Ben Weinman of The Dillinger Escape Plan knows how to keep busy. The guy has been working on a few projects as of late, and issued an update recently on the two we care most about, his main gig with Dillinger and his long-anticipated side project, Giraffe Tongue Orchestra, which features Brent Hinds of Mastodon and Eric Avery of Jane's Addiction. Here's what he had to say:
What we've learned about GTA is the band have six songs recorded already. The band was in the studio a few weeks ago, and it looks like they made a lot of progress. Avery is currently busy touring with Garbage, so one would assume as soon as that is done we can hear more from these guys.
As for Dillinger, that seems to be Weinman's current priority. He is putting finishing touches on writing the record, as well as pre-production and the band have pencilled in studio time with producer Steve Evettes, who worked on their last few offerrings, in November. That means sometime in 2013, we will hear new DEP. Commenting on the sound of the new material, Weinman had this to say:
"This new material is very punk, very hardcore influenced. Maybe it's all the amazing bands reuniting from my youth that is inspiring this. Billy and I have just been listening to old hardcore records blasting through my house and then going down to the dungeon and just bashing.” He adds, “Greg (Puciato) also seems to be in a very dark place lyrically. I think it's going to be pretty creepy. If these songs don't put some holes in the wall I don't know what will."
This sounds really exciting. Perhaps the band will be channeling aggression not seen since the early days. At this point, and I've said this about other bands like Meshuggah and Gojira, but Dillinger can pretty much fart on record for 60 minutes and I'll love every second of it.
Weinman is also keeping busy working with Wyclef Jean in the studio, contributing drums to a new solo track from the former Fugees frontman, as well as working with songstresses Kimbra and Ivy Levan, who performs quite a soulful version of C.R.E.A.M..
