Interview mit Greg Puciato von Greg Puciato

Thanks for taking the time for this interview. We are talking in special times – I hope you are doing well despite the Corona situation!
As good as I can be.

What is the current situation in your country as far as that is concerned?
Everywhere is a little bit different, we’re so big so it’s drastically different depending on where you live. I’m in the Los Angeles area, so we’re one of the most restricted, hardest hit places at the moment. But the election is currently taking up most of the oxygen in the room, so to speak.

Is there also something positive you can take away from the crisis – or has it hit you hard personally?
Well, yeah, there’s always something positive to glean from any situation. Overall I think that the combination of coronavirus and Trump has caused a fast-tracking of a lot of conversations that needed to happen overall, that maybe would have taken longer to get started, but still needed to happen. So it just really put a magnifying glass on a lot of social and political issues, as well as caused us all to slow down and examine our own lives, and challenged our own senses of self and of what’s important in our lives.

Did the Corona situation also influence the creation of your new solo album as well as the KILLER BE KILLED release?
Not at all, both records were thankfully done right before the shit really hit the fan.

And how do you think it will influence the success of these albums? After all you can’t play a tour …
Well, that’s the only way, I don’t think it will negatively affect people finding out about them, not in the long run. Not being able to tour is a drag, but we’re all in the same boat, can’t complain too much about the weather. Gotta play the hand you’re dealt.

Would you have planned shows for your solo album at all, do you want to bring the music on stage?
Yeah, there were unannounced plans for shows for everything I’m involved in. Obviously those plans are canceled now, but there will just be new plans when this ends.

Musically you mix different styles you played in other bands – the metal of KILLER BE KILLED/THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN with the synthwave of THE BLACK QUEEN. What was the biggest challenge in bringing these styles together?
It’s not too much of a challenge for me honestly, because I see things in terms of emotion rather than genre. When I hear the record, I hear different emotions, I don’t hear different genres. It’s not like you’re stitching together unrelated scenes and calling them a movie. They all have a point to me. It’s an album, not a collection of songs. When I think about it, I think about it as a front to back thing.

Do you think the album is more for fans of THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN or THE BLACK QUEEN in the end?
Oh, I don’t know and I don’t really care either to be honest, whoever finds it and gets something out of it, that’s great, more power to them, as they say. I don’t know where people are coming from at this point. I just release and move on and don’t worry too much about where the people are coming in from.

The cover looks interesting, but it’s not obvious what can be seen. Can you solve this riddle?
It’s a crop of a photograph of me as a child that I manipulated until it felt right. On the vinyl it extends to the back of the record, so that maybe will help people to see it. It looks super obvious to me because I know what the original photo looks like, so it’s interesting to me that other people don’t see it. That’s appropriate overall though. I think people see what they want to see with me in general, because my output is so varied and extreme, so there are more questions than answers. Which is as it should be.

In the studio you worked with different drummers – why? Did that make the work easier or more complicated?
Different musicians have different strengths. I chose the drummers based on what I felt their strengths were for the material. They are all my friends too, which made it extra special for me. It would have been more complicated had I not known their strengths beforehand, or had I tried to use one person for everything. Using different ones actually made it easier.

Among them is also the former drummer of THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN. Do you also have contact with the rest of the band?
We’re not unfriendly, we don’t have any current issues interpersonally. Everyone is on their own paths overall right now, and I think it’s healthy that we let one another go. We have less to talk about now without the band being active, so we aren’t in super constant contact or anything like that. We spent a lot of time together overall, we catch up from time to time and that’s fine.

What do you think today about the end of THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN – was it too early, just right or too late?
Definitely not too early, and in hindsight it was all at the right time. Even though there were times during it that I wished it was sooner – I wasn’t the biggest fan of the tour, I sort of just wanted to put the album out and be done with it all.

Have you ever regretted that you made this decision?
Definitely not.

But KILLER BE KILLED are active again – as if out of the blue, a new album is released. When did you reactivate this project and how did the collaboration for the new album go?
We’ve been working on it, getting together writing, for the last four years or so I think? It’s hard to remember now, it’s such a blur. We got together in Phoenix a handful of times, for a week at a time, and brought our ideas with us, and wrote from scratch too, and when we felt we were ready we went into the studio. The music was fully recorded in April/May of 2019, and then I did the vocals in January of this year.

What do you find particularly appealing about this project?
It has its place for me, and for the other guys. It formed really naturally, it’s a band with people who I consider good friends, and it’s born from the same excitement everything else I do is born from. All of us just feel excited to do it, so we keep doing it. It’s unique for all of us, for different reasons. For me it allows me to have a more mainstream metal outlet, which is something I’ve never really had, so that’s interesting. I feel like an indie actor doing a summer blockbuster. Like if Daniel Day Lewis was in Terminator 2. That’s what that band feels like to me. It’s also fun to be able to think solely like a guitar player at times, and not care about vocals at all.

Do you also want to bring KILLER BE KILLED on stage one day?
Oh absolutely, we for sure will when this is all over.

Thank you very much for the interview. Let’s wrap it up with our traditional brainstorming – what is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of the following terms?
A hobby of yours that has nothing to do with music: Playing basketball with my label partner Jesse Draxler.
Donald Trump: Fascist
A positive insight from the Corona era: Cooking at home is nice, I hadn’t done much of that ever in my life, and now I’m pretty into it.
Soulfly: My friend Max
The first drink you order when you walk into a bar: Shot of whiskey or a shot of chilled tequila
Black Metal: Forest in Scandinavia at night
Your current favorite album: Peter Gabriel – So
Number of albums you will have contributed in the next 10 years: Who knows, I’ve put out 7 in the last 8 years, with the book (Separate The Dawn), I’m not sure when this output is gonna slow down, I’m just getting it while it’s coming. We shall see.

Once again thanks for your time. The last words are yours – is there anything left you want to tell our readers?
Thanks to everyone for giving a shit, if you do. Keep your wits about you and your eye for bullshit sharp, try to see through all the division in the world and maybe we’ll all make it. See ya around.

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Publiziert am 11. November 2020 von Moritz Grütz