Coheed & Cambria @ Download 2006

United Kingdom | by Chris McCormick | 16 June 2006

Virtual Festivals: How you feeling today?
Claudio: Pretty tired. We got here early this morning, I was asleep on the tour bus and someone woke me up and just said, “We here”, so no partying as yet.

You’re playing the main stage, have you got any pre-gig rituals to psyche yourself up?
Not really, we don’t do anything to get us in the zone, it’s usually pretty quiet actually, do a few stretches and warm-ups. When we come offstage we generally just kick back have a few beers, I usually go to sleep!

Go to Sleep!? Surely not straight after playing Donington?
Well I work all day. If I’m not practicing, I’m on the internet or the computer, so I just like to take time to relax.

How Legendary is Donington to you?
When I was young I always wanted to be in a rock band, but forgot that you have to tour and play live so never really thought we’d get to play. As far as the history goes though, I know all the legend and history especially about Iron Maiden, so it’s a huge honour for us to play here.

Were you a big Guns N' Roses fan?
Man, I’m a fan of all the headliners not just GN'R, but I won’t get to check them out at all as we’ve got to fly to Spain tomorrow which I’m pretty bummed about.

Tell us how you came up with your five album concept [about a doomed married couple having to sacrifice their children to save the planet from a virus contained within their genes]; was it just a lot of mushrooms?
It's crack cocaine my friend, ha ha. Not really. I love story-telling and making music, I also love science fiction so it made sense to come up with this. Some of it’s based on personal experience, but all in all I just love the idea of people being able to go back to the first album to start the story all over again.

Your songs are full of meaning and depth as are your performances compared to a lot of metal and rock out there at the moment. Don’t you ever wish you were just in a fun-time punk band sometimes?
No not at all. I’ve been in those kinds of bands, and they’re always great fun. But Coheed is a real reflection of us as a group and me as a person, it would be a lie if we pretended to be anything else.

If you could send a message to Axl, what would it be?
Oh my god! Oh shit..;Hang on... hey Travis [bandmate], what would your message to Axl be? (pause) Oh fuck er... [girl in background says, “give him the finger”] No we definitely didn’t say that, ha ha. I know, I know. Axl... Just be nice man, be nice.

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