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Escape and Never Surrender!

Interview with Vocalist for Dillinger Escape Plan, Greg Puciato

By Nick Schwab

The Dillinger Escape Plan is a modern metal band that seem to be pushing boundaries in a genre that oftentimes can fit in a small and confined space. Their sounds lunge for the jugular, yet surprisingly sometimes settle back admirably for introspection. Their innovative music declares war on all that is creatively generic and lazy. Dillinger is perpetual and will surely prevail.

UWeekly recently spoke The Dillinger Escape Plan's vocalist Greg Puciato about their upcoming show in Columbus at The Basement on Thursday, June 18th.

UW: Dillinger Escape Plan's sound is so unique for its time and does not sound in any way revivalist. How important to your band is forward thinking and progression, and why do you think a bulk of other bands are still stuck in the past?

Greg Puciato: It's extremely important to me. I love old music, but it's already happened. There is no point in doing it again, you will never do it better than the people who did it first. The recent phenomenon shows the complete lack of new ideas. I do not know what it is, but I think some people feel they missed some on these cool times, so they want to try to relive it. But, I think the reality is it already happened, and we much rather be people doing new shit for our own time and not looking over our shoulder, but (still) acknowledging that cool stuff happened.

UW: Your voice sears with such vigorous emotional intensity that sometimes you feel as if you're going to explode. How do you prepare for this vocal assault before a show and what's the closest that you have come to spontaneous combustion?

GP: (Laughs) Our bass player Liam (Liam Wilson) does this stuff called Bikram Yoga. He does it in a room and they deliberately make this room 150 degrees. He talked me into going with him one time and it was absolutely the most miserable experience of my life. I'd never advocate it to anyone. It's becoming like a fad in California because everyone wants to do something weird. I try to tell everyone: "Whatever you do don't sit in a f*cking----g 150 degree room!" I did it for an hour and half and I felt seriously like I was going to f*cking catch on fire, it was so hot. I seriously thought: "I am either going to die, or I am going to have some type of stroke." As far as getting my voice ready: it's a long process of development that has developed over the years.

UW: Your band also has an extremely loud sound, almost like a series of beautifully rendered volcanic explosions. To your knowledge has anyone gone permanently deaf from your music? Have you ever considered giving out insurance for hearing loss at your live shows?

GP: (Laughs) Giving out insurance is probably more the club's responsibility than ours. I take no responsibility whatsoever for the damage that happens to people. It's like an enter-at-your-own-risk thing. I think of it like this: if you are going to come and split your head next to a space shuttle as it's taking off and get hearing loss that's your own f*cking fault.

UW: One of the aspects many love about your albums is that there is a lot of shifts in mood. In terms of selecting song order, how do you decide what kind of flow an album will have?

GP: It's actually really tough. We realized early on that if we continued to write just certain songs that we would become only able to do that. We realized early that we never wanted to feel like Dillinger Escape Plan was a confine that we couldn't do what we wanted. We have to be really careful. A lot of the non-aggressive stuff becomes unused, because it is a lot harder to make it fit in the record. So far, I think we've done pretty well. But, that's definitely our biggest challenge.

UW: There is a lot of emotion as well as imagery in your music. When you listen to one of your albums what do you imagine and feel?

GP: It's weird because our records to me as I am getting older, are like looking at a picture of yourself in that time of your life. It's not necessarily anything that I feel now, but it is a snapshot of what I felt back then. It's like an audio equivalent of a picture (or) like a time capsule. I can go: "I remember writing those lyrics; I remember what was going on in my life."
The trick when playing live is to try to have the songs have some type of emotional relevance to you now, even though you wrote them five years ago. I try to make sure before we play every night to get in some mindset where the emotions and the lines of the song are relevant to me, so it's not just (me) reciting words.

UW: Even if it is oftentimes emotional, some of your music can also be considered fearless and aggressive. I just have to know: do you have any personal fears or phobias that could use in my self-defense the next time your music attacks me?

GP: I am afraid of dying and not having accomplished as much as I want to accomplish in my life. I hate time and passing time. That's really what drives Dillinger. Ben (Weinman - the guitarist) and I have a weird relationship with time. I hate f*cking getting older and one day possibly not being able to physically do what I want to do.

Originally Published: June 9, 2009

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