DROWNING POOL’s New Music With Singer RYAN MCCOMBS Has A ‘Sinner’ Vibe, Says C.J. PIERCE

In a new interview with Harley Roxx, founding DROWNING POOL guitarist C.J. Pierce discussed the inspiration for some of the new music that he and his longtime bandmates — drummer Mike Luce and bassist Stevie Benton — are writing with singer Ryan McCombs. He said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I do electrical work on the side when I’m not touring, because we spent a very long, good, awesome 20 years of being able to get by and pay the bills playing music, which is not easy to do anyway because it’s the music business and it’s horrible… So yeah, I do electrical work, and it’s great to separate my mind. It has its own art and its own thing to it. And I love all the dudes I work with.

“Mike and I, when we moved to Dallas and we were doing electrical work and listening to like late ’90s music, and that’s some of the influence that I had during the writing process of the ‘Sinner’ record [DROWNING POOL‘s 2001 debut album]. And now here I am doing electrical work again, and the dudes I work with, they like to listen to late ’90s kind of stuff, so I’m in the exact same mindframe I was in. And then Ryan‘s staying in my house, in my studio and writing songs. So the stuff that’s coming out now naturally has very, very ‘Sinner’ foundation to it. I know I’ve said that before in the past, but this time around, I’m not trying to write a ‘Bodies Part 2’ or ‘Tear Away Part 2’, but it’s just coming out like that. So we have these new ideas that [sound like that], but with Ryan included on it. So it’s, it’s been a cool mix. The new stuff, the little bit that we played for the people that are around us that have seen it or heard it, the reaction has been really, really cool. You can tell — they’re, like, ‘Oh my God.’ So I’m excited about it.”

He added: “I’m just being honest with you. I’m not trying to pump myself up. You never know what people are gonna expect. And you play a little bit and you just see their eyes light up like they do when they hear ‘Bodies’. So I’m, like, ‘All right, we’re on to something good.’ So I can’t wait to get new stuff out.”

As for when fans can expect to hear new music from DROWNING POOL, Pierce said: “We wanna get new music out before the SALIVA tour in a few weeks. I just don’t know if we have time to actually record it then, but before the end of the year, for sure — get some new stuff out with Ryan.”

Last month, Pierce told Brutal Planet Magazine that DROWNING POOL had three new songs that were “pretty much done.” The guitarist also talked in more general terms about the DROWNING POOL songwriting process, saying: “It’s always been us since day one — Mike, Stevie and myself. We’ve been writing together since day one. The thing is we had a couple of different singer switches here and there. But it’s fun having Ryan back in it, ’cause we did a lot of great songs with him back then and we’re back on it. We’ve never been closer and we’ve never been more solid.

“Writing with these guys, especially now with Mike, we’re in a room and it’s almost like you don’t even have to think,” he explained. “You just know he’s gonna go here, I’m gonna go there, and it just falls into place.’ And it’s awesome to be in a place now where you have an idea or a feeling or a thought and you can just put it out there and the other guys know what to do to express that right out the gate. We do try a lot of different things — ‘Let’s try this part. Let’s try that part’ — but it seems like we just fall into where we wanna be and need to be for the song to highlight and make it elevate to the rock song that you hear when you come [and see us play].”

“Sinner” was certified platinum within six weeks of its release in 2001, while the CD’s first single, “Bodies”, was one of the most frequently aired videos on MTV by a new band. DROWNING POOL reached out to an ever-greater audience with dynamic performances at Wrestlemania XVIII and Ozzfest during the summers of 2001 and 2002. Unfortunately, their streak of success was not to last. Shortly after rousing the crowd at Ozzfest in Indianapolis, Indiana, on August 3, 2002, vocalist Dave “Stage” Williams was found dead of natural causes on the tour bus.

McCombs played his first shows back with DROWNING POOL on March 17 at Club L.A. in Destin, Florida and on March 18, headlining the inaugural Throwdown At The Campground festival in Fruitland Park, Florida.

The longtime SOIL frontman, who has lived in Swindon, England since 2018, originally joined DROWNING POOL in 2005 and appeared on two of the band’s studio albums, “Full Circle” (2007) and “Drowning Pool” (2010),as well as a live album, 2009’s “Loudest Common Denominator”. He rejoined SOIL after exiting DROWNING POOL in 2011.

According to Metal Edge, McCombs will continue to front SOIL and will perform with both bands moving forward.

DROWNING POOL‘s first new record since 2016, “Strike A Nerve”, came out last September via T-Boy/UMe. It marked the band’s third album with singer Jasen Moreno, who joined DROWNING POOL in 2012.

DROWNING POOL addressed Moreno‘s departure in a social media post on March 16, writing: “We appreciate everyone asking about Jasen. We can’t speak for him but we believe he was just ready to move on to other things in life. Maybe he will make a statement. Maybe he won’t. Regardless, we wish him the best.”

DROWNING POOL‘s U.S. tour with SALIVA will kick off on September 10 in Norfolk, Virginia.

DROWNING POOL press photo courtesy of DrowningPool.live