25 Years of Drowning Pool: C.J. Pierce Talks Dragons, Lasers, and Kitchen Jam Sessions
Interview and photo credit: Blake Noelle
Ever since the band’s formation in 1996 in Dallas, Texas, Drowning Pool has been creating music and touring internationally, with their songs transforming into something bigger than the band and connecting generations of listeners.
They’ve survived numerous lead singer changes and enough chaotic experiences to fill a small library, if written down. I was able to meet with guitarist C.J. Pierce for a quick conversation before Drowning Pool and Saliva’s one-off show at The Rex Theatre in Southern Maryland, celebrating their 25 years of Sinner and Every Six Seconds Tour this fall.
Looking back on celebrating 25 years of Sinner, what’s your favorite way that you have grown as a band since its release?
“Well, when we have a miscommunication and stuff, we don’t really get physical and punch each other anymore. Grandad is still gonna get out of this chair though – walk on over, but you’re gonna be limping back. Then we talk it out. Okay, no, seriously it’s been awesome. I still can’t believe it’s been 25 years, you know? I mean, I was kinda blacked out drunk for half of it, so it’s really only been like five or six years to me.”
“Mike, Stevie, and myself, we’ve been friends since high school and we love playing music together. It’s just awesome to put on a show. We’ve always had this house party mentality and we still have that same kind of fundamentality on stage. It’s a rock show, man. When we play a show it feels like everybody’s in my house in my living room. Musically, you grow and you try to hone in on your craft and do better and it's awesome to see how we’ve developed. Obviously, we’ve had singer changes throughout the years, but we still have fun with it. That’s my favorite thing is that we still have fun and we enjoy playing music together and entertaining people.”
Tell me about the moment you realized that you were becoming something more than a local band.
“You know, I still have that local band mentality. I hung out in the scene and actually this past Wednesday, a friend of ours, Paco Estrada played and I just jumped in and did a couple acoustic songs. In my head, I’m still playing to everyone in my living room. I feel like if you get on stage and you have fire and dragons and lasers, then you’ve really made it. But we haven’t gotten to that point yet, so I’m still trying to get there.”
Pierce also shared that on several occasions he’s been out at karaoke and has been asked to sing “Bodies,” describing how the song takes on new meanings to him when he hears it from different perspectives. “When I wrote that song I was in a particular mindframe and when I play it live I feel one way but then when I listen back to it and enjoy it from another perspective, it’s a completely different song to me.”
What are some of your favorite tracks to play live?
Pierce immediately thought of “Follow” and “All Over Me” as his favorites to play live, despite the fact that the band hasn’t played them in a while. He mentioned how he liked the ‘jump’ feel of “All Over Me,” which was very reminiscent of the energy in “Bodies” to him. “Mute” was another favorite he brought up, relaying the time when Dave was still with the band, touring with Sevendust at the time, and the lead singer took a snow shovel that he found in the dressing room up on stage to use during the song.
“It's just so awesome to go play these songs and go back to the mindframe I was in when I was in my 20s writing these songs. It’s been inspiring too because we’re writing songs for the new record now and over time you evolve but playing these songs has been like coming back to home base.”
So I grew up listening to your music in my dad’s truck — how is seeing a new generation of Drowning Pool fans encouraging or inspiring your creative direction now?
“That is so fun and I appreciate it and I love it because I have no concept of time really. I wear a freaking watch and I am still always late for shit. I don’t know how all that time went by so fast; I feel like we just got here. I have fans come up to me and say ‘I was five years old in my mom’s car listening to “Bodies” and singing ‘I can only count to four.’ Can I buy you a shot?’ It’s just wild to hear. I never thought I’d be a family show, but we’ll do balloons for kids or whatever we gotta do because it's great to experience that with everyone across a whole generation of people. Because even though Sinner was put out by me and the dinosaurs, there’s always someone experiencing it for the first time and that’s really awesome.”
What’s the weirdest place you’ve ever heard “Bodies” that made you think: “How the hell did our song get here?”
“Well there’s a lot of parodies of it which is really cool, but we’ve also done a lot of collabs. We did a collaboration with Offset and JID for a rap version of the song and I love what they did with it. Then there’s this really badass producer BNYX that did a heavier version with it and we played it for Jimmy Fallon. To do this heavy rap version was so amazing and to play it with them on TV was just so cool.”
If the album Sinner was a picture of who you were in 2001, what does the 25th-anniversary tour say about who you are now?
“I’m not that far from what I was before. I’m definitely wiser, I would think, and I drink a little less, which is probably good. But playing Sinner 25 years later, as I said before, it really just takes you back to that fun time. The late 90s and early 2000s was such a fun time — there were a lot of great bands, a lot of fun music, and really great shows.”
Looking ahead, what’s next? Anything you are excited to explore creatively?
“Well, we went to the studio a few months ago to record eleven songs that we wrote for a record, but since we’ve been touring, we were influenced, so we went back to the studio about a month ago and wrote twelve new songs in eight days and didn’t even touch the original eleven. So I’m excited about what’s going to come out in the future. It definitely has the foundation sound of our band, but there’s a lot of cool stuff out today. Like Bad Omens is one of my favorite bands. We’re always gonna be a four piece plug and play rock band, but some of the ear candy programming in the background is going to elevate it and there’s going to be a new element to what we have coming up.”
Pierce went on to describe the band’s recording process. Rather than going to a studio, they rent an Airbnb and jam together in the kitchen. He says this helps them keep their creativity loose and maintain the “house party” feel in their music. They break off into different rooms and then come together in the kitchen to weave it all into a complete album. Since Sinner was born in a kitchen, Pierce sees this process as a sort of homecoming for the band that connects them to their roots while helping them stay innovative and fresh with their sound.
“At the end of the day, I just want to write songs that we can all relate to and have fun with. You don’t need to know the name of the band or the musicians in it as much as ‘I like that song and I enjoy it.’”
And for a fun one: do you have any crazy tour stories you’re allowed and willing to share?
The moral of the story is to never leave the tour bus without your phone and wallet. Otherwise, you might end up like Pierce getting left barefoot at a truck stop in Germany.
On a recent tour in Europe, Drowning Pool was driving through Germany when Pierce began feeling nauseous after taking medication for his Trigeminal Neuralgia (the moral of another crazy tour story involving fireworks). When he took a moment to step off the bus, they took off with his phone, wallet, and shoes still on board.
“So I sat out there all day long and these two Polish truck drivers were going through and saw the panicked look on my face. They didn’t speak any English and I didn’t speak any Polish, but we communicated enough to call the few numbers I knew, but everyone was sleeping. So they just start bringing beers and whiskey and I’m sitting at a truck stop from 6 am to 3 pm just wasted, wasted, stressing about this huge festival we’re supposed to play the next day. Then some dude comes up and goes ‘you’re CJ Pierce, right?’ So this guy picks me up at 3pm and we drove straight to the venue, I throw the guitar on me, go right onstage, and play the set. I didn’t miss the show…that’s a tame story.”
As a final remark, Pierce urged listeners to go to live shows, since the experience is something unable to be recreated or properly conveyed through recordings alone. Whether it’s a local band or a stage with fire, dragons, and lasers, go out and do your part to keep the rock music scene alive!