DEZ FAFARA Talks COAL CHAMBER Reunion In New Interview

Radio Metal recently conducted an interview with DEVILDRIVER and COAL CHAMBER frontman Dez Fafara. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Radio Metal: DEVILDRIVER is a pretty efficient band on stage. The band never released a live DVD or a live CD yet. Why is that? Have you planned to do it soon?

Dez: On a special edition of [the latest DEVILDRIVER album] "Beast" is a three-hour making-of that takes you all the way back to the first record, all the way on tour through "Beast". So it is a live DVD, but, however, it's not a camera-filmed live DVD. We've tried to get the record company to do it for years. They don't wanna do it, so we can't do it. We're owned and operated by Roadrunner Records at this point.

Radio Metal: COAL CHAMBER is just supposed to play live for a few shows. You declared that you won't even want to talk about the idea of recording an album. Why not? Is it because you don't want to or because you think that you won't have the time to do it?

Dez: You know, at this point, right now, DEVILDRIVER is my life and I just want to date COAL CHAMBER for a while. I want to date the girl. I want to take her out for drinks and I want to see how she does. That's really what's happening, you know. I'm taking her out for wine and dine in Australia and if it goes well we might talk about doing other shows but for now, there is no talk of that. Offers from different records companies have come to the table but with the DEVILDRIVER record coming out as well, I don't want to spread myself too thin. I don't wanna become the artist that has two bands, numerous side-projects, and goes solo, skipping gigs… I don't wanna be that kind of artist. DEVILDRIVER is my world, the other things that I do it's because I like to be busy. If I'm home for more than three weeks, I've got to put myself in a studio, that's why I did this stuff with Mark Morton [LAMB OF GOD] or the collaborations with SOULFLY, it's all because I like to stay busy. That being said, taking on a new COAL CHAMBER record when I have a DEVILDRIVER record to write would be just too much work at that point. And I wouldn't wanna do it half-assed, I wanna do it full-on.

Radio Metal: In your career you always wanted DEVILDRIVER not to be associated with COAL CHAMBER. I guess now that the band has been reformed, all those efforts are ruined?

Dez: No, it's just two different monsters. DEVILDRIVER is a totally different beast than what COAL CHAMBER is. COAL CHAMBER is inspired more by goth music, goth and old punk and things like this, and DEVILDRIVER has many different influences as well. And I think it's important that when I started DEVILDRIVER, I didn't [base] my success on the fact that I was in a previous successful band. You know, I just said, "Look, it's a different monster completely so let's move forward." That being said, when I look back at the music, a lot of it holds up. I just got an email this morning from Monte Conner, the guy who signed both COAL CHAMBER and DEVILDRIVER for Roadrunner Records, saying he was listening to "Dark Days" from COAL CHAMBER this morning and that he loves the record, that it held up, that the music held up over the time, so… That being said, I take everything in consideration and all the things in life can change due to circumstances.

Read the entire interview from Radio Metal.