THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN Talks Lineup Changes
November 8, 2007THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN recently spoke to the Artisan News Service about the departure of founding member Chris Pennie prior to the recording of the group's new album, "Ire Works".
Said vocalist Greg Puciato: "The biggest obstacle for getting our record done was the loss of one of our founding members, Chris Pennie. As far as personnel goes, even the people that were already in the band are better friends because of having gone through that chaotic time. And the two new guys, Gil and Jeff, our new guitar player, we couldn't ask for a better fit musically or personality-wise."
On whether THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN holds it against COHEED AND CAMBRIA for "stealing" their drummer, bassist Liam Wilson said, "Well, we had some interband drama. There was talk of, 'OK, we're going to take a little bit of a hiatus,' (guitarist and founding member) Ben wanted to take some time off and just kind of heal from some injuries, and I think Chris just took advantage of that. We all knew that, 'OK, I'm going to go back to my jobs because we're not going to tour,' and Chris was like, 'I wanna play,' and they made him an offer. It was at the point where it became that we were the side project or that we were the second priority that things got kind of hairy. It was always an issue to try to get him to explain what the situation really was. I don't think that they were doing anything that was really illegal, so to speak. I think they were just looking out for their own interest. Chris gave an inch, and they took a foot."
New drummer Gil Sharone, had this to say about taking Pennie's place in the band: "It was overwhelming because just from a drummer's point of view, THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN is a drummer's drummers band. It wasn't like I got hit up by this Top 40 band. It was pretty heavy to see, like, wow this is an opportunity and my band STOLEN BABIES was really supportive. That (the music)'s the thing that made this really easy to step into because there wasn't a few songs that I really liked and then a few that I was like, 'I don't really like that stuff.' Or the guys, a couple of guys that I liked and then a couple I didn't like. It was like everything was really cool. So it was...everything was pointing in that direction — do it, go for it. This was made for me."
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