The Dillinger Escape Plan

The Dillinger Escape Plan have made their mark on the scene with incendiary live shows and memorable albums. This year, the band released their fourth full-length album entitled Option Paralysis. Praised by critics, the band has played multiple festivals including South By Southwest and Warped Tour. On Warped Tour, Matthew Colwell caught up with guitarist Jeff Tuttle to pick his brain. Lights, recorder, action.

Matthew@RRR: If I could just get you to introduce yourself, that’d be great!

Jeff Tuttle: My name is Jeff, and I play guitar for The Dillinger Escape Plan.

Matthew@RRR: How are you feeling today? How has Warped treated you?

Jeff Tuttle: I’m feeling great. The tour is going really well. It isn’t really our target audience, but it’s good because you can’t preach to the choir all the time and we really love sticking our faces where they don’t belong.

Matthew@RRR: Earlier this year your released your 4^th studio album, Option Paralysis. What was the writing process like for this one?

Jeff Tuttle: This time around was quite a bit different than the previous efforts. Mainly, because this was the first time we’ve had a full lineup going into the studio. It’s never happened in the history of Dillinger. We were all really, really excited and had a solid batch of songs to go in with.

Matthew@RRR: It’s been said Option Paralysis was the hardest record for you guys to write, how come?

Jeff Tuttle: I wouldn’t necessarily say it was the hardest, but the direction we wanted to take at first ended up being completely different than what ended up happening. We had four scorchers right off the bat and thought the whole record was going to lean that way but as the process moved on we ended up with songs like “Widower” and “Parasitic Twins” which has a lot of electronic influences with a kind of Portishead feel. It just ended up being completely different than we thought it would.

Matthew@RRR: What is the meaning of “Option Paralysis”?

Jeff Tuttle: I wish I could remember the name of the author who coined the term. Liam [Wilson, Bass] came up with it- well, stole it- from this writer. But it means to have so many options that you become overwhelmed and ultimately choose nothing. We chose that as a reflection of the digital age, especially the world we live in- the music world. You can’t go on the Internet or Myspace without being bombarded with marketing trying to get you to check out some shitty new band.

Matthew@RRR: The Internet exploded a little while back from a tweet you sent about Greg dying. What was that about?

Jeff Tuttle: It started as a joke between Greg and Liam. They were texting each other from across the hallway, and I think Greg joked and said, “Hey, I think I’m going to call it a life. I don’t feel like playing today.” It was like raining and 100 degree. It was probably the 20^th straight day of 100 degree+ weather so Greg just said he was going to call it a life, so Liam tweeted as a joke that Greg dies of natural causes, etc. etc. That also goes to show you the age you live in. Within minutes we had Alternative Press calling the band to confirm weather or not it was true.

Matthew@RRR: A lot of fans, myself included, want to know how Brian Benoit is doing with his hand.

Jeff Tuttle: He’s good. He just came out to see his first Dillinger show since he left the band and that’s been about 3 years now. It was very hard for him. It’s not like he wanted to leave the band under any circumstances. He’s doing well, I believe he has his own construction crew and doing what he does for a living. We all wish him the best and hopefully he’ll be coming out to more shows.

Matthew@RRR: You’re live set is ridiculous and is known for it, but you guys have been doing this for over a decade. How do you do it every night and just destroy venues like you do?

Jeff Tuttle: Because we’re badasses [chuckles]. We just have a different approach to music; at least the performing aspect. There are not many people who look at performing live as a sport. I look at it as a competition with myself. Every night we go out there and raise the bar. If don’t at least equal that the next day, I feel depressed. So I’m just constantly trying to raise the bar- everyone in the band is. If I see one of the other guys in the band doing something cooler than me it pisses me off because as performers we like to be in front of people and I want to get that attention.

Matthew@RRR: On the fact that you guys have been around for over a decade, do you feel out of place here at Warped with the way bands are now a days?

Jeff Tuttle: We do. We weren’t sure how we’d be received with a younger generation. But the reception has been very warm. We do signings every day after our sets and a lot of younger people come up saying, “I’ve never heard you guys before, that’s amazing,” or, “I’ve heard you and I heard you put on a great live show and I can see today it was nothing I could possibly imagine.” It’s really to our advantage; we’ve made a lot of new fans.

Matthew@RRR: Crazy Warped story for us?

Jeff Tuttle: Every day seems so much the same that you forget the shit that happened yesterday. There has been a lot of shitting in garbage bags and then tossing out the window. It’s called the “bag of shame.” There’s been a lot of that going on.

Matthew@RRR: Alright. That’s all I’ve got for you, any last words?

Jeff Tuttle: Nah, but if you are into any of the shit that I’m saying come check us out!

Be sure to check out Option Paralysis! Need inspiration? Check out our review for it here.