SOIL's Long-Awaited New Album Is 'Completely Finished' And 'Ready To Go': 'It's Amazing Stuff', Says TIM KING

In a new interview with Dales Rock Interviews, SOIL bassist Tim King spoke about the status of the songwriting and recording sessions for the band's first new original material since 2013's "Whole" album. Tim said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We wrote an entire new release last year. We didn't do any touring last year. We were in the writing mode in the studio. We went back and forth into the studio into Nashville, and we've got a new release completely done. We're gonna be announcing it very soon. [We] signed a new record deal. We have a new manager with Shelter Music Group over there. And we just revived everything SOIL. Brand new release, brand new record label, brand new management, and we're gonna release the first single this year, and then the [full-length] release will come out probably January of 2027."

Regarding the reason it has taken so long for SOIL to write and record new material, Tim said: "With a band like ours, we've got a lot of hits, we've got a lot of history, and for older bands like us that have had a legacy, it gets... I, at least, find it really monotonous and boring when bands just keep releasing material that sounds the same or subpar or they feel like they just need to release it to appease the fans or to go out on tour with. And with SOIL, we released an amazing record with the return of [SOIL singer] Ryan [McCombs] back in 2013, which was 'Whole'. And it really brought the band back to form. It sounded like the old days of SOIL. It was a great record to reintroduce and reinvigorate the band. And since then we've done a ton of touring. But we said to ourselves, 'If we're gonna do a follow-up, we either have to write songs that are better than the 'Scars' [2001] record,' which is our biggest record, 'and we need at least one hit or more that are better than the song 'Halo', or at least as good.' And we just kept writing and writing and just weren't feeling it. And time went by and more touring went on, and things got pushed aside, and finally we said, 'We're taking an entire year off, and we're going to buckle down and make this happen.' And that's what we did."

As for what the new SOIL material sounds like, Tim said: "It's amazing stuff. I mean, I say that with absolutely no ego. And it's gonna appease the old SOIL fans, it's gonna appease new SOIL fans. It's got a great classic old SOIL sound, but with a lot of modern elements incorporated into it, and it's just undeniable. We finally have a piece of material, a body of material that we feel is going to blow this band back into the the good graces with a new record."

He added: "The fanbase has been eager to get some new material, and we're gonna give it to them."

Elaborating on the production process for the new SOIL album, Tim said: "We went in with a great production team. We spent a lot of time in Nashville recording all this stuff. Like I said, we basically retooled the entire band — new label, new management, new producers, new music, new everything. So, 2027 is gonna be a very exciting time for the band.

"I wish I could say more, but we're still waiting for announcements to come out and having meetings on when to announce and when to launch and stuff like that," he explained. "So, it will be all coming in due time, but it's all completed, so there's no, 'Oh, SOIL's going in the studio or anything like that.' It's completely finished, so it's ready to go. So we're just picking out the right time to launch and all that good stuff."

Asked if he and his SOIL bandmates find it easy to write new music nowadays, Tim said: "Back in the day, and all the way leading up to the 'Whole' record, we had always written in a rehearsal room together — bass, drums, guitars, throwing riffs at each other, putting things together, talking about it, drinking some beers, and then we'd send it off to Ryan. He'd come back with some vocal ideas, some changes. We'd make that, then Ryan would come to the rehearsal and sing it, and we'd hear what it was like, and we'd demo it out and stuff. So that was the way we always wrote things — old school. And we found that that really worked well because right in that moment of time, you could alter things, and you got that vibe, and you're playing off of each other, and you're going back and forth. And I think the reason it took us so long to get things together is in the age of computers, and when COVID hit and all that, everything started going by FaceTime or sending files back and forth, and it's just so stale. It's so... I don't know how to put it. It's just so — I guess you could say, yeah, 'stale' is the best word. There's really no vibe there. If I send a riff to the guys, or Adam [Zadel, SOIL guitarist] sends some ideas put to a drum machine, or the drummer [T.J. Taylor] gets a drum beat and we put some stuff to it, and we're just sending it around, you're not really getting that interaction. So we were very uninspired for many years because there really wasn't that outlet to all get together. Me and Adam live in Chicago, our drummer's in Kentucky, Ryan's in the U.K. Getting together to practice for a tour was hard enough, let alone to start writing sessions. So that's why we decided to buckle down and take that year off and really hone in and make sure that we did it the way that we felt most comfortable with. So that's the way we like to write in this band. Other people might be able to send each other computer files and stuff, but it's just not the way we operate. We need to be in there with each other and vibing off of each other and having the producer sit there and help us with things and stuff. So that's the way we did it this time."

King previously revealed that the recording sessions for SOIL's new music took place at Sienna Studios — formerly Quadraphonic studio — a historic recording studio on Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee.

In 2023, SOIL celebrated its long list of compositional accomplishments with "Restoration", a brand-new set of studio recordings of the band's biggest hits throughout their prolific history. "Restoration" highlighted the band's best musical moments, including smash hit singles "Halo" and "Breaking Down", from SOIL's 2001 award-winning album "Scars".

In August 2022, SOIL released the "Play It Forward" album, consisting of some of the songs that inspired the bandmembers throughout the years. Prior to that, SOIL issued "Scream: The Essentials" in September 2017 via Pavement Entertainment and AFM Records. That effort celebrated the band's 20-year career and featured early recordings as well as alternate versions and mixes.

In March 2023, it was announced that SOIL frontman Ryan McCombs had rejoined DROWNING POOL.

McCombs is planning to continue to front SOIL and perform with both bands moving forward.