DROWNING POOL : FIREWATER BAPTISM

-Stevie : We were pretty surprised, we never expected that, selling more than a million records ! We talked about that, the idea of making the it, how cool it would be to do a record after a year of touring, and hoping to sell a few hundred thousands was our goal, but in the first few months, the record sold nearly one million, it’s totally overwhelming ! We never excepted a kind of success like that, and never expected « Bodies » to be a hit !

-Sinner is apparently, with another song called « Sermon », a direct attack against religion, but what are the other themes in « Sinner » ?

-CJ : In fact, it’s kind of like Dave’s view on growing up in the States, there are lot of religious groups that force religion on you somewhat, that say that if you dance, you’re gonna go to Hell, shit like that, so the song is kind of directed toward that attitude, if you dance, if you have a beer or go to rock shows, it’s what is in that song, basically...

-Stevie : And about the hypocrisy of organized religions, basically ; I would say he writes about that a great deal.

-CJ : Not that religion is bad, believe what you wanna believe.

-Stevie : So many religions have so many different rules, it’s just very hard to follow, and doesn’t make many sense to me, anyway. I you drink, you have sex, you’ll go to Hell : just never got into it too much...

-You’re close, musically and personally, from Pantera, and you share the same principals : four members, no keyboards and a simple formula : loud rock’n’roll. Is Pantera a kind of model for you or just friends?

-CJ : We’re good friends of them, they're definitely one of the bands we have listened to, and we’ve listen to lots of different bands : Motley Crue, Kiss and Van Halen, but I don’t think we really modeled on songwriting after them, we just write like we like to write. We like to plug in and play, instead of having all this electronic stuff and shit going on ; not that I am against it, but we’re not just about that : we’re just good old fashion rock show !

-Stevie : Musically, we don’t really sound anything like Pantera but, we share their attitude, how they’re drinking, having a good time we have that very much in common with them.

-Drowning Pool, the movie, is where the band take his name : who’s got the idea of it ?

-Stevie : I was telling them a story, about how when I was in high school, first I ever got laid and this movie was on the TV. It has nothing to do with it, but we had a good laugh about it, and at the same time we were looking for a name for the band. It was a joke at first and then we’ve got kind of used to it, so we decided to keep it.

-CJ : It sounds to me like a problem when you have to pick a name for a band !

-Stevie : Me too ! That’s why we are lucky to have this story, we could have been called Wizard of Oz, whatever.

-Are you big movie fans ?

-Stevie : Oh yes, we try to go each time we can on the road, and we have tons of DVDs too.

-Talking about that, you’ve got a Billboard music award for your video of « Bodies » : how do you feel about this price?

-Stevie : Very much surprised too ! We never won anything before, even for local contests in Dallas, so win a Billboard award was pretty exciting. We didn’t even know we were nominated until a couple of days before the awards were given, so we were very excited knowing that !

-Do you like to shoot videos ?

-Stevie : Yeah, it is fun.

-CJ : A lot of fun. Cool.

-Tell us about your second video : « Sinners ».

-Stevie : The video for « Sinners » is based on the seven deadly sins. It’s only a two and a half minutes song, so it's difficult to squeeze in all seven, we have just 3 or 4 in it. It’s just us in a pool, playing, getting rained on, freezing cold.

- CJ: The pool is filled with mud, kids are slamming around.

- Stevie: And there's people doing some bad things.

-You have two songs in movies soundtracks : « Sinners » in « The one » by Jet Li and « Follow » in Proskater 3 de Tony Hawks : any projects of a full score ?

-Stevie : we have another song on the soundtrack for a movie called « The scorpion king », a song we recorded at the same time that we did « Sinner » but which is not on the record ; it fits with the whole thing of the movie ; it’s called « Breaky » and comes out in the States in March I think. We certainly like our songs taken for movies, when we saw « The one », with « Bodies » playing in it, it was pretty cool to watch that !

-What bands are references for you ?

-CJ : Man, there’s a big list, we listen to a lot of things : I grew up influenced by Kiss and Led Zeppelin, old school metal bands, Motley Crue, Iron Maiden, and jazz and blues, Lenny Kravitz, and a lot of bands coming out now, like Static X, Mudvayne, they kick ass ! The Beatles...

-Stevie : And the Beatles, of course, all the eighties metal bands, Sevendust...

-The first Lp which kicked your ass ?

-CJ and Stevie, together and without hesitation : « Shout with the Devil » by Motley Crue ! ! !

-Stevie : I was at the perfect age when the record came out and it had quite an impact. And I like the image, too, the old pictures of Motley Crue covered in blood, clothes torn up...

-And would you like to do shows like that, with make up and something theatrical ?

-CJ : Yeah, it would be fun to do something like that, I would like to work on a big stage show, bring that kind of stuff back.

-Stevie : ...All covered in blood...

-CJ : ...Blood, fires, naked girls !

-Stevie : Covered with girls ! Blood and naked girls !

-CJ : Bloody naked girls wouldn’t be bad !

(after a big laugh, back to business...)

-« Sinner » is produced by Jay Baumgardner (Coal Chamber, Orgy, Papa roach...) how did you meet him ?

-Stevie : We had a list of producers we would have liked to work with and get in touch with him. At this time it really worked out well, he went to see us play, he liked some of the songs, and everything has been pretty easy : we met Jay, fly away and make a record with him ! He a very good guy, great deal !

-The meeting with Sevendust has been essentiel when you started ?

-CJ : I think that we they did for us, take us on the road to perform shows, and we were just a local band in Dallas and this was the first professional band we have played with. A professional band, their influence is like that, to step up a little bit, write better songs and stuff. So their influence has been very important, that made us a better band.

-Tell us about your experience in the Ozzfest last year !

-CJ : Oh, man it was awesome, the most amazing thing we’ve done

-Stevie : Ozzfest was crazy because it started at the same time our record came up, so during the first week of the Ozzfest we were unknown ; we were playing pretty early everyday, and, toward the end, we were main support because « Bodies » came out and everybody came up very fast, it was a mob when we played, it was awesome !

-CJ : Yes ! Two weeks after the tour started, you’re the next thing people want to see ! All was very fast. During « Bodies », people were moving like waves !

-Stevie : At the beginning of our shows, people didn’t have any clue about who we were, and then : « Oh my God, that’s this band ! No shit ! ». We could see the recognition on their faces when we went into « Bodies », that was pretty cool !

-Are you Internet users ?

-Stevie : Oh yes, I try as often as possible, whenever I have a day off, I get on it...

-Is the website for the band, important tool ?

-Stevie : Definitely : we keep a tour journal on it, people know what we do and where we are, it keeps the kids involved and we have also a message board, so people can post all kind of crazy stuff : ten per cent of it is true and the rest is like a soap opera, it's pretty funny. I love reading that thing.

-CJ : It doesn't have anything to do with us, it's just people bad-mouthing each other. It's kinda weird, it's funny.

-And do you think that, in the future, websites could be an alternative for the press magazines on paper ?

-Stevie and CJ : Oh yes, completely !

Stevie : When I was a kid, I wished that bands I loves, Motley Crew and Maiden etc, had a website : if Motley Crew had had a tour journal, oh man, I would have been on it every single day !

CJ : It’s tough, because we don’t have time to get on it, ‘cause we’re really busy : second I get time on it, I have to go !

-What do you listen at the moment ?

-Stevie : Mostly the Beatles, they are my favorite band of all times, so I always have a couple of their CDs. We heard the new Down last night, it’s really very very good...Recently, I listened to Tool a lot...

-Next step for Drowning pool ?

-CJ : Come back here, to do all festivals in summer.

-You will do the European Ozzfest ?

-Stevie : We don’t know, because in the States, it’s different from here, where you have to book show by show : in the US, they offer you the whole tour. We have been offered some of the dates, three or four so far, but we’ll definitely do it.

-Anything else ?

-Stevie : Well, say something profound to finish !

-CJ : Something profound ? I hope that everybody dig the record. Is that profound ?

-Stevie : Deep !

-CJ : Is that deep ? I hope people will like the record and en joy the show, check it out !

-The concert is sold out tonight !

Stevie : Oh, it is ? So, thank you everybody for awarding us, we hope to come back in your country !

Interview by JP Coillard and Mister X.

Disco : « Sinner », the album, on Wind Up / Sony Epic

Official Website : drowningpool.com