Davenport Cabinet: Coheed and Cambria Guitarist on His Other Band, Living in a Haunted House

Coheed and Cambria have never been busier. The prog-rock behemoths just premiered the video for "Dark Side of Me" which is taken from the band's latest album The Afterman: Descension. The album is being released on Feb. 4 and is the second part of a dual release concept.

On Jan. 21, the band will be appearing on Conan, and just several weeks after that they hit the road in support of the new album. Sandwiched in between all of this Coheed activity is the latest from guitarist Travis Stever. His alt-rock side project called the Davenport Cabinet just released Our Machine, its sophomore album.

Stever, who collaborates with his cousin Tyler Klose in the project, released a debut Davenport Cabinet album back in 2008 entitled Nostalgia in Stereo. Noisecreep has been listening to Our Machine for the last few days and have to say that it's a remarkable little piece of work; stunning, actually. Blending a myriad of acoustic instruments, the songs are catchy, poignant, and at times, very intense. For all of us that love the new Coheed album (everyone else, too) this album, in our opinion, deserves a spot in your music collection.

Noisecreep had the pleasure of speaking with Stever about the album and he also gave us some exclusive photos shot in the very rooms where the music was made.

Travis, congratulations on the new record. We love it.

Thanks, man. I'm really happy with it.

I'm sure you and the rest of the guys in Coheed are really happy with the release of the song and and video for "Dark Side of Me," but you must be pretty excited about this too.

I really am. I've been writing a lot with my cousin Tyler Klose who is my partner in Davenport Cabinet, but this project also has a lot of other players too. There's lots of friends and family involved which makes a lot of fun and loose and spontaneous.

Davenport Cabinet is obviously very different than Coheed not just in the songs but in a lot of the instrumentation. You guys incorporated a lot of interesting acoustic sounds and textures but there are these cool moments were a little Coheed does seem to creep in.

Definitely. I find that with these projects, it's sort of like putting a different mask on - you assume an almost different personality depending on who you're playing with but no matter what you do each project is still a part of you and so it becomes impossible for things not to seep in at some point. But Davenport becomes like my release, the other part of my brain from Coheed. I know that Coheed fans will hear pieces of that band in what I'm doing. And that's cool. But of course there's more stuff happening, too. From the other side of my brain [laughs].

What's the origin of the name Davenport Cabinet.

Well the Davenport Brothers were a pair of 19th-century magicians whose famous illusion had to do with a large cabinet stocked with instruments that play themselves. Now, in the house where my wife and I live, some pretty weird things have gone on. The house is really interesting. It was only built in 1980 but it was made from parts of much older houses and it sort of looks like it's from the late 1800s. We've had lots of strange moments here including many that have to do with instruments that seem a little possessed sometimes. So the name Davenport Brothers seemed appropriate.

And you recorded all of this in that house right?

Right. I've got a little studio upstairs and some other spaces in the house we record music. A lot of the people that have come by to play including my cousin Tyler have expressed that they feel some strange things here. Now some of it I assume is just the house settling, but there are other things that I truly can't explain. And I do believe that there are things that we simply can't explain.

As busy as you are with Coheed, what do you think the opportunities might be to play live with Davenport Cabinet?

Right now, rehearsing and getting ready for a big upcoming Coheed tour, I couldn't be more excited. I'm thrilled about the new album and the song that was just release sand I know that's going to keep us busy for a while. And then I know that whenever there is a little pause in the action, that I'll be very excited about playing some dates with Davenport.

Have you thought about playing an acoustic set at your wife's bakery, Eat Sweet?

Actually, we almost pulled that off recently and we absolutely plan on it in the near future. We think this kind of acoustic-based music would be a really nice fit in the bakery.

Read Our Interview with Travis' Wife About Her Bakery