Fifteen year’s strong and still rocking hard Chicago titans Soil are back! "Re-LIVE-ing The Scars" is an all new CD/DVD release that was shot when the band was out touring across the U.K. during its 10th anniversary and frontman Ryan McCombs formerly of Drowning Pool had just reunited with the band and everyone was fresh and alive. So after that performance was shot the band went off to perform another round of shows out in the U.S. With this it lead to McCombs discussing his time with Drowning Pool and Soil and just how it feels to be back in the spotlight all over again. With that new material and more showcases should be happening soon but just how soon is soon enough?
1. Can you give us a brief summary as to how Soil got together?
Ryan: I believe it was back in 1997, Tom, Adam, and Tim were in a death metal band together and the fourth member Shawn was in another death metal band all from Chicago, but once getting together they wanted to do something more hard rock and metal of the stuff they grew up on than what they were doing with death metal. So they got together began writing were looking for a singer when Tim had came across a compilation CD of unsigned bands and at the time I was in one of those bands out in Indiana and contacted me and asked me if I wanted to try out some demos and write some stuff from there it took off.
2. Why did you want to go and call the band Soil?
Ryan: I have no clue. That name was picked out when they got a hold of me. It’s been a joke that I can never be in a band with a good name, whether it was Soil or Drowning Pool I could never get a good name.
3. What's it been like since reuniting with Soil?
Ryan: It’s been a blast and one thing it taught me is to say “Never say never”. It’s always been a dream to be in a dream and a great lesson in life being able to do the 10th year anniversary tour was a blast. I myself was getting to a point of wanting to do music again. In 2005 I was burnt out didn’t want to do anything for a while then we got some calls asking to do shows and it’s been a lot of fun and continuing to do it having smiles everywhere we go.
4. Can you tell me about the LIVE CD/DVD called "Re-LIVE-ing The Scars IN LONDON"?
Ryan: That was crazy it was more frightening to do than anything. Before the show started we didn’t even know it was being taped. We’ve always had the best market in the UK so that’s another reason for the 10th anniversary shows and whenever you play the UK you always end your shows with London. It’s where everyone is at basically but not this tour for some reason London was the first show. So this idea of recording it to a live DVD came so we had the drummer of Stain had all gotten back together so it was in front of everyone press, label, fans, but we had caught lightening in a bottle so luckily for us it was a great show. We had only a few songs after ending with “Halo” so we had walked off the stage going up the 3 flights of stairs to the green room, then the roadies and tech guys came up to us telling us that the fans weren’t leaving. So we went back out there and played a song that we had said we wouldn’t ever play live but we did and it was a magical night.
5. You of course had played shows out in the U.K. to celebrate the band’s 10th anniversary but did you take some time to actually celebrate as a band?
Ryan: No there’s still some hard feelings amongst the current line-up after me coming back. Me, Adam, and Tim are the only original members left so there are still different feelings remaining. So a complete reunion would be getting as close as it would get to the original set.
6. Do you have any upcoming touring plans?
Ryan: We decided to do some U.S. dates so I had felt pretty burnt out still and we love playing shows so we went with playing once or twice a month playing Thursday-Sunday or Thursday-Saturday. At the same time it gave us a time to relax at home so I was in Drowning Pool being on the road for the past 12 years was tough but good for me in a lot of ways.
So there’s been a lot more talk about writing and recording a new album. As long as we can do the next album the way we want so I see one coming so that would change the touring completely having to support it and all of that.
7. What are your songs about? (What specific themes do they cover?)
Ryan: Just living life like Iron Maiden and Metallica who take certain subjects from a book or history and be able to write a song about it. So I’ve never been able to do that so what I write it’s been about personal experience. When I was in Drowning Pool there was always that desire to write about a certain subject. Like I remember on the last Drowning Pool record I was asked to write the next “Girls Girls Girls” like Motley Crue’s but I had said I don’t write party tunes it’s not what comes naturally to me.
I write about my life and experiences so I had given them the closet I could get to what they wanted which was the song “Let the Sin Begin” that definitely had the lyrics from my personal life. I don’t know how to write any other way than about my emotions so that the people listening to it can take what I’m saying and relate to it. Like for instance Alice in Chains can be singing about soda and I could relate to it as a kid and what I was going through at that moment and always tried keeping an open eye to that with my writing and talking about situations or songs mean to them. That’s amazing in itself so with my ability of writing it’s been a blessing so a lot of people seem to hold stuff so doing this accomplishing to be able to help people is amazing.
8. You use to be in the band Drowning Pool but if the band were to ask you to come back for one show for one night would you?
Ryan: Hell yeah. Those are some good guys and put up with a lot than me. We parting ways had nothing to do with me feeling otherwise but I was getting to a point of being burnt out and being told where, when, and why it is what it is of what I do. It is a blessing to do what I’m doing for so many years is amazing. I’ve always been a fan of music since I was a kid and the business aspect of things it does take a great deal of time and years that come with this being on the road for 11-12 months so it gets to you and I have walked away from music and Soil had their issues and I had mine. So the strong desires to be with family and friends are there and it’s hard. But to go and do a show with those guys again yes I’d do it.
9. What inspires you to do what you do?
Ryan: I have no idea. My parents had always said I was always air drumming or air guitaring so outside the house they were all work but inside the house there was always music playing and my brother being 5 years older was into the hair metal days while my dad was into the rock music like AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, etc. I tried to get away from it and went to college and was a semester away from getting my associates degree so I met up with my dad we got lunch and we talked and I told him I was thinking of dropping out of school so he said do what you got to do and I headed up to Chicago to do my thing with Soil and it’s been crazy ever since.
10. What else can we expect to see from you guys for this year?
Ryan: Well as I mentioned it before and it’s a BIG if and the industry is messed up a lot, a lot of labels shutting their doors, bands, everything is struggling and not knowing how to make money anymore. So it’s hard to talk to fans when they ask you how much you make selling a CD or selling a song on iTunes you tell them then on top of that you have to explain to them well you don’t see anything until you cope the costs of recording and budgets. I myself have never seen penny one from the sales of music. So by saying that I have paid a lot of bills and other payments but I have never seen anything from the sales of records.
We’re trying to see what we want to do we see the fans supporting their artists by buying music. The songs are our product and if they don’t sell then we won’t be around anymore. But the ways the industry id set-up right now the musician isn’t seeing anything right now. So we’re trying to set it up so we can survive and the fans that are supporting us goes where they want it to go too. Its’ a hard thing to wrap your head around we want to continue to make music and do a record where it will work and there will be a new Soil record from the songs we have been working on but at this time it has to be done right.
11. Anything else you'd like to say or add?
Ryan: Thanks for your time I appreciate it and new to be talking about Soil again and neat that people like yourself remember us and give us a chance to be with the people who allow us to do what we want to do all over again.
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