P.O.D. (Payable On Death, for those who didn’t know) are a San Diego three piece known for fusing together Nu Metal with alternative styles including reggae, rap and occasionally Latino and modern metal should the mood take them. With influences ranging from Suicidal Tendencies and Primus to U2 and The Police, Run-DMC and Bob Marley, they’ve a vast range of genres to blend and have fun with when they’re making music. Having earned their stripes in the 90s Nu Metal prime time and being driven to keep creating and performing eclectic and diverse music, P.O.D. are now one of the most significant and unmistakable bands of their time. With their latest album, ‘Veritas’, they are showing no sign of slowing down or losing their edge.
‘We’re always looking for what’s right and for what’s true, what’s honest,’ explains Sonny. ‘Especially in this day and age; we wrote the record during the whole COVID period and a lot of the internal struggles that we’ve gone through as a band are in there. We started this band as young kids with the same hearts and mindset, and we’ve experienced life together. We agree to disagree on a lot of things, which makes us human and which makes us brothers. Especially now, we live in such a political world and a religious world. It’s just us looking for our truth. There are certain truths that we can’t deny or argue about, but everybody has their own version of truth.’
It’s a different sounding album again from most of P.O.D.’s previous offerings, which have ranged from pop-punk to hip hop, reggae and hardcore. A lot heavier, ‘meat and potatoes’ as Sonny describes it, ‘Veritas’ is gritty, raw, at times angst ridden and emotional, but above all, a powerful rock album that sticks two fingers up to adversity and leaves the listener feeling empowered and adrenalized. ‘There was a lot of flavour in ‘Circles’, the previous album,’ says Sonny. ‘What P.O.D. are best known for is experimenting with that whole kitchen rack of spices and mixing it all up. For ‘Veritas’ we stuck to the meat and potatoes with a little salt and pepper instead. It’s an album for those who simply want to rock out!’
P.O.D. worked independently for the first seven years of the band’s career, before signing to Atlantic Records when they decided to take the band to the next level. As teenagers, growing up in San Diego, life wasn’t always easy, and playing music, jamming out at backyard parties, was something that allowed some respite and positivity into life. ‘I lost my mother when I was just 19 years old,’ Sony explains, ‘and the band was something fun to do at that time to keep my mind from going crazy, I was going through so much stuff. We never thought we’d get out of San Diego – it wasn’t like we quit our jobs and thought ok, we’re going to make it! I had not planned any of this, but so many things happened to send me in that direction I thought that, spiritually, this must be what I was supposed to do. I had something to say, and this was the way to say it. I never considered myself a singer, I still don’t! But we were the perfect band for that time, in the hardcore scene, and the fact that we did all this independently gave us the foundation we needed. We’re just a bunch of kids from the ghetto, we come from struggle and trials, none of us are really built for all that Hollywood nonsense! We never rode the elevator to success; we took the broken staircase!’
Despite the levels of success P.O.D. have achieved, Sonny still refers to the band as ‘blue collar’ – in that they are a hard-working band, they don’t earn megabucks, and they don’t expect anything to be handed to them on a plate. Sonny has genuine reasons, aside from the love of it, for taking the band forward that are far from materialistic. ‘All these years later, with all those millions of records sold, you’d think we’d be at a time where we’d say let’s just coast for a bit. I could have quit a long time ago,’ he reflects, ‘there’s a cost to all this, time away from your family, your loved ones. Every time I’d say – this is the last tour, the last album, I’d find myself walking from a venue to the bus, and there’s people there wanting to tell me their story, about how much our music means to them. There are kids talking about quitting heroin, coming back from thoughts of suicide, cutting themselves, all saying how the music helped them change their lives around. And we relate to that, we were on that side of the world once. I wouldn’t still be here, thirty-two years later, if I hadn’t seen the impact this band and this music has on just one person. I have far more of an investment in humanity, in goodwill and the love of God, than I do economically in a bank account.’
‘Being a man of faith, to me, there’s so much more to this than just entertainment, rock and roll. I see it as a responsibility, to help people, the betterment of your neighbour, and this is the means to do it. I’m not a poster child for the Institution of Christianity, my faith is about helping people. It brings me joy to be able to give back, to pay attention, to serve. It makes us appreciate how lucky we are to still go around the world, at our age, and still play these shows. We take nothing for granted. Every time we get off stage, we look at each other and go – what an honour, what a privilege it is to do this. I hope we go on as long as we can!’
Words by Victoria Llewelyn
Photo Credit: Alicia Hauff
