By Ryan Sparks

The music industry certainly has the ability to catapult any musician that possesses even the slightest hint of talent, into superstardom; however the flip side of the coin is that the business that many musicians unfortunately come to know is also the one that chews up and spits out bands with remarkable, razor sharp efficiency. You need to learn quickly how to swim with the sharks, have a thick skin and be willing to pick yourself off the ground and dust yourself off every time another obstacle comes along and knocks you on your ass. Timing can go a long way in determining whether you make it, not to mention you also need a little something called luck.

The alternative metal band from Dallas Texas Drowning Pool certainly knows all about the hazards of the industry and how you can go from the top of the heap straight to the bottom in the blink of an eye. In 2001 the band released their debut album Sinner which contained the hit single “Bodies”, a track that was essentially a call to hit the mosh pit. The song was everywhere on radio and also appeared in WWE wrestling tournaments, movies and video games. The success of this one song played a huge part in taking Sinner over the Platinum mark; however the victory was short lived as the bands fortunes were about to change in a hurry. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11 Clear Channel owned radio stations pulled the plug on “Bodies” deeming the message of ‘Let the bodies hit the floor’ was inappropriate in the wake of the victims that fell to their deaths in the Twin Towers tragedy. Still the band forged ahead and the summer of 2002 found them performing on the OzzFest tour for the second time, sharing the main stage with the likes of System of a Down, Rob Zombie, Tool, Black Label Society and of course the prince of darkness himself. Tragedy would strike in a big way when in the middle of the tour vocalist Dave Williams was found dead on the tour bus of what was later reported as an undiagnosed heart condition. Undeterred guitarist C.J. Pierce, bassist Stevie Benton and drummer Mike Luce eventually reconvened the following year with new vocalist Jason Jones for the Desensitized album in 2004. This union would be short lived though as Jones officially departed in the summer of 2005. The band would eventually turn to a long time friend from the road, Ryan McCombs who had previously handled the lead vocal duties for the band Soil. His appearance fronting Drowning Pool at a one off Ozzfest date in the bands hometown effectively put an end to the rumours and speculation.

With McCombs fully integrated into the Drowning Pool dynamic they quietly went about rebuilding their career, one step at a time. They parted ways with their former record company and went to work on their 3^rd album Full Circle. As the recording sessions unfolded they eventually signed a new deal with Eleven Seven Music and hooked up with new management as well, signing on with Allen Kovac’s Tenth Street Entertainment. Drowning Pool joins what is already an extremely impressive list of talent that includes Buckcherry, Blondie, Papa Roach, and both Motley Crue and Nikki Sixx’s offshoot project Sixx: A.M. as well. Drowning Pool find themselves back in the ring once again with arguably their strongest and most rounded effort to date, and Full Circle should once again re-establish the band as a true force to be reckoned with. I caught up with guitarist C.J. Pierce from where else, the road, and he was more than happy to talk about Drowning Pools rebirth, how the band got involved with the USO performing for the troops in the Middle East, as well as his thoughts on how the band has managed to survive despite their many setbacks.      

Ryan: I want to dive right in and talk about your latest album Full Circle, but first off I want to say how great I think it is that you’re raising awareness for the U.S. troops fighting in the Middle East through the website www.thisisforthesoldiers.org , for those who might not know about it, can you explain what this is and how Drowning Pool originally got involved?

C.J.: Yeah as far as the USO goes, we’re definitely very fortunate to be able to work with them and it’s something we’ve wanted to do for quite awhile because we’ve got a lot of friends and family involved. There was a radio station in Dallas and this girl named Jesse who is a regular D.J. who had been planning to go over to Iraq for a while, so she got setup to go over there and she wanted to take a band with her and she invited us. She kind of asked us on the air if we would go over with her and we said “Hell yeah of course”. That led us to hooking up with the USO, we went over to Iraq and Kuwait twice and got to play for the troops and it was awesome. Once we got back stateside we wanted to see what else we could do for the troops and that kind of led us to get in touch with the IAVA (Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America). They’re trying to get the Lane Evans Bill passed which basically helps the troops once they come back, to give them better mental health care and just the proper health care that they need when they return home from war. So we’ve been fortunate to be able to do a lot of good stuff like that.

Ryan: You wrote the song “Soldiers” as way to show your appreciation for the troops and to give something back. After playing the shows when it comes time to leave, I imagine just having the freedom to leave, something they don’t have, must make you really appreciate your own freedom even more.

C.J.: Yeah that’s part of it, but honestly man a lot of these troops that we met while we were over there are the most dedicated people that I’ve ever met and they’re there for a reason. They’re there because they want to be there and to defend peace. There are a lot of things you don’t see; CNN only shows you all the bad stuff. In these countries they don’t have running water or bathrooms and normal stuff that we take for granted. All the troops are so dedicated and they definitely want to be there to help these people out.

Ryan: The band has been playing shows in the Middle East and Korea for the past few years now so it must be a great feeling to not only go in and perform for these guys but to be able to sit down afterwards and talk to them as well.

C.J.: Definitely. We sat there for about six or seven hours a day signing stuff and taking pictures, and then we’d play a show for an hour and a half. It’s really easy to feel isolated in Iraq because there’s no internet, no telephones and it’s really hard for them to get in touch with people back home, so we just let them know that people back home still care about them.

Ryan: The video for “Soldiers” which was filmed at live shows in Iraq and Kuwait looks like it was an absolutely insane experience, not only for the band but for the troops as well

C.J.: Yeah 24 hours a day, 7 days a week those guys are in a sandbox. Its like they’re on a beach with no water, there’s not a lot for them to do. We were over there for like ten days and there’s literally nothing for them to do, so doing a show really meant a lot to them. Those were some of the most intense shows I think we’ve ever done. The band was sober and the crowd was sober, so it was more intense than any other show [laughing].

Ryan:  Full Circle your latest album and third overall is really like a fresh new start for the band in many ways. Tell me about the trials and tribulations you guys went through to get to this point where you are today with new vocalist Ryan McCombs. 

C.J.: It’s been quite the rollercoaster ride. Dave was awesome; he was a super cool dude and a real good buddy, like a brother to us. A lot of people don’t know because they weren’t there but he basically had heart disease on one side of his heart. It was always working harder on that one side, so basically his heart gave out. The same thing would have happened if he had been at home instead of being on tour. It was just one of those things that when it’s your time to go, you just go, so it was nothing else but that. Working with Jason, he has a great voice and I think Desensitized was a great record, but as far as personalities go, Mike, Steve and I have been friends since high school and we kinda grew up on one side of the fence and he grew up on the other. You’ve got to be friends and family first before you even make the music, that’s really how we feel about it and we just didn’t have that with Jason. With Ryan, we’ve known him for years, since we got started back in 2000, and having him is like having a buddy in the band and we’re having fun again, so like the title it’s kind of come around again and come full circle.

Ryan: Does this album feel more like a natural successor to Sinner?

C.J.: A lot of stuff has gotten thrown at us left and right so I think it’s more of a natural progression of what life throws at you. Again with Ryan it’s like having a brother in the band and we’re having fun again. It was just such a dark time after Sinner so I guess this album does feel more like a natural successor.

Ryan: You mentioned having to deal with all these things and it’s hard enough to survive in the music industry as it is but you guys have had three albums with three different vocalists which is definitely something that doesn’t happen too often.

C.J.: We’re like the Spinal Tap of the new millennium [laughing].  That’s how we mix it up every record, get a new singer. No I mean it’s definitely not a normal situation and obviously the hardest one to overcome is getting a new vocalist, but at the end of the day Mike, Steve and I really love music and we just wanted to make a really good sounding album.

Ryan: What’s the reaction been like to Full Circle?

C.J.: Oh man it’s been awesome. It’s getting better and better. Everyday and every show more and more people are singing along to the new songs, we’ve got really good fans and most of the shows have been sold out. We just started a new tour with a band called Nonpoint who is going to be on some of the shows and also Egypt Central which is a young up and coming band that has a lot of good songs.

Ryan: “Shame” is one song that really stands out on this new album, it has a great Alice in Chains vibe and Ryan’s voice sounds a lot like Layne Staley’s on that one.

C.J.: Yeah “Shame” is definitely one of our favourite tracks. We also did an acoustic version of that one. We had a week off and we’d been talking for awhile about doing some acoustic stuff, and our sound guy has a studio, so we went in there and “Shame” already had that acoustic tinge to it, so it was a natural one to do. I’m really happy with that song and I hope the acoustic version gets heard.

Ryan: How did the Nikki Sixx/ Dj Ashba collaboration came about?

C.J.: That was pretty easy. We wanted to work with Nikki for a long time and we had talked about doing a song with him back when Dave was in the band which obviously didn’t happen. We’ve got the same manager Allen Kovac and he was asking us about Nikki and we told him that we’d met him back in 2001-02 and that we’d talked about possibly doing something together, but that nothing ever happened. At this time Nikki was in the studio with Sixx: A.M. doing that album and our record was getting mixed, so he said “Nikki’s got some time, why don’t you guys jump in the studio and try to write some songs?” So we called him up and he said “Yeah come on down and we’ll just rock out and see what happens” so that’s basically how it happened, and “Reason I’m Alive” was the result of all that. It was awesome man; I mean Motley Crue the band were one of my heroes when I was starting out and here I was in the studio throwing out ideas back and forth with Nikki, collaborating together on a song.

Ryan: Now he’s also a Record Company President as well.

C.J.: Yeah with Eleven Seven Records and 10thst Management he really stepped up to the plate. He’s got a lot of stuff going on and I’m happy for him because he’s branching out and doing other things and who better to have as your record company president than Nikki Sixx, someone who has been in the business for over twenty years. He knows the all the in’s and the outs.

Ryan: He’ll be able to help bring along new up and coming bands.

C.J.: The up and comers as well as bands like us that keep getting punched in the nuts, he can ease the blow for us [laughing].

Ryan: Replacing anyone in a band can be difficult enough but replacing a lead singer probably has to be the hardest, because most of the time they are the not only the most recognizable, but more importantly their voice is usually one of the most identifiable elements of a bands sound. Looking back on the three records that you’ve done, how would describe the differences between Dave, Jason and now Ryan as vocalists?

C.J.: There are definitely differences. Again Mike, Steve and I have been friends for about fifteen years, we write music together and we have this core sound established regardless of which singers we’ve had come in to the band. With Dave he would walk in there and we’d have the music ready, he would pound out the vocals and be done with it and out of there. With Jason we kind of had to coax him along, we had some ideas and he had some ideas but he definitely has a distinct voice and sound, but with Ryan we have things that we’ve been through the last handful of years so all of us kind of springboard ideas and throw stuff in the pot and we have fun doing it, so that’s one thing that is distinctly different. Everyone has their own singing style that works and you kind of bend your riffs a little bit on certain songs to fit their singing styles. If you listen to Ryan’s previous work and the straight rock band that he came from, he was signing in the same key and now here we are with different songs in different keys, so it was fun to push him a little bit to see what we could get out of him.

Ryan: You also had to get him out of retirement didn’t you?

C.J.: Yeah I think he was kind of done with his previous band, and over some of the issues he had with other musicians and management, and that can turn you off. The business is so wacky that if you don’t get along with other band members it can really turn you off.

Ryan: Was he apprehensive at all about joining the band?

C.J.: Not about working with us no. Like I said I think the last situation he was in kind of left a bad taste in his mouth and everything was just shit, but with us it’s like I said before, we’re like a family and we’re friends first before we even step in to write music. So for him to come into this environment, it was a no brainer for him because we’re all buddies outside of music and we have fun with it and that’s what it’s all about.

Ryan: What was the recording process like for Full Circle, was it more of a natural process this time around?

C.J.: Yeah the way that we wrote this record has been my favourite so far. We’ve had different writing situations with each record but with this one we would write a couple of songs and then tour for a few weeks. Every one of these songs on the record we played live beforehand.

Ryan: You were road testing the material as you’d go along.

C.J.: Oh definitely. Most bands once they put that first record out, they go and do the record and then go right out on tour and you never really get to test them out. With Ryan we wanted to start over again, rebuild our fan base and let everybody know where we were at, so we did a lot of touring and writing before we even went into the studio. The other thing that was really great was at the time that we recorded the record, we had gotten off our old label and gotten rid of our management, so we totally financed and paid for our own recording of Full Circle. We didn’t have the label looking over our shoulder or people telling us that we should sound like Nirvana or more like John Mayer. We’re Drowning Pool, we’re going to sound like we want to sound like, so that was another big plus for us with this record, no having the label breathing down our necks. We recorded it the way we wanted to, said what we wanted to say and we knew that much like it was in the beginning, that if we made a great sounding record that the label and management and all that stuff would come later.

Ryan: So it was a return to the way the band originally operated in the sense that you’d finance it yourself and then look for the right deal afterwards.

C.J.: Exactly. It was right in the middle of the recording process that we got in touch with Allen Kovac and Eleven Seven Music and it all came together.

Ryan: The band originally started out in the mid 90’s, there was a lot of hard work involved before you managed to get your first album out.

C.J.: Yeah 1996 is when we got started and back in 2001-02 is when Sinner took off. We were playing all over Texas and the Southern US. We drove in a van to L.A. and to New York and we had already been doing things on our own for quite a while before things took off.

Ryan: In 2001-02 as you mentioned Sinner was doing very well and the song “Bodies” was everywhere on the radio, in movies etc and you were playing Ozzfest. At the time were you pinching yourself to make sure it was all really happening?

C.J.: Yeah one thing that happened which was a very uncommon thing, our record came out and we went platinum in a matter of weeks. You wake up one day and everybody instantly knows who you are and your songs are everywhere. Right after that 9/11 happened and they took our song off the radio, so we went from being everywhere to being gone. Then on top of that our buddy and lead singer passes away, it was just man… the ups and downs that go with it. I’m sure a lot of people in life have had that happen and I’m not going to say we’re the only ones, but it was quite the shocker. It’s been like a real rollercoaster at times but the one thing that keeps me grounded is, whether you play music or you’re a plumber or someone who works at Starbucks, it’s like a good buddy of mine always says ‘You’ve got to keep on keepin’ on’. Whatever they throw at you you’ve got to keep going, and man we love writing music and playing shows. I love touring and meeting new people. I wouldn’t be putting myself out there and having the carpet pulled out from under me if I didn’t love doing it. I try to look at it in a positive way, and it influences us to write more music about these kinds of crazy situations [laughing].

Ryan: What are you feelings on the music industry today? You mentioned going platinum six or seven years ago but in today’s day and age can you even go platinum anymore?