THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN Frontman Discusses DISNEY 'Ban'

Arielle Castillo of Broward-Palm Beach New Times recently conducted an interview with THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN frontman Greg Puciato. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

New Times: I was talking to Andy from EVERY TIME I DIE earlier. He mentioned you all [KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, and EVERY TIME I DIE] had been friends and had been wanting to set up a tour. Who approached whom?

Greg: We went to see EVERY TIME I DIE open for UNDEROATH in New York. We were hanging out with them and Jordan, their guitar player, was like, "Oh so I heard you guys were doing this KILLSWITCH ENGAGE tour in January." And I was like, "Oh really, we are?" And he was like, "Yeah, a big part of the reason we signed on was because we saw you guys had."

New Times: You didn't know?

Greg: That's kind of the way it works. I read it on the Internet sometimes, what I'm gonna be doing. I don't know whether I missed that e-mail or what happened, but some other band told me what I was doing in January.

New Times: What about KILLSWITCH, did you know those guys very well already?

Greg: We've played in Japan together three or four years ago. We know them more because we're from the same scene or so forth. They were fans of ours a long time ago before they became much bigger than us. Howard [Jones, KSE's singer] was always very vocal in his liking for us.

I feel like we've been talking about touring for years, but it just never happened. We've had the misfortune of having our records seem to come out at opopsite ends of the release cycles for a while. All these bands we talk about touring with — MASTODON is another one – we're never on the same timeline.

New Times: I have to ask about the House of Blues in Orlando thing.

Greg: Oh no.

New Times: Well, so Disney didn't want you to play, but the other bands were okay?

Greg: It's really weird to me, because we've played House of Blues three or four times and brought in a lot of kids most of the times we've played there. We've never done anything bad at the House of Blues. We've been banend from certain venues, and I know why, because there was a giant fireball curling across the ceiling, or we pissed someone else off.

But at House of Blues we've always had great shows. It was very shocking for me, because I don't know if they think it's gonna draw a cerain kind of kid? But they're trying to say we're not in conjunction with the image they're trying to portray at Disney World. But then — you're gonna have a band called KILLSWITCH ENGAGE play? Or a band called EVERY TIME I DIE?

But it doesn't really matter because they're still paying us, and we're playing another show in the same day. It's like if your boss was just like, "Fuck you, you can't come to work, and you're getting getting paid anyways." So we'll be getting paid double — we're going to play an early show that day, at like 4:30 p.m. at a venue called the Social, and we're going to make tickets really cheap.

New Times: So you joined the band in 2001 after it was already established. Do you think people have finally accepted you as part of the fabric of the band?

Greg: Oh, definitely, that was over six years ago. I don't think people even think about it at this point, in 2008. We're probably three or four times as big as when I joined, which is funny because at the time I joined I thought we were massive. I thought getting 200 kids outside of your hometown, in a place like Seattle or Portland, was insane. But that was a long time ago, and people who came to see our band back then are probably older and don't come now. Most kids at this point know there was a singer before me, but I don't think they think about it.

New Times: Do you then think you have a whole new set of fans at this point?

Greg: I think a lot of the original ones stayed, but I don't necessarily think they actively go to shows any more. They have lives, and maybe wives and kids. It's crazy to me because I'll see bands play, and a kid from the band will come up to me and be like, "Dude, you were a huge influence on me, I saw you guys play when I was 17 or 16," and the kid's band is almost as big as we are.

Because in my eyes, I haven't really aged, because I haven't really done anything but play shows and write records. All the other landmarks people have — kids, school, getting married — I don't have. My friends who live at home have those things. My lifestyle is basically the same thing, and I still don't look that different, so I have a hard time accepting I'm getting older.

Read the entire interview at Broward-Palm Beach New Times.