Last weekend, Drowning Pool played Sonic Temple Art and Music Festival in Columbus, Ohio.
CJ Pierce, guitarist of Drowning Pool, took the time to speak with us here at The Pit Media to discuss what would be expected from their set as well as what the future holds for Drowning Pool.
I took a minute to express my admiration and love for Drowning Pools contribution to the WWF Forceable Entry soundtrack from 2002. They wrote the song “The Game” for the record and it was used for a time by Triple H as his in-ring music. Pierce stated: “We’d like to do more one-off things like that”.
We caught CJ on the road while driving through Texas and asked what fans could expect from their then-upcoming set at Sonic Temple. Pierce said they are currently on tour with Saliva and they had played a show a few days before the festival.
He said the show was “awesome” and for the sets, “we always kind of mix it up. You’re still going to get Bodies, you’re going to get Sinner. You’re going to get a killer live show.”
Ryan McCombs recently came back in 2023 and we asked how the band dynamic has change since his return to the fold.
“It’s been 12 or 13 years,” said Pierce. “All of us have changed and were all different people now. We get along amazingly and communication has never been better in this band.”
He added, “we were going to come in and do a reunion show and festivals but we started writing music together and we didn’t skip a beat. We do have new music we’re working on in the studio a few weeks ago with three new songs already completed.”
The songs were not played at Sonic Temple but we can expect the songs to be released in the coming year with Ryan back at the helm. Ryan also plays in Soil while balancing vocal duties for Drowning Pool.
Over the years, Sonic Temple has gone through changes from the name (formerly Rock on the Range) to the set up. We wanted to know how CJ has viewed the changes from playing on the festival so many times.
“They have everything down and organized well,” he said. “Every time we play its smooth sailing for us. They have a great team of people and every time we play, the crowds get bigger and bigger as well. I still love going out and watching bands play and catching up with one another”.
Seeing all the bands on the bill, “we pretty much toured with them all but the awesome thing is to just catch up with everybody.” He said they just saw and hung with “Evanescence and the POD guys.”
Pierce expressed a love for playing live music, stating that if he was able to he’d play three shows a day.
With a very bright future ahead of the band, we wanted to know what we can expect from them?
“I’ve been focusing on what I can for the moment and also balancing touring, putting new music out, and family. All of that stuff is important because time and life are short. I’m not trying to force anything as far as where are we going to be. We have a lot of shows on the books so we’ll do those and put some new music out and see where that takes us”.
Drowning Pool is on tour with Saliva as well as playing their own shows and even making festival stops like Loud Than Life 2024, Aftershock 2024 and more.
