“We’re not really at risk of being swept out with the tide at this stage of our career. We’ve come to realise that we’re not just going to wake up and nobody will care, and we’ve worked hard to get to this point. I still remember when I joined the band and I would do interviews and the questions would be like, ‘So what are you guys going to do in three years time, like, when you’re not in the band anymore?’… Nobody thought we’d still be doing this, we never thought we’d still be doing this! We certainly never expected to make a living out of it, that’s for sure. I can remember really vividly joining this band and I’d just turned 21! It’s incredible because I’ve actually been doing this my entire adult life!”
The strangest thing, according to Puciato, is seeing other 21-year-olds and realising that once upon a time, he was just like that. And it makes him cringe, too, the singer adds.
“Totally! Sometimes when I see the younger bands I can see myself! It’s not all of them, but a lot of them do get over-the-top. And I know that was me! I look at these guys and they’re 21 and I just think, ‘You’re still a child!’ And they are, they are totally still kids. That was like me when I joined this band – I must have been totally as obnoxious and in-your-face and annoying. It does get irritating though, I know after a show backstage, they really get hyped up and I’m just thinking, ‘Please, settle the fuck down!’”
Now in his early thirties, Puciato has earned the respect of younger bands and his peers, not to mention of his idols, too. Aside from Dillinger Escape Plan, the singer is currently in the process of penning songs for a brand new, all-star metal collective which also features Max Cavalera of Soulfly and Brent Hinds of Mastodon. In a nutshell, according to Puciato, think Nailbomb or along those lines at least.
“We’re not planning to tour with that band at all,” he states. “It would just be impossible! The schedules that everybody has, it’s not going to happen. For now it’s just going to be a studio project between us, with the possibility of doing an odd show maybe just in LA or New York or something. It’s amazing to be able to work with these people, though, it’s something different for me. There’s a lot less in-fighting! And I mean that in the best way possible. With me and Ben [Weinman, Dillinger Escape Plan guitarist], we clearly get a little too excited about the band sometimes because we’ve had some pretty heated conversations over the last ten years – like full-blown fights, really. There’s always a big argument behind every song and album, and it’s a wonderful thing! It means that we’re both still very excited about this band, we’re still very passionate and we both think our idea is the best one! So what you hear when you put on one of our songs is a musical version of me and Ben having a fight.”
The only time there is any kind of peace is when the band is on tour, according to Puciato – as getting any songwriting done at all is virtually impossible. Not that the band hasn’t tried…
“It didn’t work out. Every time we’re on tour we say we’re going to give it another shot, try writing some songs, just for efficiency’s sake at least, but it just doesn’t work. There is something about playing shows that drains you mentally and physically, your ears are completely beaten up from so much noise the last thing you want to do is pick up a guitar when you get off stage. Even writing is such a draining process for us! It takes us forever to write a single song because of me and Ben, we have to go through a million arguments along the way before we settle on an agreement. After that we get into the studio and then we argue some more – with the producer! After that… Well, you just never wanna record anything ever again.”
Fear not, however, as Puciato claims it’s not just his new side project that’s going to be coming out with an album release, new Dillinger material is on the priority list too.
“We’ve actually had quite a long break recently – well, if you want to call two months a long break, anyway. The last two years, we’ve just gone into a time-warp because we’ve been touring non-stop since 2009, so it’s time to come up with some new stuff. Right now I’m looking forward to Soundwave, which we’ve done before, and there’s seriously nothing like it in the world – at least in America. I remember when we were younger and poorer, we would try to save money so we would take the longest possible flights everywhere. That included Australia on our first visit. Just to try and save money, we added a bunch of extra stops, like New York and London and it took at least 40 hours to get there in the end. We left on like a Sunday and we got there on like a Thursday or something, so we’re definitely never going to underestimate the distance again.”
