How 'bout an Interview, Dummy: Greg Puciato of Dillinger Escape Plan

Gather 'round la computadora, numbskulls... It's an important damn day here at the Belly. Today's yack-session went down with the one and only bulldozer of a bruiser, and quite a witty gentleman to boot... Greg Puciato, the throatrazor of Dillinger Escape Plan. Seeing as he needs absolutely no introduction, I won't hold you up anymore from gettin' your fill... Read on, you jerks:

Belly Full of Hell: When did you first realize you were one of the raddest frontmen to ever throat-punch an audience's nervous system?

Greg Puciato: Hahaha are you sure this is the right person? I dunno man I just do what I do and if other people dig it, so be it. I try not to think too much onstage which usually ends up with me not having any idea what happened til I see a video on youtube and I'm like whoa I did that? That's pretty fucking scary haha. Usually when we play people either love me or wanna fight me so I must be doing something right.

BFoH: Can you clue us in to how the changing of the guard went down when Dimitri left and you stepped in to fulfill vicious mic duties?

GP: It was actually so fast that I didn't even have time to process it. I auditioned twice in August 2001, and then after the second time we played our first show two weeks later, and from then on pretty much toured endlessly for five years. I didn't even have time to digest anything until like January 2006 and by then my life was so completely different and I felt like I had gone through a time warp. Nothing happened for 5 years except for endless touring and writing and then when we stopped it was like slamming into a wall after being shot out of a cannon. Needless to say I had a mild meltdown of sorts over the year of 2006 but feel totally comfortable with everything in my life and in DEP now, which is a good thing.

BFoH: Your spin on 999's "Homicide" was quite a powerful track in itself... Is there any chance of future work with Error, or is that now a defunct project?

GP: We always talk about doing it but Atticus is pretty busy working with Trent on NIN music, so if it happens it happens but we aren't really pressing the issue either. As far as side project stuff goes, 90% of my time and energy goes into Dillinger but I have written a lot of other stuff I would like to get out, I will probably put out some side project stuff over the next couple of years, me and John from Candiria are definitely going to get an album out in 2008 under the moniker Spylacopa, we already have it recorded we're just sitting on it til the DEP wave from Ire Works passes.

BFoH: Any rhyme or reason to the choices of covers selected for the Plagiarism EP? Cuz they go pretty stunningly all the way across the board...

GP: Eh, three of them were songs we had played live at various points, and the soundgarden song we just did because we love that band and that song. I would actually love to construct a huge stone statue of Kim Thayil and just put it on stage the way Maiden has Eddie. Just a huge bearded wizard looking guy behind us onstage with walls of feedback coming out of his guitar in between songs. Kim Thayil, come be our mascot.

BFoH: We're pretty hereditarily emaciated-looking here at Belly Full of Hell... are there any tricks of the trade to get slightly as massively powerviolence as you? ... Sometimes we try push-ups... but only sometimes.

GP: Hahaha I am definitely referring to my appearance as "powerviolence" from now on. I dunno man. I try to act like I don't do anything but honestly I am pretty compulsive about working out, it really has nothing to do with trying to look a certain way, its just something that I do to release energy really, and it helps me channel a lot of weird discipline and energy into something.



BFoH: At the Every Time I Die/Poison the Well show two weeks ago, Keith called you on stage to split vocals with him (which was like a religious experience), stating "without Dillinger Escape Plan, our band would not exist" ... Can you let us know how you really (imagine 'really' in italics) feel about those Shitty Dudes in ETID?

GP: Those dudes are the shittiest dudes on earth. Honestly though we love them. They are all good friends of ours and have been for a long time. It was cool playing a song onstage with friends that wasn't a DEP song. Felt completely different than being onstage with DEP. Mindset was totally different.

BFoH: Are you able to divulge at all into Chris's parting ways with DEP to get his prog on? ... or is that all behind-closed-doors kinda stuff?

GP: I mean honestly that Chris situation was going on for a loooong time, it just reached a boiling point and the Coheed offer came along and kinda presented itself as a liferaft/escape vessel of sorts to him at the right time. Worked out for the best for everyone I think, thats sort of how things tend to go. We took a shit situation and reversed it and now we are definitely in the best place we've been in a long time.

BFoH: What was Dillinger's plan of attack by releasing Ire Works in its entirety on your myspace page so far in advance of the release date? ... We're you just itching to get it out there, or did you just know it was that incredible and didn't need to be hidden away 'til Nov. 13th?

GP: We are stupid. Thats the answer. I dunno, it wasn't my idea, I didn't wanna stream it at all. I just woke up one day and there it was. Really what it all comes down to is myspace wanted to put us on their front page thingy but wouldn't do it unless we streamed the record. So we sold our soul for about 2000 more "friends" haha.

BFoH: Some of the songs on Ire Works stray pretty far from the shit usually associated with you guys. Take Black Bubblegum and Sick on Sunday, for example. What influenced you all to take a different approach to some of the songwriting this time around? Did you just want to put a little more booty-shake into some of it?

GP: We listen to so much music and most of it isn't heavy at all in the traditional sense. Most of what I listen to is emotionally heavy in some regard to me personally whether it is considered "heavy" music or whatever. We really don't wanna have any confines or restraints in this band, and the only way we can ensure that people won't be able to do that to us is to exercise our ability to do whatever we want at any time to keep people on their toes.

BFoH: Milk Lizard is fucking awesome. I love how some of that sleazy rock swagger made it into some of the tracks. What were you guys listening to while writing the new record? Was whiskey involved?

GP: I was listening to a lot of shit like super old Aerosmith from when they were almost walking death from drugs, old Rolling Stones when Jagger was higher than a fucking kite barely breathing onstage, Melvins, Jesus Lizard, and that stuff definitely crept into my vocal approach and inflection at times.



BFoH: Whatcha jammin' lately?

GP: Really nothing cause we have been practicing constantly and when we aren't I have been trying to spend all my time with my girlfriend and friends and family because I won't see much of them for the next year.

BFoH: Can you shed a little light on a rumor we heard around the water cooler earlier: I see you guys are going to be having your album release party at Europa in Brooklyn next week... will there be any secret live performance by you fellas?

GP: Shit! I'm late! Guess this question is irrelevant now. I didn't go to that shit anyway haha.

BFoH: Is the band taking all precautions necessary to fight off MRSA?

GP: I've got it and I plan on spreading it across the US on our tour. Everytime somebody thinks its cool that they got the mic, they aren't gonna think so when they have the chills and the shits a few days later.

BFoH: If you could play one show with any band of your choosing, still around or long gone, and then hang out with them at a strip club all night, which band would you want by your side?

GP: Fuuuuuck. This question is insanely hard. Who would have the best time afterwards....Guns N Roses like 1988? Or like late 60's Stones or Mid 70's Aerosmith. You know those dudes went off. Maybe 1987 Metallica so I could try to warn them of the perils of Bob Rock. I dunno. But the real issue is who would go off the most at a strip club. Gotta be Steven Adler from like 1988 era Guns. I pick him actually any era. Even now post-stroke. There you go. Adler over anyone, anytime. That guy partied so hard he got kicked out of Guns at the height of their debauchery, that's some serious shit.

BFoH: Let's say you guys got trapped somewhere. Would YOU have an escape plan?

GP: Me and Ben got trapped in some psycho chick's apartment once and she literally got real psychotic and tried to lock us in while some other guy was in the living room beating his head into the wall over and over. When the chick went to the bathroom we had to climb out the window and run down the fire escape because the scene was so weird that we were actually scared haha.

BFoH: And last, but not least... The most important question... What does it feel like to run on peoples' faces?

GP: Like a lawsuit ready to happen. Then it does happen. And it sucks. They can't win because I'm broke but they just drag me through endless hours of court and paperwork 'til they realize that suing me is basically like trying to get a 95 year old woman's clam wet. Not happening. Haven't tried, but you can IMAGINE WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE IF YOU DID. Dustbowl city.