Dillinger Escape Plan interview

(March 30, 2005): http://excal.on.ca/cms2//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=584&Itemid=2

Since 1997, New Jersey-based act The Dillinger Escape Plan have been creating their distinct style of "technical metalcore", but have only released two full-lengths in this time. The latest, Miss Machine, was released to rapturous reviews last July, but when asked about the critical hype, bassist Liam Wilson says he feels, "An overall ‘wow, awesome!' and a gag reflex of just trying to stay humble about it and not think about it as much as we can."

The album was five years in the making, as the band dealt with the departures of two founding members, bassist Adam Doll and vocalist Dimitri Minikakis. However, these changes have only made The Plan stronger: New vocalist Greg Puciato channels influences like Trent Reznor and Mike Patton (who also recorded with the group in 2002, for the EP Irony Is A Dead Scene), as well as adding his own distinct wailing and shrieking.

"We were definitely looking for someone who could keep up with everything we had already done, but could play songs that we hadn't written before he joined," says Wilson.

The band itself has also grown more diverse, with their "cathartic [amalgamation] of noise and punk-jazz ethics" (as Wilson puts it) incorporating stronger influences of industrial and new wave to counterbalance the onslaught of brutality. This diversity can be heard on the band's current single "Setting Fire To Sleeping Giants," which features clean vocals, Latin percussion and, God help us, a genuinely catchy chorus.

"We don't want to necessarily associate entirely with the metal community. Not that it's anything to shit on, but it's kind of one dimensional and homogenized, as are most musical genres," says Wilson. "We wanted to take songs that we could have incorporated into something else, but instead give the song its own life," explains Wilson of the new styles being brought into the band's arsenal.

The Dillinger Escape Plan also brought their infamous live shows for several Canadian tour dates in February. Past shows of the band have included fire breathing and seizure-inducing strobe lights, but this time the show was more stripped back to "not steal the punk vibe," says Wilson.

With the band playing Toronto four times in just over a year, one would expect the band to be back in town relatively soon. For now, though, they are embarking on nearly eight more weeks of touring in various spots all over the globe.

"We start in Australia, then we go to Japan, and then we go to France, then Sweden, Belgium, Holland, Germany, then more shows in the UK. So, it's a cluster fuck, man. It's not coming to a stop yet," says Wilson.

However, the touring means it will likely be another excruciating wait for a new album, although the band has already started on new material.

"We have almost enough for three songs, which isn't a whole lot, but I think we've got a ton of ideas, and I don't think we are going to run out of ideas anytime soon. We're just trying to find the time to actually write. When we're on tour, it gets a little harder to write. You can sit down with a laptop and try to sketch out some ideas, but nothing really gets fleshed out until you have at least two months at home. We need a month to detox from the amount of tours we do," explains Wilson.

The average Dillinger Escape Plan song isn't just a four-chord wonder, either; each song is full of meticulously constructed patterns and jagged rhythms that keep even the most jaded listeners on the edge of their seats.

The next album will likely be a breathtaking excursion, as Wilson views the band's next release to incorporate "anything that can promote a fresh sense of fusion." He then adds, to the distinct pleasure of the band's fans, "Our tastes are really different, and we're all really hungry musicians with a lot to say, and more to say in the future.
So I think we definitely want to keep it so that we have a bit more space to start defining broader boundaries for ourselves."