there and please everybody at the same time pleasing myself and seeing what happens. But yeah there have been moments.

Matt: Now has there been an intentional change in sound from album to album, or has it just been a product of your progression as a band?

Claudio: I think a little bit of both, obviously with “No World For Tomorrow” we did it with a different producer so that definitely had a big effect on the way the album sounded, but I mean as a band growing and just progressing that has lot to do with it.

Matt: What is the next step in that progression of sound?

Claudio: You know, I don’t know. The material that we have been working on as of recent is very Coheed, it’s very different. I wish I could use some example from our back catalogue, but there is nothing that comes to mind, it is definitely cool.

Matt: Awesome! How is Prize Fighter Inferno coming along, what is the next step for that project?

Claudio: *Laugh* I would like to do something with Prize Fighter eventually, actually I found a couple of songs that didn’t make it on to “Blood Machine” and I was thinking of putting those up on MySpace just for the time being because I know everyone has been very patient with it. Because it has been awhile since the first release, I mean eventually I will do something; I am just not quite sure what I want to do. The first album wasn’t really created as an album it was just all these songs over like 7 years worth of time that I never did anything with and I just created something out of that. I would like to do something a little bit more thought out, more focused so I just need to figure out what that is.

Matt: What about plans for acoustic recordings? I know you did one today for a radio station here in Calgary, is there anything coming up like an album release of acoustic material.

Claudio: I mean it is something we talked about…..

Matt: Like the “Kerrang EP”?

Claudio: “Kerrang EP”? Oh yeah! No, we have talked about doing something like that - again more focused, more thought out. Like something where we actually went into the studio and maybe did some of the older songs acoustically. It is something that we talked about and we never really fully gotten into it. I remember on the Avenged Tour we got a little portable Pro Tools rig but we were going to try and do it then but the rig gave us problems every day we tried to open that thing up, but problem after problem, crash after crash so it just got annoying and we put it aside.

Matt: Any future plans for any vinyl releases or re-releases, going back and releasing things that isn’t on vinyl yet?

Claudio: I mean yeah, there will definitely be some sort of re-release, I mean once we finish the saga I would like to do something interesting with all 5 records…

Matt: A box set or something?

Claudio: Yeah, something cool, get a featured artist to maybe do some of the scenes in the story. Just something you know ….really awesome…. *Laugh* I would love to, so we will see.

Matt: Speaking of awesome, “Kitchen Jam”!….everybody loves it. *Laughs*

Claudio: Oh yeah!…*Laughs*

Matt: They want to know what the plans are for “Kitchen Jam”…..

Claudio: *Laughs* Wow, that is so funny, I don’t know we haven’t really messed with it. *Laughs* Actually, “Kitchen Jam” was at that time, I had just purchased a Moog Voyager, that was the little synth that I was playing in the “Kitchen Jam” and I was totally into that instrument for a good minute, I mean it was on NWFT for like I think I tried to get it on every track! But that was just something we did for fun and we were going to make it the bonus track for NWFT and then I realized kind of last minute, this is the end there shouldn’t be a bonus track and it’s just got to be closed.

Matt: What is your favourite song that you’ve written? And why?

Claudio: Hmm, Favourite Song?

Matt: Just to dig in there a little bit…..

Claudio: *Laugh*…you know, I like all of them and they all have a story. “Welcome Home” I think is definitely my favourite overall, I mean there is just something about it and maybe it is just the way it is received when we play it live. I also really like “No World for Tomorrow” a lot.

Matt : Great opening track for a concert!

Claudio: Yeah! There is just something about the rhythm and the way the instruments between the bass and the guitar, just the movement that is happening at the front of the stage along with the drums, there is something about that song that I really like a lot. But, “Welcome Home” was a lot of fun, because I remember I was living with my parents at the time and I was sitting in the kitchen in like my boxers and playing the acoustic guitar and mind you the kitchen is very small. Just kind of playing, came up with the riff and came up with the melody and had a little tape recorder and I was so excited at the time, I was kind of for some reason in my head thought it sounded more like Tool and I was singing it so aggressive and I think my mom came down, she probably thought I was nuts. I dunno *Laugh*

Matt: Well an area we would like to get settled on the forums… everyone has been deciphering the code that is on the deluxe edition of NWFT since it came out. Does it mean anything?

Claudio: It does, it does mean something, umm…you know what….I am totally forgetting now…what is the cipher…do you have that? I know that they know what one of them means……

Matt: No you know… I don’t have that of the top of my head right now either…but they did a pretty good job at going through and decoding all those symbols….

Claudio: Yeah!! if I heard the one cipher I would probably remember the other.

Matt : I think it is like “The End is Near…”?

Claudio: Oh yeah!! I think it is like something… “For He…” or “The Forsaken”… “The End Is Near”…..something like that…don’t quote me on that…I would have to go back and check.

Matt: That should settle that, a lot of people have been working very hard on that for the last couple of months. *Laugh from both*

Couple more questions about the story, you probably have been noticing on the boards lots of different threads, people really wanting to get a good feel of what the story is…but we have some questions

Claudio: Yeah, yeah please!

Matt: One of them is widely debated, is Sizer the one who betrays Claudio in NWFT?

Claudio: Sizer does not betray Claudio, Sizer is of all of the characters, he would probably be the most honest because going back to In Keeping Secrets we think of songs like “Cuts Marked in the March of Men” and “Three Evils of Love and Shadow” these are songs about Sizer, this is Sizer sacrificing himself for the good of Chase and allowing Chase to do her thing and also when you think of “Three Evils” that is kind of interrogation scene where he is being severed limb from limb and they want information from him and he just does not give it and umm and they end up axing the character but he comes back but he is the most honest, most trustworthy character of the whole mythology. So he is not…the betrayer!!! *Laugh from both*

Matt: Is he the Hound?

Claudio: No, no no, the Hound…. I will leave that a mystery. *Laugh from both*

Matt: Alright, lots of speculation what an IRO-bot really is, whether or not they’re just enhanced humans. Lots of things going back and forth…Is there a set definition?

Claudio: I mean they are the Interceptive Recon Operative is what I entitled them in the first series done with Wes Abbot - that is what the IRO stood for. They are cybernetic organisms, they kind of live like human beings but you know it is science fiction – they are kind of like terminators I guess. I never really deciphered them that much and that definitely something I will probably do for the prequel but as far their actual genetic makeup I haven’t got that deep.

Matt: Some fans think that Newo and Claudio had a baby is this true…

Claudio: No, you see the thing is with Newo and Claudio, Claudio leaves Newo in SSTB and in all the other stories he has this hard time dealing with the fact that he this being called The Crowing. The Crowing is, according to the bible of the story, The Crowing is actually the bringer of the end and what end that is no one knows, if it is good or bad and one of his big conflicts is that he has left Newo alone and left her with a letter in Second Stage and you will kind of see that in the next mini of Amory Wars but he always wants to return to her and explain why he left but he just never does, I guess he just doesn’t have the balls. But if you listen to when the scene opens up in “In Keeping Secrets”..where he is like “Hello Apollo where should I begin…” he is on the lawn of Newo’s house, though more aged – this is 10 years after the events of Second Stage and he is basically describing this story to this dog because he can’t get to that door and tell it to her.

Matt: Cool! In NWFT, it sounds like the Prise have become corrupt or traitorous. Is this true?

Claudio: No, the Prise…you see what happens is when Ryan in Second Stage destroys Sector 12 ( I guess I am giving it all away aren’t I!!) and kills off Mariah, and in doing that he has kind of overthrown God in the eyes of man, it’s like god is this entity that we always talk about but we never actually seen this creator yet this guy has gone and done everything god has asked us not to do so they kind of follow him…what was the question again?

Matt: Have they become corrupt or traitorous?

Claudio: No, the Prise…they failed miserably with the events of Second Stage Turbine Blade so they end up going into hiding and they don’t come out until the Crowing comes out that is why they send Ambellina down to watch over Claudio and to guide him because when he comes out they will come out and they will do what is right and they will right the wrongs.

Matt: Awesome! You’ve said in interviews before that a character learns to use the Willing Well in NWFT, then in the videos it depicts Ryan in our world now does this mean Ryan has escaped the Amory Wars universe?

Claudio: No..well you know those..

Matt: They were just kinda for fun?

Claudio: Yeah, they were just for fun, the Willing Well only really takes place in Good Apollo 1, we do see The Writer again in NWFT but that is around “On The Brink”. They were just more for fun, what happens if he came out instead of The Writer going in.

Matt: Some random questions that have cropped up…Who do you think would win in a battle, a Minotaur with a trident or a Centaur with a crossbow?

Claudio: I think the Minotaur, because you know if the Centaur misses he is fu……*Laugh from both*

Matt: Waffles? Pancakes? Gotta have breakfast!

Claudio: Yeah! Yeah! I would have wheat pancakes….

Matt: Any toppings?

Claudio: You know whatever I can get my hands on, I would put something on there….tunafish? *Laugh from both*

Matt: That is pretty disgusting waffle *Laugh from both*

Claudio: I know!

Matt: What are some of your favourite movies?

Claudio: Umm, I like everything, my favourite.. jesus this such a hard question for me….god there is so much. True Romance is one of my favourite movies of all time….you familiar with the movie?

Matt: No, I haven’t seen it.

Claudio: Well it is written by Quentin Tarentino and Christian Slater plays the main character, Patricia Arquette plays the love interest, he is kind of this comic book nerd and she is the hooker that kind of just got into that. It is almost a Bonnie and Cylde kind of story, I love it. I love all the Lucasfilms – Star Wars, Indiana Jones…

Matt: Awesome, have you seen the new one yet?

Claudio: I did, I saw it twice actually, already. I went twice because I knew I would be a bit sensitive because Indiana Jones was a big part of my childhood. I remember my mom telling me stories about going to see Santa Claus and me being too afraid to go sit on his lap and having my brother do it… “Hey can you make sure he gets me Indiana Jones..” I knew I was going to be a bit sensitive so I went and saw it and of course I walked out and I wasn’t sure that I liked the end, there was something about the formula of the character before that I wasn’t expecting and then I went saw it again right after and I sat back and I was comfortable and I enjoyed it, I really did.

Matt: Alright… any bands that are kind of on your favourite list or songs?

Claudio: Yeah! I have been compiling like a mix tape, because Kill Audio is very musical, the story is very musical and actually in the first few issues there is a character called “Chicken Coke Daddy” that Kill Audio meets and he is actually listening to a song by a band called… “Debarge - Rhythm of the Night” ..familiar?

Matt: No…. *Laugh*

Claudio: Well you know, I have been compiling all of the songs that are the soundtrack to the story and I am actually going to put them on the MySpace page at some point so when you read the stories and you see the lyrics that are kind of floating in the air you will get to hear what the song actually is…

Matt: Oh awesome!

Claudio: So yeah, that….. *hesitant*…Listening to Whitney Houston, a little Rockwell, these are all songs that are part of the soundtrack, some Huey Lewis…it’s cool.

Matt: Awesome and one last question for you here Claudio, is there any memorable or particularly affecting fan encounters for you?

Claudio: Nothing bizarre, I always like the art, I have been given several pieces of art and I have actually been able to keep a bunch of them with the rigor of tours and stuff, it gets crazy in those buses. But I actually have stuff and I have hung it on my walls and given some to my parents and I got to tell you when people come over and they come to the house and they see all these pictures of me, they are like what’s up with you dude! So I kind of have to put them other places so I don’t look so vainful…..yeah! Nothing bizarre.

Matt: Well thanks for your time and I hope that answers everyone’s questions for now and it was great to talk to you!

Claudio: Cool man!

Matt: Thanks!