“Welcome to this new version of your life. Before this, I was fine, and now I’m not”: Claudio Sanchez details the “heartbreak” that inspired Coheed And Cambria’s biggest track

Claudio Sanchez performing onstage with Coheed And Cambria in 2005 — (Image credit: Lyle A. Waisman/FilmMagic)

Coheed And Cambria singer/guitarist Claudio Sanchez has explained the “heartbreak” that went into his band’s biggest hit single, Welcome Home.

Talking exclusively to Metal Hammer, the progressive metal musician calls the track a “love song”, despite the venomous lyrics that he sings throughout. He adds that the title refers to the “new version of your life” that starts after a traumatic split.

“It’s very much a love song,” Sanchez tells us. “It’s a song about heartbreak. When I was younger, I experienced a pretty significant heartbreak and I didn’t know how to deal with it. The best I could [do] was writing a song that was angry, aggressive. I didn’t know how to communicate those feelings other than being angry.

“That’s kind of what Welcome Home is: welcome to this new version of your life, this new persona that you’ve taken on. Before this, I was fine, and now I’m not.”

Welcome Home was the lead single of Coheed’s third album, 2005’s Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness. Like almost every other one of the band’s albums, its lyrics are part of The Amory Wars: a vast sci-fi saga that takes place in the fictional universe Heaven’s Fence and has been expanded into a comic book series.

However, Good Apollo… Volume One’s lyrics also break the fourth wall, with several songs, including Welcome Home, being about the tribulations of the writer of the Amory Wars story. Claudio tells us that the obvious heartbreak throughout the album is what influenced him to broaden the universe and make the release a two-parter, followed by 2007’s Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World For Tomorrow.

“When I wrote that record, Good Apollo…, because it was so much about heartbreak, it was really hard for me to then hide it in a piece of fiction,” he explains. “All of these records are very much based after my life. Every one of them is a chapter, and I just had a hard time being a frontman and converting myself as an open book to the public, so I created a piece of fiction to hide behind.

“But, when I wrote Good Apollo…, it was so clearly obvious a record about somebody angry at the life that they were given in the separation of a significant other. I realised, if I’m going to do this properly in the story, I have to cut the story in half and show it from both the characters’ perspective and the writer’s perspective.”

Released in 2005 and accompanied by a music video, Welcome Home was Coheed’s breakthrough song, having been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA). It appeared in the videogames Rock Band and Madden NFL 06, as well as the trailer for 2009 animated film 9.

Coheed released their 11th album, Vaxis – Act III: The Father Of Make Believe, this March. It received positive reviews, including a four-star write-up from Hammer’s Paul Travers. The band are booked to perform at the festivals Welcome To Rockville in Daytona Beach on May 10 and Sonic Temple in Cleveland on May 14.

Claudio Sanchez picks 5 essential Coheed And Cambria songs | Metal Hammer - YouTube

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Coheed and Cambria - Welcome Home - YouTube

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Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Metal Hammer and Prog, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, NME and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.

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