Last week, American rockers Coheed and Cambria were in town for the Rockawayfest Showcase held at Bentley Music Auditorium at Mutiara Damansara. Though they seemed intimidating (to us, at least) at first, we managed to ease ourselves into an interview with the band a few hours before their show!
Dig this, yo:
First things first, what questions do you hate being asked?
“Um, what questions do we hate being asked? We’re pretty sure there are a few but just shoot away!”
Okay! Since most of your albums’ concepts are based on comic books, which comes first? The music or the story?
“The music. When we write the songs, it’s usually more from a personal standpoint as to opposed to conceptual. It’s very much about life, sort of identity and love. Those are big themes and things that we endure every day in our lives.”
Coheed and Cambria has released about seven albums to date. Do you have an end in mind for the saga?
“Well, there is an end. I mean, if you’re talking chronologically, ‘The Afterman’ just sorta goes back into the past and tells the story of the namesake of the album. You know, I don’t know if I see an end in terms of like, stopping from writing concept records. I don’t really see that happening.”
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Do you guys still get nervous before you go on stage? Are there any rituals that you guys do before you go on stage?
“Sometimes. Sometimes, yeah. Rituals well, a lot of stretching. Travis paces! The rest of us..just busy stretching. It sounds like a simple thing but really you know when you put on your uniform to go to work? It’s kinda like that. We all kinda have our own little things that we do. We don’t do like a huddle and pray or anything like that.”
Have you guys ever experienced culture shocks from when you tour? Have there ever been difficult moments because of the differences?
“Certain places do have a certain more culture shock than others. Where did we go that was completely just..culture shock? Hard to think of anywhere – we’re pretty used to traveling. You know, Australia was certainly not culture shock although things are slightly different there but it’s just interesting. Singapore was really wild – that was something else. That wasn’t culture shock but we’ve never seen anything like that. We can’t think of a place that we’ve been that was just out of control and crazy and just totally weird. Maybe language barrier? We haven’t dealt with that on this trip (to Malaysia) but some places, we deal with it a lot more. As much as we love going to France, for instance, or Germany, sometimes it can be tough.”
Were you surprised that people in Malaysia speak English?
“Yeah! Even the first time we came here it was just like, wow, there’s no real language barrier problem. Even in Singapore, they answered the phones in English. You guys speak better English here than they do at home. We’re aware that we’re really far away from home so what a trip it is to be so far away from home and yet there’s a sense of home here.”
Aww. Did they just say that there’s a sense of home here, in Malaysia? Really? Let’s hope they keep coming “home” then. Thank you for taking time off to speak to us, Coheed and Cambria! And thank you, Livescape Asia for making the interview happen.
For more information on Coheed and Cambria, hit up their official website.
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