THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN Guitarist Discusses New Record Deal

Metal Insider recently conducted an interview with THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN guitarist Benjamin Weinman about the band's split with longtime label Relapse and the group's new partnership with the smaller Season of Mist Records. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

Metal Insider: You say the Season of Mist deal is a collaboration with some partners and your to-be-named label. How does the Season of Mist partnership differ from a standard record deal?

Weinman: There are many things about this release that will be very standard of a typical record deal. The things that are different are what are important. We have been offered record deals, our own labels by major record companies and distribution deals. Every combination of label/artist relationship has come across my desk at some point since our deal with Relapse expired. The truth is that the industry is changing on a daily basis. To seal our fate for the next 10 years at this time could be suicide. The question is, do we want to become a record label? Hell no. I barely have time to handle all the DILLINGER business at hand, let alone all the tasks that come with releasing, promoting, marketing and distributing music. But at the same time, we are very hands-on. We know enough about our band at this point to not want to leave it in the hands of someone else completely. The Season of Mist collaboration is the perfect solution for our next release. It provides us with a knowledgeable staff and creative team to help us nurture our vision with the freedom to change our model as things change in the business.

Metal Insider: You say Trent Reznor has been an inspiration for how you want to do business moving forward. How much of it will directly influence what you do? He opted to do a direct distribution deal with RED on his last record, why not do something like that?

Weinman: Trent has proved that any band with a core following, contractual freedom and a little initiative can create a scenario where the gains are much greater for both the artist and the fan much better than a traditional label could. A direct distro deal is definitely a good move for him I think. He has created an online presence that rivals even some of the largest social networking sites. We are not there yet. I think that even smaller bands can really learn from some of the things that he has done, however. We are in the works of supercharging our online world a bit. Working on things like an iPhone app and ways to better connect with the fans more efficiently with as little middle men as possible.

Read the entire interview from Metal Insider.