Interviews

Stephen Sanchez Creatively Crafts New World on Angel Face

A total romantic, self-proclaimed “King Down Bad”, and the one who revived the sound of the 50’s and 60’s. We’re talking about Stephen Sanchez, who had great success with his single “Until I Found You” and his concept album “Angel Face”. In a press conference organized by °1824 he explained the characters in this album, life on tour, and his passion for nostalgic sounds. 

The Concept album Angel Face 

The Story is set back in 1958-1964 and tells a love story of The Troubadour and Evangeline. You can follow the whole story on the album and even on stage Stephen and his band keep the story going and play their part to make this concept come to life. It is a full experience to dive into this carefully crafted world that sounds like the 50’s and 60’s with a modern touch. In his live shows, Sanchez covers iconic older songs to pull people deeper into the world and honor the artists that existed in this story world. His real experiences and feelings turn into metaphors and characters that people can get attached to for a while.  

Q&A

When you write from the lens of characters how do you dive into their world, are there certain rituals or methods to get into their mindset while writing? 

The characters totally have their own mindset and their own feelings. But I think they are just my feelings at the end of the day. I’m just always writing them from a perspective that’s a bit exaggerated. Like there’s songs that are just right on the nose and describe exactly what it is and some just make these characters feel that. And then there’s some that are just a bit more intense and dramatic. It’s more dramatized you know but not less real. I’m just thinking about my feelings and then applying it to the story that’s being written and the characters within it. 

What can fans with tickets for upcoming shows expect for this tour iteration? 

It’s different this time because on the last tour we walked everybody through the story. We were all ghosts last year, the Troubadour had died, and then afterwards the band died. We played the tour as ghosts haunting these venues across the United States. Now we’re taking it way further backwards and it’s like these predates of the Angel Club shows. You can expect to actually feel like you are back in the 50s and seeing the Troubador live on the Coddie Co show in whatever date between 1958-1964. We’re kind of playing through the years and it will be really cool. 

Final Thoughts

It is great to see a concept album as beautifully crafted as this one. There is so much attention to detail in the characters, the locations in the world and the nostalgic yet original sound. Even more work is put into creating a live show that does this album justice. Stephen Sanches found his own creative way of storytelling. He says, “I don’t wanna be that guy that keeps repeating in my career the same breakup songs.” And in the future by creating new characters, lore and storylines I’m sure we are in for a treat and new original album that will feel just as special as “Angel Face”.  

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *