Claudio Sanchez of Nyack, New York-based progressive rock band, Coheed and Cambria, fame recently released a cover of the beloved Ben E. King 1961 hit classic “Stand By Me.” As of Thursday, April 30, according to Brooklyn Vegan, “…Coheed & Cambria frontman Claudio Sanchez re-activated his electronic solo project The Prize Fighter Inferno, whose debut album My Brother’s Blood Machine came out on EVR back in ’06. Claudio hadn’t released any TPFI material in eight years, but then he returned this month with the new song ‘More Than Love,’ and today he just followed that with a cover of the Ben E. King classic “Stand By Me.”

As a collective, Coheed and Cambria have released a total of nine full-length studio albums starting with their 2002 debut The Second Stage Turbine Blade all the way to their latest 2018 released Vaxis – Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures, released via Equal Vision Records and Roadrunner Records, respectively. Coheed and Cambria’s current touring roster is comprised of frontman Claudio Sanchez (lead vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards/programing), Josh Eppard (drums/backing vocals), Travis Stever (guitars/backing vocals) and Zach Copper (bass, cello and backing vocals).

The ethereal electronic-tinged updated version of “Stand By Me’ starts of with spacey synths and booming electronic drum programing that gives the track depth and atmosphere. The soft vocals provided by Sanchez is as faithful as the melody intact from its original, but it is Sanchez’s solo project The Prize Fighter Inferno that gives it space to play around with the sound aesthetic from its more soulful traditional rhythm and blues source material. As previously reported in the aforementioned Brooklyn Vegan article, “Claudio keeps the melodies of the original intact, but he otherwise turns it into a spacey synthpop take. You might think you never need to hear a cover of this song again, but this really is a true reinvention.”

As previously reported here on mxdwn, “Coheed and Cambria has always used music as a vehicle for a story. Each album is part of a lengthy sci-fi epic that has evolved from a single album into an entire discography and a book dedicated to it’s lore. But while the music is always in service of the story, that doesn’t mean their music gets the short end of the stick. Coheed and Cambria has long been appreciated for their unhinged instrumentals and soaring vocals, something that hasn’t changed since the very beginning.”

To listen to The Prize Fighter Inferno’s “Stand By Me” stream below, via YouTube.

Photo Credit: Boston Lynn Schulz