Music 1040 – U.S. Music and Culture. This piece, we were to do a writeup (3-5 pages, double spaced) on any American born musician.
Coheed and Cambria (1)
&
Claudio Sanchez
Coheed and Cambria is a band that has adopted an unusual and surprisingly successful method when it comes to writing its music. The band has written the entirety of eight albums so far (not including EPs or live recordings), every one of them written as concept music for an ongoing story and comic written by the band’s frontman, Claudio Sanchez. Their heavy, progressive rock, and occasionally metal sound often emits surreal themes and ideas befitting the war-laden, science fiction story that accompanies their music.
Claudio was born in Stuffern, New York in 1978. Claudio had been in several bands, some with amusingly petty reasons for breaking up, before he and others formed the musical group Coheed and Cambria. One of his earlier bands, Beautiful Loser, broke up because of a dispute involving gas expenses. A musical project before Coheed, Shabutie, ended when their drummer walked off stage during a performance for unpublicized reasons. The remnants of Shabutie plus a new drummer ended up forming what is now Coheed and Cambria. (2)
The music of Coheed and Cambria makes very little sense to most people, and to some, that is the appeal; the almost wacky, out of place, yet fun lyrical nonsense. It evidences the idea that in general, the music itself is primary in what people like and lyrics are only secondary. The lyrics are fairly difficult to understand through much of the heavier instruments that occasionally drown out Claudio’s sometimes falsetto vocals, but with the strange, surreal and nonsensical wording of some of their lyrics, that’s not much of a detractor. Take for example the first verse and chorus of one of their more popular songs, and an album’s title track, “In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3.”
A broad incision sits across the evening
The victim to our fathers lost war
The restless children sit and mourn the graves
Of those they’ve never seen before
Will they be buried here among the dead?
In the silent secret
[Chorus:]
The pioneers
In dealing with it they march for dawn, of Will and worthy
The truth be told the child was born
Man your own jackhammer
Man your battle stations
We’ll have you dead pretty soon
And now
Sincerely written from my brother’s blood machine
Man your battle stations
We’ll have you home pretty soon
And now
Although some can be inferred about these words being associated with some sort of war, i t seems impossible to know exactly what war the singer is speaking of with the odd references otherwise. The oddity of their lyrics is directly attributed to context. They are telling a story, or at least the ideas and concepts of a story. That story is told in a series of novels, comic books and graphic novels, often bearing the same name as the musical albums they are associated with. Without the context of that story or even knowing the intent behind the albums, most people listen without even realizing that they are listening to these tales in musical form. They could even be synonymous to listening to the soundtrack of a movie. It’s difficult to understand the meaning behind a single song by jumping in to the middle of any particular album but by knowing the stories directly associated with the music, one finds an even greater appreciation in their unconventional style of music. These stories eventually became collected into a single, easy to acquire collection called The Amory Wars (3). In fact, it’s from these stories that the band derives its name: from the names of two of the protagonists, a husband and wife couple Coheed and Cambria Kilganonn.
It’s this context that the songs of Coheed and Cambria are built in that really makes this group stand out and shine apart from other groups. The multi-talented Claudio has used his talents as a storyteller, musician and lyricist and created a masterful, long running piece of art throughout many mediums all primarily centered around his music. Wondering whether the music or the written stories took priority, Claudio was once asked, “When writing a new album: are you more concerned with incorporating the story you want to tell or does the music always come first?” In response he said, “It’s tough because with the past albums prior to Afterman, I always had an idea of what the concept was going to be for those records. Of course, I still wrote those songs from a personal perspective, but I had an idea of where they would go, whereas Afterman I wrote based completely on emotional experiences I was living out. I guess I feel like they play an equal role. “ (4)
The music itself of Coheed and Cambria is labeled as progressive rock, a very accurate categorization. Progressive rock is generally categorized by rock music that shuns traditional, recognizable, dancable rhythms in favor of a style of music that is intended to make the listener think through the use of less conventional vocal styles, varying tempos and beats within a single composition and experimentation with infrequently heard instruments or items used to make music not normally considered by musicians. This describes the music of Coheed and Cambria well in Claudio’s use of heavy rock mingled with many elements of modern metal such as fast, overpowering beats and bass and occasional, but not frequent screaming. Fortunately, the band recognizes that these elements amongst others, such as falsetto vocals, childrens choirs, anvils, synthesizers, string and brass instruments all have their respective places in their music. Along with these, the band‘s primary instrumental focus is on Claudio’s guitar and vocals and his band mates Travis Stever and his vocals, guitar and steel guitar, Josh Eppard on drums and keyboards, and Zach Cooper on bass and cello. These varying elements are used to convey the tones of the story each song is attempting to tell whether it be the reveal of a villain, the heat of a climactic battle or the death of a heroic character.
Coheed and Cambria epitomizes the ideal of art music Because the music is not written in a formulaic, pop-centric pattern, Coheed and Cambria is not often heard mingled with mainstream music, but it shuns many popular notions of songwriting for the sake of storytelling. Their music is telling a story, trying to make a person think and feel a certain way to depict complex human emotions. Music isn’t often associated with printed media, but having that published story successfully extends music into that medium and solidifies it as an unusual, yet effective form of artistic expression.
- Official Website
http://www.coheedandcambria.com/ - Coheed and Cambria Biography, Allmusic
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/coheed-and-cambria-mn0000105030/biography - http://theamorywars.com/category/books/
- Online Public Interview, July 18, 2013 – http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ikw5z/i_am_claudio_sanchez_frontman_of_coheed_cambria/