The Dillinger Escape Plan

When your debut album is hailed as one of the most ground breaking metal records of all time, you've got a lot to live up to for the rest of your musical career.

Bass player and proud moustache wearer Liam gave us the following interview…

Interview with Liam (Bass)

of The Dillinger Escape Plan

By Cameron Chambers

Hey Liam, how are you? 

I am very well thank you, how

you going? 

Good mate, thanks for your

time this morning. 

Not a problem. 

Your third full length record

“Ire Works” was released on November 13^th.

Did the album get the reaction that you were expecting? 

Yeah, absolutely! When we were

finishing the record our attitude was that this is the best Dillinger record yet. We were really proud of it, we put everything into it so

we were confident that it would be received well. This industry is so

bizarre and un-predictable… just because it was our favourite record

it could have been everyone else’s least favourite record… but that’s

just the way the wheel of fortune turns sometimes. 

We’re excited that it has

some staying power because I still love it six months down the track.

I can’t remember the last time I listened to Miss Machine. I mean,

I was proud at the time but we knew it was just a stepping stone for

the next record. With that under our belts I think it’s safe to say

our strategy worked, ha ha. 

A lot of Dillinger fans

songs? 

Yes and no. Ultimately, our

band, as much as we want to play and ensure everyone’s entertained,

when I get on stage it’s more a matter of “am I enjoying myself”?

“Is this the best hour of my day”? It’s the same with recording…

the whole process is mostly just… when I started listening to music

and getting into it, it hit me at a really young age. When I was around

twelve I started playing bass and by the time I was fifteen I was in

bands. The whole time I’m digging through record stores and going

to shows to find a band to satisfy this sound. Then you grow

up and you try to make that sound but you never really get there. It’s

fun and it keeps you in pursuit of it so to say, ha ha. 

I don’t think the Calculating…

thing bothers us so much. That record exists, so if they want to listen

to Calculating… then they can go and listen to it, it’s there!

Unfortunately there are a lot of people who speak more than they think

and they just go and write off our newer records before they even hear

it, and you know what? In five or ten years they may listen to it and

it’ll click and they will be at a different point in their life and

will have different influences and it might make sense! 

Maybe Ire Works fans will go back to Calculating… there are songs on Ire

Works that are as brutal as anything on Calculating… technically

speaking, especially from a “having to play them” perspective. There’s

nothing on Calculating… that challenges me more than Ire

Works… we haven’t pussed out!  

I hate to say this because

it sounds so terrible and cliché but I’m getting older and our tastes

are changing. I don’t feel the need to play a mosh part every fucking

five minutes. We’re really influenced by other things. No one in this

band has time for a side project so we’d rather cover all our bases

in this band. We look to bands like Queen or Zeppelin

and it’s amazing how easily they pulled off all these things within

their songs. They were known for so many different things but looking

at their discography… the ground they covered is unbelievable! We

would rather align ourselves with bands like that than Metallica

or Slayer. It’s not that they aren’t a huge influence but

bands that take risks like Faith No More and are into different kinds of song writing… that’s where we want

to be. 

In my opinion

– can you tell us how you approached the song writing for this album? 

When songs like “Unretrified”

or “Setting Fire” from Miss Machine got thrown into the demo pile, we were listening to them going “what

the fuck should we do with these”? Then we just thought fuck it, put

‘em on! We knew we didn’t want o get stuck in a Slayer or Converge position where if they wrote a ballad then people would

lose their mind, ha ha. We knew early enough we didn’t want to get

pigeonholed, so that was the quote/unquote strategy there, so it wasn’t

so much that the writing process was different, it was more the recording

side of it. 

For Miss Machine, we’d

write and record three songs and then we’d tour for three months at

a time and do it all again. It worked out, but to my ears there is a

group of songs that sound better than the others. The record is subconsciously

inconsistent in a way that Ire Works isn’t. We all went to

California, got one hotel room and spent every day and night in the

hotel or the studio, talking and exchanging ideas and just nit picking

at everything. 

Having that consistency to

know what you did last night and go back in the morning to have another

listen, instead of leaving a note and coming back after three months…

it makes a big difference! That consistency and flow is really evident

this time around. 

Greg's obviously no slouch

something Greg had to sort out for himself? 

Mostly we all take our own

personal direction. Obviously there are some things where… well, I’m

a bass player so I need to make sure that what I’m playing fits with

Ben, so there’s a lot of communication and cross referencing there…

a lot “this works, this doesn’t”. It’s usually more of a “we

hand Greg a demo” kind of thing and wait to see what he does. There

are one or two things specifically in the song “Dead As History”…

I actually have an alternate take of that. Anyway, in that song the

vocals have more of a, I dunno, glam feel to them, ha ha, but yeah,

we have one or two alternate takes of things like that. Any time there’s

an issue with a part it comes back to myself or Ben or some other respected

peers outside of the band to give the final yes, no, do this, do that

etc… 

At this stage of the game everyone

is respectful and trusting of each other. We’re older and more mature

but at the end of the day who would know better than Greg what to do

vocally. Ben will always have the final say so to speak but he didn’t

really pull that card on this record very often… there wasn’t much

need to pull that hierarchy card.  

Was it daunting for you

for the last 7 or so years? 

Honestly, not as much as you

might think. On Miss Machine most of the guitars were recorded by Ben. Brian maybe played two percent

of the guitars on that record… same as Calculating… and Irony… He really only had a minimal role in the recording. Our

producer Steve will always take the guitar player who wrote the songs

and tell him to record, coz when you’re doubling track the little

differences in feel will throw shit out, so it makes more sense! 

It was definitely different

but without getting too deep into this, Brian pulled out of the band

psychologically long before he pulled out physical. With his nerve disorder,

and I’m no doctor, but some of his nerve disorder had to do with things

in his life outside of that band that affected him personally, but it

ate at him physically and drained him. When he got sick it lead to bronchitis

which lead to his nerve disorder and other little things. 

In some sense going into the

studio with only Ben, Greg and myself made it easier coz there were

less hoops to jump through… less opinions.  

When Chris Pennie departed

mapped out before he came on board? 

It was pretty much mapped out.

Eighty percent of it was already done so we just handed Gil the demos.

He’s obviously going to take things and run in different directions

with them, but everything he played he took the songs and took them

up by one hundred and ten percent! There were a couple of songs here

and there where he’d change something, like Chris would play doubles

and he’d play single kick, or Gil would do single strokes instead

of double rolls. 

Especially on songs like “Horse

Hunter”, he just took it and ran with it. It was the crudest demo

I’d ever heard, something where I was like “I don’t think this

sounds like a song” ha ha, I couldn’t even hear roughly what to

do. Within a week or two of Gil listening to it and making it musical

and then it became one of my favourites!  

I’m really excited to slow

down on the touring front and start writing with him… but that’s

not going to happen for a while, ha ha. 

I think it's safe to say

man for the job? 

Before Chris quit we were going

into the studio with... ha ha, I can’t even remember his name but

it’s probably better that I don’t say anyway. Anyway, we had another

producer lined up but when Chris quit we had to push the recording back,

we had to find another drummer who had to learn the songs and learn

how to push them. Not to contradict the “too many cooks in the kitchen”

thing, but we wanted someone who knew where we were coming from, someone

who could make Gil give a Chris styled performance… not a Chris clone,

but to make it a Dillinger drummer kind of record. In that sense,

Steve went above and beyond. It was awesome for Greg and I because we

knew what Steve is like. When we did Miss Machine with Steve

he was a real fucking ball breaker. Do you work with Pro Tools at all

man? 

Certainly do. 

Well, when you work with Steve

and look at your track it looks like a fucking barcode… he makes you

punch in every fucking thing so every note is slamming. Even if it’s

fucking perfect he’ll still nit pick with every little thing. It gets

frustrating and exhausting but then you look at it and you’re like

“oh, I get it now”. It’s his little suggestions like “hit this

note instead” and then you do it and you’re like “oh, I understand”. 

When we did Miss Machine

it was a lot more us running free, but this time around I knew what

I was getting into. Greg as well! Realizing that being in the studio

doesn’t mean you have studio magic to get it right is a good attitude.

Steve’s not like that. He will make you give your all one hundred

times, so this time round it was easier and we were more prepared. It

was easier to be like “I’m not doing it this way or listen to every

idea you have”. It’s almost like standing up to him in a way! It

didn’t happen very often but it was good when you needed it, so it

was cool in that respect. To feel like he gave you some respect when

he said “I think you’re right” and then we’d try it his way

and it’d bother me so we’d go back to our original way, which was

cool! 

How

tours? 

Um, ridiculous, ha ha! I remember

playing “Unretrified” maybe three or four times in total and just

feeling like it went over like a fart in a church. It sucked and it

was weighing down the set and I felt like giving up. Aside from playing

all the shit which is obviously going to go off we would play “Black

Bubblegum” or “Milk Lizard” and the same kids were still stoked…

the same metal dudes singing along, ha ha. We thought it would be eighteen

year old girls but the long hairs aren’t afraid to like it! 

Any other band they’d say

fuck this but live they might love it…even though they might not dig

it on record. In a live setting it totally fits. On record it’s one

thing but live they have this function… they have a dynamic. When

you put “Lurch” in front of “Black Bubblegum” it makes “Lurch”

sounds more aggressive, know what I mean!? 

The Dillinger Escape Plan

all? 

It’s different. You could

look at it that way for us. With a song like “Black Bubblegum” we

say that’s your breather… I can catch my breath and deliver the

last five songs like the first five songs. A song like “Milk Lizard”

is the hardest song I play all set… it’s so consistent and driving

and the bass line is moving the whole time.  

Songs like that may not be

seen as a breather, ha ha, I need another one after that! It’s funny,

I don’t think we ever clam down but it’s kind of silly to go off

on “Black Bubblegum”… it has more of a slick vibe so it’s going

to have to have a different dynamic.  

All of that feeds into the

songs... not that any of the moves are choreographed but there are certain

things you do get used to in certain parts. I’ve been playing “Baby’s

First Coffin” for six years and it has a certain feel to certain parts

so if I’m on a tight stage it hinders the way that I play it, coz

I’m so used to shaking my booty this way or that and then it changes!

That’s the same for everyone except Gil. 

Over the last few years

band? 

It’s hard to say what you

like more. I think the shows are better… I have more fun on a selfish

level when I’m playing in a small club to Dillinger die hards.

It feels like a community thing. When you play to an AFI or a System Of A Down type of crowd you’re playing to people who don’t

know, it almost feels as though they are watching you on TV. When you

play to those crowds and you get the response you deserve from putting

on a good show, that’s the best feeling of it all… out of everything! 

It’s kind of a challenge

to do it that way and I look forward to that. In this day and age, within

any crowd, and it could be anyone from AFI to Megadeth

there’s always a small circle of Dillinger fans in the crowd.

With every boo or with every dead reaction there’s at least ten or

fifteen kids scattered throughout the crowd who are freaking the fuck

out. They’re like the ace in the hole because they get people around

them stoked. 

Yeah, it’s a hard call because

I think we try to deliver the same show no matter what, but when the

crowd is giving you feedback and they’re jumping on stage and grabbing

at you and giving you that reaction then it definitely kicks it up. 

You guys are locked in to

as well. What are your memories of your last two Australian tours like? 

Lots of beaches and amazing

fruit, ha ha. I dunno, everyone tells me the weather sucks at the moment

though so I dunno. All things considered I feel the Australian audience

is more excitable and also more kind… more so than anywhere else.

The people down there are really thankful for us coming that far.  

What have you guys got planned

for the rest of 2008? 

More touring, ha ha, and then

hopefully by this time next year more writing… but we’ve got a lot

of touring before then! 

That about wraps it up mate,

add? 

Thrash hard man, ha ha. 

See you in a couple of weeks.