Claudio Sanchez

Sanchez from a Polaroid.

**Claudio Paul Sanchez III** (born March 12, 1978) is an American writer and musician of Puerto Rican and Italian descent best known for being the lead singer, guitarist and primary lyricist for the alternative/progressive rock group Coheed and Cambria. He is the creator of the comic book series *The Amory Wars*, as well as *Key of Z* and *Kill Audio*, both co-written with wife Chondra Echert. He has a side-project called The Prize Fighter Inferno and a comic and music publishing company called Evil Ink.

## Early Life

Born in 1978 to Linda Mattiaccio and Claudio Sanchez, Sr in Suffern, New York, Sanchez was the eldest of three children. He has a younger brother named Matthew and younger sister named Maria, who he would later name a fictional pair of twins after. Music was always apart of their home with his father playing jazz, blues, and rock music in the house and his mother playing pop music in the car. He had a great relationship with his family. In his teenage years he found out about his father's drug addiction to heroine, but said that his father always tried hard to provide for the family despite it, and remained close to him. The song "Good Night" seems to imply that Sanchez shared a love of nerdy media with his younger brother, Matthew.

## Music Career

Sanchez started playing music at around age 13, but had been writing songs in his early adolescence. He said he would make up various "personas" as a way to channel the kind of music he wrote. "Professor Plum" for progressive, "Papa Porpoise" for dark and heavy or aggressive genres, "Mr. M" for pop or straight rock music, and "Camille" for slow and ballad-like songs. Before being in bands, he would make music on cassette four-tracks and grooveboxes. Early in his career, Sanchez first performed with several different bands, all of which lasted a short period of time. Some of these bands include Toxic Parents, Beautiful Loser, and notably: Shabütie in 1995, where he was the lead singer and guitarist. It was in this band that Sanchez began working on his concept, *The Amory Wars*, hammering out details during a trip to Paris in 1998 to visit his girlfriend. Several songs of the band, especially the last album, *Delirium Trigger,* were some of the first songs ever based on the concept.

Also after this trip, the members of the band at that time agreed to officially be renamed to Coheed and Cambria in 1999, and was shortly thereafter signed to Equal Vision Records. (Changing the name was apart of the agreement to sign.) Coheed and Cambria achieved success on the East Coast after releasing and touring *The Second Stage Turbine Blade*, and gained mainstream success with the release of *In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3*, thanks to the single "A Favor House Atlantic". The band has since produced nine studio albums.

Along side the main releases with Coheed and Cambria, Sanchez began working on some experimental music in a solo project he called The Prize Fighter Inferno, named after one of *The Amory Wars*' main characters, Inferno. In 2006, an official album came from the project titled *My Brother's Blood Machine.* According to the album's liner notes, Sanchez recorded it with "...random recording devices...".

In 2016, he was asked to write a musical version of Oscar Wilde's 1890 novel *The Picture of Dorian Gray* by a Broadway producer who was impressed with how he was able to craft songs based on story. He had written nearly the whole first Act of the would-be play (roughly 10 songs worth) but it remains incomplete as it was not picked up after all. Two of these tracks were shared on his Twitch channel as a way to generate hype around the project, and was met with overwhelming positivity, and he has hinted that he may use the material as a "palette cleanser" between *Vaxis* albums. Though it is unclear exactly what that means.

### Instruments

In addition to vocals and guitar, Sanchez also plays keyboard, various synthesizers, harmonica, and piano.

## *The Amory Wars* & Evil Ink

Sanchez began producing comics for his concept in 2004, beginning with *The Bag.On.Line Adventures*, named for a shop he passed by in Paris. *The Bag.On.Line Adventures* lasted for two issues due to problems with the artists, deadlines and financial issues. Sanchez's next project was the graphic novel *Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV - Volume I: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness*. It was released alongside the album of the same name, however it faced similar issues and is widely considered to be confusing and non-canon.

In 2006, Sanchez rebooted the series by renaming it to *The Amory Wars*, which chronicles events album by album. He founded the Evil Ink group that would not only co-publish the comics, but also the albums. Starting with *The Second Stage Turbine Blade*, he released comics for the first three albums.

In 2009, alongside Peter David, Sanchez co-wrote the novel *Year of the Black Rainbow*, chronicling the events of the album. It was first released by Evil Ink with the Deluxe version of the album, marking the group's foray into novels as well as comics. He has since co-written two other books with his wife Chondra Echert (*The Afterman* and *Vaxis - Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures*), who has also co-written all his latest comics. Regarding them working together, Echert has said that it works very well for the two of them; Sanchez may have an idea at four in the morning that he wants to talk through, and he can do that with her, where he may not be able to do that with another writer. She has said that Sanchez provides the "broad strokes" and beats for the story and she fleshes out the finer points to make it all work. Sanchez disputes this, but didn't clarify what exactly he does. He did say that Echert is his perfect voice for his stories and that she'll often read to him drafts that he'll then correct as they go, if needed.

## Trivia

* Sanchez was, and still is to an extent, an avid comic lover.
	+ Favorites include *Watchmen*, *Batman: The Long Halloween*, and *Saga*.
	+ He mostly collects single issues in which something momentous happens, such as (*Incrediable Hulk* #181 in which Wolverine appears).
* Sanchez has a tattoo on his lower left calf of vocalist Klaus Nomi.
* Sanchez loves to play video games, often streaming on his Twitch channel.
	+ Some of his favorites include *Halo*, *God of War*, *Gears of War* and the *Batman: Arkham* games.
	+ He often plays *Call of Duty* on his Twitch channel, but due to the Activision Walkout, Sanchez began playing *Fortnite* instead.
* His favorite color is yellow.
* He has said he uses Pantene Pro V for Curly Hair as his shampoo.
* He has long since struggled with acid reflux.
* Sanchez is very much a family man, even before having a family of his own.
	+ In one interview, Sanchez confirmed that upon seeing his brother who was training to be a boxer for the first time in a long time, the pair playfully rough-housed and he broke his hand.
	+ He has also included his niece's vocals, Janiris Sanchez (presumably his brother's daughter), on his *Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV - Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness* album.
	+ He has sung with his wife on acoustic versions or small live performances and raised money by singing exclusive songs in the project Chonny and Clyde.
	+ He used a photo he took of his son's hand for the cover of the *Stray Bullets* EP and *The City Introvert*. Samples of his wife and son's vocals can be heard on "Sweet Talker" as well.
* In 2013, for the band's *Afterman: Descension* tour, each band member designed a symbol to represent them and the band sold shirts and threw custom picks out to the crowd (even Eppard). Sanchez's symbol was very similar to the keywork, in a way; a circle with three circles at its top crossed by a downward triangle with an X running through the whole piece.

## See Also

* The Prize Fighter Inferno
* Chonny & Clyde
* Evil Ink
* Sanchez's Twitch Channel

## References

1. ↑ Kerswell, Ronny (2008, Jan). Welcome to My World – Claudio Sanchez. *Rock Sound*, 105 (1), pg 58-59.
2. ↑ Sanchez, Claudio. *The Amory Wars Sketchbook*, page 30, Evil Ink, 2006.
3. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/B-Rv\_nOBt4k/
4. ↑ https://www.kerrang.com/features/claudio-sanchez-sometimes-i-look-at-us-and-think-of-king-kong-were-these-savages-from-the-jungle-put-out-there-as-a-spectacle/
5. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ikw5z/i\_am\_claudio\_sanchez\_frontman\_of\_coheed\_cambria/cb5g9mh/?utm\_source=reddit&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 https://www.kerrang.com/features/claudio-sanchez-sometimes-i-look-at-us-and-think-of-king-kong-were-these-savages-from-the-jungle-put-out-there-as-a-spectacle/
7. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIMFvXWBaQk
8. ↑ Hickie, James. "Interview with Claudio Sanchez" AltPress (Issue #406.1; May 2022), 16 May 2022, pp. 60-67.
9. ↑ https://vimeo.com/681905117
10. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5tI9eqHpsM
11. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20150512132055/http://www.pollstar.com/hotstar\_article.aspx?ID=68365
12. ↑ http://archive.recordonline.com/archive/2006/04/07/features\_goentertainment-07gocov-04-07.html
13. ↑ Hickie, James. "Interview with Claudio Sanchez" AltPress (Issue #406.1; May 2022), 16 May 2022, pp. 60-67.
14. ↑ Lamar, Bear. “Café Chonnye.” 26 October 2021. S.S. Neverender I, Norwegian Gem Atrium, Deck 7.
15. ↑ Sanchez, Claudio. “Café Chonnye.” 28 October 2021. S.S. Neverender I, Norwegian Gem Atrium, Deck 7.
16. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJs9SBR9\_gU
17. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ikw5z/i\_am\_claudio\_sanchez\_frontman\_of\_coheed\_cambria/cb5hsp3/?utm\_source=reddit&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
18. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/795747444713193512/867066700620496916/869977189477646406
19. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4tz8yj/we\_are\_claudio\_sanchez\_and\_chondra\_echertsanchez/d5lihce/?utm\_source=reddit&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
20. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ikw5z/i\_am\_claudio\_sanchez\_frontman\_of\_coheed\_cambria/cb5gw18/?utm\_source=reddit&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
21. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ikw5z/i\_am\_claudio\_sanchez\_frontman\_of\_coheed\_cambria/cb5ggs7/?utm\_source=reddit&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
22. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fisEsWeoWMs
23. ↑ https://www.popmatters.com/193759-keeping-the-acclaim-the-legacy-of-coheed-and-cambrias-good-apollo-im-2495525711.html