Primal Therapy

Last year's Ozzfest was a huge turning point for Dallas, TX band Drowning Pool. This quartet of Southern rockers was exposed to a vast new audience via a side stage slot at 2001's traveling nü-metal bonanza, and people went nuts for Drowning Pool's straight-ahead hard rock sound.
As a self-described old-school style rock band, Drowning Pool is one a few metal band currently blowing up that doesn't have a DJ, two frontmen or a freaky alter-ego. Their music is, similarly, steadfastly straightforward, a tried and true rock mix of bass, drums, guitar and vocals that, unlike many other nü-metal acts, employs actual song structure, melody and dynamic changes - and manages to do so without sounding like System of a Down or the Deftones. Drummer Mike Luce and guitarist CJ Pierce are New Orleans natives who moved to Dallas to play music with bass player Steve Benton. The trio recruited charismatic lead singer Dave Williams and the quartet began playing out. The band landed tours with Sevendust and Kittie based on the strength of a demo, and after some time on the road winning over fans, Drowning Pool signed to indie label Wind Up Records (home to Creed) and released their debut, Sinner.
Currently traversing the nation on their first headlining tour, a Jägermiester-sponsored outing that marks Drowning Pool's first time as headliners, the hard working crew of Texas rockers is gearing up for their second year on the Ozzfest - as main stage performers. On a recent stop in Massachusetts, Drowning Pool drummer Mike Luce fielded a few questions about the band's place in the nü-metal genre.

How's the tour going?
Good, it took a couple of days to step into some bigger shoes. This is our first headlining tour, and this is Jägermiester's first fully sponsored tour, so we're all working out the little kinks as we go. But it's shaping up, and it's really good. There were a few [glitches] that happened in the first couple of dates, but the shows have all been good. We're just super critical of ourselves. Being up on stage with the same guys and the same crew every night, you know what you're all capable of.

It seems like you guys pick up most of your fans on the road, most notably on last year's Ozzfest tour. How much more explosive is the music in a live setting than it is on the album?
We pride ourselves on coming across as a higher caliber band when we play live. We want to prove ourselves live, and hopefully it comes across that way. We've been told that we're heavier live, which is totally what we're going for. We didn't write the album sounding one way and then go out and play another way, it's just that we're kinda evolving a bit. We've always considered ourselves just a heavy rock band, and we've always wanted to be a metal band, like a throwback to the old days of Maiden, the Crüe, Van Halen and stuff like that, but actually, we're still working towards that and it's a continuous process. If someone comes out to see us, they're definitely gonna get more out of seeing us live than listening to the CD. I mean, the CD can stand on its own - we think it's okay, it's decent, it's good and we're proud of it - but we've always wanted to prove ourselves by being road dogs, out there playing live every night. That's the way it was back in the day and that's what keeps what we're doing real and honest, and that's what we've always wanted to be. Even before we had a record deal, we always set goals for ourselves based on things like how far we could take the band driving-wise, how far we could get before we all had to be back at work on Monday morning. We've always been about pushing ourselves and being in the public eye.

What about the way you guys write songs sets you apart from the nü-metal pack?
This might not sound like a glorious answer, but just being the drummer I can say that we bring our respective voices to the table, we all write together. Nobody comes up with one part and then dictates to the rest of the band, we all nurture each other…of course, someone might have a theme or an idea and we'll all come in and piece something together based on that. I guess if I had to say what I think it is that sets us apart, it's that we're trying to bring back that old school mentality. We want to be a metal band. Whether we are or not still remains to be seen, but everybody kind of dodged the whole metal tag for a while because people relate that to hair bands. But you know, those are our roots, that's where we came from and we aren't afraid or ashamed to say that. It's the honesty, there are four of us - drums, bass, guitars and vocals - and there's no smoke-and-mirrors up there, we do it the old school way. We got a wall of huge fuckin' amps on either side of the drum kit and we idolize bands like Maiden and Motley Crüe and Kiss; people who put on a show, but their music was able to stand up on its own, too.

One aspect of your music that is immediately noticeable is that it lacks the hip-hop influence that is commonplace in a lot of nü-metal these days.
That's just not us. I don't think we could play it if we tried…well, CJ and I definitely could. We're from New Orleans, CJ used to be in a jazz ensemble band, and he and I were in a progressive jazz band together with a fusion bass player at one point. We looked at it as bettering ourselves because to pigeonhole yourself by sticking your head between one certain set of headphones and only listen to one type of music can really kind of stunt your musical grown, whether you're just a fan of music or a musician. So coming from New Orleans, we grew up with a lot of that stuff - jazz, rhythm & blues, hip-hop, Dixieland, Zydeco, there's just so much stuff down there - but we're truly just rock fans down to the bone, which is why we left New Orleans for the rock scene in Dallas at that time. We steer clear of the hip-hop just as we steer clear of trying to be a Pink Floyd or a Led Zeppelin band. It's not anything that comes out of us and it's not anything that we would force ourselves to play. I just don't think it would fit us.

There seems to be a lot of anger in metal. Are you guys angry?
No, we're not angry at all. We're four smiling jackasses, to be quite honest with you, and we're very happy because we have the best jobs in the world. So what do we have to bitch about? Some of the undertones to some of the songs on our album might have aggressive approaches or maybe negative vibes in the lyrics, but that's just like getting some stuff off your chest. I mean, I play drums and if you break that down into basic terms, I hit things with sticks, which is a very primal form of therapy. And believe me man, if something's pissing me off, I go and play some drums and I'm playing the best drums I'm gonna play until I get mad again. It's a very good form of release, whether it's pent up anger, aggression or if you've just got a big "fuck you" that you wanna tell somebody in a song. It's the perfect outlet for Dave, and sometimes he gets people reading a little too far into what he might saying, but if you're gonna write about failed and broken relationships or ill-fated ventures into religion, you're probably not gonna have many nice things to say about 'em.

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