DROWNING POOL's C.J. PIERCE Loves His Band's 'Sick' New Album 'Strike A Nerve'

DROWNING POOL guitarist C.J. Pierce spoke to Robert Cavuoto of Sonic Perspectives about "Strike A Nerve", the band's first new album since 2016, which arrived on September 30 via T-Boy/UMe. "We worked really hard on that record," Pierce said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "We spent a lot of time in the writing process and recording process. We recorded it a good three years ago — in 2019. So it's awesome that we finally have it out. We've been sitting on it for a good three years."

Regarding the decision to delay the "Strike A Nerve" release, C.J. said: "Everything stopped, as you know, with COVID — touring and everything like that. And we just waited it out until everything started to kind of clear up again, which it has this year. It's been great. We've been out the last few weeks, and the shows just get better and better. The response has been awesome on the record. Yeah, we had to hold out, man. We couldn't do much touring to support it."

Asked if his perception of the music has changed after sitting on the album for so long, C.J. said: "Not one bit. It's another thing where all four of us in the band, we really went over every song and every lyric, and all four of us agreed on every part that we were doing on the record. I know a lot of musicians are guilty of it, and I might be guilty of it with [some of] our records in the past, once you put it out and it's out and you listen to it, you go, 'Maybe I could have done this on this part or that on that part,' not so much to make it better or worse, just 'I could have added this or that.' But with this record, again, we recorded it three years ago, and I've been sitting at my house listening to it over and over again for three years. We started rehearsing for this tour coming up and we familiarized ourselves with the record, if you will. And I love it, man… I think it's a sick record."

In a separate interview with Glide Magazine, Pierce said that being without a label when "Strike A Nerve" was made resulted in a smoother writing and recording experience.

"In 2017, 2018, and 2019, when we recorded the record, we didn't have a record deal, and we were just recording it for ourselves," he said. "We were just looking to be independent. We paid for the record ourselves. We weren't under any guidelines. We've actually never been in a situation where we were told what to sound like, but this was us writing without any gameplan. We didn't know who we'd shop it to. We have a few friends who started their own independent labels under other labels, and it just happened with us that our manager happened to know people over at Universal, and they liked it. So we went with a Universal record deal. One thing about us, as well as being independent, is that we all write. We all bring songs to the table."

When "Strike A Nerve" was first announced in February, vocalist Jasen Moreno stated about the effort: "This record is so badass, it's perfect. It's the four of us doing what we do to the best of our abilities. The band is tight in every way. We're firing off on all cylinders. We're at the top of our game. There are all different ways of saying it, but it all amounts to the same thing — the results are just magic. From the way the record sounds, to the writing of it, to the production, to the look of it — it's just a perfect DROWNING POOL record. None of us could ask for anything more."

Pierce added: "'Strike A Nerve' is the most exciting and intense music from DROWNING POOL to date. We've stayed true to the core sound people know from us, but we've taken everything we do to another level. We've been writing music together for over twenty years — half of that with Jasen — and this album is more refined and more true to who we are than anything we've done before. Sometimes it's heavier than we've ever been, sometimes it's lighter, and sometimes we go in a direction that surprises even us — but it's always just brutally honest, and that comes through in every track."

Formed by Pierce, Stevie Benton (bass) and Mike Luce (drums) in Dallas, Texas in 1996, DROWNING POOL began as an instrumental trio, named after the 1975 film "The Drowning Pool". The group enlisted singer Dave Williams to join their fold three years later and the band signed with Wind-Up Records which released "Sinner" in 2001. Williams died tragically on tour August 14, 2002, stricken by hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, an undiagnosed heart condition. "Sinner" stands as his only studio album with DROWNING POOL.

"Strike A Nerve" was produced by Shawn McGhee and DROWNING POOL.