Coal Chamber's 'Music'

By Andrew Keller

Coal Chamber follow the underground success of their self-titled debut withthe profound and visionary "Chamber Music." The band is out now on the"Livin La Vida Loco" tour now, with fellow Roadrunner bands MachineHead and Slipknot. Catch the band's video "Shock The Monkey" with Ozzycoming soon and catch them on tour all this year. Here's our interview withCoal Chamber's guitarist Meegs Rascon, brought to you in association withTeen Beats 4 2 Day.

JNBC: How would you describe your music?

Meegs: It's kinda like the Backstreet Boys meets N'Sync (laughter) it'saggressive dark and creepy.

JNBC: What's different on your new album than your last one?

Meegs: It's not different, the word it probably matured. Everything frommusicianship to songwriting to performance. I think we've gotten moreexperimental and open minded in our music and I think the first record madethe foundation of what Coal Chamber's about and I think what we did wasprogressed ourselves and with that foundation we kept that foundation andadded to it and diversified it. We put soundscape sounds and experimentedwith sounds. The foundation of the group is still there but we totally varied it.

JNBC: What was doing Ozzfest like?

Meegs: It was like summer camp. You play during the day you get to hangout with your friends in the bands you can have a good time and meet fans.It's a great festival and a good time. You get to meet lots of different bandsand individuals.

JNBC: What could people expect to see on your new tour with MachineHead and Slipknot?

Meegs: We're gonna be playing a lot of new songs from the record. Thestage show is scaled down obviously cause we're playing a theater with awhole tour but it's definitely gonna be a cool live show. We're gonna beplaying a lot of new stuff, and the old stuff, you know it's gonna be energeticand very heavy.

JNBC: What are your favorite songs on "Chamber Music"?

Meegs: "My Mercy," "No Home," "Shock The Monkey."

JNBC: Is there a video planned soon for any of these songs?

Meegs: Yeah, we just finished a video we did a video for "Shock TheMonkey" and Ozzy is doing our parts as we speak.

JNBC: What's that video gonna be like?

Meegs: Very dark, very creepy, dirty looking video, it's gonna have Ozzyin it. It's gonna be us in a warehouse playing with a bunch of monkeys,literally real monkeys in our video.

JNBC: What was it like working with Ozzy?

Meegs: It's great, it was great. He's a legend and it was a great honor towork with someone of that stature. He's a funny guy, very humble, veryprofessional, down to earth. He came in to do the vocals and he was totallycool about it. He was a totally totally funny guy.

JNBC: What was the Black Sabbath farewell concert like?

Meegs: It was phenomenal. I was in the one is Vegas and it was BlackSabbath and it was great. It's a very cool dark, gothic vibe for their stageshow.

JNBC: You got to play with them right?

Meegs: Yeah, we played with them a few times.

JNBC: What are your plans for the future?

Meegs: To conquer the world. That's my plan for the future. But, in realityit's to keep Coal Chamber going and have people buy our records, and wehope that we could be doing this for a long time, longevity.

JNBC: What CD's are in your CD player right now.

Meegs: Right now it's a CD called DJ blind, its drum and bass fromLondon.

JNBC: How do you think people are gonna react to your new CD?

Meegs: I think Coal Chamber fans are gonna really except it and love it.It's just natural progression for the band, which is for the better. I think we're gonna shock a lot of Coal Chamber bands and I think we're gonna get a lot of new fans too. It's one of those things that evens our. I think we're very positive about the new record. We're very proud of the new record. And just like any other band we're hoping it will be taken in a very positive way.

JNBC: What's gonna happen with your band's bassist Rayna who is currently pregnant?

Meegs: She's still with the band. She's ready to pop in about a month. We'll see how long it takes her to get better and come back. We're using are placement, and her name is Nadia, and she's great and we still talk to Rayna, and we're waiting for her to deliver the baby. And we'll see what happens.

JNBC: Who's the woman with the cello and your new cover?

Meegs: Her name is Anastasia, she is a cover model. It's actually Dez's [thevocalist's] girlfriend.

JNBC: Are you excited for the Livin La Vida Loco tour with Slipknot and Machine Head?

Meegs: I'm very excited. I feel that it's a strong bill. Machine head is a great band and I feel their CD's are awesome and feel that it will benefit each and every one of us on the tour and I think we will defiantly give fan's their money's worth.

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