Interview With Greg Puciato on Spylacopa

Spylacopa was formed by John LaMacchia in 2000, and was "simply inteded to be a conduit for his experimental and hypnotic compositions." The first Spylacopa release, "Collective Unconscious," appeared on Candiria's C.O.M.A. Imprint in 2002. A few years later in 2005, with the addition of The Dillinger Escape Plan's Greg Puciato and Jeff Caxide of Isis, another Spylacopa single, "The Duke," was released on Undreradar Records in a split with Young America. Releasing a few tracks spontaneously from that point onwards on their MySpace page, Spylacopa's forthcoming debut EP, which gets released on the 4th of November (a little under a month away from now, will be their first proper release.)

Featuring members of Candiria, Isis, The Dillinger Escape Plan and Battle of Mice, it seems like this EP is going to be quite a treat. Indeed, the first two reviews of the forthcoming EP so far have been extremely positive. In addition, the track "Blodletting", which will appear on the EP, now available in streaming from Spylacopa's MySpace page, and prominently featuring Julie Christmas and Greg Puciato together on vocals, promises that the EP is going to be something special.

I spoke with Greg Puciato about the forthcoming EP, and we discussed, amongst other things, his feelings on the finished product, the recording and studio process and the United States Postal Service. Read the interview below:

According to your press release, Spylacopa was formed by John LaMacchia as a way of “exploring experimental and hypnotic compositions” while playing guitar in Candiria. How did other musicians, such as yourself, become involved in the project?

I was approached by John at the show Dillinger played for Tsunami relief at the Virgin Megastore in Times Square NYC(the show where the now infamous youtube headwalk took place). It was a very vague idea at that time, early 2005, and he mentioned that he wanted to release some music he had been working on, and asked if I would be interested in singing on a song or two. I agreed and then really nothing happened for a year because Dillinger was touring so heavily, and John was writing music, finding his voice for this project. In 2006 we really started to send ideas back and forth and realized that we really enjoyed working with one another and became very excited by the creative possibilities, and it became more than just one or two songs. I have no idea how Jeff from Isis or Julie became involved in their parts, John just reached out to various people he was interested in. I would love for that aspect to continue in the future, and I already have some great ideas for the next release as far as guestspots and so forth.

Spylacopa is an amazing prospect considering that the people involved in the project thus far are from extremely talented and critically acclaimed bands such as Isis, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Candria and Made Out of Babies. Considering everyone’s different backgrounds and experiences, how well did you all cooperate on the EP?

Well it was a slow process haha, we didn't start to hit our stride until early 2007. We had demoed probably a full length's worth of songs before we really started to hit our mark, the result of which is this EP. Obviously Julie Christmas just came in and wrote and recorded her vocals for “Bloodletting”, and I actually am not sure which tracks Jeff Caxide played on or what riffs/parts he wrote, that was mostly between him and John in NYC, and I would get ideas as they came and work on them at home, then when I was ready I would go up and collaborate with John and record my parts. We keep an open table at all times, between John and I, its a really healthy creative relationship in my opinion, I just wish, as I do with Dillinger, that we could spend more time physically in the same place as it would make things run much faster! But it is what it is.

Work started on the EP in 2006. How would you describe the song writing process for it?

Well like I said above, we leave it pretty open. Right now me and John are very on the same page it seems in terms of where we see this going and what works and what doesn't, what fits and what doesn't. John for the most part wrote all of three songs musically, and I wrote two songs musically, and then I wrote my lyrics, Julie wrote hers, etc. There is no ego in this band in terms of “I'm the songwriter, I'm the music writer”. It's a totally open forum. If an idea is great it's great. John is a much better guitar player than I am from a technical standpoint, but we are both competent with midi and electronics/programming etc, so if he comes up with a great guitar part or I come up with a cool riff or chord progression, and we both can tell it feels right, we use it. If he comes up with a great vocal melody or phrase, I use it. We've both been in bands for a long enough time, we're not kids starting out trying to prove to ourselves and each other that we can do everything on our own and don't have anything to gain from one another.

What about the recording and studio process?

The recording process was very spread apart largely because of the Dillinger touring schedule. We only had time to record here and there. So we did it whenever we could. John lives only a few blocks from the studio so he was always way ahead of me in the process.

In January this year you posted the news that you headed into Sweet Fire Studios to do the final mixing. Would you account the fact that the people involved in Spylacopa have been busy with their own bands and touring schedules for the reason that the EP has taken so long?

Exactly. I mean it took time because of my schedule with Dillinger like I said, but also because from a timing standpoint it didn't make sense for us to release it right in the beginning or middle of the Ire Works touring cycle either.

To what extent did specific members of the project have an involvement with the song writing and recording processes? How much of an involvement did you have in it?

Of this particular batch of songs, I wrote the music for two, John wrote the music for three, and I sing on all four that have lyrics.

Were there any artists or musicians that particularly inspired what you have done with Spylacopa?

Ehhh the thing about inspiration for me is that it comes from so many places now that I can't really pin down exactly where things come from, which is a good thing! You just hope that whatever comes out of you works well with what the other person is contributing, and if it feels forced, you find someone else to work with! John and I figured out pretty early that we had a good chemistry together. He is a really dynamic player and listens to a lot of music, and also allows himself musically to be influenced by life in general and things other than music, which is important to me, a real artist, not just a guy who practices shredding or mimicking other artists all the time. He has real soul in his writing and playing. He plays a couple of guitar solos that I was really blown away by, not just in terms of technicality but in terms of composition and feel. I would say my influences are more emotion and experience based than musical, not just in writing lyrics but also in writing music, vocal delivery, etc. I feel things more than I think about them, from an artistic standpoint at least. I don't hear a song and think to myself "ok I have to sing notes in this scale" or "this part would sound great if I sang like Eddie Vedder", hahaha, I just try to let things be as natural and without the obstruction of overthinking as possible. Thinking and learning and absorbing, the mental aspect of music, that should happen first, at a different time. When it comes time to write I think it's best to just let it rip and trust and hope that you have the right tools in your corner, that you learned the right things, that you came prepared. That's something I learned from Ben Weinman more than anyone, to do your thinking beforehand, and then when its time to write, just feel. On Miss Machine I almost gave myself a stroke from overthinking everything, sometimes rewriting things forty times only to realize the first or second time was the best. Now that I've learned to separate inhaling from exhaling so to speak, its a much more enjoyable and organized process.

How do you feel with the finished product, are you pleased with it?

So happy with it. Mike Barille did a great job engineering it and getting great tones(which is hard to tell from the myspace stream I know!). The songs themselves, the packaging, the whole vibe, I'm happy with. It feels great to be putting something out that we are proud of and feel attached to and excited about, something that doesn't have a history before it hanging over our heads. Even though we come from particular backgrounds and people may have preconceived notions about us, from Dillinger and Candiria. That may think that John and I sit down and the first thing that comes out is polyrhythms and “math” metal haha, its really far from that. We really feel like we have a completely open canvas and infinite colors to paint with so to speak, so its a great feeling. We cover a lot of territory in these five songs, and didn't paint ourselves into any corners, which is really important to us. I feel like if the next release was some crushingly heavy album, or an instrumental soundtrack, or ambient or rock or whatever, it would make sense now. If we're smart though we'll be writing country songs and singing about fucking and drinking beer on a farm or whatever. That's where the meal ticket in the US is hiding. Right over there under the tractor.

How do you think the EP will be received?

Probably through the US Postal Service, maybe through Itunes. Seriously though, I think that people who care about our previous bands will be happy, they seem to be growing with us, and especially for me personally, Dillinger fans that liked Ire Works I think will really like this. I really think we are offering together something that is timeless and not tied down to any current trend or time period, it doesn't sound time stamped to me at all. These songs could have been written in 1993 or they could have been written in 2020.

How did you got about deciding to release the EP on Rising Pulse Records?

Rising Pulse is John's label that he is gonna be putting this out through, and regardless if the next release comes out on a larger label it will still carry this imprint. Rising Pulse was a better name than Rising Penis. Although I think they usually go hand in hand. Maybe our publishing name should be Rising Penis, that way it's listed as Rising Pulse/Rising Penis. Then we could just shorten it and call it Cialis. Then we'd really get the attention of the older fans.

Is the EP getting released on multiple formats as previously mentioned?

Yeah, we'll be doing some cool packaging stuff. I really want this project, as far as the physical realm is concerned, to stay fairly exclusive. There is no point in putting out infinite copies of a boring cd package. I'd rather make a really cool CD that only has like a thousand tangible copies, and 200 7 inches, and then have it all be digital online after that. CDs and and records and any physical manifestation of a recording seem to me to be going the way of the dinosaur for the general public, they are just for collectors and people who still really appreciate the art of a release, which is a small group. I think if you concentrate on making everything really awesome, then the people who find themselves unable to get the cd or the record, because no more copies exist, find themselves wishing they could, and they understand and have a better appreciation for the whole piece.

Who is doing the artwork for the EP? How did they come about doing it?

Not many people know this, but John is a really good visual artist as well! We originally were going to get someone else to do it, but then I was hanging out at John's apartment, and he has all these really cool drawings and art hanging on the walls, really unique looking, but all very consistent, you could tell they were by the same person. I asked him who did them and he was like “me!”, and I was just like man you have to do something with this, you have to do the art for this band, the more things that we can self contain the better, and who better to know what the visual feel should be than someone in the band? It eliminates having to filter your vision through someone elses interpretation if you can just do it yourself. He has a great eye for aesthetics whether it be drawn by hand, computer imagery, or photography.

Also in your press release for Spylacopa, John LaMacchia mentioned that there is the possibility for Spylacopa to perform live. Considering the busy schedules of the musicians involved in the project, how strongly a possibility do you think that there is for live Spylacopa shows to materialize?

Very strong. We have booking agents for the US and for the rest of the world. I gonna say that it will definitely happen.

Do you have anything more planned for Spylacopa in the near future?

Just getting this out, writing another one or a full length, seeing what makes sense for us, what fits. I'm not viewing this so much as a side project for me as it is just a different outlet. Obviously Dillinger is the bigger of the two, but creatively I don't really see a difference in terms of how exciting or fulfilling they are to me.

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Spreading Like Wings Interviews:

• Greg Puciato of Syplacopa/The Dillinger Escape Plan
  
• J.R. Hayes of Pig Destroyer
• Ben Weinman of the Dillinger Escape Plan

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