The initial fragmentation in Coal Chamber came about because of increasing substance abuse from some band members, and general tensions which culminated in a dramatic onstage fight. At the time it was pretty clear that Coal Chamber would never play together again. But Meegs and Cox started coming to DevilDriver shows a few years later, looking to make amends. “They took my wife aside and apologised for everything that went down, because it obviously affected my family and children when that went down,” Fafara says. “We had to move into a small one-bedroom apartment and start all over again with a new band. When I saw all that I thought ‘Wow, that’s a bigger man.’ And that holds true. So from then until now they’ve stayed clean off hard drugs.”
Then in 2009 Meegs joined DevilDriver to perform Loco. You can see it on YouTube. After a kickass performance, Meegs and Dez hugged it out. “When that went down on stage, in my ear he said “When are we gonna do this again?” So it really took two years for us to talk about it, decide if it was right, talk about the business of it, where everybody’s mind frame should be with drink and drugs and all this other shit that goes along with it.”
So when that all got resolved about five months ago, the band started to think about where to play. “We wanted to go somewhere we’d never been before and I thought Australia would be great because every time I come down with DevilDriver to do signings or shows, the first thing I hear is ‘I’m a fan of Coal Chamber.’ So we called AJ from Soundwave. He’s in the business of making dreams come true, and he made this one come true for us. The enthusiasm from AJ when I told him we wanted to do it was just off the hook.”
When Fafara announced the reunion on Twitter, the response was immediate and overwhelming. “A lot of people that had never seen us are going to see us, and a lot of people who have seen us before – obviously not down under but if they’ve travelled – I just think it’s really cool. You’re going to have older people and younger people that were way too young to have ever seen us. It’s going to be multi-generational and you guys can expect one hell of a show.”
“It’s a sound coming back that hasn’t existed for ten years,” Fafara continues. “DevilDriver is way, way different. When people ask me if it’s going to be Coal Chamber exactly, I say you’re going to get Coal Chamber exactly but vocally you might get a little more oomph because of where I’m at vocally. And we’re going to do the songs you want to hear. We’re going to do Loco, Sway, Rope, Big Truck. It’s going to be good to bring this sound out. To have it so well-received is bringing joy to my heart.”
The visual aspect of Coal Chamber will remain intact when the band hits the stage at Soundwave. Fafara says Cox and Meegs’ stuff has a particular look, although “it’s not like I’m going to be putting on fishnets any time soon, but I’m definitely gonna bust out something, so you’ll have to wait and see.”
At this point the reconstituted band hasn’t played together yet. “We’re saving that for January. We’re doing all the fun stuff right now. What songs are we going to play? What’s the stage set going to look like? What’s the backdrop going to look like? Just all of the really fun stuff that goes along with getting it together.” The reunion actually includes only 3/4 of Coal Chamber as we knew it: neither original bass player Rayna Foss nor her later replacement Nadja Peulen are on board. In their place is Chela Rhea Harper. “A good friend of mine in Canada said ‘I’ve got the girl.’ I called her, we became friends. We started talking probably a month or two before I brought it up to her. She grew up listening to Coal Chamber. She wrote me an email just now that was really coming from the heart saying she was so thankful that she was doing this gig. Rayna, the first bass player, left early on, and Nadja filled in for a few tours. I had bass players but I never had a serious, serious bass player. Well, Chela’s been playing for 15 years. Her dad’s a bass player in Toots and the Maytals, probably one of the biggest reggae bands in history. She’s a real-deal player. And she’s already given me ideas for the stage show, so she’s way into it.”
