Travis Stever of Coheed and Cambria: 10 Albums That Changed My Life

Photo of Travis Stever by Manor 208. Courtesy of Travis Stever.

As a founding member of New York-based hard rock act Coheed and Cambria, Travis Stever has lent a hand to some of the most influential alternative albums of the last 20 years.

LPs such as The Second Stage Turbine Blade (2002), In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 (2003), Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness (2005), Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow (2007), and Year of the Black Rainbow (2010) show Stever and his cohorts to a band perpetually intent on unleashing metallic destruction via proggy yet heavy soundscapes.

Stever’s licks, riffs, rhythms, and solos are memorable, if not angular, and crushing. One listen to cuts like “Blood Red Summer,” “A Favor House Atlantic,” “The Suffering,” and “Welcome Home” tells you all you need to know about the veteran guitarist’s myriad of diverse influences.

To that end, Coheed and Cambria’s Travis Stever dialed in with ClassicRockHistory.com to recount the 10 albums that changed his life.

# 10 – Public Enemy – Chuck Stever, Rick Snider & Friends

This is the band my father had when I could first remember appreciating music. The band was called Public Enemy. And my father’s name is Chuck. Go figure. I recently took the original reel to tapes and transferred the mixes by Larry Alexander to be remastered. They were a wild bunch. My father’s drive to stay with his dream in music during my youth is one of the main reasons I still play today. So that is why I chose this as number one.

# 9 – The Beatles, Abbey Road

This is one of the first cassette tapes I would ask to hear over and over. I can remember the white cassette tape, the Capitol Records symbol, and even how dirty and used up it was. My gateway to loving the album was “Octopuses Garden” and “Maxwells Silver Hammer.” Both played perfectly in filling the imagination and imagery in my four-year-old brain. I had a Fisher Price boombox, and I would carry it around and play this tape and my next pick.

# 8 – The Police – Synchronicity

This album was everything to me for quite some time. Along with the above pick Abbey Road, I would carry it around and play the two back and forth over and over. I believe Christopher Cross’s Sailing would be in rotation at this point as well. My yacht rock love was strong from day one.

# 7 – Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath

This album was in my mother’s record collection. That’s right, my mom. The same mom that had a live, laugh, love sign over the kitchen doorway years later. She had seen Black Sabbath at a festival in 1970 when they were touring on that first album. Before “Paranoid” was released. She became a fan and bought the record. Fast forward 10 years later, that same album and its mysterious witch cover scared the shit out of me. I would run and look at it just to shove it back into the collection and run. Fast forward to a few years later, when I was ready, I popped that album on a turntable, which absolutely blew my mind. I never was the same.

# 6 – Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin III

I, like millions of other kids, was a Led Zeppelin fanatic. I sat under countless Zeppelin posters reading “Hammer of the Gods,” hanging on every word and mysterious rumor. It’s hard to choose one Zep album. Pretty much impossible. I usually go to III because of its combination of heavy sounds and folk/country vibes. Something I think I always seek in my own world. In many ways, the acoustic vibes and experimenting outweighs the heavy vibe. But a song like “Immigrant Song” alone has enough heaviness to carry the torch throughout.

# 5 – David Bowie – The Labyrinth Soundtrack

Though it may seem like a strange pick… especially when it’s David Bowie, just like Zeppelin, Sabbath, Neil Young, and so many other artists, he has such an amazing discography it’s hard to pick favorites. In this case, I chose this album because it was a gateway to everything else, Bowie. Labyrinth was my favorite movie. The music was a major part of that. I loved the music. I still do. Now my kids do as well. I can remember making my father play the soundtrack in his van over and over. I even have the door-knocker tattoos on my wrists.

We chose the song “As the World Falls Down” for our first dance at my wedding. The movie started my longtime crush on Jennifer Connelly. So, I would watch everything she was in from then on. And, of course, it did the same with Bowie and his music. I started asking for all of his albums from a young age, and numerous of those albums have been soundtracks for different eras of my life.

# 4 – Iron Maiden – Somewhere in Time

This is the first vinyl record I ever bought for myself. I asked my mom for it at a flea market. I loved the imagery. I loved the sounds that were playing on it. I then brought it home, and as I listened, my stepbrother told me it was satanic, and a bunch of kids died in a house fire that started when they did a seance to this album. I then took it and put it next the that scary Black Sabbath album in my mom’s collection that I still was not brave to listen to. But you bet your ass only a year or so later, when I reached for the Sabbath, I reached for the Maiden, and my heavy metal journey was back on track.

# 3 – Neil Young – Decade

This one is the hardest for me. Neil Young is my favorite guitar player and songwriter. The truth is… I could never choose a favorite album. Decade was the greatest hits compilation record that started it all. My version is when Decade was handed down to me on vinyl from my Uncle Toms’s record collection when I was 14. I brought it home, and I became a fanatic about getting to hear everything Neil Young had done. I have seen him play numerous times with numerous different lineups. The best lineup was with Booker T and the MGs. Blind Melon and Soundgarden were opening, both who have albums that would be on this list if it was 20 records that changed my life. 20 years after that show, Coheed opened for Soundgarden, and I got everyone from the band to sign my ticket for that show. I hope I get to see Neil Young play again someday soon.

# 2 – The Cure – Disintegration

This album was a soundtrack for so many eras of my life. As a guitar player, the layers between Robert Smith and Porl Thompson have influenced my approach to literally everything I play on. “Fascination Street” and “Lullaby” are two of my favorite guitar songs ever.

# 1 – Gravediggaz, 6 Feet Deep

Hip-hop is a massive part of my youth. I had friends who swore by everything hip-hop. Some were not as open to the guitar-fueled stuff I was listening to. But many were. I was always open to hearing it all. Many would be surprised to know that hip-hop is mixed all around in Coheed and Cambria’s DNA as well. Our drummer Josh [Eppard], is an incredible MC that goes under the name “Weerd Science.” Beyond that, our mutual love of hip-hop has leaked into approaches to Coheed music many times. 6 Feet Deep is an album full of different stories set to songs from a horror-themed supergroup of MCs led by the mighty RZA. Each MC took on a new identity in the Gravediggaz and told horror stories in song. It speaks volumes that my favorite rap album is one that is full of stories, concepts, and imagery. Perhaps a sign of what band I would find myself involved in later in life?

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