The Dillinger Escape Plan have released their last album before an indefinite hiatus, to sighs of relief echoing from venue owners across the globe.
OK, that might be an exaggeration, but singer Greg Puciato remains proud of his band’s longevity.
“If you were to ask me 13 years ago if in 2016 The Dillinger Escape Plan would be a band that people care about, I’d be like, ‘Are you out of your mind? There’s no way we’re even going to be a band in three more years!’ It’s because of the nature of the band and how volatile it all is. I thought we’d either all be arrested or kill one another. But let’s be honest, there’s still time for both of those things – we still have another year,” he says.
This August, the music press far and wide bathed in the clicks after the band’s announcement of a final album and tour, with headlines touting an ‘indefinite hiatus’ to follow the New Jersey act’s latest offering, Dissociation, and a world tour.
Since their beginnings in 1997, The Dillinger Escape Plan have left audiences in dumbstruck awe with performances that need to be seen to be believed, or at least YouTubed (that ‘Virgin Megastore’ video included). But Puciato’s curiosity over how the band ever achieved mainstream success is justified. The Dillinger Escape Plan’s music is an acquired taste – the mathematical chaos and spasmodic abrasion that make up a good chunk of their sound are far from radio material. That factor alone is enough to prevent any chance of success in the mainstream arena.
But after 19 years, six studio albums and an address book’s worth of lineup changes, the band has secured a position as one of modern music’s great wonders. After a long haul of living the DIY ethos, The Dillinger Escape Plan will go out on a high.
Puciato took the mic in 2001, replacing the band’s original vocalist, Dimitri Minakakis. His initiation into the lineup, 2004’s Miss Machine, set a precedent for things to come, introducing hints of melody and dynamic into the Dillinger sound. Although late to the game, Puciato has been one of the few consistent members of the band, and he has seen it grow from its humble roots to its great successes.
So after his 15 years in a group that’s rarely stopped to smell the mosh-trodden roses, and with the end in sight, does Puciato find himself in an uncertain state of mind? “You know what? I’m not even thinking about it at all,” he says. “The only people that are thinking about it are the people interviewing me or writing about it. We have so much stuff that’s immediately pressing – all the logistics of operating as a band are still very present. Right now, it’s more pressing than ever. We’ve just released a record and we’re going on tour in a few days – there’s so much shit happening in terms of the sheer logistics of it all. We’re not sitting around contemplating our demise. We’re rehearsing and trying to get shit done.”
Appropriately, Dissociation is a culmination of the band’s previous efforts – it feels like a Dillinger Escape Plan record, but it doesn’t waste any time with farewells or goodbyes.
“I’d say we were about halfway through [Dissociation] when we made the decision,” Puciato explains. “It’s the craziest mixed bag of emotions. There are feelings of dread, of hope, of sadness and celebration. Sometimes it just pisses me off and other times I have this regret, wishing I had done certain things differently. And then sometimes I get excited about what we accomplished. There are a million things that go through my head, and it’s hard to make sense of it. I’m just really grateful at what we’ve accomplished in the last 15 years I’ve been with the band.
“I think that sense of urgency, of knowing that we may not get another chance to show what we can do as a collective, and as individuals – it sets your mind to overdrive. And I think the record ended up being creatively better, and was executed better because we knew that it was all going to end.
“We are just reaching our musical thematic conclusion,” he adds. “There are a lot of reasons why we’ve decided to stop – musically, thematically, where we are in our individual lives, it just seems like it makes sense. Whether we’ll come back to it or we won’t, I have no idea.”
In the meantime, the band’s guitarist and only founding member, Ben Weinman, will remain busy with his supergroup Giraffe Tongue Orchestra. They may also be more from Puciato, whose side project The Black Queen has gained momentum in recent years. But when asked about his future following The Dillinger Escape Plan, Puciato replies: “I’m going to sell tacos.”
“I make these really killer breakfast tacos,” he says, “and I was planning on opening a food truck and just driving around LA selling breakfast tacos.”
Until then, Puciato and co. are hitting the road one last time, and Australian fans won’t be left out.
“Oh, we’ll be there,” he says. “There’s nothing I love more about Australia than how killer Aussie slang is!”
The Dillinger Escape Plan’sDissociation is out now through Party Smasher Inc/Cooking Vinyl.
