Backstageaxxess.com's Kris Engelhart has issued an interview conducted with SOiL vocalist Ryan McCombs, who talks about the band's new album Whole, touring, what brought him back to the band and more. An excerpt follows:

Q: Looking at your career, things seem to have come full circle for you, leaving Soil and joining DROWNING POOL and now back with Soil. How does it feel to be back with the band?

A: "It's good you know. The time away I think it allowed all of us to try and have that well, to have that time away. We spent so much time in the early days on the road together. We toured like real road dogs back in the day. Out of the first 13 months after the release of Scars I think we tallied up two to three weeks of time off that we actually had, actually in our own beds in our own homes. We spent every waking day together so I think the time away, it was just really exactly what we needed as human beings. We have a lot of fun together now. I mean we did a lot of growing up. We realize what's important and realized that the little trivial things that used to get on our nerves aren't so important. We have a lot of fun now."

Q: Now after so many years playing with Drowning Pool, what was the reason for your departure from that band?

A: "You know it's just me. I've got like this seven year itch thing. I was in Soil for seven years. I was in Drowning Pool for seven years. I was married for seven years. It just, honestly I'm a small town guy. I grew up in a small town in Indiana and the music industry is a pretty disgusting business. I think any big business is a pretty disgusting business probably when you delve into it. The music industry has just a lot of shady people involved in it. I just can't really stomach that type of person and being infested with so much of it. Sometimes you just need to step away and re-energize the old batteries and just get away from it for a little bit; which has happened to me too many times now. You need to step away from it and go back home and remember that people can generally be good but it just doesn't seem to be an industry that has much of that quality."

Read the full interview at this location.

Soil will hit the UK as direct support to reggae rockers SKINDRED starting January 22nd at UEA in Norwich England. This tour will be the first UK tour in support of Whole, available now through Pavement Entertainment and AFM Records.

"We are both excited and scared to tour the UK with Skindred" states Soil bassist Tim King. "Excited because Skindred are great friends of ours and it's been long overdue to tour together again. Scared because Skindred are great friends of ours and we will definitely be in danger of having too much fun and getting in too much trouble together!"

The tour schedule is as follows:

January

22 - UEA - Norwich, United Kingdom
23 - Mo'Club - Southampton, United Kingdom
24 - Rock City - Nottingham, United Kingdom
25 - Wulfrun Hall - Wolverhampton, United Kingdom
26 - Empire - Middlesbrough, United Kingdom
27 - ABC - Glasgow, United Kingdom
29 - Leadmill - Sheffield, United Kingdom
30 - 02 Academy - Bristol, United Kingdom
31 - The Junction - Cambridge, United Kingdom

February

1 - The Forum - London, United Kingdom
2 - Academy - Manchester, United Kingdom