DROWNING POOL's C.J. PIERCE Hopes To Release First New Song With RYAN MCCOMBS In June

In a new interview with Pierre Gutiérrez of Rock Talks, founding DROWNING POOL guitarist C.J. Pierce discussed the progress of the songwriting sessions for the new music that he and his longtime bandmates — drummer Mike Luce and bassist Stevie Benton — have been working on with singer Ryan McCombs. He said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We have three new songs that we're working out right now. One of 'em is pretty much ready to go there. There's two we're still touching on. So I was hoping to get that going for this [upcoming] run [of shows]. We'll definitely have that ready to go by May, 'cause we're doing two weeks now and then when we get back home for the other two weeks, we're gonna be in the studio finishing that up. I'm hoping to have new music out for everybody by June, but I definitely wanna pop in and play it at shows and give people a taste. So that's gonna be a sporadic thing too."

Regarding the musical direction of the new DROWNING POOL material, Pierce said: "Oh, man, it's been so great, dude. It's intense as ever, man. It's awesome having Ryan McCombs back in the band. It's been a good 13 years since we had the chance to write music together again. And when he came back in last year — the whole thing is Ryan was gonna come back, [we were] gonna do some reunion shows with him, and he walked in the door and we just started writing together. So we have a lot of music on the plate. We just got it down to the first three here. But, dude, it's just intense. A lot has gone on in everyone's lives in the last 13-plus years, and all of us, we worked together as a band. It was awesome doing this. We're sitting down, doing the final touches on some of the new songs, all four of us at a table, spitballing lyrics and ideas, bouncing off each other as a full band. So I love that about our band. It's fun to work with my other brothers and all of us have a say-so in the song, and that's what makes it a DROWNING POOL song."

Pierce also talked about how the new DROWNING POOL music compares to "Strike A Nerve", the band's first record in seven years, which came out in September 2022 via T-Boy/UMe. It marked the band's third album with singer Jasen Moreno, who joined DROWNING POOL in 2012. Asked if the material is "more balanced" than "Strike A Nerve", C.J. said: "I wouldn't say more balanced. With Jasen Moreno on the last couple of records, we just started going up a heavy thing. Plus our career, just things that were going on at that time — I write what's going on in my life at the time; it's art, it's music — and just things were getting more intense with Jasen. Not just Jasen, but the music business, everything. So the music got intense as well, as you hear. And then with Ryan back in here, we still have that same intention, but Ryan brings a different kind of aspect and the delivery to the songs. There's definitely the style that we had on the two records we did with Ryan that's there, but we still have that heaviness going on as well. So it's definitely the heaviest stuff we've done with Ryan, for sure. So it's all heavy, brother. There's definitely a few songs that may be… We had '37 Stitches' and songs like that with Ryan. We have one or two songs that are kind of more in that mellow zone with him as well that we're working on. But, yeah, the last few records, we were pretty much just slamming, just full-on super-heavy stuff, man, which I enjoy as well. So you're gonna get a mix of it. I feel like with Ryan, we can get more of a mix of styles in there as well… It's intense, man. It's intense music. That's what we write."

McCombs played his first shows back with DROWNING POOL in March 2023 at Club L.A. in Destin, Florida and at 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.

McCombs is continuing to front SOIL and will carry on recording and performing with both bands.

DROWNING POOL's debut album, "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.