Coheed & Cambria

7 April 2008 | 5:46 pm | Staff Writer
Originally Appeared In

Chris Pennie is a good guy. Not only is he the drumming powerhouse in prog rock demigods Coheed & Cambria, but he still makes time to take his good old mom to the doctor when she needs it! Oh yeah, he still found time to do an interview with yours truly…

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Chris Pennie is a good guy. Not only is he the drumming powerhouse in prog rock demigods Coheed & Cambria, but he still makes time to take his good old mom to the doctor when she needs it!

Oh yeah, he still found time to do an interview with yours truly…

Interview w/ Chris Pennie (Drums)

of Coheed & Cambria (USA)

By Cameron Chambers



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Hey Chris, how are you today?

Doing much better today, thank

you.

How’s your mother feeling?

Everything’s ok now man. Mom

had some problems with her foot… she rolled her leg like two months

ago and fell down some stairs and broke her ankle… but she’s ok

now. Thanks so much for being patient with the interview and everything.

Not a problem mate.

When do you guys leave for Japan?

I think we actually roll into

New Zealand or Australia first but I could be wrong, ha ha (I didn’t

have the heart to tell him he was in fact wrong), but we’ll roll in

that direction in a day or so, so tomorrow is our last day at home.

A lot of Australian fans were

disappointed that you cancelled your slot on the Soundwave tour to hit

the road with Linkin Park. Did the Linkin Park tour end up being beneficial

for Coheed and were the kinds of fans at a LP show receptive

to your music.

Yeah, they totally were! I’m

really surprised and I think it was great! On a lot of levels it was

great for us to get in front of those kids, everybody was really attentive

and you know… we thought it would be kids just standing around and

not really watching us, we thought they’d just roll in when Linkin

Park were on, but they were in there when we played!

Linkin Park were kind enough to

let us play for fifty minutes which is cool, it gave us some time to

really work it, it was just awesome! It was a great experience man…

a great time and a great learning experience!

What were your impressions

of Australia the first time that you toured here?

Oh, it was awesome man. I love

being there… I really love being there! First time off the plane was

in Sydney and even though I was a little jet lagged it was great. The

weather, the environment, all these cool little places to eat… it

was just a quaint, nice environment.

I’d be super stoked to check

out the music there as well, but I haven’t been there in a while so

I’m excited!

Coheed’s long term drummer

Josh departed the band in 2006 which obviously made way for you. In

your opinion, what effect did that have on the band, as individuals

and as a group?

You mean from my perspective…

like coming into the situation?

Let’s go with that.

It was awesome for me. I’d run

into some problems with one of the members of Dillinger and with me

being a co-founder… I found that really disheartening. I don’t wanna

go down that road of negative light though because I still love that

band!

That aside, just hopping into

the audition and playing with Coheed for the first time was great. Mike

(bass) wasn’t back yet so it was just Claudio and Travis, but it was

surreal to play with them. I’d seen them play a bunch of times coz

I’m a fan of the band, so it was pretty surreal to know these tunes

and then you jump into the situation where you’re playing and it’s

like “holy shit”, this is the real deal!

As we played more and more you

start to make the songs into your own. When I first came into the band

I wanted to be respectful of what Josh was playing… I wanted to stay

true to that, but then Claudio would be like “dude, do something here

or there, feel free to do what you want”. I was just thinking how

awesome that was! There’s a fine line you know? I think doing things

in certain spots is great, I was adding fills here or there but at the

same time, I wanted to maintain the complimentary style that Josh had

created for the players.

There were so many different processes

from playing with Dillinger to Coheed. There used to be so many different

notes that were getting played but with Coheed there’s so much more

space and I get to make use of it!

What do you think that you

bring to Coheed that Josh wasn’t giving them prior to his departure?

I’m just bringing a different

flavor. I don’t really know personally what all the guys were going

through at the time… I don’t pry into that because I don’t feel

that it’s my business. I definitely think one thing I feel is the

sense of family… the vibe, you know?

One thing Claudio and Travis say

is that it feels like we’re starting as a band again, and in a sense

it is. When you replace a member it’s kind of natural that you take

on a different type of vibe or sense. Josh and I come from different

backgrounds so it’s not better or anything like that, it’s just

different.

Due to contractual reasons

you were unable to play on the band’s most recent full length,

“No World For Tomorrow”. Even though Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters)

tracked the drums in the studio, do you feel the record would have turned

out differently if you had been allowed to play?

I think it would’ve been along

the same lines. Taylor’s style is different to mine but it doesn’t

matter because he’s an amazing drummer. I think maybe there were some

things that I played differently on the demo but he took them as a template

and worked off it. I think it would’ve only been minute details that

I would’ve changed, but for the most part the arrangements were suggestions

that I’d made anyway.

Apart from the changes in the

rhythm section how do you think the Coheed And Cambria live show has

evolved over the last couple of years?

When I’ve seen the band previously…

and I’ve seen them more than a few times in small clubs in New Jersey

and then I saw them at the Hammerstein Ballroom with Avenged Sevenfold

and all this crazy production… now they have this massive production

element but now it’s a part of the band. It’s evolved from being

outside of the band.

The great thing is we still have

the jamming element to our show and we still run with it, even with

all the production. There’s a couple of little surprises that myself

and Mike are working on. We’ve got a couple of things as well… we’ve

been touring with a keyboard player and a back up vocalist so we’ve

been able to replicate some of the harmonies from the album, so we have

different elements thrown in there!

With so much un-certainty surrounding

the band’s future, what was the writing and recording process like

for “No World For Tomorrow”?

It was crazy man! I think the

whole band, myself included… we were just going through some weird

times. It was really weird, the album reflects what you were going through

at the time… and it was such a turbulent time! There are definitely

some things in the original demos that I feel you can get a vibe on

some of the craziness that was going on. Sometimes it’s hard to replicate

that or get back into that moment but I think the performance we delivered

was pretty close to the original demos and that vibe.

I dunno… we all made it. Even

Dillinger made it! It was a weird time for everyone but we’re all

moving on and triumphing.

Anyone with more than a passing

interest in Coheed knows that your records are thematic but do you think

the issues surrounding the band at the time you were writing introduced

a negative vibe or element to the record?

I know with Claudio, well, he’s

the writer. Are you asking were his personal experiences feeding the

fiction?

Exactly right…

Obviously with the whole story

that is his personal experiences feeding what he’s writing. In a sense,

“No World For Tomorrow” is just that, it’s his vibe of what was

going on when he started writing, and that happened to be the time when

all that shit was going down. At the time he had no idea of whether

or not the band would even go on, hence the title.

So the situation definitely had

an impact on some of the negative aspects of the story.

As you mentioned earlier, your

recent US tours have included a touring keyboardist and back up vocalist,

will they be coming to Australia with you?

I’m not sure if they are. There

are a couple of things that we’re trying to figure out at the last

minute.

Coheed’s unique sound has

allowed you to tour with everyone from Clutch to Fightstar, what has

been your favourite Coheed And Cambria tour so far?

I really enjoyed the Clutch tour.

It was really awesome! I’ve been a huge Clutch fan for a long time

and I’m even a bigger fan of their drummer. The dude is phenomenal!

He’s just a great pocket player and he’s so knowledgeable about

drums and loves playing them, so to meet another person that’s as

enthused about drums is a great thing. I live for meeting those people!

All the tours have been awesome

though. Warped Tour was awesome. Just being out in the sun and sweating

your balls off, ha ha. I enjoyed playing in the heat and playing outside

of the rules. Linkin Park was cool and a different kind of experience.

We had the whole run of the arena so we were able to set up drums in

the dressing room and I was able to work on tunes with Travis, which

was awesome!

This one’s for all the lazy

journalists out there… how would you describe your music to someone

who had never heard the band before?

Ha ha. I wouldn’t describe it

as anything. A lot of days you hear about a band and they get hyped

that they sound like this or that, so I dunno, I’d just say it’s

rock n roll music and check it out and enjoy it!

I’m not gonna say it sounds

like Rush because our singer’s voice is so high, or that we have anthem

like tunes so it sounds like Led Zeppelin. I don’t want to compare

it to anything. Coheed is one of those bands that draws from so many

places so they’ve been able to make their own sound. They don’t

like anybody so it’s just rock n roll, c heck it!

Now that Coheed’s four part

concept is completed what do you have in store for your next release?

We’ve started writing tunes

when we get a free moment on tour. Claudio and Travis are working on

riffs and stuff like that, whereas I have to wait until I get home to

my studio set up so I can drop in some drums and send the guys an mp3

of what I’ve done.

As far as the story goes, Claudio

is talking about doing a prequel album for the next record and kind

of re-visit the origins of Coheed And Cambia… that’s the story for

the next record!

That’s all we’ve got time

for mate, is there anything else you’d like to say?

Nah, not much dude, I’m just

really stoked to come over there. It’s been a while so now I’ve

got a new band a whole new chapter in my life so I can’t wait!

Thanks for your time Chris.

Ah thanks man, take care Cameron.