DROWNING POOL's C.J. PIERCE: 'We're Having More Fun Now Than Ever Before'

DROWNING POOL guitarist C.J. Pierce spoke to The Metal Forge about the band's new single "Revolution (The Final Amen)", which was released on September 20 via SBG Records. It marks the first piece of music Pierce and his longtime bandmates — drummer Mike Luce and bassist Stevie Benton — completed with singer Ryan McCombs in 13 years.

"We're having more fun now than ever before, C.J. said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "And Mike Luce, our drummer, and Stevie Benton, the bass player, and myself, we've been friends and known each other since high school. So we've definitely been through the rollercoaster ride, obviously, with singers. Unfortunately, Dave [Williams, original DROWNING POOL singer] passed away from cardiomyopathy, heart disease, at 30 years old, man. It's still wild to me. But mostly the music business, man, between labels and management and all the stuff, that's been the real kicker for us, if anything. But to come together as us — it's a four-piece and we're independent right now and we're doing what we wanna do and we're having fun doing it, man, and that's the way to go. We're having, like I said, more fun now than I ever knew I'd be having playing music."

Regarding how the music business has changed since DROWNING POOL's formation nearly 30 years ago, Pierce said: "We don't have a label of management or anything like that [right now]. We're a hundred percent just — we do everything… It's still a learning curve. It's been a quite a learning curve, music business-wise, because it's changed drastically since I've been doing it and learning the ropes and the new way of doing things. And we have a team of people that work with us now that we found. Again, another thing that makes it in a great place because we're in full control of our career and there isn't anybody to answer to but ourselves. I can't get mad at a label or a manager now because we make the call, which makes you work even harder. We have people in play that that's what they're there to do and help out, and they haven't for us so much in the past."

Asked if DROWNING POOL now owns the masters to the band's early recordings, including the platinum-certified debut album, 2001's "Sinner", C.J. said: "We got the full — the screwed contracts, if you will. There's no mansion and cars, man. I rent a home and I'm leasing a car… That's why another thing that's exciting about putting out the first [new] single with Ryan, 'Revolution', is we're putting out on our own, breaking into that world finally and getting underneath that umbrella of things. But, yeah, they [the labels] own all the stuff in the past."

Addressing the fact that pop superstar Taylor Swift has reworked some of her own songs as new recordings, resulting in new masters she fully owns, enabling her to control the licensing of her songs for commercial use, known as synchronization, by evading the owners of the older masters and subsequently devaluing them, C.J. said: "I'd like to do some re-records just because Ryan's here again and he's stronger than ever 'cause he still sings with SOIL and sings with us. And he's more positive and motivated than I've ever seen this guy. So, there's a lot of songs in the past that we've done that I just think his voice sounds better on it. So for that reason alone, just for the art, and, like, 'Oh, this song would sound great with Ryan on it' is why we wanna do stuff. I mean, you've still gotta pay the bills and stuff, there's a business to it, but it's not the number one motivation to play music. It's definitely enjoying the music and writing what you feel from your heart and not trying to write to fit in in this style or that style. We really focus on who we are and what we're trying to say within the song."

Last month, Pierce told Radioactive MikeZ, host of the 96.7 KCAL-FM program "Wired In The Empire", that DROWNING POOL began working on new music right away after McCombs rejoined the group in early 2023: "He came in and we started writing stuff before we even talked about the first show, man," he said. "We sat out here. I have a big gazebo in my backyard, and I have the house set up… My house looks like Guitar Center out there, man. It's a home studio, if you will, and it's just a place of creativity, man. We just started working on stuff. There was one or two riffs and songs that we had worked on that we touched on that we were working on right before we took the hiatus, which is pretty cool. I'd like to finish those. But we've been through so much the last 13 years, so we have a lot of things to share and write about, especially what's going on nowadays. So we're that kind of band that writes what you feel at the time. So a lot of ideas on the plate.'

Regarding DROWNING POOL's plans to release a new full-length album, C.J. said: "We plan on finish up a couple more tracks in the next two weeks before we go out on this next tour. And then we have a little bit of break at the end of the year, and I wanna get back in there and try to finish up some more songs. So we do plan on putting out a record here at some point next year, and then leading into the 25th anniversary of [DROWNING POOL's debut album] 'Sinner' the year after that [in 2026], man. It's pretty wild. We have a lot of stuff coming up."

Asked if "Revolution (The Final Amen)" was the first new song he and McCombs worked on, Pierce said: "It's the first thing that came up right away, man. I started jamming that riff literally out on my gazebo, and then Ryan started singing along to it. And then we went in the room, just rehearsing for the shows that were coming up with Ryan, and we just started jamming that riff like we do, man. We get a lot of stuff done. We're still an organic band. We love to get in that rehearsal room and just hash it out together. Sometimes I'll come up with ideas here at my house or Steve will come up ideas at his house, and once we bring them all together in a room, it really makes it a DROWNING POOL song. But that song, we spent a lot of time on it as well because we wanna come out with every song that sounds strong. We didn't wanna just, 'Oh, Ryan's back,' and just shit out some song, man. We mean what we said. We put a lot of time and effort into our art and what we wanna say with the song, and I'm glad that we did that. It took a little longer just because we started touring so much… So it was just us getting into the studio to get it down. And here it is, man. Finally."

The "Revolution (The Final Amen)" video was filmed at El Paso, Texas's Speaking Rock Entertainment Center and can be seen below.

In a separate interview with iHeart Radio personality Debbie Sexxton, Pierce stated about "Revolution (The Final Amen)": "Yeah, it was great working on the song together. It's the first one with all of us back with Ryan, and we spent a lot of time on it. We started on it, actually, beginning of last year. And just between touring and stuff like that, we weren't able to get it down yet. But the whole process, all of us working together, I mean, we literally sat down at a table and we all had different ideas and every one of us kind of approached the song in a different way. And then we came together as a band. It was just amazing. That sounds like a DROWNING POOL song. That's what we want it to sound like. It sounds like us with Ryan."

Regarding the lyrical themes covered in the new DROWNING POOL single, Pierce said: "We spent a lot of time trying different things out to make sure all the bases were covered and we came across with the message lyric-wise too. We had a couple of different rewrites and redrafts just to make sure the flow is right to get the point across. It's more of a general thing about what's going on now. We definitely need a big change — not specific to any country or government or religion as much as just as a whole. It's more [about] planet earth."

In August, Pierce told the "Thunder Underground" podcast about the musical direction of the new DROWNING POOL song: "I'm so excited, man. It just came out naturally. We never tried to write like a 'Bodies Part Two' or a 'Tear Away Part Two'. We just write what we feel at the time, and the excitement that we had and the energy we have with Ryan being back in the band, the song definitely has that vibe to it. It's in drop C [tuning], and I got a new wah pedal in the studio when I was doing the song. So I'm wah-pedaling all over just like on [DROWNING POOL's] 'Sinner' record. So it has that old-school vibe to it. The people that have heard it so far, that's what they relate it to. It's got that same type of energy. It's its own song and entity. But yeah, it's intense, man. It's a banger."

In July, McCombs was asked by 94 Rocks KFML's "The Dark" rock music program if the sound of the new DROWNING POOL material harkens back to what Ryan did with the band in the past, McCombs said: "It's C.J. It's Stevie. It's Mike. It's myself. We did a couple of really — not to toot our own horn — I think we did a couple really good albums back in the day. And we pick up right where we left off.

"I think the coolest thing about DROWNING POOL is it's really easy with DROWNING POOL to separate things with the singers, as far as eras go, but there's always been the DROWNING POOL sound," Ryan continued. "There's always been a certain aspect of just the tones and everything. So it's still just like it always has been — DROWNING POOL."

In June, Pierce told Scott Penfold of Loaded Radio that he and his DROWNING POOL bandmates are once again working with producer Shawn McGhee. "He has his own studio," C.J. explained. "We did the last record with him as well. We did [2022's] 'Strike A Nerve' [with him]. And he's just a great guy to work with. He's on the same page as us and a great friend and a great musician and a killer producer and mixer. So, we love working with Shawn. He really knows how to capture what we're trying to do, man. That's the kind of producer you want. We put him in a driver's seat and somebody you can trust to have that outside ear to take what we have already and elevate it."

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.

Photo courtesy of O'Donnell Media Group