From Deseret News archives:

Dreams come true for Coheed

Published: Friday, April 21, 2006 12:00 a.m. MDT

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The guys in Coheed & Cambria are living a dream, said guitarist Travis Stever.

"Being in a band is something you think about night and day," he said by phone from his New Jersey home. "You daydream about it, and when things start happening with your dreams, you have this inkling in the back of your mind that being in a successful band can be done."

Coheed & Cambria — with Stever, lead singer/guitarist Claudio Sanchez, bassist Michael Todd and drummer Josh Eppard — came into existence in 2001. The band was originally called Shabuite and found its origins from the musical partnership of Stever and Sanchez, who have played in bands together since the 1990s.

"I cut my teeth on all the stuff I grew up listening to," said Stever. "I took in a lot of Guns N' Roses, and then my stepbrothers introduced me to Jane's Addiction. My dad was also my influence. What he brought to me is classic rock, Led Zeppelin and bands like that."

The initial concept for Coheed & Cambria was, according to Stever, to basically just play music. "We wanted to dedicate our lives to our music. We wanted to tour around the world. We wanted, first off, to play the music for ourselves. And the bonus would be having others like it, too."

Coheed & Cambria, sometimes known as Co & Ca, or just Coheed, has released four studio albums. Each is a progressive-rock concept album that tells a story, and each of the latter three builds on the one that came before.

"We just keep working at it," said Stever.

The latest album, "Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One," continues the story of Coheed and his wife, Cambria. Coheed has been infected with a serum that can destroy the universe if the right circumstances arise.

Although the storyline is a fantasy, Stever said the band wrote the songs from a truthful part of their souls. "We made songs that were very organic. They were honest with how the band works. That's important for the music we make, because if it doesn't come from an honest place, then people can tell."

The honesty is tapped into the live shows as well, said Stever. "We play to anyone we can. We put the same effort in playing to 200 people as we do to 2,000. We are musicians who got lucky. There are a lot of others who can play circles around us out there but haven't had a chance to make an album.

"I'm so fortunate to be able to play music with musicians who have become my family. And they are musicians whom I respect and didn't mind traveling in those beat-up vans that were leaking oil."

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