Former DROWNING POOL Singer JASEN MORENO To Return To Live Stage With CRANKFISH

CRANKFISH, the long-running band featuring former DROWNING POOL singer Jasen Moreno, will return to the stage on Friday, March 22 at Trees in Dallas, Texas.

A new CRANKFISH song, "Do Or Die", can be streamed below.

Established in 2002, CRANKFISH is a five-piece band from Dallas, made with one common goal in mind: creating high-energy music that moves the listener. Having shared the stage with the likes of SEVENDUST, DROWNING POOL, FEAR FACTORY, AVATAR, SALIVA, NONPOINT, TAPROOT, LOVE AND DEATH (featuring Brian "Head" Welch of KORN),SOIL, STATIC-X and SOULFLY, among others, CRANKFISH consists of Julien Moreno and Justen Moreno on vocals, Jasen Moreno on bass/vocals, Rojo Johnson on guitars/vocals, Heath Shults on guitars/vocals and Mike Moya on drums/vocals.

Jasen, who joined DROWNING POOL in 2012, exited the group a year ago, making way for the return of Ryan McCombs.

In an October 2023 interview with "The Logan Show", DROWNING POOL guitarist C.J. Pierce stated about Moreno's split: "Yeah, [Jasen] was in [DROWNING POOL] for 10 years and we did three amazing records with him. And a lot of great times and great songs with Jasen. He's like a higher-register stuff, where he sings. It's still us in DROWNING POOL doing our thing. Yeah, man, especially the last record, [2022's] 'Strike A Nerve', I'm really proud of that record. That's just the way of the earth, man — music business, managers and all that fun stuff. But here we are now in 2023 with Ryan, so I guess all things are meant to be, for whatever reasons."

Asked if Moreno's departure is something that C.J. and his bandmates saw coming for a while or if it was a sudden development, Pierce said: "Yeah, we felt it coming for a while. I'll let Jasen speak for himself. It's a lot of different factors involved in it, but just to sum up real quick, I think part of it, him being home — a lot of people were home during COVID with the family — he does have a big family, and I think a big part of it [was that he felt] that's where he needs to be, with family right now. So I totally understand that. And also, he got pretty — all of us got pretty burned by the music business constantly, beyond burned, and it's frustrating as well. So I think with those two factors, he was, like, 'All right. I'm not gonna do this right now.' And understandably so. But here we are, like I said, with Ryan McCombs back in the fold."

McCombs played his first shows back with DROWNING POOL in March 2023 at Club L.A. in Destin, Florida and the inaugural Throwdown At The Campground festival in Fruitland Park, Florida.

DROWNING POOL's first new record since 2016, "Strike A Nerve", came out via T-Boy/UMe. It marked the band's third album with Moreno.

DROWNING POOL addressed Moreno's departure in a social media post on March 16, 2023, 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."