Coheed & Cambria guitarist Travis Stever didn’t necessarily expect a simple creative outlet to gain quite the momentum that it has. After all, it started off humbly enough in his room at home and was given a less-than-ideal moniker (The English Panther) – almost as a joke. But the more Stever wrote and recorded on his personal Roland 16-track, the more he realized that his songs deserved a chance to be heard. Now going under the name of Davenport Cabinet, Stever allowed his creative musical whims to lead the way. Unlike bandmate Claudio Sanchez’s solo project Prize Fighter Inferno, Davenport Cabinet has no connection at all to the Armory Wars, the story that has shaped Coheed’s music thus far. Stever’s solo work revolves around his love for various musical styles, some of which include classic rock and Americana/folk.
Davenport Cabinet’s debut record
Nostalgia In Stereo was released in October on Equal Vision Records, and
Stever had an opportunity to test out the material when he opened for
Coheed & Cambria during last Fall’s
Neverender Tour. This year
Stever has kept the buzz going by including the fans in the act. The musician recently gave fans the opportunity to send in their own footage, which has been used in his new music video for "
Nostalgia In Stereo." That video, which recently
debuted on Ultimate-Guitar, is hard to miss. After all, rarely do you get to see so many people decimating their personal stereos.
Stever recently chatted with UG writer
Amy Kelly about the new music video, his future
Davenport Cabinet plans, and the highly anticipated upcoming release from
Coheed & Cambria.
UG: In creating Davenport Cabinet, did any of your inspiration come from the Armory Wars story that has linked Coheed & Cambria’s projects?
Travis: This was completely different. It’s pretty simple. I actually started recording at my house. There would be vibrations of the rooms settling or whatever is happening. Sometimes I’ve sat there and the guitar has sounded like it just got strummed. It could be the house settling. One day I was like, “I hate having this name.” The original name was English Panther. It was a stupid name! I was sitting there, and I had recorded all these songs. I was like, “I want to do something with them. Maybe I’ll release them. What would I release them under?” I was thinking about it, and I was reading this book about Houdini. They were talking about these dudes that would go into a cabinet and get locked up. They were escape artists just like Houdini. They would get locked up, but there would be instruments locked up above them. They closed the cabinets, did the whole show, and showed that there was no way to get out. They closed the cabinets and the music would start going. They were the Davenport Brothers, so they called it the Davenport Cabinet. Everybody would say that spirits were playing. So I thought it was the perfect name.
Were you actually deriving inspiration upon hearing things settle in your house?
No. I’ll be completely honest with you, no. There are three or four songs that were literally six years old.
Had you intended to bring any of these songs to Coheed originally?
No, I don’t think any of these songs were brought to the table for Coheed. It was more or less just that they probably wouldn’t fit. I was just kind of like, “What am I going to do with them?” Half of them were older songs and had been already released on an iTunes release that I did, which I wasn’t every happy about. Some of them were just ideas that I would show to Claudio or something like that. Songs that ended up on the album, I just kind of realized that they wouldn’t work. I would keep playing on an idea, and I would just keep adding things. Take a song like “Milk Foot.” I’d say, “Let me see how my lap steel sounds through this wah. Oh, that sounds kind of cool. Let me add mandolin.” It’s always like, “Let me see how this sounds. Let me see how that sounds.” In the end I’ll say, “I’ll add vocals to it.” It’s the last thing.
"It’s more acoustic and folky and classic rock-based songs."
I’ve definitely, guitar-wise, had room to experiment in Coheed & Cambria. It’s always been like, “Let me see how this sounds for my part.” It’s been that way in the studio, too. We’re recording our new album, which we’re all really excited about. I was trying to work out a solo-y kind of part. The producer we’re working with said, “It’s going to come down to what we come up with pedal-wise and effects-wise to see how the part fits.” I had this part worked out in my mind. There was always that kind of stuff. For the Davenport Cabinet it’s more of what is going to sound cool. It’s more acoustic and folky and classic rock-based songs. I would mix it and put live drums on them. There are two songs are with my friend Roy playing, and he would play a couple songs on drums.
Given that Davenport Cabinet has basically been worked in between your Coheed obligations, how long did it take to put the album Nostalgia In Stereo together?
Some of the songs, like I said, were really old. The majority of the songs were written in the past year and a half. Some were written when I would go home. Like when we were working on No World For Tomorrow, ideas would come out of it. Claudio and I would work on a song together, and then it would get a spark going. So I’d go home and lay down an idea. If I would want to keep going with it, I would start adding stuff.
There seems to be an intricate, layered sound to the guitars for Coheed & Cambria, Prize Fighter Inferno, and now Davenport Cabinet. Did you record several guitar tracks for each song?
When I did one song at home, I literally only had like three tracks of guitars. There is one track that has like a simple rhythm kind of stuff. There is another track doubling it. Originally there was an acoustic track. Sometimes I don’t even use a click at all, but I did a click to that. It still goes all over the place because in the end I took the acoustic off that was done to the click. The electrics that were played to the acoustic go off somewhat. So I just used the two rhythm tracks of electrics. When you’re using only 16 tracks, you have to be pretty careful about what you can use. I put it through a mixing board at a friend’s studio, and that helped me out a lot. So we put it through it his mixing board, and he has the full setup in a beautiful studio – but I didn’t really utilize it very much. I think I used two or three extra tracks on them. The only thing I did was put a talk box above all the guitars.
After experiencing full autonomy over a record, would you consider producing any future Coheed albums?
No, right now we’re working with a producer that we’re very excited about. For me personally, I like doing that for my own projects. I think it’s the same for Claudio. For him, Prize Fighter came straight from his house and where he’s coming from his own studio and sometimes a rig on the road. That’s what Davenport Cabinet is for me. Some of those songs were just written on tour. I carried around my Roland Boss 1600 or whatever, and I’d record the rhythm tracks on the road. A lot of guitar stuff I recorded on the road. At home I had banjo and lap steel, and I had my friend play drums on it. There are three songs that Roy played drums on, but the rest of it I played drums on. I did all this stuff on the road. It was very loose and very, “Oh, whatever. Who gives a shit? Let me just see what happens.” I’d come home and just added a few guitars. I think that’s the beauty of it. Not to say that if I do another Davenport album I won’t record it with better quality. I will. This album is a step up and completely night and day from the iTunes release I did a few years ago, which has quality that is pure shit. For this new one, I kind of had songs in my head. I think that will even just get better. The songs will be more important to me. They’ll have full-on melodies and choruses and all that kind of stuff. They’re literally just ideas that I just kept adding to. It was basically, “Whatever. Let’s see what happens.” If I do another one, it will be more thought-out. Not that there aren’t some songs on here that aren’t thought out. Take a song like “Demon Fire.” That’s more based on what I’m saying in the song. Usually my writing isn’t based lyrically or anything. Well, they are, but not to the extent of a song like that.
Are you using pretty much the same equipment setup for Davenport that you do in Coheed?
I tried out a bunch of things that I hadn’t in the past. At the same time, I used lap steel on No World, and I used lap steel on this album. When it came down to banjo and mandolin, you’re absolutely right. I experimented more with things that don’t work per se for the Coheed formula as often. It was fun for me to be able to do that at home. “Oh, let’s do this banjo part. Let’s see where I can go with this.” A song like “Thieves” just started with a banjo part. Then I added mandolin, and then I came up with my guitar part above the mandolin and banjo parts.
What acoustics did you use on the album?
They were all Taylors. We have Taylors for Coheed & Cambria, and they supply us with guitars. They’re really generous. Even way before they were helping us out. Taylor is my acoustic of choice. I had a Gibson acoustic way before that as well. But when it comes to acoustic guitars, they're all Taylors. When it comes to electrics, it’s all Gibsons.
You had a great idea for the “Nostalgia In Stereo” video, which features an assortment of submissions by fans. I can imagine it was both fun and somewhat time consuming to sift through all of the video clips.
I have a cousin, and a lot of it came from his mind. It was really his idea from the get-go. A lot of people sent us stuff in. For me personally with Coheed, as much as we travel around and keep up with our schedule, I was like, “Oh, yeah, yeah. We’ll see how it goes.” Then more and more people started sending stuff in and I was like, “Wow! That’s cool.” With destroying stereos, I guess a lot of our fans like that option. “Oh, we get to break something!” You can do that instead of lip-synching. From stereos to MP3 players, everybody wants to break some shit. I’m just so thankful to everybody who participated. My cousin came up with some really cool concepts for the video. It’s really because of them that it became a video. And it’s cool because I even read a couple reviews of it. They’re like, “Obviously, they didn’t have very much of a budget.” No, there wasn’t. But so what? The point is that it came from the fans, and that’s what matters. That’s what made it so fun.
"The majority of the songs were written in the past year and a half."
I would love to be able to do a full-band performance of some of the songs. As a matter of fact, Coheed did Mountain Jam, which is one of the main festivals with Allman Brothers and Gov't Mule. We did “Milk Foot” there as a band. It sounded really awesome. I wish I had footage of it. I’m sure they have footage of it because they were filming all around. Claudio played some really heavy, different stuff above the rhythm line. That’s a tune that I play everything on. I just like to fiddle around to see how things sound. That’s what ended up happening. Translating that one into Coheed was pretty awesome. We have such amazing players, and that plays into it. I would love to do that. There are a lot of people that I know. And like I said before, if I record another Davenport album, I would like to put more into it. So you never know. I might have some friends on there that will add a little more spice. I’ve already done that with a couple of songs that I have for future albums.
I’m sure Coheed fans are thrilled to hear you’re working on the next album, which I understand is a prequel. Can you provide any details?
I think when it comes to the material, there are 14 or 15 songs that are demoed. Right now we’re out here at Pasadena, and we’re recording four of the songs that will be on the album. They’re all different. They all have very different elements, from past Coheed to the past few years. There’s a brand-new kind of feel to it. I think our fans will be really excited about what’s going on. Having Chris (Pennie, drums) to be able to play on the album, it adds so much. He owns these songs, the way he would have with No World For Tomorrow. You know, Taylor Hawkins did an amazing job. Chris is our drummer. He’s been a full-on member of the band for several years now. I think it’s crucial for him to be a part of what we’re doing with the recording. It’s amazing to hear. We’ve been working on drums for the past three or four days, and he’s just kicking the shit out of these songs. This is going to have a lot of people really happy. I think people that don’t listen to Coheed per se, I have a good feeling that they will appreciate what we’re doing. It’s different enough, but it’s still so close to home and to the elements that our fans really love.
As far as the guitar parts, do you and Claudio work out the sections in the studio or is there a thorough pre-production process?
Pre-production. They’re all different. There are numerous things where Claudio will work out the general skeletons of the songs. He’ll send it to Chris. He’ll send it to my house, and I’ll just put all these parts over it. Then I’ll send it back. Sometimes the vocals are ready, and sometimes they’re not. Eventually Michael will figure out bass. Some stuff we’ve worked out more as a band. Some stuff I’ll go over to Claudio’s house. There are a couple of songs like that on this album or a song like “The End Complete” from the last album or “Ten Speed.” We’ll sit together and just put the song together as we’re working right there. “Here’s my verse idea.” Then he’ll throw leads on it. “Okay, well, let’s figure out a hook or chorus.” So it really depends. For the most part, there were quite a few songs where Claudio will send a skeleton of a song, and I’ll figure out what I can add to it. That’s pretty much how I come up with a lot of my songs. Yet again, it’s the same thing. It’s that room in my house, where I came up with Davenport Cabinet. I might come up with an idea that won’t end up on a Coheed song or album, and I’ll leave it for Davenport Cabinet. It’s the same for him with Prize Fighter. He has songs that he comes up with. Does it work for Coheed? Maybe not, but there is a shitload songs that we have, just to be frank.
Do you have a tentative date for the new Coheed release?
Sooner than later. We don’t have an exact time. I don’t want to say something, but definitely next year. We haven’t given ourselves a restriction on a time period, but we’re definitely working very fast. That’s what we do anyway as a band.
Would you ever consider putting out a double album?
I don’t think so. There will be more than enough material on it, though.
How is your touring schedule for the months ahead?
We’ve got a few tour dates coming up. We have the Heaven and Hell. It’s a dream come true. I think it’s pretty amazing. For Claudio, his first concert that he went to was Black Sabbath with Dio fronting. The support band is Exodus, and I love that band, too. Actually a good friend of mine is in that band. It’s just amazing how things turn out.
Interview by Amy Kelly
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