One For The Kill

"Oh man I don't even know what day of the week it is or what time it is or where I am – I have no idea,” begins The Dillinger Escape Plan guitarist Ben Weinman. Hot off the release of album number five the band have hit the road on a current tour throughout the United States that will see them play a glut of shows in a very short time span. Since their humble beginnings way back in 1997 the band have created some of the most technically proficient metal music that helped spawn the creative genre 'mathcore'. Their latest album One Of Us Is The Killer see's the band move into new territory again but at times saw them struggle to come to terms with the constant battles of life on the road and the challenges of reinvigorating their already complex, heavy and unique sound.

For Weinman and his bandmates, the wait is over for the world to hear their new record and it is something they've been looking forward to for a while. “It's really weird; it's like you bake this delicious meal and it sits on the counter for a month before anyone can try and eat it,” the guitarist laughs before he adds, “it just feels to us that we've tried to make this record honest and we just wish for the best and hope people enjoy it.” Weinman says there was a different and fresh vibe behind the writing and recording process of the album, and while he concedes he is not a believer of 'career defining' releases – it adds another piece to the Dillinger collection they are extremely happy with. “One thing I've learnt [is] there's no one thing that you're gonna do that's gonna make or break your career – there's just a combination of things that create the body of work that you do.”

One Of Us Is The Killer in some ways represents a new Dillinger Escape Plan, without straying from their roots – their chaotic juxtapositions are still present and their frenetic pace is still there, but the band have tried to change things up. “We always try to stay true to our original sound while introducing new elements,” Weinman states, matter-of-factly. “We just try to edit our songwriting, which isn't easy when your music is as chaotic as ours; it's pretty much always a challenge so hopefully we continue to evolve in that way.”

But the writing and recording of the album was not all smooth sailing, with the guitarist attributing a huge amount of stress and fatigue to it. Weinman explains like every record being a huge undertaking, at times the stress became so heavy he looks for an avenue for relief. “At one point I was getting sick from it – physically – just my mind was exploding,” he reveals. While recording the album in California the guitarist found a medium to help him relax and deal with the stress and anxiety – meditation. “Honestly, while we were out in California recording I ended up going to learn transcendental meditation to try and focus and get back on track because I was so stressed out about everything.” Transcendental meditation involves taking 15-20 minutes a day sitting, eyes closed as a medium of relaxation, to deal with stress.

The Dillinger Escape Plan have always been known for their intense live shows and their uncanny musical dynamics, separating them from so many in their genre. They have also stuck to their guns in terms of the tuning of their guitars; where a large number of heavy bands now use a dropped down tuning Dillinger have found solace in finding new avenues to explore and create their heavy sound while still in standard E tuning. “I grew up listening to stuff like Slayer and Metallica and these bands never tuned down, they were in standard – and they were the heaviest bands ever,” Weinman explains. “As bands started relying on things like drop tuning those kind of tonalities – it's dictating how they write their music – I thought it would be good for us and it would separate us more to stay in standard tuning.” However, in saying this, One Of Us Is The Killer contains one track in which the band tuned down to drop D for the first time in their history. Weinman says they wrote this song in drop D to pay homage to the grunge bands they grew up listening to.

Weinman also reveals he suffers from ADD, or Attention Deficit Disorder, and this plays a major role in the band's frenetic pace. “I have attention deficit – yeah I lose focus really quickly,” he says. “So that's a big part of it – sometimes I can't stay on things for too long. I feel I'm more focused when there's chaos going on musically – so for instance if we're playing something slow that's usually when I mess up and make mistakes or start daydreaming. But when things are going a million miles an hour that's when I'm at my prime and I feel like I'm a well-oiled machine – just as sharp as a sword. That's just how my mind works,” Weinman concludes.

Now 16 years down the track since their journey began and with another album to add to their discography, Weinman, now in his late-30s, says his passion for the band and music in general has not diminished, but perhaps grown even more. “Man, I'm a little too old to go back to school,” he jokes. Weinman believes he has limited options outside of his musical career but wouldn't have things any other way. “I think when I'm out there playing and touring and the more we do that it's like if you stop all of a sudden you lose your place,” Weinman explains. He also states there are not many bands “like them” that still exist. “I really think it's important for bands like us to exist. There's not many [bands] that came from the time before Facebook and all these things that took away from the songwriting,” he says, honestly.

The band are currently looking at a world tour in support of One Of Us Is The Killer with Australia being a high priority on the list. “[Australia's] gotta be one of our favourite places to play,” he says wholeheartedly. Weinman and his band will continue to look forward to everything in their lives and aren't planning on pacing themselves.

“If you start thinking about anything but the moment that you're in you start to pace yourself and I don't want to do that – we don't ever want to pace ourselves. We want to treat every show, every song and every opportunity as our last so we try not to think about it and keep going.”