Coheed & Cambria have been all over the TV the past year. Going from a small following on an underground label (Equal Vision) to playing the Warped Tour and selling out the Roseland Ballroom as well as several other dates on their first headlining tour. Not to mention the video for their song “A Favor House Atlantic” played on MTV while their second record went gold. They’ve also been featured in magazines like Rolling Stone, Spin and Revolver.
Coheed & Cambria are at work on their third album, which will hopefully bring back some old fans and gain some new ones. Josh Eppard, drummer of New Jersey’s own prog/emo/punk/hard rock band took some time out of his busy schedule to talk with The Commonwealth Times about Rush and MTV.
CT: I just wanted to tell you I am a humongous fan of your band. You guys are incredible and I’ve been following you since the Second Stage Turbine Blade.
JE: That means a lot. We get a lot of flack for it nowadays it seems like a lot of the kids liked the first record or even a lot of the ones who liked the second record “In Keeping…” when it came out now hate it. I don’t know why. We went against the grain from the get go anyway, man. We were getting courted by major labels for a year and a half and we went with the one that felt like they believed in the record and I’m really glad we signed with Columbia. And who’d ever thought that the “Favor House” video we made would get on MTV.
CT: Oh, right.
JE: We got drunk at a bar and made a stupid video. Who’d ever thought MTV would have picked it up? It just happened, and when it did we were excited and weirded out, cause I think it’s kinda weird they picked that video up.
CT: What do you think of people comparing you to Rush?
JE: I think it’s kinda funny, cause, I see why. Obviously, we’re a progressive band and Claudio has super high vocals. But it was weird at first because none of us were really big Rush fans so I know that we never strictly went and ripped Rush off except on “In Keeping…” There’s that 2113 song which is kind of a joke (laughing). We just made it obviously so proggy and we had a good time doin’ it. You know, we like to play those kind of songs, obviously, and we thought it was weird so we went and listened to Rush after that.
CT: Well, my favorite song on the album is “The Crowing.” How the breakdown happen? Was that completely spontaneous in the studio or did you write that? Your drumming is incendiary that song, it’s incredible.
JE: Yeah, we’re gonna top it on the next one though. We’ve got this new stuff that’s so stupid. Really complicated and weird but it’s so awesome, though. Claudio had this acoustic version of it and he had this kind of lick, we just turned it into this super metaled-out. We were having so much fun. It was so bad we kept doing it over and over again just cause it was fun. That was one take, dude.
CT: You’re doing your own thing. You’re doing artistic stuff and you’re not afraid to go against the grain – like you said.
JE: That’s something we’ve always done. Even back when nobody liked the band… we never went and catered – we always wrote pop songs. This kid comes up the other day and says: “Josh you used to be the best part of the show. What happened?” and I said: “What do you mean?” Then he said: “Dude, we can’t even see you anymore. You guys got too big for your britches, we’re never gonna come see you again.” I thought, why would you even come up and tell me that. If that’s really the way you feel, why would you just purposely try to hurt my feelings?
The band has never sounded better. We’ve been touring for a year and a month off this record. Dudes are tired, not tired physically, but we want to write some new songs. You know, we’ve played this song eight million times dude and it loses some of its luster. The energy we put off on stage is always very real, it’s not contrived and we’re not like Story of the Year and Yellowcard, where we know in the third song everybody does a back flip and then you switch guitars, spin and do a high-five. It’s all just garage band. The energy is real.
We have the greatest jobs in the world. We’re just thirsty to make some new music where that energy is so real you just cant even contain yourself you’re so excited to be playing these new songs. After this month we’re going to make a new record.
CT: I can’t wait, do you guys still do stuff with Equal Vision Records?
JE: Yeah, when we went to Columbia, Equal Vision went with us. That’s why we feel so strongly about it and we’re most likely going to use the same producers and go in to make our third record. We’re all super, super excited about it.
CT: That’s the thing about major record companies these days — they don’t care, it’s all about the dollar.
JE: Yeah, dude. Life in general – not just the record companies – life in general always comes down to the dollar. We’re doing something that comes from within so it can bum you out. But as far as Equal Vision goes, I think they’re the best label in the world. They care about every band they sign and I can’t say enough about those guys.
CT: I just read recently that you guys were nominated for three MTV Woody Awards. I don’t really know what they are – like the college awards or something?
JE: Yeah, we actually won – not artist of the year, but we won “Record of the Year” and “Soundtrack to Your Life.” We won two of them it was pretty cool. That’s kind of a cool awards show too cause it’s all kids voting. It’s nothing like the Video Music Awards.
CT: What do you think about selling more than 300,000 records now?
JE: What can I say? I felt like it would happen, you know, you believe in yourself, you believe in what you’re doing. But in reality, a piece of me never thought it would really happen. And, you know, it feels good, it feels great. The record actually shipped gold on December 1. It’s weird, when it goes gold you get the plaques but all you have to do is ship gold. Because when you ship a record it’s already bought by the record stores and it’s good for bands that the Internet happened because records are so much cheaper. It’s bad for the big wigs in the high rises who can’t have their 8-zero paychecks.
CT: A lot of bands could sell a lot more albums if they weren’t $20 each.
JE: For real, dude, and it’s not like the bands get a huge cut of that money either.
CT: If you could meet any musician in rock at any point of time, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
JE: Definitely, John Bonham, the drummer from Led Zeppelin. Why? Because he’s John Bonham.