DROWNING POOL's Next Single Will Be 'Even More Jamming' Than 'Revolution (The Final Amen)'

In a new interview with Australia's Heavy, DROWNING POOL guitarist C.J. Pierce spoke about the fan response to the band's latest single, "Revolution (The Final Amen)", which came out in September via SBG Records. It marks the first piece of music Pierce and his longtime bandmates — drummer Mike Luce and bassist Stevie Benton — have completed with singer Ryan McCombs in 13 years. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "Dude, just right out the gate, man, by the end of the song, they're singing along. The first time we played it live was before it even came out, we played in El Paso and someone filmed the video the week before the song came out, and I mean, dude… It was just awesome to see the instant connection because we haven't played something new like that live in years, and especially the first new song with Ryan McCombs. And just to see the crowd just go nuts, just as crazy as they do for 'Bodies' on it, man. It's been well received, and I love playing it live, man."

Asked if Ryan got right back into the swing of things after rejoining DROWNING POOL in early 2023, C.J. said: "We hadn't seen each other in a while, and he showed up. We picked him up from the airport and we sat here and then we went… I have a gazebo set up outside, and we instantly just started writing music together. We've always had a great writing relationship and friendship all along, man. So it was great to jump back into that instantly. And the first day we went to the rehearsal room, the songs we haven't played since Ryan was in the band… Mike just starts playing freaking songs, he started playing 'Let The Sin Begin'. So I'm taking my guitar out of the case — I didn't even tune it yet — and he's already playing it. And Ryan starts singing it. So me and Stevie, we threw our bass and guitar on and we just started playing the song. It just was there, man. So it was awesome to have that experience in that moment, like that real connection you have with other musicians. It was fricking awesome, man."

Regarding why DROWNING POOL chose "Revolution (The Final Amen)" as the song with which to reintroduce McCombs to the band's fans, Pierce said: "Well, we had several songs that are on the plate that we're working on together. This one just kind of gravitated towards being done first. I think all of us might have had a moment where [we thought] the eyes are gonna be on this, but at the end of the day, dude, it's us writing music together and it's not about the machine or about the industry. It's about us writing songs and art together as a band. And when it's ready to be out, that's when it's ready to go. All four of us sat down at a table with lyrics. We were all in a room together working on it. Musically, it's completely DROWNING POOL as us four, and that's the one that we finished first that we wanna get out to the world."

As for DROWNING POOL's plans to release more new music in the coming months, Pierce said: "We're hoping to get a few more songs recorded before the end of the year and a couple of more before we go to Australia in February. So, yeah, we're working on a full-length record.

"The original plan was to have a couple of reunion shows with Ryan, 'cause he still sings with SOIL… and then all of a sudden we just started writing songs together," C.J. explained. "And then we were getting [phone calls saying], 'Hey, come play some shows, play some shows.' So we've been pretty much just playing shows the last year and a half, having a great time doing it, writing music in between from all the inspiration from all the amazing shows, from all the awesome rock fans."

On the topic of what DROWNING POOL fans can expect from the band's upcoming material, C.J. said: "The next [song] coming up is even more jamming than ['Revolution (The Final Amen)']. I can't let any cats out of the bag. We have a very super-deep song that's coming out. I have a new tune that just came naturally that has a 'Tear Away' kind of vibe to it, that kind of chugging along feel that just came naturally again. And then we have some songs I got that [have] a lower tuning on it that's very Ryan McCombs's lower wheelhouse. I have some songs that are influenced by PANTERA. Who isn't? We have a lot of stuff on the plate, man."

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.

In a recent interview with Australia's Jaimunji, McCombs was asked if there is more new music on the way, following the release of "Revolution (The Final Amen)". He responded: "We released 'Revolution (The Final Amen)', we released that because it was the first song that came together in the studio. And when I say came together, I mean, finished.

"The demand for the band has been so great, thankfully, that we've been so busy fulfilling live appearances and then tours and everything that we've gotten so little time to actually record. At one point, on the last U.S. run we did, we actually flew our producer out and he spent, like, four or five days on the road with us, just so we could try to make some forward progress with some of these songs that we've got, because we've had so little time outside of touring to actually… The little time that we've gotten, I wanna go home and sleep in my own bed for a day or two. So we've had such little time to actually get any recording done that we've got so much material."

Referencing the fact that "Revolution (The Final Amen)" marks the first song he and Pierce, Luce and Benton have worked on in 13 years, Ryan said: "Alaina, C.J.'s wife, actually said to me shortly after us getting back together, she was, like, 'Thank you so much.' She goes, 'You guys getting back together, it's just, like,' she goes, 'I got my husband back.' She goes, 'As you know, C.J., so much of his existence is music,' and she goes, 'I don't know the last time I saw him pick up his guitar.' And this is a guy that always had a guitar in his hand doodling back in the day. And she goes, 'Since you guys have gotten back together, he's just walking around the house with his guitar on again. He's up at three o'clock in the morning, writing music.' She goes, 'It's like I've got my husband back again.' And that's the way we've all been. We've all just been on fire. And the material is a great reflection of that."

Outlining DROWNING POOL's plans to complete some of its new material, McCombs said: "We've got some shows coming up here in Texas in December, and I'm staying for several days afterwards to get some more recordings done. 'Cause the plan is right now, we're gonna release another single or two between now and through [our tour of] Australia [in February 2025] and before the GODSMACK dates that we have with P.O.D. in Europe and in London [in late March and early April 2025]. But then, so, yeah, the plan is to release a couple of more singles in between now and then, and then we'll have a an album or an EP — depending on how much recording time we get — we'll have an album or an EP ready for release in 2025."

In November, McCombs was asked by Loud & Unfiltered if the "Revolution (The Final Amen)" title is a reference to it being DROWNING POOL's "last hurrah". Ryan responded: "I wish I would have had the foresight to see what that would have read, how people would have read into that, because you're not the first [to ask that] and I'm sure you won't be the last. No, it's far from the band's final amen, 'cause we've got so much material right now. As soon as we got back in… I flew into Dallas two or three days before our first show [back] together, and we went straight from the airport to the rehearsal room. And it was, like, there was a little bit more white hair in the room, but other than that … we didn't miss a beat, man. It was just instantaneous. C.J. and I and Stevie and Mike, we just started writing music, and it just start flowing. It was like opening up the floodgates. So we've got so much material. The problem we have right now is we don't have the time. We keep trying to schedule studio time and then something else show-wise comes up. So our producer, actually, flew out and was on the road with us for a few days on this tour that we're on now so that we can get some stuff down and have the pre-production out of the way so that as soon as the tour's over, I can run to [Las] Vegas and throw some vocals down before we have a show in Mexico City. So in between there, I'll run to Vegas real quick and throw vocals. We're just trying to utilize time, but we just don't [have] enough."

He continued: "But no, to your question, it's definitely not the band's final amen. I mean, we've got too much stuff in the works. We've got too many awesome opportunities that are being presented to us for next year. And we've got a lot of plans band-wise for the next couple of years. So we're definitely not going anywhere. And thankfully, we're not going anywhere because the number one reason we ain't is because people allow us to be around. We'll stay around as long as people are allowing us to. And then thankfully people are giving us the time of day and allowing us to do what we love to do. So we're definitely not going anywhere."

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."

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