Not many bands can lay claim to having 3 singers and still be around in the industry these days, but Drowning Pool are one of them. Through adversity of losing their original singer to a heart condition and a personality clash with their second, they persisted and now with third singer Ryan McCombs they’ve just released their newest self titled album ‘Drowning Pool’ and guitarist C.J. Pierce was cool enough to take some time out to talk to us about the record, touring, fans and just how much he misses Australia.
Take it away C.J.
You recently released your 4th studio album, 3 years since your last, how has the album been received?
Seems like its going great man, seems like all the hardcore fans have picked up on it really fast, they’re playing along, they’re singing along to all the new songs
Was the writing and recording process for this album any different to previous efforts?
Yeah you know it seems with every record there’s a different process with recording and writing you know we did a lot of writing on the road this time. We’ve just been busy touring, we spend the best part of 2008 – 2009 just staying on the road so we definitely got in the habit of writing on the road. But we’ve been through a lot man, this band’s been on quite the rollercoaster ride
So did you have any songs that you had in the vaults and you thought this was a perfect time for it or was it all new stuff?
It’s all new stuff, with each writing process there’s always different riffs and song ideas that are left over. I’m just trying to stay in the habit of writing music, whether it’s for the next Drowning Pool record or just for anything. I love writing music so I have a lot of different things and a lot of different styles but this is all fresh stuff and surprisingly the first single here in the States called ‘Feel like I do’ was probably one of the first ones we started working on so its kinda funny how that made it out as the first single. It was just a fun riff that I wrote on the back of the bus that evolved over the last 2 years to what it is now.
Was there a specific intent/meaning behind having this as a ‘self titled’ release?
Yeah we felt like for the first time in this bands career we’ve had solid ground so we’ve been through a lot with different singers, unfortunately our first singer David passed away from a heart condition, cardiomyopathy of the left ventricle and then we didn’t really connect with our second singer on a personal level and I kinda feel like you’ve gotta be friends first before you can write music together, that’s just how I feel. And with Ryan we did ‘Full Circle’ and here we are making this new record, and we really know what we want to do with it. We’ve known Ryan for 5 years now and it just feels like this is what we finally wanted to sound like, it feels like our first true record.
So taking it back to the start basically?
Yeah… taking it back to the start
Setting out to make this album, what was the band’s overwhelming intention with regards to the sound and the impact you wanted to make on listeners? Was it just that? To make it sound like a first record?
Um, well not to make it sound like a first record it just kinda feels like that because we’re just so comfortable with each other and we have a good deal, with new management and a new label, but the main thing with any record, you wanna write better songs and I feel like we’ve definitely come a long way in our writing process. And also sound quality there’s so many new toys and studios now days, we listened to all our records production wise and we just wanted something that sonically beat everything we’ve done to this date, which we definitely have
I was first introduced to Drowning Pool when ‘Bodies’ was used in the WWE for I think it was Summer Slam in 2001, how much of a launching ground was that for you?
Yeah, we had 3 things happen at once that really helped us out, that probably being the main one being on WWE, being on wrestling definitely got the song out there, but at that time MTV still had the buzz clip video so we had a lot of video play and then of course being on Ozzfest in the Summer of 2001 and all that happened in the same month, like you get up one day and 2 weeks later everybody knows your song, it was really fast man.
Do you have a continued relationship with the WWE?
We do, I’m hoping to use some stuff from the new record you know, its always been back and forth, I know they get a lot of offers from a lot of bands and different wrestlers but our music just kinda fits with that for some reason, whatever comes out of us naturally seems like its great for wrestling or video games
You were a part of Cruefest 2, a tour I wish I could’ve seen, how was that and did you learn any tricks of the trade from Motley Crue?
You know actually I learned a little bit of tricks of the trade from Mick Mars, you know, again, I had met throughout the years everybody else in the band but Mick until we did Cruefest and runs his rig pretty cool, he’s got a bunch of little tricks, he’s got almost like 3 rigs going at once, it was awesome to see how he had it all set up but I grew up listening to Motley Crue, I grew up listening to heavy metal and I definitely had their poster on my wall and here I am working with Nikki Sixx and on tour with these guys, so its been killer man.
Kinda surreal huh?
It’s so surreal.
And now about to join Ozzfest 2010 are you pumped to get out and play the new material for people on such a huge scale?
Yeah I can’t wait to do Ozzfest again man, we’ve done it in 2001 part of 2002, we did it the first show we did with Ryan was Ozzfest 2005 and we did it again in Dallas in 2008 so its really cool to be part of the Ozzfest family and the Ozzfest tour, its just a great show to go out to.
What was the hometown like in Dallas?
Oh man, its always fun to play in the hometown, we have a lot of friends and family here and to get to play for them on a big scale like that its great
You were here in 2002 and you had to reschedule your Australian shows in 2008, with this new album released what are the chances we’ll see you hit our shores once again some time soon?
I loved the Big Day Out tour man, I wish we could get back on that, that was one of the best times ever. We’re always trying to get back down there and when we did the Big Day out tour I was contemplating getting all my worldly possessions and moving to Australia. It’s just a beautiful country and everybody was so super cool, the rock fans there were like none other, everybody just went way out of their way to be super nice. Yeah we’re trying to get back, I don’t know the exact details of why we didn’t play on that tour, I know a lot of fans were mad about it but there was something with the promoter like always, whoever put on the show it fell through and it was really horrible for us because man I was just on fire about getting there but we definitely want to come play in Australia. Absolutely.
It was billed with Puddle of Mudd last time
Yeah it was billed with Puddle of Mudd and we met up with them shortly after and they were bummed about it as well, we’d played with them before and we are friends and we were looking forward to doing that, but the powers that be let it fall through. So we’re trying to get there again for sure
The one thing I love that you guys do is a VIP package where fans can meet you and not many bands do this. What prompted you to make yourselves this accessible?
You know, just modern technology and stuff like that, its really cool, every time we make a record and move forward we try to think what else can we do for our fans and when I was growing up listening to music I went to so many rock shows and I never had a chance to meet any of my favourite bands, I would’ve died for a chance to meet any one of my favourite bands. So, I didn’t meet anybody, so when we got signed and starting touring professionally is when I got to meet the other people in the bands that I was a fan of so that was one of the things that we wanted to do is have a package for a little bit extra, you get stuff, you get a t-shirt you get a bunch of extra stuff, you get to hang out with the band, you get to see what kinda goes on back stage and just offer that to our fans
And I love the signed guitar you offer on your website too, that’s really cool.
Yeah I have a new model coming out, a CJ model which wont be out until November and I’m gonna replace that, kinda like a basic model of the black eagle I’ve been playing but yeah working with BC Rich has been great and they’re just a great family of people to work with and that was another idea that I have a lot of people come up to me after the show and jokingly say ‘Man can I have one of your guitars?’ so I hear that a lot so I thought it’d be cool to have another package like that where you can actually get one of my guitars, we all sign it, you get to hang out with us, you get a guitar out of it, it’s a pretty cool deal.
I wish more bands would do that
Yeah a lot of people hide on the bus and don’t wanna hang out; I don’t understand that at all.
After the sudden death of Dave, then Jason leaving the band, was there ever a time you felt like you shouldn’t go on?
You know, I’ve never ever felt like that, Mike, Stevie and I we love playing music together, we’ve been friends since High school and I’ve been a lover of music, I’m always gonna play music, people ask the question ‘what would you do if you weren’t doing music?’ and I would find some other facet in the music world to be working in but its ups and downs, 1 step forward and 2 steps back, whatever they say, 2 steps forward one step back. Again, we love music and we just love playing together so we just keep going.
And not only have that, what was the process of finding Ryan with him now being that right person to fill the spot of the front man?
Yeah with Ryan, we actually knew Ryan since we got started in 2000 and Dave was actually the one that turned me on to his band and Dave actually became friends with him first, we did a couple of tours with them and he’s just one of those guys we stayed in touch with over the years, there’s just a handful of guys you make friends with in other bands that you just kinda click with, so it seemed like once we got him going it was the right match for us, that was 5 years ago man and its been great ever since
And the only guy to do 2 albums with you…
Only guy to do that you know, third times a charm or three strikes and you’re out. We all get each other and we all have fun so that’s what it’s all about.
And his voice is great for the music
Yeah he’s got a good rock voice, got his own little style kickin’
Drowning Pool is a big supporter of the US Troops and has played over in Kuwait and Iraq for the Troops, how did all that come about and what is your current involvement in support of the Troops?
Right that all came about, we always wanted to do something for the troops. I think anybody here in one way or another has a relative or a family member that’s in the armed forces and hopefully doing everything for peace. That’s the outcome we want in any situation, we got involved with them back in 2005 was the first time we went over, it was a radio DJ here in Dallas that was going over and invited us to go with her, she just hooked it up, that was the first time we met up with the USO and we went over twice, we’ve done a handful of stuff in different bases, played stuff in South Korea as well on bases, and we do coalition bases as well its not just United States, we’ve done a lot of bases, we actually did a show in front of the Australian army, I didn’t realize you guys carried the 50 calibers on them, those guys are tough, super cool carrying a 50. But hopefully the end result is always the same for peace. What we’re doing now, the current thing we’re hooked up with is ‘The Wounded Warriors Project’ which is to try and help our soldiers when they come home, those got wounded by the war, lost and arm or a leg or they have some kind of disability, you know help them and try and raise some money for their family so they can just keep living.
I mean that’s another thing that a lot of bands wouldn’t even consider doing so that’s very thoughtful and cool of you guys
Yeah we try and stay out of the political thing, this side or that side, if its right or wrong, at the end of the day its like our friends and family and you’ve gotta take care of your family, that’s really how we look at it.
What’s next for Drowning Pool?
We’ve got the Ozzfest coming up, there’s a handful of tours that may happen in September, I can’t say who but any of they’re good choices so any one of them I’d be happy, but we’re gonna keep touring the rest of this year and I’m gonna keep twisting my managers arm and try and get us on the Big Day Out tour again I’d love to get to Australia.
If not the Big Day Out ask him about Soundwave which is our new rock festival we have here, much different to the Big Day Out, that would suit you.
OK, Soundwave, I’m gonna write that down, let me ask him about that as well, anything to get us over there man, again its been way to long and we have a lot of fans in Australia and it’s a great rock country.
Essential Information
From: Dallas, TX, USA
Band Members: Ryan McCombs – Vocals, CJ Pierce – Guitar, Stevie Benton – Bass, Mike Luce – Drums
Website: http://www.drowningpool.com
