Coheed and Cambria turn ‘insecurity’ into sci-fi epic with Amory Wars concept

Nearly all of Coheed and Cambria‘s albums follow a long-running, epic sci-fi concept called the Amory Wars. When a song from an album becomes a single, though — such as Coheed’s first radio hit, “A Favor House Atlantic,” or their current focus track, “Someone Who Can” — how does frontman Claudio Sanchez feel about them being removed from the context of the Amory Wars?

As Sanchez tells ABC Audio, “It wasn’t weird for me to be, like, we pick a single and that single goes off and lives on its own in the radio world.”

That’s partly because Sanchez first created the Amory Wars concept, as he puts it, “purely out of insecurity.”

“I just had a hard time being a frontman, really,” Sanchez says of Coheed’s early days. “Whatever attention came to me with that, it was just very difficult to navigate, and the songs that I was singing about I didn’t want people to know what they were really about.”

He continues, “It was easy for me to use my imagination and create a piece of fantasy that I could basically hide my life inside.”

For example, the initial main characters of the Amory Wars, who are named Coheed and Cambria, are “loosely based” on Sanchez’s parents, while the title “Amory Wars” comes from the street he grew up on.

“I mean, all of these records are about family,” Sanchez says. 

“Someone Who Can” appears on Coheed’s new album, The Father of Make Believe. Coheed’s current tour in support of the record, which also includes Mastodon on the bill, concludes Sunday in Waukee, Iowa.

Nearly all of Coheed and Cambria‘s albums follow a long-running, epic sci-fi concept called the Amory Wars. When a song from an album becomes a single, though — such as Coheed’s first radio hit, “A Favor House Atlantic,” or their current focus track, “Someone Who Can” — how does frontman Claudio Sanchez feel about them being removed from the context of the Amory Wars?

As Sanchez tells ABC Audio, “It wasn’t weird for me to be, like, we pick a single and that single goes off and lives on its own in the radio world.”

That’s partly because Sanchez first created the Amory Wars concept, as he puts it, “purely out of insecurity.”

“I just had a hard time being a frontman, really,” Sanchez says of Coheed’s early days. “Whatever attention came to me with that, it was just very difficult to navigate, and the songs that I was singing about I didn’t want people to know what they were really about.”

He continues, “It was easy for me to use my imagination and create a piece of fantasy that I could basically hide my life inside.”

For example, the initial main characters of the Amory Wars, who are named Coheed and Cambria, are “loosely based” on Sanchez’s parents, while the title “Amory Wars” comes from the street he grew up on.

“I mean, all of these records are about family,” Sanchez says. 

“Someone Who Can” appears on Coheed’s new album, The Father of Make Believe. Coheed’s current tour in support of the record, which also includes Mastodon on the bill, concludes Sunday in Waukee, Iowa.