Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / TRAVIS STEVER on Balancing COHEED AND CAMBRIA With L.S. DUNES

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TRAVIS STEVER on Balancing COHEED AND CAMBRIA With L.S. DUNES · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Travis from cohed and Cambria and I'm
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: happy to be talking to Heavy right awesome?
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Have you magazine correct?
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, awesome, Thanks so much. Cohede sound has
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: always been evolving over the years. With the father of
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: Make Believe, it feels like you guys have taken a
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: step forward while reflecting on the past. What do you
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: feel sets this album apart from your previous releases.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: I feel like what sets it apart are some of
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: the sounds that were chosen to explore, as most Coheat
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: records do do that, But I feel like what also
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: connects it is how many different sounds we have chosen
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: to explore. So if that makes sense, I think there's
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: a couple of new like you said, like little stretches
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: into new territory, but at the same time.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: That is not new at all for us.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: So yeah, we both go a little further outside the box.
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  Speaker 1: But also the box is so massive that we've allowed
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  Speaker 1: ourselves to create that we are still not so far
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: out of it that you know, like, what are they doing?
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: And I think that that's one of the benefits of
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: what the band has created is that I don't think
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: that anybody could really say, holy shit, why'd they do that?
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Because they'll just say, well, they wanted to try that,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: you know, and they'll you know, they learned to expect
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: the unexpected.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely. So it still sounds like you guys, but
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: with maybe a little bit of exploration.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: I mean there's some stuff that like if you have
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: had only listened to Inkeeping Secret Is Our Secrets is
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Our Last record? Or you listen to Good Apollo or
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: even No World for Tomorrow and you came to this record,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: you'd be like, holy shit, where did they explore that?
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: But if you that's if you don't listen to all
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  Speaker 1: those records in between, where so much has been explored
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: throughout the years.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: You know.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, like some you know, I was just discussing with someone,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: you know, just a few minutes ago that someone who
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: can has like this, like completely different sound. But I mean,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: if you listen to a Disappearing Act from a window
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: of the Waking mind, you know you're not going to
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  Speaker 1: be that that like astonished that the band went there,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: you know, not the same song, it's not the same
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  Speaker 1: type of song, but it's not that far outside of that,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: you know arena.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, definitely. And Claudia has mentioned the theme of
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: a war within myself for this album. Can you dive
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: into how that internal struggle manifests in the music and
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  Speaker 3: lyrics on this.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Record, Well, I think that I think that that can
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  Speaker 1: be felt across the board. If you're as connected as
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: we have been, I can relate to a lot of
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: the sentiments in the songs, and I can relate to
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: some of the sonic even evaluating if that makes sense,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: like evaluating what makes sense sonically, what works, overthinking certain
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: things but winding up with something more beautiful because you
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: realized overthinking was just not appropriate for the song, like
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: and having that happen kind of together almost in the
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: same way that you overthink so many things in life
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  Speaker 1: and then you realize didn't need to be that complicated.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: And I think there's a lot of examples of that
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: in the album sonically, but there's a lot of examples
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  Speaker 1: of that for him lyrically, and just acceptance with life
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  Speaker 1: and getting older and being a parent.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: But questioning all these choices.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think I think across the board
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  Speaker 1: a lot of that stuff is relatable, even the frustrations,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: the frustrations of being a musician, you know, or an
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  Speaker 1: artist now in this world, and especially with how Coheat
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: has been misinterpreted and misunderstood, and especially for him as
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: a songwriter. But we're all part of that, you know,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: even as musicians and players like feeling like feeling like
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  Speaker 1: there's certain things that we were underdogs throughout our whole
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  Speaker 1: career with but then realizing that if you're constantly feeling
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: like you're an underdog and you're not getting some sort
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: of respect you deserved, but yet you have a career
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  Speaker 1: out of it, that you're also being a little ungrateful,
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  Speaker 1: you know. And it's all these things like you know
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: that I think the album represents to me, like it's like,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: holy shit, we're still here.
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  Speaker 2: We made this other record, you know.
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  Speaker 1: I still so proud to be a part of these
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: songs that Claudio created and.
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  Speaker 2: To add whatever I can to them.
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  Speaker 1: And when we nail something and he's happy with it,
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  Speaker 1: I'm you know, guitar wise, that makes the world to me.
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  Speaker 1: You know, that means the world to me. You know,
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  Speaker 1: when we build something together. It's been one of my
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: favorite things since day one, and that's been a major
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  Speaker 1: part of my existence in this band and what keeps
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: me going.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it sounds like it's the sound has definitely evolved
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: along we see guys.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, there's no doubt about that.
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  Speaker 1: I mean every band, every band has its own like
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: you know, journey and its own like trials and tribulations,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: and each album is like its own little movie of that, right, Like,
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  Speaker 1: and we literally have a concept going on that it
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  Speaker 1: should be a movie or a TV show or something
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  Speaker 1: like that. But at the same time we have that
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  Speaker 1: same pattern going through that has the story and of
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  Speaker 1: an element, especially with how close we are, you know
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  Speaker 1: that it really fits the narrative of everybody's life, you know,
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  Speaker 1: but it's definitely his life that he's speaking from. It's
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  Speaker 1: just very relatable and yeah, you can feel it across
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  Speaker 1: the board for sure.
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: And you're juggling to very distinct bands Coheed and Ellis Tunes.
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  Speaker 3: How do you switch gears between the two musically and creative?
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  Speaker 3: Do you find it challenging or inspiring?
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  Speaker 1: They're super different. They're just super different, you know, Like
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  Speaker 1: I said, like you know, this being, you know, has
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: it different throughout the years the times, yes, with songs
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  Speaker 1: coming around and cohed, but for the most part, it's
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: it's Claudio's songs and me wanting to add that to that,
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  Speaker 1: or you know him if he wants me to add
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: to it. That's what That's what keeps this, you know,
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  Speaker 1: that's the fuel here. And I know that Josh and
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Zach and anybody involved would feel the same. It's knowing
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: that this person writes this incredible music and knowing that
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: you're adding to it, and that your identity and elements sonically,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: you know, can be a major part of heightening it.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: There's a oh jeez, my son's trying to call sorry,
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  Speaker 2: that'st me.
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  Speaker 1: Knowing that that's the role and accepting that there's a
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: lot of that that happens.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: And I think that has.
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  Speaker 1: Reflected on this record is knowing that role and being.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Able to being able to accept it.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: And you know, with LS Dunes something like that, it's
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: it's more of like it is a group consciousness and
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: a group effort and everything's coming from all different directions,
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  Speaker 1: you know what I mean.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: So it's its own thing, it's its own different beasts.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely. And after your headlining spot at Australia's Money
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Is Best of All last year, do you have any
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: plans for an Australian tour in twenty twenty five.
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  Speaker 2: I would love to.
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  Speaker 1: I mean I I know that there's been talks and
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  Speaker 1: Koe would love to go back.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: But yeah, we're we're working on it.
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  Speaker 1: So if you get enough people excited and enough people,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: you know, love this album as much as we do,
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  Speaker 1: then hopefully we can get our asses back out there.
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  Speaker 1: Because Monolith was like an incredible experience for all of us.
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  Speaker 1: It made us very excited, so awesome.
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  Speaker 3: And is there a special memory from your time here
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  Speaker 3: in Australia that you can remember.
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  Speaker 1: I had never been to Tasmania, so going over to
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Tasmania and being able to experience that was pretty pretty
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  Speaker 1: mind blowing, you know.
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  Speaker 2: But you know, I would say that.
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  Speaker 1: The last couple of shows, the first couple of shows,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: because we did one that was like more intimate and
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: we did a bigger show where am I talking to you.
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  Speaker 3: From I'm from sort of New Sydney.
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  Speaker 2: Oh that show was amazing. That show was incredible for us.
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  Speaker 2: Were you at that? I was, yeah?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, So that was the last one and that was, like,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: you know, it was incredible both shows, those last two shows,
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  Speaker 1: but all of them, like going to Tasmania and playing
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: there and like not knowing what to expect and having
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: all these people be so passionate about it and touring
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: you know with the bands that we did, like we
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: really connected with everybody, so it was cool. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: we're connected enough that we're touring with you know, with Periphery,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: this with with Massive on and Periphery on this upcoming run,
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  Speaker 1: so like we connected enough, but we connected with everybody
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  Speaker 1: that was on it.
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  Speaker 2: It was great.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, awesome. Switching it now to Ellis Tunes. Do you
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  Speaker 3: and Frank ever have friendly guitargules or debates about tone
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  Speaker 3: or is it all smooth sailing in the creative process.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm in a position and I know he is,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: but he is more selective. I can relate him more
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  Speaker 1: to Claudio with the fact that they do have a
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: better idea sometimes of what's going to sound good on things.
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  Speaker 1: I'm a melody person, That's that's what I'm a melody person.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes I'm really concrete and passionate about what sounded should
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: be for the melody. Sometimes it's on deniable, but sometimes
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: I really do want that outside perspective. So I can
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  Speaker 1: kind of relate how I would listen to him the
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  Speaker 1: way I would with Claudio. It's like, this is the idea,
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  Speaker 1: this is what I think. You know, what's down? Do
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: you think would work here the best? You know, I've
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: never been the biggest gear head. I'm more I do
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: love it, but I mean I like to listen to that.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: So have We've had friendly conversation about it a lot.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: To be honest, it's turned into like you know, and
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: of course we dork out about certain things that we
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: both love with certain instruments and stuff. But yeah, there's
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: definitely been like you know, I think that being a
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  Speaker 1: part of co ED all these years, and the way
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  Speaker 1: that Claudia and I have kind of written off each
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: other with certain things, and being able to finally come
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: to a place where I listen more to figure out
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  Speaker 1: where to go. It's kind of like coming into a
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: relationship late in life after you've had all that experience
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  Speaker 1: and being mature enough to say, I'm willing to listen
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: to you. I'm not going to have the ego in it,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, Yeah, yeah, that's the fame time. Feel
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: very relieved by that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, So it sounds like you kind of go with
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  Speaker 3: the flow and put yourself in where you think you
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: need to go rather than.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do that in Coed too, like
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  Speaker 1: you know, that's that's turned into more doing that than
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: ever actually.
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah. With LS students, there's this raw energy
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: that comes across in the music. Do you find yourself
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: pushing the limits of your guitar playing more in this
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: band compared to Coheed or do they challenge each other
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: in different ways?
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  Speaker 1: They challenge in completely different ways. They're completely different beasts.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: There's there's one where it's the thought goes into just completely.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: It always goes into bringing the song to a new level.
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  Speaker 1: But a lot of the time it's an initial thing
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: that comes from one of us in LS Dunes and
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: it's everybody playing on that, where in Coheed it's usually
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: primarily come from Claudia first. So it's how do you
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: add to that? You know, And it's not that that
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: doesn't happen to all these students. Everybody adds things. It
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: could be a frank song with a like. An example
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: is the song Violet was me adding all different textures
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: to heighten that song. Well, that's more of a shoe
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: that I would usually wear in Coheed. But there were
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: numerous songs on that record where you know, it was
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: a riff that I threw out there, you know, so
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: it's more of a mixed batch. It depends on and
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: it does with Coe too. It depends his song to song,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: you know, what has to do with more, what is
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: more dictating what moves made melody wise.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, definitely that makes sense.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure. Definitely. They're very different, and you have
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: you sort of have as a guitarist different roles in
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: each band.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: I suppose exactly very different.
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And can I ask again, is there any plans
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: for L S Junes to come to Australia.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Oh, we would love to. It's I was saying to
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: somebody before.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: It's like, it's not there's no issue with us wanting
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: to do these shows with each other as a schedule thing.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: The one thing that we never seem to have any
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: issue with is a creative thing. You know, there's there's
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: song ideas going around constantly right now. It's just about
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: getting it together schedule wise, and we will work on that.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: It's these albums being so close together. I mean, co
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: Ed is my world and where I came from. So
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: I will be out with Cohed promoting this album right now.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: But I'm still going to go out and do you know,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: April with them. But I also have kids, so I'm
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: trying to work that all out, you know, And I
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: think that everybody shares in that, yeah, for sure.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: Last question, Elis Students has already made a huge impact
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: with Past Lives and now Violent. There seems to be
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: a glint of optimism on Violent, maybe not so evident
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: on Past Lives. How do you feel the band's sound
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: has evolved with Violet?
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: It was just a completely different beast in the sense
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: that Past Lives was written all remote and not that
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: some of the demos didn't come that way from us
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: throwing different parts of each other. And you know, but
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: we took the demo and we were in with will
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: Yip for the whole time we recorded, and it was
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: about three and a half weeks of just being in
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: the studio doing pre production, re recording everything from the
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: ground up. So and I think that that brought a
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: positive aspect sonically, But I think lyrically, Anthony was in
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: a much more positive, balanced place and that definitely reflected
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: the music too, if you think about it. When each
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: record was written, there was more glimmers of hope. I mean,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: when each record was written, there was a completely different thing.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: There was more glimmers of hope. When Violet was written,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: there was a lot more of feeling confined and you know,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: fear based and just everything with Path Lives, And that's
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: why it's beautiful for that era. What can I say
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: about right now?
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: Now? You know, I don't know what you know.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: It's that's what happens, right It changes like, but it's
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: about what the personal journey you're on. And I could
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: honestly say with Anthony, I feel like he's in such
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: a great personal place, and the same goes with Claudia
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: that I seem to think that the lyrics are just
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: in a more self aware place from these people I
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: get to work with who write these amazing, you know songs.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: So I think that's the difference with Past Lives to
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: Violet is that it was much more hopeful in the
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: sense that the person who's writing the lyrics and all
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: of us as a band, we're feeling more hopeful as musicians.
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely, we can definitely hear it. That was the
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: main distinction I got from comparing the last two albums.
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: Pretty amazing, Travis, Thank you so much for your time today.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: As a huge fan of both coohed and Ellis Junes,
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: we really hope to see you guys down under soon.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much, well right on, thank you Angela,
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: thanks like yes