TDEP & Mastodon band features Juliette Lewis

The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Ben Weinman has confirmed actress Juliette Lewis will front supergroup Giraffe Tongue Orchestra, also including Brent Hinds of Mastodon, Pete Griffin of Deathklok and Thomas Pidgen of the Mars Volta.

Weinman has been teasing the project for some time, along with the fact that he was working with Lewis, who has her own band Juliette And The Licks.

Now he tells SiriusXM (via Revolver): “It’s something we’ve been working on for a long time. We finished all the music and we’re finalising the vocals now.

“Juliette is singing, along with some other guest people. Me and her have become pretty close friends.”

But he admits he was sceptical when he first heard of Lewis’ band. “I was like, ‘Oh, another actor that has a vanity project,’” he recalls.

His attitude changed after he saw her perform. “I saw this person putting all her energy and spirit into music. I thought this was almost more real than most bands – because she doesn’t need this.

“She doesn’t need to be playing in front of 500 people in this shitty club. She’s a successful actress. She did a nine-minute scene with Robert DeNiro, and here she is by choice in a grungy club with a dirty toilet.”

Weinman says GTO’s music is difficult to describe, but offers: “It’s totally Brent and Ben in the same band. It doesn’t sound quite like Mastodon, Dillinger or Mars Volta – but you hear all of it in there.”

More details will be revealed ahead of the album’s release, which Weinman hopes will be this year.

Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett last week hailed Dillinger for their track Farewell, Mona Lisa, leading the band to admit they’d been awe-struck by the experience.

Not only is one-time online news editor Martin an established rock journalist and drummer, but he’s also penned several books on music history, including SAHB Story: The Tale of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, a band he once managed, and the best-selling Apollo Memories about the history of the legendary and infamous Glasgow Apollo. Martin has written for Classic Rock and Prog and at one time had written more articles for Louder than anyone else (we think he's second now). He’s appeared on TV and when not delving intro all things music, can be found travelling along the UK’s vast canal network.