{"id":26867,"date":"2015-05-18T15:23:25","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T05:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=26867"},"modified":"2015-05-18T15:23:36","modified_gmt":"2015-05-18T05:23:36","slug":"dez-fafara-of-coal-chamber-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2015\/05\/dez-fafara-of-coal-chamber-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Dez Fafara of Coal Chamber"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\n<\/a>\u201cThe right time because it\u2019s the right time for us, and you don\u2019t ever want to live with regret, man, when an opportunity comes up to make up with somebody that you feel out with and it feels good and it feels right, you want to take advantage of that and you want to say you know what? Let\u2019s do this\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

From release: While their implosion 12 years ago left a morass of questions and conjecture about what could have been, the members of Coal Chamber aren’t into dwelling on their past right now. Why the fuck should they? With Rivals, they’ve written a new, emboldened chapter in their storied career, delivering beatdown riffage, lyrical diatribes and alluring sonic vistas the realm of heavy music can always use to move that culture forward. The return of Coal Chamber is marked by two mindsets. The first signifies a celebration of friends who have experienced a greater clarity about them to want to come together in a practice space again. The other mindset posits that they had a case of unfinished business they needed to take care of with bold strokes, lead-pipe cruelty and aural finesse. Cox willingly admits that Coal Chamber “are like a brand new band. We still have to prove ourselves to the world.”<\/p>\n

Just home from South America, we once again caught up with Dez of Coal Chamber about their new album \u2018Rivals\u2019, the creation, Al Jourgensen\u2019s involvement, the return of DevilDriver and much, much more\u2026<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve chatted a few times now, and when we spoke back in 2013 you\u2019d been here with Coal Chamber but there was a definite NO on everything, no record, no touring and you hadn\u2019t spoken to the guys for a while, so why was now the right time for Coal Chamber to return?<\/strong>
\nI think now is the right time because the communication level was there, the music they were writing was incredible, it had a push forward, a move forward, a definite growth and a maturity in it and that word maturity plays out everything in it, I watched them go through the ringer when we broke up, watched them get off of hard drugs and get their lives together, Meegs is now married and Mike has a baby boy and he\u2019s sober and I\u2019m watching this thing run on all cylinders and everybody just be so pro and I\u2019m hearing the music they\u2019re writing, not even for Coal Chamber, just music they were writing in general and I said \u2018let\u2019s do this\u2019 and I think that\u2019s why it\u2019s the right time. The right time because it\u2019s the right time for us, and you don\u2019t ever want to live with regret, man, when an opportunity comes up to make up with somebody that you feel out with and it feels good and it feels right, you want to take advantage of that and you want to say you know what? Let\u2019s do this\u2026<\/p>\n

So we now have a new album coming called \u2018Rivals\u2019, can you tell us about the title and why \u2018Rivals\u2019 scored the naming rights?<\/strong>
\n\u2018Rivals\u2019 is not so much about the word rivals, it\u2019s more about the artwork, if you\u2019ve seen the cover \u2018Rivals\u2019 has a big slash through it, and that\u2019s basically to say look man, you can have a lot of rivals in your life and most of them come from within you, you can be your own worst enemy\u2026 as a matter of fact there\u2019s a song that relates to that on the record, and you can also have outside influences around you that are negative, people taking you down and those people are your rivals and you\u2019ve got to get rid of that, so it\u2019s not so much about the word rivals than it is the artwork and the slash through rivals which says get rid of all those things and get your life into a positive state and you\u2019ll watch miracles happen along the way.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the band\u2019s first album in thirteen years, what was it like coming together to make new music? Was it difficult at the beginning?<\/strong>
\nNo not all difficult, in fact it was nothing but a bunch of laughs, I used to write home and write home and write my manager and say I\u2019m coming home with smile marks because I\u2019ve been laughing for four hours. It was incredible, what we did is we did it old school, locked ourselves in rooms, went over music we had demos back and forth, I would get on my iPhone and whisper lyrics back and forth and once we did that we locked ourselves away in pre-production with a producer for weeks on end and we went in and recorded one hell of a record. We took a lot of tome to get the tones, we wanted this to be a fresh new sound, and I tell people all the time, don\u2019t expect this to be a throwback 90\u2019s record, I had no need or want to do something nostalgic and I don\u2019t think the guys did either\u2026 If you\u2019re familiar with Coal Chamber, the first, second and third records are so different from each other that I don\u2019t think someone would even expect us to repeat any one of those. So you\u2019re gonna get one hell of a record with one hell of a sound and we worked very hard on getting those tones, making them unique, getting the guitar sounds unique, it\u2019s a mix between vocal styles that I did, in between DevilDriver and Coal Chamber but you\u2019re going to get more fury, more power and I wanted to use that with a melodic tone which would be better not to do these big clean vocals, although I\u00a0 do sing some clean on the record, so you\u2019re going to get something very unique you know, and the record is very diverse as well, I hope people dig it, man.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019ve got to say, from the opening second of \u2018IOU Nothing\u2019 it\u2019s on, did you go into this record with an idea of how you wanted it to come together or did you just let it flow and we have an end result?<\/strong>
\nThere\u2019s many different variables within that record and you can experience it, there\u2019s a song called \u2018Orion\u2019 that\u2019s only a minute and a half long and it\u2019s almost a lullaby type feel, man, it\u2019s dark. Again on this one I\u2019m influenced by everything from Bauhaus, to Black Flag to Black Sabbath, I love music, I love the blues, you can listen to anything with me, I\u2019m a very open kind of cat, and I have no room in my life from anything I do from DevilDriver to Coal Chamber with purists, I have no room there for it. We hear about diversity in this Coal Chamber record because when you go from song to song, not everything is going to sound the same, meaning not every song is going to have the same tone, the same everything, So we really went out of our way to identify each track to make sure everything had its unique own life and I think you\u2019re going to hear that once you hear the entire record.<\/p>\n

The producing duties were given to Mark Lewis, with whom you\u2019ve worked with before, why was he the right person for this new record?<\/strong>
\nYou know I\u2019ve worked with Mark a great deal with the DevilDriver records and I\u2019ve watched Mark over the years and producing is what he\u2019s good at and a lot of producers lose sight of what this is all about, it\u2019s about making every artist sound unique. So Mark Lewis what he does makes every band sound unique and different, and that in itself was the reason to work with him, he could take all the creativity that we have and all the diverse influence that we have which we do and say \u2018OK I see where you\u2019re going with this, you go all dark and gothy here and then it feels punk rock for a minute then after that it\u2019s going to die down into this groove, OK, I get it\u2019 he was instrumental in getting the tones of this record, the feel of this record, he was very instrumental in knowing what we wanted. I\u2019ve worked with Mark before, he\u2019s an easy guy to work with and to me I don\u2019t come in and waste any time, I want to hit the mic, a lot of these tracks I sang on the first track, so a lot of these things were done on first and second takes and if we couldn\u2019t get that type of vibe we would stop for the day. So he knows how to get it, get it quick and get it with emotion when it comes to a singer, sitting in there for five hours trying to get it to happen, that\u2019s not music for me you know.<\/p>\n

Everyone\u2019s favourite Uncle, Al Jourgensen makes an appearance on the record \u2018Suffer In Silence\u2019 is there a great story as to how Al got involved on this track?<\/strong>
\nDude, Al\u2019s been a long-time friend of mine, and a mentor, and a legend, I mean obviously he created a scene, we wouldn\u2019t have industrial music or NIN or anything like that without Al Jourgensen, and I was home for a while I said to Al \u2018Come on down, let\u2019s have a BBQ and drink some wine and do you wanna be on a track?\u2019 and what I did was I told him the name \u2018Suffer In Silence\u2019 I read him the lyrics, told him what it was about, sent him the track and he was like, \u2018yeah, let\u2019s do this\u2019 he came down to my house and we had a great time\u2026 I don\u2019t know if he enjoyed me or my Doberman, but I\u2019m telling you he loved my dogs\u2026 we were sitting in my studio drinking wine and watching Al track was an incredible thing. I\u2019ve had the chance in my time in music to work with some incredible people, man, everybody from Ozzy Osbourne, to Nikki Sixx, to Phil Anselmo, to Max Cavalera, but watching Al in my own studio get his vocal tone that he\u2019s been famous for, for how many years now was one of the most awe inspiring moments that I\u2019ve ever experienced as an artist. The thing with me is I never lost that feeling I had when I was a kind, whenever I work with someone I grew up on, I grew up listening to, somebody I admire and it almost took the life out of me watching that. He was a total pro in there man, he got in, got his sound, he hit the track a bunch of tones, he hit the choruses, he did the spoken part just off the top of his head man, he wrote it down and practiced it a few times and then boom, he hit it and it was incredible watching him work, I felt honoured by that and I\u2019m honoured he\u2019s on a Coal Chamber record. I\u2019ll say this too, he\u2019s probably one of the only cat that understands what we do, because Coal Chamber as equally Bauhaus as it is heaviness, I mean we\u2019ve got as much darkness as we do heavy and groove and we\u2019re one of the only bands out there that do that now, so he\u2019s the only other guy doing that in his form, in his art of music that he does, it\u2019s very dark but it\u2019s also metal and heavy as shit so he understood what we were trying to do and it was cool that he came down.<\/p>\n

Yeah we just had Misitry here for Soundwave and they slayed it, they were unbelievable\u2026<\/strong>
\nHow could you not, I mean it\u2019s Ministry, it\u2019s one of my favourite bands, one of my favourite artists and like I said I\u2019ve been blessed and it\u2019s because I never lost that perspective, of a blue collar guy who got lucky and got a record deal so anytime I work with these cats it\u2019s unbelievable you know, it\u2019s unreal, so I feel blessed, man. People are freaking out over this track because now people can hear it and everybody is just like \u2018oh my god, what a track\u2019\u2026 the whole record has that type of style where every song sounds different from one another and I think that\u2019s just very important for a band nowadays, we\u2019re trying to almost push our peers that started out at the same time as us to come out of the box and do something different and don\u2019t be afraid and give us some artisticness and don\u2019t be afraid to give me something heavy too, you know? Like I said, if the radio or whatever dig Coal Chamber, then cool, but I\u2019m not writing it for that, I\u2019m writing it for the artistic state\u2026 you\u2019ve got to remember when Coal Chamber first came out, that first record, man that was heavy, heavy, heavy at the time and it got us gold records and on the radio so I feel like now is the time for a band to push the boundaries for that kind of thing and we\u2019re trying to do that right now. Coal Chamber are trying to push the boundaries of what people perceive as heavy, not heavy and give them something a little special and fresh.<\/p>\n

On touring, you just played Monsters of Rock to a massive almost unbelievable crowd, what was that experience like up there again?<\/strong>
\nWell that\u2019s another conversation\u2026 as a kid I would look at photos of Monsters of Rock and just listen to the fuckin name \u2018Monsters of Rock\u2019 *laughs* it\u2019s unbelievable and to play that thing was unbelievable, it was 30,000 people at least, when we came out they were chanting our name, they sang almost every song, they have a very long memory, man, for being gone for thirteen years which we were and when we looked down I saw the crowd and much like all our crowds these people are pretty young and some not even born when our records came out, it\u2019s incredible to see them singing the songs. The festival is very well run as well, so we were treated well, the crowd was great and we did nothing but smile the whole time, we had a great time.<\/p>\n

Last time Coal Chamber was Down Under was for Soundwave in 2012, are there possible plans to come back and see us again?<\/strong>
\nDon\u2019t know\u2026 AJ is coming to my house in a week or two so we\u2019re going to have a conversation before I leave for Europe and we\u2019ll see what\u2019s going on and what\u2019s in the cards for me coming down with either band, really\u2026 What I\u2019d like to do to tell you the truth is come down and have a headlining tour because it\u2019s one thing to do to get on stage for forty five minutes at Soundwave, which is one of my favourite festivals and I\u2019ve always had a great time, but it\u2019s another thing to come down and give everyone an hour and a half of a headlining set, play enough songs that it feels like a special moment. So that\u2019s actually what I\u2019m going to talk to him about, us coming down, getting a package together and headlining.<\/p>\n

So what are the continued touring plans for 2015?<\/strong>
\nTouring plans for this year, we go to Europe, after Europe I come home, I\u2019ve got two weeks off then we\u2019re going to do the United States of America again, that\u2019s getting ready to get announced and then from there we\u2019re going to have to see, because in October and November I\u2019ll be recording a new DevilDriver record which I\u2019m sitting on twelve tracks now and it\u2019s absolutely blistering, so I\u2019m going to have to get some time off to be at home, recharge and write that. So we\u2019ll tour July and August in the United States and from there we\u2019ll have to see what comes for the rest of the year but I\u2019m sure the following year will present touring opportunities for Coal Chamber as well because DevilDriver is not going to release until I would believe late spring, summer, maybe even fall time next year.<\/p>\n

Following up \u2018Winter Kills\u2019 too, man, such a good album\u2026<\/strong>
\nThank you man, I appreciate that comment, I mean we worked very hard and it is the reason that DevilDriver had to take about a year and a half off because we did twelve years on straight, six record within twelve years, most bands do four records within twelve years, so most bands take a year and a half off between cycles and we just didn\u2019t\u2026 we did twelve years completely straight where I was coming home for two weeks at a time only, was spitting out records that I thought were really great, we did a great run, and \u2018Winter Kills\u2019 was really well received, I mean even in The United States it debuted higher than any of our records, so it felt really appropriate to after that record to take a year and a half off, Mike my guitar player built a beautiful studio at his house, I\u2019ve got my own studio, Neal Tiemann my guitar player and Austin my new drummer are in, they\u2019ve been writing daily, I\u2019m sitting on twelve tracks, they sent me one yesterday called \u2018Sandscraper\u2019 and I said man this is unbelievable, so I feel blessed, there\u2019s a lot of music around me, man, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m about, working, making music and having a good time and hanging out with my family, you know?<\/p>\n

Lastly, let\u2019s look ahead to the future, so finish this sentence for me, by the end of 2015, Coal Chamber will\u2026<\/strong>
\nHave released its first record in thirteen years, have gone basically around the world and had amazing shows, having a great time in life and I will have recorded a DevilDriver record for release in 2016, and hopefully have health and happiness and everyone around me including my family and my friends, and even you who help me keep this thing rolling who keep people talking about the band and I\u2019ll be happy and healthy\u2026 I\u2019ve always got a glass half full, man, I left home at age 15 and was sleeping underneath bridges and stealing food, so for me I don\u2019t take much as long as I\u2019m with my family and I\u2019ve got a good meal and life is good, then I\u2019m in a pretty good place.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong> Los Angeles, CA, USA<\/p>\n

Band members: <\/strong>Dez Fafara: Vocals, Meegs Rascon: Guitar, Mike Cox: Drums, Nadja Peulen: Bass<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> www.coalchamberofficial.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest release:<\/strong> Rivals (Out May 19 – Metal Blade Records)<\/p>\n

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