THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN Guitarist Says DISTURBED Rehearses On-Stage Poses

Andrew Tijs of Australia's Beat magazine recently conducted an interview with THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN guitarist Ben Weinman. A few excerpts from the chat follow.

On the band's music being music being inventive but not willfully difficult:

"We've always been a band that more than just incorporates many different styles. We've created our own style out of it. You hear a lot of bands that are eclectic but you can hear their influences clearly.

"A lot of times people will say 'Oh, that rhythm is really crazy, how do you come up with that?' Well, we all look at that and it's obvious to us: we'll slow down and make it heavy or change the time signature around. To us it's just like using these influences properly."

On whether they are deliberately trying to mess with people:

"No, not at all. A lot of the time what we start off with is straight forward and simple. Then we, 'Dillingerize' it, for want of a better word. Just to make it more interesting for us.

"Unfortunately for some people who are looking for an easier listen, by the time five months have passed and we're still working on this song, we've mutilated it so much from its original state that what seems normal to us might seem complicated to anyone else."

On seeing DISTURBED soundcheck before an English show:

"[They were] practicing where they were going to walk and when they were going to put their leg up on the monitor and pose. That was weird for us. There are times where I don't even know where I am."

On influencing younger bands:

"It's the biggest compliment, but it's hard for me to compare ourselves to these bands. Not being conceited, I just feel like we're coming from a different place."

On having formed before it was even possible for a heavier band to sell huge amounts of records:

"There wasn't MySpace and MTV wasn't accessible to these kinds of bands. So [being popular] wasn't even a thought in our heads. We truly started this band to create music that we wanted to hear. We had no intentions of doing this as a career. We came to this with the purest of intentions."