DROWNING POOL : HEAD ABOVE THE WATER...

-Right after what happened, we moved back to Dallas, got a place together, and pretty much shut ourselves in for months, we didn't do much for a long time, didn't see anyone or talk to anyone. Then, probably after five or six months of that, we started to do things again, to rehearse together and write songs again, it was therapeutic to start playing again, but after the three of us got back together, it took a long time to be able to bring other singers in for auditions. That’s what made the whole process take so long : two years before we could get it all together again. At first, we brought in a few guys for auditioning, but those poor guys didn’t really have a chance, because we just weren’t ready, so these guys would come in and we'd play with them and it wouldn't work. It took us a long time to get it together, unfortunately, but hopefully, things will get better for us, from now on.

-At the time, were you decided to continue Drowning Pool or did you consider joining other bands or else ?

-No, first of all, Dave had just died, the four of us were as close as we could be, and not being able to play with Dave anymore, the last thing I wanted was to not be able to play with Mike and VJ anymore either, so the three of us decided to stay together, and we debated about whether or not we would keep the name, and automatically it came down to the fact that if we changed the name, it would have been the end of everything we worked on so long with Dave, so we decided to keep the name to honor Dave. It’s just two years after his death, and because we kept the name, people still talk about it, we still do interviews where people talk about him, so, to us, it’s like keeping his name alive. Some people might disagree with this way of doing things, but that’s what we decided, it’s up to us !

-Last year, you released a DVD, ‘Sinema’, with the intention to raise money to buy a house for Dave’s parents : did you succeed in doing it ?

-Wind Up, our label in the US gave Dave’s folks money to build a new house : I think, last time I talked to them, probably a week before we left, they were just getting ready to start building a house. I don’t know how long it takes to build a house, but I can’t wait to see it ! They build a new on land they already own, so with the money they’ve got, they should be able to build a really nice place out there.

-And then, Jason Jones arrived in the band : how did it happen ? He sent some tape ?

-Well, we had a lot of mutual friends who put in a really good word for him, and then we’ve got this tape from him, we really liked it and we decided to bring him up to Dallas to audition, and the audition for us was like that : he came in one night, we went through some songs that we had agreed upon, and then we took him up that night to a strip club down in Texas, got him really loaded, he was drunk out of his mind, we made him get up the next day, come in and sing the whole thing again to make sure he could pull that off, and he did a really good job with it, so it felt right at the time. We still give him a hard time : it’s the new guy : can’t make it easy on him, it has to be tough ! He's gotta hate it !

-Today, you have this new Lp out, ‘Desensitized’ : what is the general feeling of it, the main inspiration,
lyrically, musically, and the main differences for you with ‘Sinner’ ?

-It’s a big difference : when we made the first CD, at the time, we were just a bar band in Dallas, just playing on the week ends, for beer money basically. We made the first record in L.A, so we were spending half the time in studio and half the time partying out there on the Strip, it has been crazy. By the time we made the second record, we had toured around the world for two years and a lot of stuff happened to us, including of course Dave’s death, so there’s a lot of life experiences that went into that second record, plus we made it in Chicago, in the middle of winter, with negative 20 degrees outside, so we spent the duration working in the studio the entire time, there wasn’t time to fuck around as when we made our first record. So every second of this CD has been tooled over and over analyzed just to make sure it was the best that we could do at that moment : we played every song of that CD a million different ways and what came out is basically the best we could have done ; what we’ve been through is what we were feeling, so, no one can say the CD is bad, that would be like saying that what we were feeling was wrong : you can’t really say that, unless you lived it. To any critics out there, who don’t like our CD, that's what I would say.

-How did you choose Johnny K. for the production ?

-We had a list of four, five guys that we really liked, and it was really more a question of time than anything else : of those four or five guys, he was the one that was available at the right time. The planets were aligned for us to go with John and I'm glad we did. It was great to work with him. He’s got a loft and a studio and we all lived right there, and he spent eighteen hours a day working on the CD with us, so we could be happy to work with him : it’s a great guy !

-How did you choose the girl on the cover and what is the meaning of this title ?

-The title, ‘Desensitized’, is exactly how we were feeling at the time, completely numb to everything that was going on around us. The girl on the cover is the girl from the ‘Step up’ video, that we made before the album cover. She’s a great chick and we had a great time working with her, she’s so beautiful. The cover is meant to be a kind of throwback to some of the eighties covers, if you remember the cover of Warrant’s ‘Cherry pie’, mixed with the Motley Crue vibe, that’s why we put pentagrams on there : completely eighties vibe. We’re children of the eighties, so we can’t help it !

-Talking about that, it seems you worked on movie soundtracks : first, you recorded ‘The man that you fear’, with Rob Zombie, for the Daredevil soundtrack : at any moment was he supposed to become the new Drowning pool member ?

-No, it was just for this song ! I have heard that rumor a little bit too, but Rob has his own career, why would he hook up with us ? He just did it as a favor to us. We were doing this song for the soundtrack anyway before Dave’s death, that was the next thing we were working on and then Dave passed away. We wanted to keep our spot on the soundtrack, just to give us something to do, to pass the time, because suddenly, we were sitting at home, so it kind of gave us the opportunity to work a little bit and try to have a good time. And it was fun, it was cool, Rob was great.

-And today, you have the song ‘Step up’ for the Punisher soundtrack : more projects in movies ?

-Yes, always, that’s the thing to do : if you’re in a band, being on a soundtrack is the best thing that can happen to us because the movies pay pretty well for songs, and being in a rock band, you don’t make that much money from your own album sales unfortunately, you have to sell a lot of records to make any money but those movies come up and you have a nice paycheck at the top. We have lawyers and managers to pay for, so, every once in a while, it’s nice to get a little movie paycheck ! But also, it’s fun too, try to mold your song to fit into a movie, it’s kind of a different way of writing songs, it’s a nice change, always get to challenge yourself for the right stuff. To write a score would be a huge responsibility and a huge project ! But, in the future, that’s a major undertaking, I’m sure !

-A few records which changed your life at one point ?

-Motley Crue’s ‘Shout at the Devil’ : when I first heard that record, when I was 12, 13 or so, at that point of my life, all I had been listening to was the Beatles, they were my favorite band, and as far I a was concerned, that’s the only music there was. And when I was that age, a friend of mine gave me ‘Shout at the Devil’, that hit me at the right time, and I fell in love with Motley Crue. Metallica’s ‘Master of puppets’ was a huge one for me. The first Alice in Chains record.

-Did you discover great stuff recently ?

-Before we got on tour, I discovered the last In Flames record, that’s the most recent one. And a brand new band called Shine Down.

-The Internet ?

-I use it a lot, I have to go there and make sure they don't talk bad about me. I’m on it quite a bit, whenever I can, whenever we get to have a dial-up service on the bus ; every once in a while. I’m pretty much computer-illiterate, though : I can type an E-mail address, a website address, that’s about the best I can do !

Interview made in Paris, May 31st 2004

Thanks to Marion, from Sony/Epic.

Photos Dr

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