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The Dillinger Escape Plan.
 "Chaotic"
and "screamo" are the first words I can think of to describe
The Dillinger Escape Plan. Their 1999 debut album 'Calculating
Infinity' set everyone talking about their unique amalgam of
metal, chaos and hardcore. Guitarist Ben Weinman laughs as he
describes their recent performance at the South By Southwest
conference in Texas and the confusion amongst some people after
seeing them play.
" That was interesting because it's more of an industry thing which is always kind of weird for us, but we enjoy playing to those sort of people sometimes because they don't know what to expect. Most of the bands who were playing at this conference are being courted by big record labels or are big hype-buzz bands. Most of them are in the vein of the Strokes, The Hives, the White Stripes or something like that, so it's cool to play in those types of environments and see people confused."
It's not surprising that they confuse audiences. After all, during their set at last year's Reading Festival lead singer Greg Puciato gave his opinion on modern music by taking a shit on stage. "It certainly wasn't part of our show and to be honest with you I had no idea he was going to do it," Weinman laughs. "I think it was more of a statement because it was one of the first times we were playing with a bunch of mainstream bands. Everybody on that stage had sold at least a million records, except us. We were in a situation where there was a lot of kids who weren't used to music like ours and a lot of bands up there that were more about outfits, masks, costumes, lights and other things. In our opinion they were more concerned with the glamour side than making music. I guess it was more of a statement of 'you want shit, here's shit'. That's the point he was trying to get across, the frustration we've had with the music industry.
"Most bands [we play with], aside from enjoying some of the same influences, we don't compare to at all. We've talked to them and we're even friendly with some of them, but most of these bands have not been touring long and as soon as they sign a record deal they get on a tour bus, open up for a huge band and eventually they're headlining in an arena. We've been touring for six years and going from playing in front of three people to playing in front of a thousand people. We've been doing it for so long on our own drive."
One of their musical collaborations featured the phenomenal talents of Mike Patton who performed a few shows with them and featured on the 'Irony Is A Dead Scene' EP. When asked why they didn't bring Mr Patton out for the tour the answer was fairly straightforward. "He cost too much and we couldn't afford to rent him a private plane," Weinman chuckles. "It was really just a collaboration while we were trying to figure out a vocalist situation. A number of years ago he invited us to open up for Mr. Bungle. We did a full US tour with them and talked about working together in some way. We all seemed to be on the same page and it just made sense. Then a number of years went by, we were looking for a new vocalist, we both had some downtime so we figured 'let's do it now, let's make an EP.'"
Occasional on-stage defecation aside, permanent vocalist Puciato is working out well and they have already recorded a new album due for release this year. "It's great to see Greg tackle all of the music we did in the past with our old vocalist and tackle all of the Mike Patton stuff which has shocked some people who didn't think he was going to pull it off and he really does," Weinman enthuses. "He's extremely talented and I'm just excited for people to hear him on our new record because it's far beyond anything we ever did with any vocalist. We're just really excited to move forward."
Adrian Lee
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dB Magazine proudly presents The Dillinger Escape Plan at Fowlers Live on Sun 25 April. See Prize Frenzy(tm) for giveaways.
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