pit 30 interview

It's been two years since Los Angeles-based COAL CHAMBER's self-titled Roadrunner debut sold 400,000 units here in the US Two years may seem like an eternity in the music business, but the band took their time in creating Chamber Music, their sophomore effort, released this fall. The extra care they took to produce Chamber Music seems to have paid off. The album entered Billboard magazine's Album Chart at #22; making it Roadrunner's highest debut ever. The new record features collaborations with OZZY OSBOURNE (on a remake of PETER GABRIEL'S "Shock The Monkey"), ELIJAH BLUE (of DEADSY), and son of CHER and GREG ALLMAN), and AMIEE ECHO (formerly of HUMAN WASTE PROJECT and now HERO). The album builds on the down-tuned, heavy riffs, and agonized vocals of their debut, but adds more melody, keyboard effects and vocal arrangements to keep the inevitable comparisons to other new metal bands to a minimum. Their updated website (www.coalchamber.com) features each individual band member presented in their own trippy "chamber". Meanwhile, the video for "Shock The Monkey" made MTV, while more touring (something the band knows too well) continues. After a quick stint with the INSANE CLOWN POSSE (just two days, with law suit pending at press time), COAL CHAMBER hit the road with SLIPKNOT, AMEN, and DOPE. (COAL CHAMBER has filed $275,000 breach of contract complaint against ICP. Among the grievances listed: ICP restricted COAL CHAMBER's use of stage pyrotechnics and reduced the bands $9000 fee per show to $3000.) The band is very proud of this new album, as drummer Mike "Bug" Cox explains.


Pit: So your new album is finally out...what took so long?

Mike Cox: It was suppose to come out in February, then it got pushed to May and so on. Dez (Fafara) took a long time on his vocals, cause we just wanted it to be perfect. I think this album is going to do ten times better than our first one. We had an awesome producer (Josh Abraham) and we were much better prepared this time.

It seems you like almost went out of your way to avoid those KORN comparisons this time.

You need your own identity. Even overseas we got that. I remember seeing an interview of us in a French magazine, and the only English word i could understand was "KORN". We blatantly tried not to sound like them. It's just that we had the same producer and since KORN is really hot right now, we get allot of comparisons.

The track with OZZY OSBOURNE, "Shock The Monkey", sounds interesting.

It's heavy and sick and Ozzy's on it. How can you go wrong with that? It's Ozzy and Dez singing back and forth. MTV's going to play it.

Since the sound of the band is evolving, is your look changing too?

We're going fo a whole new look, a darker look. With my hair, I've done everything possible. It's grown out now, spiked up everywhere with really long bangs. I'm [dying] it red tomorrow. But I took all my piercing out. It's so trendy now. I went to the mall the other day and it's like you see people working at the Gap with piercing and I'm like, 'Holy shit, it's not even weird anymore!"

What's up with your drum set?

I just signed with Toma drums, so I'm kinda changing everything right now. I've replaced my kick drum with an electronic one, cause I trigger the stuff and don't need a kick. The drum sizes are 8, 10, 13, 16, and I have everything black. I even have black cymbals now. I had them custom made.

I'm sure it sounds killer.

When we play, we go nuts. We go absolutely crazy. It's so loud. I break like 20 sticks a show; they just go like toothpicks. Chicago is always a great city of us to play. Our biggest gig was in the U.K. We had 67,000 people all jumping up and down at the same time and singing our songs. It's amazing.

There are a lot of people who work for you behind the scenes. How do you deal with them?

My drum-tech is well paid. He used to make more money than I did! I basically took him from a job at McDonald's and made him my drum-tech. I gave him the good life. But if he fucks up, I definitely let him know-just like his boss at McDonald's would let him know. If my shit is set up wrong or if the monitors sound like shit, I can't do my job right. And if I don't do my job right, we don't sell records. We're very cool to our techs on a personal level. We let them party, we take them out, but when I walk out on stage, everything has to be right.

For the COAL CHAMBER album you guys toured for 18 months straight. Wasn't it difficult?

No one knows how fuckin' lonely you get on the road. It is bad. I swear to God, I'll cry on stage while I'm playing for no reason at all-it just happens. You just get so overwhelmed by the fact that all you have out the is your band. You live on the fuckin' pay phone. I started flying my girlfriend out for like three months at a time because it gets so stressful. Something happens everyday that creates drama. We like workin' for it though. I don't want to be given anything."



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