The Dillinger Escape Plan

Thu 20th May, 2010 in Features

With a history spanning a decade, The Dillinger Escape Plan have become one of the leading bands to emerge from the American punk scene and ride the wave of prog rock’s recent hardcore-infused revival. FasterLouder spoke to guitarist Ben Weinman about his unorthodox road to rock’n’roll stardom.

Ben Weinman loves to break rules. Ever since he touched the keys of a toy piano in his childhood home in New Jersey, he’s been exceeding expectations and defying convention. And when news broke that his band’s new album was outselling some of the biggest names in the business, including pint-sized chart-conqueror Justin Beiber, their response was typically recalcitrant.

“This album is making so much noise that people on the sidelines can’t help but deal with our obnoxious presence in their boring comfortable existence,” their gloating press release thundered. “We’re showing up and pissing badassery all over the mainstream music world’s high priced carpets… suck it, Beiber.”

This triumphant breakthrough into rock’s mainstream, a long overdue vindication in the eyes of many, popped the birdie at their detractors in more ways than one. It came just as TDEP ditched the lopsided A&R tango with the majors, and started their own label – the press release being a clear two-fingered salute to the Tin Pan Alley suits who condemned the band to the chilly wilderness of the ‘special markets’ category.

Weinman is as surprised as anyone. “From day one we never expected a large audience,” he remarks in a sincere tone, while relaxing backstage prior to curtain call. “We’ve appreciated all we’ve got.”

That lot has been hard work by anyone’s measure. Just like the band’s namesake, criminal mastermind John Dillinger, the quintet has repeatedly escaped seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Following the band’s breakthrough EP in 1997, bassist Adam Doll was involved in a minor car accident. Things seemed fine as preparations were made to record their debut album, Calculating Infinity (1999), but the mere act of bending over to pick up a lost CD underneath a hi-fi cabinet caused Doll to fracture his spine, resulting in paralysis.

Not long after, vocalist Dimitri Minakakis parted ways with the band, attributing Dillinger’s heavy touring schedule to his resignation. A nationwide search for a replacement ensued, but not before more releases were called for, with vocal duties handled by a number of stand-ins, including Faith No More’s Mike Patton.

After replacement Greg Puciato finally settled in and got an album under his belt, Miss Machine (2004), the band’s injurious run continued – guitarist Brian Benoit suffered irreparable nerve damage in his left hand, forcing his retirement, while Weinman had his schedule at Gigantour prematurely ended from a rotator cuff injury, also contracted from a car crash. But Weinman says this only steeled his resolve.

“I was asked earlier today what our greatest achievement was, and I replied, ‘We survived,’” he claims. “We’ve always tried to function outside the box, and I think this has helped us overcome the challenges over the years.”

This youthful, rebellious spirit, combined with some serious musical grey-matter, has resulted in some remarkably complex – and equally influential – original material. Yet Weinman reckons there’s no apparently unique approach to how it’s created.

“Sometimes ideas will come years in advance of being used in a song,” he says. “We use a pretty typical writing process, similar to most other bands out there. We always start with writing some guitar riffs, and after that I’ll work with the drummer, and start building a skeleton of the song.”

The new album, Option Paralysis, which involves a distinct thrash metal influence in comparison to previous releases, has generated some controversy. A broader palette of sounds has introduced a greater use of traditional melody than ever before, seen by some fans as a concession to those less accustomed to non stop guitar-fuelled bombast. But the band remains unperturbed.

“You have to be an open minded music listener. We’ve always sought fans with willingness to give new things a try,” Weinman explains.

And having been on the road for two weeks, any grumblings by fans wasn’t particularly evident to the band. “We’ve had a really good response so far. It feels like we’re playing old songs.”

The new release is the tightest Dillinger ship yet, feeling more organic and well-rounded than previous releases, while continuing to see a development in the band’s sound. Weinman credits this to their most open-minded approach yet, in which the ideas flowed freely, as opposed to being written to fulfill a prepared brief.

“We had a lot of time off, and wrote the whole album in one go. We had a lot of time to relax before jamming. It was pretty much done in one sitting.”

And one short sitting that was – just a month from recording to completion. Quite a change from previous albums, which involved many spread out writing sessions, dotted between their busy touring schedule. “There’s thrash and metal roots to the record, and we experimented with more melodic things as well. Greg [Puciato] used the entire range of possibilities – he learnt what we were doing on our earlier records, but didn’t use this as a guideline.”

Music came easily to Weinman. As a child, he grew up in a home where music was often played and appreciated, but not necessarily brought to him in the manner of formal tuition.

“Music always came naturally to me,” he explains. “I remember one day when I was a kid, I was playing with a friend of mine, and found a toy piano on the ground. I just grabbed it and started figuring out how to play some different pop songs. My friend said, ‘How’d you do that?’ I said ‘I dunno…’ It seemed kinda easy to me.”

To this day, Weinman has never had a formal guitar lesson. But sonically-rich music was something that influenced him from day one. “My parents used to listen to a lot of Broadway music, as well as classical stuff, so music was always around when I was growing up,” he recalls.

These classic influences were soon to be kicked in the rear by a blast of modernity, as Ben threw himself into the thriving East Coast punk scene as a young teenager. A career as a rock reveler and aspiring musician took him through the blossoming punk hubs of Washington DC, Boston and Philadelphia. Before long, Weinman himself was forging a career in the music biz, playing in hardcore trio Arcane during the early 90s.

This wasn’t before he completed a degree in psychology and corporate communications, though. What convinced him to choose a career in music? “Being totally useless in everything else,” he quips. “There’s nothing else we’d rather be doing.”

And they’re not just living the dream, but they’re living it very much their own way. Dillinger’s DIY ethic runs counter to the traditional label-lead model, and it appears to be paying dividends.

“From day one, we always sold CDs to be able to play shows,” Weinman explains. “In the bigger picture, it might take huge amounts of money, but the record industry has to recognise that selling CDs alone is not good enough. Worrying about trivial little things like people downloading music misses the point. A great band can never be downloaded. It can never be reproduced easily. So long as you do it with artistic integrity is what matters.”

TDEP have cycled through a few drummers of late, having lost long-time drummer Chris Pennie to prog superstars Coheed and Cambria, and more recently losing replacement Gil Sharone. But Weinman says that with the recruitment of Billy Rymer, the band seem to have put their drummer woes behind them.

“Billy’s had a lot of music crammed into his legs and arms, and he’s added a new life to the band. While there is a Dillinger vocabulary, he learned that very quickly, and he started forming new sentences not long after.”

As Dillinger continue their tour around Australia, fans can look forward to experiencing the band’s reputation for wild live performances up close. In the past, this has involved everything from fireworks and fire breathing, to random acts of violence from both the audience and the performers. New to the current tour is an automated light show, built bespoke for the band. It involves different sensors which react to body heat, touch and motion, which band members activate by hitting the sensor.

“We’ve had quite a few broken lights so far,” Weinman laughs. “But it’s working well. It’s pretty chaotic, random, unrelated to the music, and it just feels really uncomfortable. It’s crazy, you have to see it.”

The band look forward to touring in Australia, this time returning for their third tour down under. “We always really enjoy coming down. The best thing about being in Australia is it’s like a holiday in a lot of ways. We always have plenty of time to look around.”

So as the Dillinger juggernaut continues to roar ahead towards even bigger and better things, does Ben Weinman think he’s going to change the way he goes about things any time soon?

And if their latest release is anything to go by, let’s hope he keeps doing exactly that for many years to come.

The Dillinger Escape Plan tour wraps up this weekend:
Friday 21th May – Sydney, Metro Theatre – All Ages
Sunday 23rd May – Brisbane, The Hi-Fi – 18+