The Dillinger Escape Plan On Their Return To Australia…

This is going to be the tour that people will be talking about for a long time to come. Following an eight-year hiatus, The Dillinger Escape Plan return for a very limited number of live shows to commemorate their groundbreaking album Calculating Infinity and so much more. For those who have witnessed The Dillinger Escape Plan live before, we know that you will be there. For those who have not, life has given you a second chance. Grasp it with gratitude! The original singer from Dillinger Escape Plan Dimitri Minakakis talks to Hi Fi Way about returning to Australia.

It definitely seems like a case of second chances for Australian fans that Dillinger Escape Plan are coming back to Australia?
I’m hearing that, it’s a first chance for me because I’ve never visited Australia, and I’ve never played there. I’m glad I can bring a new perspective and second chance. I’m excited. There’s tons of Greeks there. I have family that lives in Melbourne, but other than that I never have gone. I’m excited just to play down there. I get so many messages, I have met a lot of friends through social media and it’s just feeling it. We feel it, we’re excited too. Australia was always on our list. We have a list of where we want to go and it’s hard to say, yeah, we’re going to go there. Some people are like, Hey, are you going to come here? I’m like, yes, but we have to wait to announce it and all that stuff and we would not miss playing Australia at all.

What was the sort of the catalyst to get you guys back together?
Calculating Infinity, turned twenty-five last year in 2024. We wanted to wake that beast up. We got offered to play in 2023. We got offered to play a festival by one of our friends and our agent basically was like, why don’t you guys play Calculating Infinity next year because it will be twenty-five years old. I instantly said yes, so the other guys thought about it and they are like, yeah, let’s do it. So, that’s why we wanted to do it. It’s an opportunity to play without continuing the band and down the road. So, we’re having fun with it.

Was that an easy decision? Did anyone need convincing?
Yeah, I would say it was an easy decision. The thing that made it hard is we wanted to have Brian Benoit, one of our original guitar players. He has a nerve damage in one of his arms, so he had to retire from the band. There are things where we wanted him to play and he couldn’t. So, but everyone who is playing now in it, it was all easy.

What does it mean to you to be celebrating this particular milestone?
For me, it’s good closure for me. I was out of the band when Calculating Infinity was not even a year old, two years old. As much as I made life decisions not to play, it was good seeing these responses to how the band grew. It helps fulfill times where I felt like I missed out playing and also it’s being able to play with my friends again. It’s nostalgic and it still feels new also at the same time. It’s pretty wild there. There’s so many different emotions that come in and out. There’s new and old. I’m able to play places I haven’t played yet. So that’s everything. It’s just great.

When you say it’s a little bit new as well, the whole nature and Scope of touring is completely different now compared to back then?
Hundred percent, I used to tour in a van and now I’m flying to shows, it’s kind of stupid, but I have to fly to shows because I live so far from the rest of the band. I live in Seattle, they’re all on the east coast of the States. The climate of music is different now too with social media, how fans interact, the accessibility for fans with the artists, I’ve met so many people whereas back then you could not contact artists other than writing letters. When I played in the band there was no digital photography or any of that kind of technology. GPS all that stuff, it’s kind of fancy playing now.

Do you enjoy it more now than perhaps back in the day?
In different ways I do. There is enjoyment that I can’t replicate today that I had over twenty years ago because all that was new for us, and it was the beginning of the band. So, you can’t replicate those feelings today. What I enjoy is I can reflect back on where I started with the band, how we started with the band, and our struggles to keep going and playing. I feel like I’m personally at my own top of the hill. Like, I can exhale and enjoy it. because the journey to get here is the new feeling I have playing these shows. It’s gratifying.

What do you think it is about Calculating Infinity that still resonates so strongly with fans today?
Man, I don’t know. Processing that knowledge is crazy for me. We wrote it and we wanted to push music that wasn’t out there yet, or how fast or how different we can make songs that actually made sense to us. What we didn’t realise is there were thousands of people that were thinking like us out in the world, more than thousands I guess, but realising that other people get what we’re doing. Not that we were trying to overthink people or we’re better than everybody, but people that understand us are out there. I think that’s what stood the test of time is people want to think different or think outside the box.

We’re all out there and there’s still people that are thinking outside the box in other styles of music that are pushing it. It’s great that music can evolve like that where you take rules, understand them, and then you break them. I think that’s what helped stand the test of time because creatives out there are just thirsty for it and they appreciate it like it is a commonality. So, I think that’s what helps makes that album stand the test of time,

When the album came out was that a really exciting period of time for you?
Anytime you put a record out, it’s exciting for sure. You spend all this time writing music, recording it, fine tuning it and then when it comes out, it’s like the best thing ever. It’s always a good time of life. So that was in around that time, 1998, 1999, Dillinger was the centre of my universe. I wasn’t married, the band was my main focus. So, when that came out, it was everything.

For this tour, do you play Calculating Infinity start to end or do you change it up?
Option two, definitely change it up live because what we’ve also been doing is we’ve been playing songs from other EP’s and other albums. Our set list order is definitely not in a track order, we’ll move some songs around, so we’ll have different sets so each night can be unique for the crowd’s, and ours too, sake too, so they’re not just going to see the whole album in order. It’s fun to change things up for us too, playing live.

Once these shows are done is that it?
I would say what’s next is we want play live with this lineup as much as people would want to welcome us and once we feel like it’s too much, then we’ll stop. We don’t plan on creating any new music writing. For creativity, I have been writing for a different project, so we want to keep Dillingers game plan where it is, it sounds so dumb, but you know, we just want to celebrate this for what it is and just not continue and drag it out, just keep our legacy of what we did in place. So, we don’t have any plans to continue anything more than what we’re doing with it live now.

A lot of people are excited that you guys are coming back to Australia and August can’t come around soon enough.
I know, the fact that people are excited that we’re coming just blows my mind. I still don’t get it, it’s just so flattering for me. We’re excited to come. I can’t wait until August.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch Dillinger Escape Plan on the following dates, tickets from The Phoenix…