The Prize Fighter Inferno

Sanchez in his "Inferno" persona.

**The Prize Fighter Inferno** is an acoustic/electronica solo project of Claudio Sanchez, the lead singer and lead/rhythm guitarist for the band Coheed and Cambria. The music has featured several acts related to the band such as, Chondra Echert of Chonny & Clyde, Travis Stever of Davenport Cabinet, and Josh Eppard of Weerd Science. It was signed with Equal Vision Records but is currently signed with Evil Ink Records.

The project is often shortened to the simple acronym **PFI**.

## History

Just before Shabütie became Coheed and Cambria, Sanchez began developing his concept, which became the world of *The Amory Wars*. Initially intended to stay a side project, Sanchez wanted the project to focus on an acoustic/electronic sound. After the band decided they liked the idea of being focused on the concept as a whole, and renamed, Sanchez continued playing with the different type of music.

Mostly a tinkering hobby, a story of its own did developed from it: after Inferno's death in *The Amory Wars*, he finds himself in our world, present day. He wants to tell the story of *The Amory Wars*, but feels that he has to tell the story of the Blood Machine first. He has also used the project to create music for other projects, like *Kill Audio*, *Kid Crazy and the Killowatt King* (he was directly credited as himself in the latter), and as a more personal outlet like with the *Half Measures* EP and *The City Introvert* album.

On July 18, 2023, Sanchez announced that he would be going on tour as PFI for the very first time in the project's history, with just 11 dates in select cities. Chondra Echert would also be joining him on this exclusive tour. Due to high demand, a 12th show was added and two shows were moved to larger venues. Like Coheed and Cambria shows, PFI offered 2 Special VIP tickets for these shows as well: The Watchman and the Watcher packages. The Watcher VIP was akin to Prise VIP where ticket holders were able to enter the venue 30 mins early, hear a special acoustic performance, and received a laminate. The Watchman was akin to Mage VIP where, in addition to the Watcher benefits, ticket holders also got to take part in a meet-and-greet with Sanchez and Echert, receive a photo and signed item, a cloth tarot bag, a lanyard to go with their laminate, a lapel pin, 30 additional extra minutes, and merch early access.

## Musical Style

Asked about the music, Sanchez has said, "Side projects should be very left field. I love folk music and singer/songwriters, and I very much like sequencing and digital electronic music, so I just figured ‘why not?’" Consequence of Sound said of his newer songs, "a neon-lined jam that calls to mind the melodrama of early-aughts emo pop," and also, "dark trip-hop electronica."

Sanchez has featured other artists in small ways in the project. These include:

* Travis Stever playing lap steel in "Wayne Andrews, The Old Bee Keeper"
* Josh Eppard rapping on in "Stray Bullets"
* Chondra Echert singing in "Erizo Schultz"
* And samples of his son, Atlas, on "Crazy For You"
	+ Echert and Atlas were also sampled on "Sweet Talker"

## Concepts

Though the first album project was highly conceptual, not all media released through it are believed to be conceptual. For example, the *Beaver Records* EP was specifically released with the fourth volume of Evil Ink's *Kill Audio* comic. The *Half Measures* EP was released at New York ComicCon in 2012, and features a lot of nods to famous horror films. The second album project was very much an outlet during the Covid-19 Pandemic, so it seems that as a side project, Sanchez could very well just be having fun.

## Discography

### Albums

* Label: Equal Vision Records
* Formats: Vinyl, CD
* Label: Evil Ink
* Formats: Unknown

### EPs

* Label: Equal Vision Records
 *Half Measures* | * Released: September 13, 2012
* Label: Equal Vision Records
 *Stray Bullets* | * Released: July 10, 2020
* Label: Evil Ink
* Formats: Digital

### Singles

"The Margretville Town Dance"
* Released: November 10

"I'm Going To Kill You"
* Released: November 10
 2008
* Credited under Claudio Sanchez
 2020

"Death Rattle"
* Released: May 15

"Crazy For You"
* Released: May 15

"Stray Bullets"
* Released: July 10

### Unofficial Demos

In 2004, a leaked recording of several *In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3* acoustic demos made their way to several P2P networks. Among these were a few Prize Fighter Inferno demos, including a cover of the song "Your Love" by The Outfield. The two others were "Blood Machine" and "Run Like Hell", the latter of which has been argued to be a Coheed and Cambria demo rather than a PFI one.

Lastly, on December 5th, 2008 on the second night of the London Neverender tour, Sanchez played a new song titled "The Echo Maker" which was originally written for a musical called *Rosie Barbara and the Family Massacre* that he and his wife were working on at the time. In a Reddit AMA, Sanchez shared that he'd "fallen asleep" on the project, but that the ideas were still in his "mind locker."

## Trivia

* The symbol for the project is The Eye of Providence. This is interesting because this symbol represents the all-seeing eye of God full of power and wisdom and control over his own world.

## See Also

* Official MySpace Page
* Equal Vision's Page
* Evil Ink's Page

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://www.equalvision.com/artists/the-prize-fighter-inferno/
2. ↑ https://evilink.com/prizefighterinferno
3. ↑ https://twitter.com/ThePFIOfficial/status/1681333803384705025
4. ↑ https://www.brooklynvegan.com/the-prize-fighter-inferno-coheeds-claudio-sanchez-announces-first-live-shows/
5. ↑ https://consequence.net/2023/07/claudio-sanchez-the-prize-fighter-inferno-tour/
6. ↑ https://twitter.com/ThePFIOfficial/status/1682023565561065479
7. ↑ https://twitter.com/ThePFIOfficial/status/1682051053133631489
8. ↑ https://twitter.com/ThePFIOfficial/status/1686109327546003456
9. ↑ https://www.axs.com/events/493984/the-prize-fighter-inferno-tickets/promos/619344?skin=firstavenue
10. ↑ https://www.axs.com/events/493984/the-prize-fighter-inferno-tickets/promos/619338?skin=firstavenue
11. ↑ https://consequenceofsound.net/2020/05/coheed-and-cambria-claudio-sanchez-prize-fighter-inferno-songs-stream/
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 https://www.spin.com/2020/05/coheed-and-cambria-the-prize-fighter-inferno-claudio-sanchez-premiere/
13. ↑ https://genius.com/The-prize-fighter-inferno-erizo-schultz-lyrics
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 https://consequenceofsound.net/2021/03/claudio-sanchez-prize-fighter-inferno-new-album-origins-sweet-talker-stream/
15. ↑ http://www.everythingevilink.com/exclusive-prize-fighter-inferno-ep-to-be-released-at-new-york-comic-con-2012
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 https://m.twitch.tv/videos/918338055
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 https://www.metalsucks.net/2020/05/11/coheed-cambrias-claudio-sanchez-on-the-quarantinecast-11/
18. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20081026101845/http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=37305643
19. ↑ 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