Daz Fafara – Coal Chamber

Coal Chamber were once at the height of their popularity throughout the 90’s with the introduction of the Nu-metal movement.

However, after the release of the band’s third album ‘Dark Days’ in 2003. Coal Chamber decided to put the band on permanent hiatus due to personal differences within the band. Thereafter, Dez Fafara went on with his new project at the time, Devil Driver.

Fast forward to 2011 where Coal Chamber have put their personal differences aside to play the prestigious Soundwave festival across Australia in 2012. Metal Obsession had the pleasure to sit down with Dez Fafara to discuss the upcoming tour.

Metal Obsession: Greetings and salutations, Dez. How are you?

Dez Fefera: I’m fine thank you. How are you?

MO: Not to bad thanks, mate. I take it everything is peachy keen in the world of Dez Fafara?

DF: It’s great! We just got off the Arch Enemy tour and I’ll be home in three days to see my wife and kids, and of course my dogs. It’s going to be good!

MO: I guess the most obvious question. What made you decide to bring back Coal Chamber?

DF: Well, the guys in Coal Chamber have been coming around to a couple of Devil Driver shows for the last few years. We’ve just been talking and revisiting our past together. When some of the guys in Coal Chamber got off the hard drugs it was a big deal for me. I’m glad that happened and they’re finally off the stuff. Another reason for me wanting to revisit the Coal Chamber era was when the guitarist, Meegs approached my wife.

He wanted to apologise to her for what went down with Coal Chamber in the past and I thought that showed a lot of spirit and a lot of heart too. That, and just wanting revisit some of our favourite tunes and getting the same vibe we got while on stage as Coal Chamber. There were quite a few things which brought the idea to the table. But friendship and music was probably the biggest thing out of anything which made this idea become a reality.

MO: I guess the next most obvious questions is. Why did it take so long?

DF: We could have come down quite a few times with places like Australia and Japan in mind. However, the two times we got offered to tour Australia

we had a Black Sabbath tour which took us around the world and the next tour being with Pantera. So sadly we never really got the chance to make it down.

It’s part and parcel for the reason we are bringing Coal Chamber to Australia, because we as a band have never been. I know touring Australia with Devil Driver in the past. Whenever we do signings, the first thing that will come out of anyone’s mouth is “I’ve followed you since Coal Chamber”  or “I’m a huge fan of Coal Chamber“, so it was kind of a no brainier to do it. My experiences with Soundwave in the past have been amazing and I wanted to share that same experience with the girl and guys of Coal Chamber and let them experience it as well.

MO: Is there an incentive to take this further and perhaps do a Coal Chamber world tour?

DF: We are only doing Soundwave at this point. We haven’t really discussed taking it any further.

MO: You mentioned before some of the members of Coal Chamber. Is that all original members touring?

DF: Rayna Foss, our original bass player. She was out of the band for quite sometime due to the birth of her daughter, Kayla Rose. Now it will be me, Mikey Cox, Meegs and our new bassit, Chela Harper. She’s from Canada and everyone can follow her on Twitter. http://twitter.com/#!/chelaCCBass

She’s an amazing player. She’s been playing bass for about 12 – 15 years. She’s a real deal player and we can’t wait to share the stage with her in Australia. She’ll be coming out in January for rehearsals, so I’m really looking forward to that.

MO: I take it you’re reliving a lot of good memories from your time in Coal Chamber?

DF: Absolutely! I’m reliving some pretty fond memories and its a good time. I remember coming out of Los Angeles when it was a relatively dead scene and band’s like Coal Chamber were there to help break the scene open to a wider audience. Take another band like KORN. I mean they use to drive an hour and a half into LA with a bus load of people to bring LA’s metal scene back to the fold.  I’m really looking forward to it, for sure. I’ve been going back in time and its cool to revisit that era. It’s going to be great to revisit all the great songs which made us so popular with the fans. Songs like ‘Loco’ and just being able to share the stage with these guys again will most definitely be a fun and rewarding experience. I seriously can’t wait.

MO: Has there been a specific song from the Coal Chamber collection which your only now listening too with fresh ears?

DF: Well, three days ago I sat down and listened to all the records, all the b-sides  and all the out takes in almost ten years. It was really enjoyable, man. We cracked open a couple of beers and put on the records and just started to pick a setlist. There are so many great tunes which I want to revisit. I mean songs like ‘Sway’, ‘Loco’ and ‘Rowboat’ are just going to be so interesting to revisit and to see how its going to change or differ from what we did in the past.

The game has changed since then and there will surely be some slight changes made here and there. We want to make it as enjoyable and memorable for everyone as we possibly can, you know?

MO: Are you very judgemental when it comes to listening to your own music?

DF: Yeah! I never listen to my own music more than twice. I mean I’m known for finishing a record, but not really wanting to hear the mixes or actually listening to the album. There are several Devil Driver albums that I’ve only listen to once in its entirety and moved on. Its the same thing when I paint when I’m at home. I tend to either give away or sell my paintings, but I can’t hang them in my own house and look at them because I’ll want to change them every single day.
I mean any real artist has that feeling about their music. They just can’t keep listening to the same thing over and over again, you know what I mean?

MO: I feel the same way about photography. I always tend to revisit my work and change it from time to time. 

DF: That’s a perfect example because I’m into photography as well. Literally, I’ll do something which I think is great and print it, put it up in the house and a week later I’ll be taking that frame apart, take the print out and reprint another one with just a little more highlight or whatever. Its become quite insane for me when it comes to art

MO: Out of curiosity. What kind of photography do you do?

DF: I do a lot of different stuff, man. I do portrait work to anything, really. Some of my favourite photos are just of a camera capturing the ground at a certain time of day. I mean trees, rivers…anything I can see which is interesting to me.
I also like the concept of when earth meets man (Still Life, Nature, Conceptual). For example when you have tree roots wrapped around a human figure or something natural growing out of concrete. I do a lot of duality pieces which are similar to that.

MO: Canon or Nikon. What’s your preference?

DF: [laughs] A lot of people say Canon. I’m gonna go with Canon when I buy my first real pro camera, real soon.

MO: [laughs] Good to hear. Back to the topic at hand. Is there a specific setlist planned for the tour or are you hoping to mix it up?

DF: Definitely not going to mix it up because we want it to be really dead on in terms of quality and quantity for the Soundwave festival. What we will be doing for our sideshows however is completely different. Will have a lot more time for our headlining shows, so will definitely be mixing it up for sure. then I think our debut record ‘Coal Chamber‘ and ‘Dark Days‘ will definitely have more song off of it, but will also be playing some stuff from ‘Chamber Music‘ for sure.

MO: …so there will be sideshows then?

DF: Definitely. We’re unsure who we’ll play with at the moment, but I’m sure once AJ finalises the sideshow packages he’ll inform me and everyone else will know soon after.

MO: Since the “reformation” of Coal Chamber was announced. Has there been much of a discussion to perhaps do another album?

DF: Not even discussing it. When we originally broke it off, it was a really bad time for all of us. We were up on the top of the pops at that point when we broke up.  It was a pretty disastrous break up to say the least. Now what I want to do is go out and have fun, play for our fans and then perhaps think about it later down the line.

MO: I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but if given the chance to write a new Coal Chamber album. Would you separate the nu-metal characteristics from the band’s past?

DF: It’s really crazy. Since we announced we would be coming down to Soundwave we’ve had multiple offers to make a new record and we aren’t even discussing it, or even entertaining the thought. So I’d have to wait and see how things go first and get into that process first before anything major starts to take shape.

Most of the time, whatever I write new material. It goes hand in hand with what I’m living through. Having said that, it will be wherever in time or that point in life when I’m writing, or what I’m writing about.

MO: Since the recession hit in America are people finding it hard to justify going to concerts these days?

DF: Absolutely! Every single band that I know of has the same problem. From the top bands to the small bands, attendances has declined dramatically. The US has been hit quite hard by a recession, obviously. Depression is what I call it. I mean I have two of my family members, my brother and my sister who recently lost their houses just last week.

A lot of people are out of work and its very tough to come up with $25 for a ticket, then a further $25 for a shirt or whatever. Catch a cab, buy a beer…it all adds up. It’s a very difficult time to tour right now, but what we’re doing is trying to make the tickets as cheap as possible when its our shows and make it reasonable for people and for us to have a good time and keep playing music. I mean, we hope that the US does recover from all this.

MO: It’s funny. Regardless of the financial situation. People still go out of their way to see a concert because it makes them happy.

DF: It’s funny. Even when you look back to the 1920’s in America when the depression was going on then. People were still going to talkies (that’s movies to you, hipsters) having some drinks and going dancing to get their minds off of it. I think that’s where music plays a great part in the world today. I mean obviously if you’re going to lose your house your not going to see a band any time soon. [laughs]

I mean if your doing ok and your stable, then perhaps go to a rock gig and get your mind off your problems for the night and just have a good time with Devil Driver, Coal Chamber or whoever it may be.

MO: Any new releases your getting into at the moment or looking forward too?

DF: I like the Cancer Bats latest release. I mean its a little older now, but I still dig it. As of now, I’ve been listening to way to much stuff to keep track of at the moment. [laughs] I’m listening to a lot of Goth stuff. Actually I heard the new Mastodon single this morning and that sounds pretty relentless.

MO: I’ve actually been spinning the new Megadeth album ‘Th1rt3en’. That’s pretty amazing!

DF: I actually haven’t heard anything from that album yet, or the new Anthrax either. Part of it is I’ve actually got to get off tour and sit down with the record and really listen to it. That’s the next step for me when it comes out. I’m a huge Megadeth fan. You know, Dave Mustaine took Coal Chamber out and also took Devil Driver out on separate occasions for tours. So obviously I’m a huge Megadeth fan and can’t wait to hear the new album.

MO: The new Anthrax is bloody amazing too. Its easily their best material in recent years and will surely be contender for metal album of the year.

DF: That’s what I’m hearing. A lot of people swear that its an amazing album. I can’t wait to hear that one too.

MO: Awesome! Well on that note, I gotta zip! (Kevin Rudd’s famous last words). Any famous last words for our readers?

DF: Get ready to get LOCO! Man, that’s what I’m telling everybody. [laughs] I’m so excited about this. I haven’t been on stage with these guys in 10 years…and to do it “down under”? What an amazing time it will be! Get ready Australia!

You can catch Coal Chamber and many more awesome bands on the 2012 Soundwave festival. General public ticket sales kick off on Thursday 20th, October from 9am (AEST).

For further band info and ticket sales, go to: www.soundwavefestival.com

Presented by Triple J, Blunt and Channel V