“For me, it’s kind of hard to say exactly why [they’re out of the band],” frontman Claudio Sanchez tells AP. “There were moments where it felt like it could’ve been creative differences and, maybe just a dislike of touring [on their part]. I think that’s really what’s brought us to this moment. It started off this summer with Josh giving us a call and saying, ‘I can’t do this tour.’ And, ya know, we couldn’t really call it a tour if we didn’t get that call. He would always say he couldn’t do it. But we would talk about it and he’d be cool with it. But this time around, it didn’t work out and he refused to come to Europe. We had MP [ex-Samiam] fill in because it seemed like the logical choice. As we started doing Europe, Mic said that he wanted to endure. But around the time that we hit Barcelona, he decided he could no longer do it as well. So, really, they left on their own and I honestly haven’t spoken to them since that day in June. Actually, when we were done with Europe, we got them on the phone and talked and tried to figure something out, but they wanted to go in a different direction. [Guitarist] Travis [Stever] and I have been doing our thing and they haven’t reached out to us.

“It’s hard to lose them because they played such an important role in this band,” Sanchez continues. “It’s hard to go through a drastic change like that, but I don’t look at it as a bad thing. I felt there were creative differences to some degree most of the time, especially with In Keeping Secrets and Good Apollo…, it felt like Josh and Mic weren’t even at the studio–and honestly, they weren’t. They’d come and play their parts and that was about it. Not to discredit them, but it’s just going to allow for a freer and more interesting process.”

Coheed fans, fear not: The band are in no danger of breaking up. Sanchez informs AP that he and Stever have already begun rehearsals for the band’s new album, with a surprising addition behind the kit.

“Right now, we’ve just started rehearsing for the new album,” he says. “Matt Williams [of pre-Coheed band Jumblehead] is on bass and we actually got Chris Pennie from Dillinger Escape Plan on drums. We’re kind of toying with that lineup and it’s hard to say if that will be the new foundation of Coheed And Cambria. We’re just kind of feeling them out and they’re feeling us out and it’s hard to say what the final outcome will be. But I’m looking at this as a new beginning and not a downer. There were so many ideas I wanted to do with this band that I felt like I wasn’t going to get full cooperation from everyone and just kind of kept them to myself. Now it feels like a new beginning and I actually kind of get goose bumps when I think about it.”

The band’s new lineup plan on heading into the studio in early 2007 with plans for a late-2007 release.