INTERVIEW: On new single, Drowning Pool enters the ‘Madness’
Photo: Drowning Pool’s new single is called “Madness.” Photo courtesy of the band / Provided by O’Donnell Media Group with permission.
Drowning Pool, the metal band that has been going strong for decades, is gearing up for a successful 2025 and 2026, and the band’s anthem over the next few months will be the recently released single “Madness.” This banger of a tune marks the first new music of the year for DP and a welcome return of former vocalist Ryan McCombs to the band.
For Drowning Pool, it’s been a busy time these past few months. They toured Europe with Godsmack and P.O.D., and they are playing Inkcarceration in July and Alcatraz in August. Other than those two festival dates, the metal band has also announced a headlining tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland later this year, with scattered dates throughout 2025. North American dates should be forthcoming.
“It’s going amazing right now,” said guitarist C.J. Pierce. “It’s awesome. … Several things were going on at the same time. Ryan rejoined the band, and he stayed at my house. And we wrote some songs together, and we had a lot of ideas on the table. So it was like, trying to figure out which one we’re going to put out first.”
It was important for Pierce and the band to make a solid first impression with the reintroduction of McCombs. “Madness” is a tune that looks out at the world’s problems and asks listeners to embrace the chaos and find their own way through the craziness.
“It’s kind of like a fight song for us, with the whole business and our whole career, what we’ve gone through,” Pierce said. “To get through all that stuff, to get your art and music out there, is like a fight. It’s kind of maddening the way things are in the world, especially in the music business, but everything in general. It’s like a fight song.”
“Madness” came together quickly for Pierce. He said he needed only 3-4 minutes, and the riff worked itself out. He almost feels like the tune was already written in his mind, and he just needed to find it. One influence was Pantera’s song “Cowboys From Hell.”
“There’s this really cool riff at the end of ‘Cowboys From Hell,'” he said. “It’s always a cool way how they end ‘Cowboys From Hell,’ and I think the inspiration definitely started from that, on top of what was going on in my personal life as far as the fight and challenge for all of us. It just started like that. It’s such a powerful song, and I love the breakout part. It’s like ‘MADNESS!’”
Drowning Pool is known for songs with extreme energy, killer riffs and lyrics that help listeners process the madness that Pierce talks about. Past tunes include “Bodies,” “37 Stitches,” “Tear Away” and “Feel Like I Do,” among others.
“You have to stand up for what you believe,” Pierce said about his musical ethos. “My rules, my way, let’s play. I got put in this position in my life where I’m at now, which I’m grateful and thankful for, that we’re still playing and rocking out. We are self-management now, and we have a great partnership with Shan [Dan Horan] and SBG Records. Ryan’s back in the band, and we’re having great shows. We just got off tour with Godsmack and P.O.D. It was awesome. It was arena rock shows again. I just want to go out there and put on a great show. We came to the party, and we’re going to host the party and make sure we have a great time with it, and it’ll happen every night. It’s amazing.”
That European tour with Godsmack and P.O.D. was a memorable run of shows for Drowning Pool. Pierce said he believes the gigs were exactly what the band needed because they were reacquainted with rock fans and metalheads on a continent that has been good to the band over the years.
“It was so great,” the guitarist said. “Godsmack and P.O.D., we’ve toured together off and on for the last 25 years. The whole camaraderie, if you will, we’ve all known each other, not just the bands, just us, the crew guys, everybody there, the whole thing. We’re going to come to your town, and we put on a whole show, all these bands. We started the set out. P.O.D. takes it up to the next level, and Sully [Erna] and Godsmack put on a big super f—ing pro rock show. It was amazing to bring that there and to have that moment.”
He added: “It’s been 25 years, and we have fans that are the same age as us. My son is 25 years old. I’m not going to try and age myself here, but to have everybody in the house every night and just putting on a freaking rock show man, it was amazing. It was awesome to connect with everybody and be in a different freaking country every day. It’s wild, man. Heavy metal is alive and well in Europe.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Drowning Pool’s new single is called “Madness.” Click here for more information.
