The Dillinger Escape Plan guitarist Ben Weinman has spoken with Riffing With Christine regarding the band’s upcoming new album and his progress with Giraffe Tongue Orchestra—his long-gestating project with Mastodon singer/guitarist Brent Hinds, actress/musician Juliette Lewis, Alice In Chains vocalist/guitarist William DuVall, ex-The Mars Volta drummer Thomas Pridgen and bassist Pete Griffin of Dethklok. In regards to the new The Dillinger Escape Plan album, he stated:
“We have a complete instrumental Dillinger record done. And I’m just going through doing my bells and whistles. I always go through and do orchestrations, electronics, sound design and things like that. It’s always like a many tiered process.”
- Advertisement -“It’s really… It’s heavy, man. It’s super heavy, it’s definitely dark, but I think it’s weirder than maybe our last record. It’s like really weird. There’s like ideas and riffs that just… are so weird, like different. They’re just… I don’t know, I have to say when I hear I’m proud to say that nobody signs like Dillinger… We may be the worst band in the world, but when I listen to it, I’m like I really don’t think anybody would write a record like this. And that’s what I’m trying to do, that’s what I’m trying to be: a band that stands out.”
As to when it will come out, he mentioned that the band plan to enter the studio mid this month (February) and have it out sometime late this summer. Weinman also shared some insight into his Giraffe Tongue Orchestra bandmate, Brent Hinds (of Mastodon):
“He’s an interesting dude, man. He’s like the one of the last true rock n rollers left. Not like these guys who are like let me go get my whole body tattooed in one month and put on eyeliner and like autotune my voice and be in some shit band. He’s like truly a guy from the 70’s who walks around with a guitar and is like ‘hey I got a riff’ and you know doesn’t even know how to use email well. He’s just truly a rocker. You know what I mean? He’s a rocker till the day he dies. Just full-on.”
“The thing that’s great about Mastodon—and I think what’s contributed to a lot of their success is that they write music that’s accessible to the common white trash metalhead. But it’s also… really artistically relevant and really interesting and really unique. So it’s like, it’s this band that’s tricking people you know?”
In regards to Giraffe Tongue Orchestra he went on to dispel the notion that Juliette Lewis is the main singer of the outfit, revealing that Alice In Chains‘ William DuVall holds that role:
“She’s actually not our main singer. She guested… Yeah like everybody kinda takes an Instagram picture and makes their own press around it. But me and her have been working on songs, some of which are for Giraffe Tongue, some of which were just jams that we were working on or whatever. And she did some cool vocals on some of the GTO stuff. Actually, William [DuVall] from Alice In Chains is who has been singing with us.”
“Most of the music was written before [William] got involved. So it is a similar thing [having the vocalist brought in last] actually. But everybody definitely in this band, it’s a real democracy. You know, it’s a little different for me, it’s been great. Because Dillinger has obviously been my baby since the beginning. You know while everyone contributes, it has always been… it was my vision and baby. So with GTO it’s really a combination of all the elements, all the pieces. So it’s really interesting, it’s been great for me to collaborate like that. And I think when you hear it, it really does sound like all of us in one band somehow.”
Previous recording sessions for Giraffe Tongue Orchestra have taken place with producers Ross Robinson (Korn, Slipknot) and Steve Evetts (The Dillinger Escape Plan, Every Time I Die). According to Weinman, the album will see a release this year.
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