Annihilation is the word: Unearthing the core of Coal Chamber

Nu metal pioneers Coal Chamber are heading down under for the first time in over a decade, hitting Metro City on Wednesday, February 21, on a massive joint tour with fellow US rockers Mudvayne. Formed in 1992 and hitting hard with early plays on the Sunset Strip, at Whisky a Go Go, the Roxy and later even the inaugural Ozzfest, Coal Chamber continue to win new fans across the world with hundreds of shows and four studio albums over 30 years. TAYLOR BROADLEY spoke to frontman Dez Fafara about the upcoming tour, reuniting, giving back and more.

Thanks for doing this, man!

Yeah, I can’t wait to come down! It’s a pleasure to do all the press around this that I can. We’re so excited!

That kind of answers my first question. I was just going to check in and see if you guys are looking forward to kicking up touring again. Like, does it still feel exciting this many years into doing Coal Chamber?

Yeah, I mean, we just came off a huge run in the summer with Mudvayne, which was incredible. We had a great time, so for us, it’s like, let’s go.

This tour with Mudvayne that you’ve been doing—how did that come about? Did you approach them? Did they approach you? Was it like a speed dating situation? How did it come together?

I love that—speed dating. That wasn’t really my time; we used to have to actually go to clubs to meet people, man. But I think what happens, so people know, is that they have a band, they have an agent, they have a manager, they have a label, and we have the same. Agents start talking. Agents say, “Hey, Coal Chamber wants to go out; Mudvayne wants to go out; everyone started talking about it, and it was just a great fit, you know.

I like the band. I always have. I’ve always liked Chad and the guys—everybody, really. I mean, it’s really rare to do a whole summer tour and not have, like, one thing happen backstage or something, but it was just so smooth and badass. It makes sense, and it seems like the crowds really loved what was happening, so it just feels good.

Both bands have such a history behind them that I imagine putting the setlist together is quite a task! You have so much material to go back through.

Well, we’re doing medleys, which we’ve never done in our careers, so we have one or two medleys to make sure we fit all the appropriate material in, but it’s exciting right now. I’ve got rehearsal in two days. I’ve been jamming. I’ve got my own studio down here with the booth and everything, so I’ve been jamming every single day for almost a month now.

I’m very regimented, so I’m up in the morning, meditate, do yoga, I’m on the treadmill, I eat a little, then I go in the studio, I jam, I come out and have a little lunch, back in the studio. So I jammed the set twice today; at this point, it’s like, let’s go!

I’ve seen you tease a few times that the spark with the band is still there, and you guys are loving touring and playing, and you’re clearly loving putting the set together and everything. Do you find that, creatively, you’re still bouncing off each other really well, and is there anything new in the pipeline?

What you’ve got to imagine, Taylor, you’re fairly young, right? How old are you?

I’m 28.

You’re fairly young, so being a band, to come together, come apart, come together, come apart, come together, what we’ve realised now is, do we love the music? We do. Do we love each other? We do. Do we love the shit that tore us apart? We don’t. So is it energetic when we’re rehearsing? Are we ready to go further with it? Do we want to make new music? I think all of this is on topic—it’s a great question, first of all.

I mean, oddly enough, I was in the studio yesterday, and I came upstairs, and my wife was watching clips of us in ’95 and ’96 and then also some from the summer tour that we just did, and she was like, “Look at the difference.” It’s just night and day! We were young, dumb and hungry but that doesn’t make up for having the stamina and energy that we have now. The fucking shows are on fire with us right now! For us, it’s like, let’s go; let’s bludgeon the system; let’s play as many songs in our allotted time as we can for these people, and that’s where we’re at now.

When you’re trying to fill a set, like an hour and a half long set, with all that music and all that history, do you feel there’s any pressure, almost like pressure from fans, pressure from the crowd, or pressure even from yourself, to kind of live up to your own expectations?

Great question again. I think what you do is throw in what’s necessary, right? Like Loco, Big Truck, etc., but then it’s like, what do you want to throw into the mix that we’ve never played live before? Or maybe there’s three or four songs that are four minutes, and that’s not going to work, so let’s do a medley of some of those tunes so we can make sure we get these verses and choruses in that people want to hear.

And we’ve had a lot of responses from people like “play Not Living!” or “play El Cu Cuy!” and you know these are old songs! So for me, it’s like, “Oh, hold on,” and I dust it off and I find myself fucking emotional behind some of it, like, “Oh shit, I haven’t sung this song in years,” and it’s cool!

It’s cool as hell, man! We’ve always been kind of the beast in the genre. It’s not about show business and all this shit; it’s about going out and crushing. If you’re going out before us, you’re going to pay; if you’re going out after us, you’re going to pay; if you don’t have that mentality, get off the stage. Coal Chamber always has that mentality. It’s not like, “Well, this is just art, let’s go do our thing.” No, it’s about digging in.

You have a very emotional job to do, like you have to hit a certain level, otherwise, I feel like it’s unfair on you and unfair on the crowd. You have to keep that hunger, or the shows suffer…

We are the punk rock goth slash metal thing, so picture Bauhaus meets Black Flag meets your favourite groove metal band, which was White Zombie and all that for us back in the day. So we’ve got a different vibe, and I think we’ve carried that as a flag.

For us, it’s about how much time we have on stage. Like annihilation is the word; that’s the key word, man. As soon as you start losing that competitive factor of “mount up, count 1-2-3, and I’m going, and I’m jumping the hurdles, and I’m gonna beat everybody,” as soon as you start losing that, you’re done as a band. If you lose your competitiveness, if you lose the thing that makes you YOU, then you’re done.

I refuse to go through the motions. I’ve seen a lot of bands who are 25–30 years old going through the motions. Every set is the same. There’s no difference between the shows, and that’s not us. You don’t know what you’re going to get from us. It’s off-the-cuff. Yeah, it’s undeniably raw, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I think after this many years, if you’re not humbled by it, you’re not worthy of what’s coming to you, right, and so we’ve always kind of distinguished ourselves to be this real raw, watch the fuck out, live band, and you don’t know what’s going to happen. We may change the setup halfway through; we have no idea. I mean, yeah, it’s pretty incredible to work with the band like that.

I’m inspired every day by what we’re doing now, like, are we going to make new music? At first, it was just, “Let’s do some shows, so let’s make sure we’re in love with it again.” I don’t want to do it unless we love each other and are in love with it, and surely it’s shown itself to be a viable leviathan. We’ve turned down 3-4 tours in the last 6-7 months because we just want to make sure that everything is right and that it’s with the right people.

I’m coming down (to Australia) early, yeah. And to hang out with a close family friend, kind of get rid of the jet lag and get ready to get on it.

Just talking about new music again and the idea of recording and everything, the sounds you guys were playing with in the 90s, especially like ’97, they’re kind of having a resurgence at the moment with like a lot of artists playing with more industrial, nu metal, hardcore stuff. How do you feel about the music industry in general, sonically? Is there a sense of pride in seeing what you guys did come back around, or are you almost protective of it?

We saw it with our meet-and-greets: 25 people, and they’re all 22 years old with piercing JNCO pants, so I think life is cyclical, fashion is cyclical and music is cyclical. I think there’s just something happening now, where the 30 and 40 year olds that have kids or whatever turn their younger sisters and brothers on to it, who never got to live in this scene, and they realise all these bands are killer in their own right, all sound different from one another, and they want to go experience it.

So for me watching this, you know, “What do you feel about nu metal?” Like, bro, we live in nu metal. I can take you through the bands and what they were like, you know. Korn was like this, and you know Coal Chamber was goth and punk rock; Static X was like disco; I mean, everybody had their own thing, and I think that’s what’s cool.

Not only did it come around and get solidified where people want to hear it again, but there’s just good music to be heard, you know. It’s the same way because I grew up around a Black Sabbath record. Am I longing for what was in the past, or am I listening to just great fucking music?

It’s like great music exists in the moment you’re listening to it, regardless of when it came from.

Exactly, regardless. Like from 5 a.m. to 10 at night, I am running music. Whether it’s Billie Holiday on a rainy day like it is today in California, Black Sabbath, or Black Flag, it doesn’t matter what it is; even real new shit that you might not have even heard yet, I love to dig in. I think when I lose that, when I lose the “let’s go on stage and destroy” and the “let’s hear the newest thing,” then I’m done. I’ll be like, “Thank you for everything, and peace out.” But I don’t think that’s coming any time soon.

No, not even close.

After this, I’m going back on the treadmill, then back in the studio. My band is on fire, the whole crew is on fire, and I’ve been fielding emails that are like, “We’re gonna fucking devastate this,” and I’m like, “Yeah, bro, calm down.” It’s just exciting. You can feel it. I think you’ll feel it when we hit the stage. I think you’ll feel it when the whole tour hits the stage. I think Mudvayne is the same; they’re ready, and we’re ready. It’s cool to have people coming out.

You talked about people passing on the music—older brothers to their younger siblings, parents to their kids—if it’s anyone’s first Coal Chamber show on this tour, is there anything you really hope they can take away from it?

Yeah, judge the next band you see against what we do. If you come out talking about the production and the light show, you’ve missed the point, and the band has missed their mark. Take what we’re about to do, and then see what your other favourite band is about to do in their 20s. See if they deliver. My whole thing is like, armour the fuck up, go fucking give, and that hasn’t changed.

We’re launching meet-and-greets, and we’re giving portions of that money to a great cancer fund that’ll take kids to summer camp. For me, you know, my wife, in the last four years, going through cancer twice. You have to keep your faith, your love of life and your spirits up. We want to do something special, so we would admonish everybody to get a meet and greet, come say hello to us, and give some money back to kids who so desperately need it. Some that will be, you know, maybe going to camp for the last time or spending time with their parents when they’ve been in a hospital, and so we wanted to give something back, so I just want to mention that on the tail end.

Coal Chamber play Metro City with Mudvayne on Wednesday, February 21, 2024. Tickets are on sale now from megatix.com.au