Drowing Pool lead singer Ryan McCombs spoke to Metal Monthly Journalist Deb Rao about the making of "Full Circle", how Drowning Pool keep the legacy of Dave Williams alive every night, with working with Nikki Sixx and DJ Ashba on "Full Circle", and how "Full Circle" represents the rebirth of the band.
Ryan, I had the opportunity to speak with a soldier at the Middle East show in Cambridge and she told me that they play your song,” Bodies" in training at boot camp. What are your thoughts about the controversy surrounding,"Bodies"?
MCCOMBS: "We have gotten a lot of questions about that. Rolling Stone magazine came out a while back and did a little poll with currently serving Troops over there in Iraq and Kuwait. "Bodies" was the Number one song on their list that the Troops spoke about using when they are preparing to go out on missions. We got a little bit of flack from that the media with questions,” How do you feel about your song being used in killing?" It is not really something that we view in that way. When you got these troops coming up to you saying, "Man we listen to your song, and it will get us in the right mind to go and do what we got to do", that is the way we look at it. If turning that song up, if playing that song gets them in the right mindset to go out there and to their job that they have to do and gets them home safe and sound, then by all means crank that thing up to eleven. Just get home safe and sound, so we can get together again and meet up at the bar and have a beer or something. The way we see it, if it is getting them through their day, that's awesome to be a part of their lives that way."
On December 4th, Drowning Pool released your second single,” Enemy". Tell me about this song. I know this song has a deep meaning for you. Is it true you wrote this song for your ex-band mates Soil?
MCCOMBS: "The experience that I had walking away from that situation definitely had a lot to do with my personal reasons from where the lyrics came from. I tried to write it in a way that anybody would fit their relationship when they tried to take a high road out of it and try not to sling any crap or anything and just try to walkway gracefully. At the end of the day, you are not allowed to. I tried to write it in a way, where anybody had been in a situation where there is a personal relationship. When I walked away from Soil, I cited family reasons for my sole reason for leaving. I didn't want to point any finger; I didn't want to talk about any of the hard feelings, or me having a hard time staying in that situation. I took the road that I took; I cited family reasons as my sole reason for leaving. But even in doing that, I knew I had my legs chopped off from underneath me, every turn I took by a couple members of the band. They took shots of my family and me on the Internet, and in written interviews for a long time. It was hard to keep my mouth shut, and it was for the rest of the band as well. But we did, we tried to take the high road away from the situation. But certain people, made it very hard to do that."
How did you join forces with Drowning Pool, after the death of Dave Williams?
MCCOMBS: "Yes, I actually met Davey, the original singer back in 2001 in Holland at an Ozzfest show in Amsterdam. Instantly Dave, and I just became best of friends in the business. I named my youngest son after him. Through him, I met the rest of the guys, I would always have friends back home who would say they would always have a difference in my voice when I would be on the road with the guys and we would be doing a festival together. At one point in time, we did a Damageplan/Drowning Pool/Soil Tour over in the U.K. and Europe. I just heard so many comments, on how they could tell I was much happier when I was around these guys. So when the opportunity came up, I left Soil, and then things kind of fell apart for Jason, C.J. and Stevie, they were looking for someone else to step in, about that time I had the music bug again, so it made sense to get together and to do it the way we wanted to years ago when Davey first passed."
You really kind of pay tribute to Dave every night onstage. When I saw you perform in Cambridge, I was really impressed by the respect that you had for Dave and how you didn't try to take his place but in fact just tried to sing the songs from your heart. In retrospect, how do you think you keep Dave Williams’s memory alive every night onstage?
MCCOMBS:" Even when I was in Soil, we had a lot of the same fans. So when Davey, first passed away a lot of fans would come up to me and asked,” Do you think it is right that they are keeping the name Drowning Pool?" Do you think they should even continue on as the same band"? I always felt Number one, being friends with everyone, it was a right to ask the other three guys that lived and bled for that Drowning Pool name just as much as Davey did if they wanted to give that up and just toss that name away. Number two take on that, I also understood what it meant to them to keep it alive as far as Davey went. Stevie put it best when he said, as a family, if you lose a family member you don't change your last name. I kind of felt the same way about that. Keeping the name Drowning Pool alive and out there in a way was also keeping Davey out there. Keeping his memory out there. We are all family, and Davey is still so much a part of that family that we can't help but pay homage to him every night. From that moment, when you are up there singing his songs, and playing the songs that he was a part of, we are keeping that memory alive. My biggest hurdle when joining this band, I knew I wanted to do it. I knew I wanted to be in a band with these guys, my biggest hurdle was knowing night after night that I was going to venture into some of these songs that were very personal to Dave. Actually, his parents kind of sat me down, and told me if anybody is going to do it, don't you think Davey would want it to be you? That was the final nudge that made me do this and go ahead with this to keep everything alive."
What did you learn as a performer from watching Dave Williams onstage? Did As a musician, what did he teach you that you will forever treasure?
MCCOMBS: "The one thing that Davey did night after night that I know and I saw myself that I always tried really hard to keep in hindsight was that he enjoyed everyday of what he did. He enjoyed every show; he enjoyed every day that he got the opportunity to do this for a living. Him and I, the dear friends that we were had very different personalities. I tend to be on the more serious side that Davey ever could have been. So I always try to keep a little piece of that in my head that no matter how much I miss home, how much I miss my kids, just to always remember that everyday that we get up here is the same blessing that Davey saw everyday that he was able to do it".
Ryan, that is so inspiring. How did you come up with the title,” Full Circle"? Would you day that it represents the rebirth of the band?
MCCOMBS: "Well yes, that was one of the names of all of the songs that we did and of course the title track and the first song on the album, and the guys just really liked that title because they felt like it was where the band was. The band was based around a family feeling with Davey, Mike, C.J. and Stevie they lived together, they worked together. They were with each other all the time. They were the closest kind of family that didn't share blood. They feel now that I am in the band it is back to being that way again. They feel the band has come "Full Circle". It was based on a family feel. Now they feel that it is back that way again. What kind of sealed it for us was when 9/11 came down there was a lot of back lashing in the music business. Definitely not the focal point of 9/11 but on the business side of matters when 9/11 came down there was a big backlash in the music world. A lot of songs got pulled off the radio; one of those songs was "Bodies". They viewed it as, a very negative song after the Towers and everything. Which was kind of frustrating, even as a fan at the time and a friend of the guys. I knew where that song came from, that song was written about the fans, that song was written about mosh pits and everything that goes with a heavy metal rock show. It was kind of homage to the band. Where as it was viewed as such a negative thing. After 9/11 it got pulled off the radio. So then all of a sudden, five years later to be sitting in Baghdad on the fifth Anniversary of 9/11 and playing that song for troops that pretty much adopted it as their theme, was kind of like once again, we had come "Full Circle and that was the song that we had to go with".
How did you approach the writing process for "Full Circle"?
MCCOMBS: I have been in the band for over two years. It is kind of weird to even think about it. It seems like time has flown by. We spent so much of that time cleaning house. We knew three albums, three singers that we really needed the strongest team behind us. So we wanted to get out of our record contract with Wind Up. We wanted to get out from underneath our management contact. So after a lot of legal matters and trying to work out the contract. We finally achieved that, but it took a considerable amount of time and elbowing and shoving to get everything done. So we were able to land with the team that we wanted to with this project. So during that process that this was going on, it kind of gave us the opportunity not only to write, but to also go out and do shows from time to time and kind of road test the shows. A lot of bands, you have that first album, and it is a hit album, a lot of times this is because these songs on the album the band had been playing for years and years. The songs that the band got signed for. So the songs had been tested in front of crowds. A lot of time, bands have that sophomore slump if you will, that second album which is a lot of times that slump because you write the record while you are on the road supporting your first record. All of a sudden you come off the road, and you are going right back in a studio and the next record you write in a month and you throw it out there. But in doing it the way we did, having all the legal issues that we had, it gave us the opportunity to road test the songs and really see what was working for our fans and what wasn't. This album was really written in a way, a lot of the bands right that first record and let them progress on their own natural path and really let each song become what it was to us.
Also, you collaborated with Nikki Sixx and DJ Ashba on the songs,” Light Another Candle" and "Reason I'm Alive". How did this transpire?
MCCOMBS: "That was awesome. It was a great opportunity. We had the record done. The record was written and completely turned in. We had a couple of weeks where we just sitting on our hands waiting for the guy that we wanted to mix the record. He was busy for a couple of weeks, after we were done recording. During that time, Alan Kovac our manager, he brought up the fact that Nikki contacted him and wanted to know if we would still be interested in doing something. I guess back in the day, when Davey was still in the band, they were going to do something with Nikki back then. They all knew each other and were going to do something. Then Davey passed away, and it kind of got shoved on the back burner and kind of forgotten about. So now that we were back at it again. We jumped on it. Even though the album was done. We thought nothing ventured anything gained. If nothing else it would be a hell of an experience to write with a legend like that. He was in the studio, out in LA doing the Sixx.A.M Heroin Diaries CD, at the time. So we just flew out there, and spent three days with him and DJ. It was killer. To be sitting in a circle with him and DJ bouncing ideas off of each other. There is that kid in you that wants to hear him talk about old stories. He kept everything so professional and was so awesome to work with. He never really strayed away from the job ahead. I mean at the same time, you have that little voice in the back of your head, hoping that someone has a camera because for Gods sake you are sitting next to Nikki Sixx. It was a neat experience. I hope to write some more material with him for the next album."
Now, Drowning Pool hails from Texas. You mentioned at your show that Texas was Dime's country. How did Dime influence you as a musician?
MCCOMBS:" He was a huge influence to Drowning Pool. Him and Davey were such close friends. They grew up trying to make it in that Dallas/Texas scene. Pantera was the band in Dallas, Texas. They broke out of there. They were the monsters of the Dallas/Texas metal scene. They really took the guys under their wings. They became really close friends. We are till very close friend with Vinnie. They were really good guys. I was blessed growing up having signed with Soil and being able to go out on the road. One of my very first tours was the Merry Mayhem tour with Ozzy, Rob Zombie and Mudvayne. You had the opportunity just like it was with Vinnie and Dime to be out there with people that had done it day in and day out and becoming very successful in doing what they do and realizing how to do it. What I mean by that is those guys are always such real people. They never had an ego about them. They never had a kind of get out of my way type personality. They were always were about making sure everyone around them had a good time and very professional about what they did. They were very open in helping everyone around them. It showed you the important aspects of what we really get the opportunity to do up there".
