Coal Chamber Biography
If
there is a thread to carry through Coal Chamber's story, perhaps it is
turbulence. Turbulence within the band - turbulence on stage - turbulence in
the studio - turbulence in their personal relationships. Formed in Los Angeles in the Spring of 1994,
the band quickly recorded a self-produced demo and set out on a street level
raid that put their name on every street corner and underneath every slimy rock
in L.A. Ensuing word of mouth quickly led to packed shows at well-known Hollywood
clubs such as The Whiskey A Go-Go and The Roxy. Within a few months, Coal
Chamber were drawing as many people to a club as locally established peers who
had been doing the rounds for 2 years. Mixing hip hop, punk, goth and hardcore
influences with a thick, molten, down-tuned riffing style, they were marinating
their sound, and sweating away in a dark rehearsal room at the same time as
then-unknowns Korn were doing the same in Orange County and the Deftones in
Sacramento. In the Fall of '95, Dino Cazares of Fear Factory and producer Ross
Robinson simultaneously brought Coal Chamber to the attention of Roadrunner VP
of A&R, Monte Conner. Blown away by "Loco" (the demo's opener)
and intrigued by Dez's schizophrenic vocals, Conner immediately offered them a
deal. Life was suddenly easy. They were
on the rise. And then, it all came to a halt. According to Dez: "I met my
soulmate, and she couldn't deal with the hours, the people I had to work with,
just none of it was copasetic to her. I left the band because of her and I left
it for almost half a year. But I always missed it. I just missed the music,
missed performing, being with my friends and making music with them. I spent
most of my days just in a haze, not really inspired anymore. Then my friend
Meegs came knocking on my door one day and said, 'Look, none of the singers
we've tried have been working out. We really had magic, let's go for it again'
and the rest is history." Regrouped by Spring 1995, Dez's decision to
commit to Coal Chamber bred a "no-looking-back" attitude that fueled
passion and fire into their music. From the opening lines of the twisted
"Loco" (now the lead track to their forthcoming self-titled album),
it became clear: "Pull - steamroller rollin' through my head said attached
to loco power up coal through the system..." This band were here to move
forward, letting nothing get in the way. Meanwhile, on stage, the band's
performances might better have been called ritual possession, or exorcism-- as
if each show were an attempt to simultaneously reconcile the past and set a
tone for the future, with the members visually switching their appearances
every few months, like writers racing to catch up with their thoughts. With
Coal Chamber no longer a question of "if" but instead "how good
and how soon", they put their urgency and determination together with
matured perspectives gained from their time away.
The Roadrunner deal was finally
inked during Christmas of '95 and the band were faced with the decision of
finding the right person to lay their magic down to two inch. Never afraid to
take chances and try fresh ideas, that right person turned out to be two, as
the band gave a shot to long time L.A. scenesters, Jay Gordon, a local
musician, and Jay Baumgardner, house engineer at NRG Recording (home of Hootie,
White Zombie and Green Day). These two were starving for their first big break
and had as much to prove to the world as the band. By the time the NRG sessions
were completed 30 days later, the band were emotionally and mentally drained, and
the production duo had proven they had the goods to compete with the big boys.
The album's style is that of a work in progress, tapping the veins of immediate
experiences. Explains Dez, "The day I started recording my vocals, my wife
left me. She left me in the driveway of my home, taking the dog and everything
I fuckin' owned. Everything I fuckin'
thought was real." Asking him "Are you alright?" before she took
off, Dez's response, "Do I seem alright to you?," was being laid to
tape in a flood of tears 10 minutes later in the studio. Those words becoming
the new chorus to "Unspoiled." "Making this record was the most
difficult thing any of us has ever gone through. We were challenged physically,
mentally and emotionally, and it was pure hell, especially on my end. I needed
to rid myself of all this emotion so that I could feel alright again. This LP
is like a closure to that part of my life, and a new beginning at the same
time. That was a very turbulent and chaotic period. But you know what we've
since come to realize? We thrive on that. That's what drives us and gives us
our edge. That's what keeps it real."
Groove
heavy, with a flair for the theatrical, and the spirituality of knowing better,
Coal Chamber inevitably crosses genres and styles to present a kaleidoscopic
view of a world of inner conflicts put to aural form. It's a sound that is
still evolving as you read this.
