THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN: 'Every Time I Finish A Record, I Feel Like I Can't Make Another One'

Brian Giffin of Australia's Loud magazine recently conducted an interview with guitarist Ben Weinman from New Jersey's avant-garde supremos THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On the band's next album:

Ben: "We're about to start working out ideas and we'll be doing that basically until we come to Australia [in February]. I traditionally come up with the start of most of the ideas and then myself and our drummer will kind of work on them and formulate songs and get the ball rolling."

On the songwriting process:

Ben: "You know, every time I finish a record, I feel like I can't make another one. I'm done. I have no more DILLINGER in me. Then after a year or two of just touring heavily on that music, it just seems to come naturally, to start working on new stuff."

On the recording process:

Ben: "It takes a while. Because one of the things that we try to maintain is a certain level of… we're pretty critical about how we record and the music we make. Sometimes playing those guitars parts takes hours and hours because not only do we have to get it done once correctly — which is difficult enough — we have to do four or five more overdubs. It certainly can be pretty daunting."

On the use of electronics and technology during the making of THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN's last album, "Option Paralysis":

Ben: "There's a lot less electronic elements on 'Option Paralysis' than there was on 'Ire Works', we definitely used it. We use computers quite a lot to come up with ideas. While we did a lot more traditional jamming in the basement, so to speak, on that one, I definitely sort things out on computers a lot. Really try to look at things and try new things and push things and I've even used the computer at times to re-arrange ideas so they're different to what I'm used to and take myself out of the comfort zone that I'm used to.

"From Day One we've always incorporated new ideas and new influences and never stuck to just the traditional metal sound that's just stuck to a formula. It definitely created a scenario where we had a lot of freedom to be creative and enjoy what we're doing and not feel that we're bound to a specific style that fans are strict about."

On working with jazz fusion pianist Mike Garson, best known for his long-time role with David Bowie's band but whose work has appeared on about 100 albums with artists as diverse at Stanley Clarke, Seal, SOMETHING FOR KATE and NINE INCH NAILS, among others:

Ben: "Just because of the amount of stories that he has, just from being a professional piano player for… oh God, for well longer than I've been alive. I mean, the stories are amazing, just sitting there… but also to see his enthusiasm to just sit down and play music. To be so enthusiastic about playing with a band like us, it was amazing. I mean, it made me realize that we can keep doing this as long as we want to. As long as our heart's in it, we can continue to push ourselves and play and make music that's inspiring and feels good. That was a great inspiration. But I have to say, I originally wrote that song on piano… having him come in and play parts of it, it really put me in my place, I'll tell you that much. I realise that playing piano like that is like a superpower that I will never possess."

Read more from Loud magazine.