DROWNING POOL guitarist C.J. Pierce has come out firmly against using artificial intelligence to write music, framing his objection partly as a matter of craft and partly as a reflex bred in the 1980s.
"I'm definitely against all that stuff, especially growing up in the '80s and stuff and watching 'Terminator' movies," Pierce told "The Seth Williams Show."
His central argument, though, is about authorship. "I'm not gonna have somebody else write what I feel for me. That's nuts," he said. Pierce allowed that A.I. can function as a tool in narrow contexts, but insisted the value of songwriting lies in the process itself — "the journey of learning stuff yourself" — rather than in the finished object.
It is a debate that has spread quickly across heavy music over the past two years, with everyone from label executives to touring musicians staking out positions as generative tools become cheap and ubiquitous. Pierce's stance puts him alongside the majority of his peers in the genre, most of whom have treated A.I.-generated songwriting as a line not to cross even while accepting machine assistance in mixing, mastering and artwork workflows.
The comments arrive as DROWNING POOL prepare a fall run marking 25 years of Sinner, their 2001 debut. The album entered the Billboard 200 at No. 14 and went platinum inside three months, largely on the back of "Bodies" — a song that has since been recycled by films, video games, sports broadcasts and professional wrestling to the point of near-ubiquity. It remains the only DROWNING POOL record made with vocalist Dave Williams, who died in August 2002.
The band will co-headline U.S. dates with SALIVA from October 8 through October 25, playing Sinner in full, with limited-edition anniversary vinyl sold exclusively at the merchandise booths on the tour. A reissue campaign through Craft Recordings in June already covered the album on vinyl and in an expanded digital edition.
Work is also under way on the band's eighth studio album — the first new material since 2022's Strike A Nerve — with guitarist Pierce, drummer Mike Luce and bassist Stevie Benton still in place a quarter of a century on.