Interview Outtakes: Dillinger Escape Plan's Ben Weinman

In this week's paper, D.X. Ferris chatted with Dillinger Escape Plan guitarist Ben Weinman. The tech-metal band has a new album, Option Paralysis, due in the new year and are at Pop's tomorrow night with Thursday, Fake Problems, Endless Hallway and Leaking Africa. In the print story, Ferris discusses the band's new drummer, the meaning behind the album's title and working with Mike Patton. Below, Weinman reveals more about DEP's own label and what such autonomy means for the band.

D.X. Ferris: Relapse is a great label. Are they good to work for?
Ben Weinman: Yeah. We had a good relationship with Relapse. We built some things that were really special. They put out music that they really love, which is rare these days. But still, it was a pretty traditional record-label deal. And with the industry changing so much on a daily basis, we wanted to create a scenario that would give us the freedom to go along with those changes.

So how does your new label work?
We've got Party Smasher Inc., which is pretty much an umbrella company to put all things Dillinger-related under, for us to collaborate with different record companies or distribution companies, to kind of show people that we're still doing things by the same ethic we've always done things. [The album is] coming out on a label called Season in Mist, but we do have the ability to do other releases with other people. That's the main difference.

What can do now couldn't you do with Relapse?
Put out self-released EPs, digital-download EPs. Technically, [now] we could sign distribution and put out a record on our own at this point. Honestly, when you sign to a record contract, there's a lot of things you can't do that people don't realize. You can't release unreleased demos so kids can check them out and see how the music has evolved. You can't put out EPs. You can't perform on other people's records without permission. You can't put out solo projects. If you're a priority to the label and you're selling a decent amount of records - which we were - the label's not going to let you do anything.

So what can you do now that you couldn't before?
The next record's going to have five to six formats available, from boxed sets to editions with bonus tracks. Pretty quickly, we're going to be pretty prolific. We're going to be inspired to do more music, knowing we can put it out on our own terms. I think it's going to make a huge difference in the material and the music and our output for kids that are into Dillinger.