On the eve of the release of their new record Vaxis - Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures, we spoke to Coheed And Cambria drummer Josh Eppard about what we can expect from the album, what he thinks of the awesome box set, sci-fi and horror movies, and more!

Vaxis - Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures is out now.
Get it on vinyl now from the official Maniacs store.

MANIACS: Are you excited about the new record? What can you tell us about it? Did you approach it in a different way to your previous work?

Josh: Well we sure did approach it in a different way, I mean when you say you assume we're excited about it - obviously - but each record carries its own unique energy. It's always kind of nerve-wracking, it's always exciting, it's all these things, but this record really was quite different for us.

We produced it ourselves. Not to discredit the producers we've worked with, but we've always been the ones that said "oh, right here a space-ship comes in" or "oh, right here we do this". We've had records engineered brilliantly a lot of times. So we produced this record ourselves and brought in an engineer who has worked with us as a producer - his name is Chris Bittner. We rented out the studio, it's a studio my father built, and while we were making the record we realised "this is no different from any record we've ever made". I think by far its the best sounding Coheed record, but I think the writing and the epic themes that are on display have never been more prevalent.

MANIACS: Do you have any personal favourite tracks that you'd recommend to people?

Josh: Oh of course. The problem is that they change. Here I am - I've listened to this record maybe a thousand times, and it happens with every record. As we get down to the final days before it comes out, I hear it differently. It just changes. As more reviewers and interviewers and critics hear it, I hear it differently.

If I had to pick, most days I'd pick a song like Love Protocol, which just got played on BBC radio. I think that's a really neat and interesting Coheed song. But then there are so many other songs. There's the song Queen Of The Dark that I love. My favourite song is probably True Ugly. Those songs could be on Coheed's first or second record. There's this real youthful energy to them. I think all the songs carry a certain energy to them that I look forward to people being exposed to. If I had to pick one I would say True Ugly.

MANIACS: On the last record you guys took a break from The Amory Wars concept. Was it a conscious decision to return on this record?

Josh: It definitely was a conscious decision to return to The Amory Wars. When we did the record The Color Before The Sun, it was different. It was really different. I love that record, I think it's a really cool representation of the band in a different way. It was recorded live. It was going to be Claudio's solo record and he said "you know what, I'm just going to do this. I am Coheed and Cambria, I'm going to do this as Coheed and Cambria". But it was different for us. There wasn't those long, winding songs where, as a drummer, I get to flex my skills and creative side.

I didn't realise at the time it really set us up to return to form in a way. I remember Claudio said "you know what man, The Amory Wars is this whole universe. Anything can fit under this umbrella. You can do anything". I can think off the top of my head 20 stories which could be a part of The Amory Wars universe. You could tell the story of one of the soldiers from The Red Army and it could be his personal story. It's just neverending.

I owe it to The Color Before The Sun because it was such a neat different experience. I owe it a debt of gratitude for setting us up to return to the story like this. To return to our roots with this 80-minutes very progressive, out-there Coheed record.

MANIACS: This record is Act I. Have you begun work on any other acts yet?

Josh: There's going to be another four acts. Have we started working on it? Not really. but there's always some ideas that didn't make the record that certainly could rear its head on the next record or five years from now. Knowing us, it won't be long before we start working on Act II.

MANIACS: Do you have plans to come out to Australia?

Josh: You know, they set up four Australian interviews tonight and everyone's asked me that and it breaks my heart because I don't know why, they didn't give me the dates that we're coming over, but we've got to be coming over in 2019. We've got a brand new record out, we love coming to Australia, so I know at some point in 2019 we're coming over.
The band always wants to go. It would be really hard to say that we weren't coming because there's just no way we're not.

MANIACS: The box set looks awesome. Do you have any cool pieces in your own personal collection?

Josh: I have so much stuff. You know I just moved, and I have it all tucked away in my attic. I have so many original pressings from Led Zeppelin records, all kinds of neat stuff I picked up along the way. For me to go down the list would take forever.

When you bring up the box set, that's what I'm most excited about on this record. I'm most excited for people to get their hands on it. It comes with a mask, it comes with this 30-pages of unbelievable artwork in the booklet, demo versions, all this neat stuff. To feel the energy and the love from the Coheed base when they spend their hard-earned money on this is really overwhelming. It makes me feel such a debt of gratitude to them. It makes me want to go up on stage and give every ounce of what I've got. I think they're going to be thrilled. I think its the best artwork we've ever done as a whole package and I hope people agree with me on that.

MANIACS: Are you a fan of sci-fi movies?

Josh: Early on we were all vastly different musically. I came from this major label world, Claudio and Travis were these punk rock guys, but where we really bonded was our love of movies. Initially, the thing that we kind of jived with each other on was movies. We loved The Alien series, we loved horror movies. I had never seen Freddy's Dead with the 3D glasses on, and Claudio had it at his house with the 3D glasses and I watched it for the first time with the glasses at his mum's house in his little bedroom downstairs where he would record with his 4-track. Horror and sci-fi has always been a thread that binds us all together.

MANIACS: Do you have anything that you'd like to say to your Australian fans?

Josh: Every time we play in Australia we're so deeply humbled and moved by the outpouring of love from our Australian friends. Coheed shows in Australia fucking go off. People bring an energy that would rival any show in the states and like I would say to any fan anywhere: I want to thank you for your passion and your energy and all that you've given us over the years and its been a long ride and I can't wait to get over there and play for you guys again.

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