During a recent interview on the radio show Full Metal Jackie, The Dillinger Escape Plan frontman Greg Puciato talked about his experience collaborating with Alice In Chains’ founder and co-lead vocalist Jerry Cantrell while explaining why he thinks Cantrell is a musical genius.
Greg Puciato is best known for his successful career as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the popular metalcore band The Dillinger Escape Plan. Back in 2019, Puciato got the chance to join Jerry Cantrell for two Alice In Chains shows in which he played both Alice In Chains songs and Jerry Cantrell’s solo material.
In his recent interview, he talked about how inspiring it was to perform with such a great rockstar and described why he thinks Cantrell is one of the most talented musicians of all time. To begin with, Puciato said that Cantrell is not only a great lyricist and guitar player, but he’s also really gifted at songwriting, harmony, ‘and filling in blanks sonically.’
Greg Puicato was amazed to observe that Cantrell doesn’t ‘fill in blanks’ only vocally with harmony, but he also uses instruments and in specific, his guitar, to create a fuller sound. He went on to say that Cantrell is a naturally pitch–perfect singer and his incredible gift for harmony helps him spot a missing frequency or note which he will then fill in with his guitar, voice, or harmony.
Puciato also added that his music sounds even better with headphones as ‘some of the stuff is only on the left side and some of the stuff is only on the right side’ which is something that he’s never seen in any other record. Puciato added that he learns from Jerry constantly and that their close friendship has helped him improve himself as a musician.
Here’s what Greg Puciato said about Jerry Cantrell during his recent interview:
“I learn a lot from Jerry constantly. I see him all the time, and we are really good friends. We have very similar brains, but he comes from a much less abstract place and more of a singer-songwriter place.
Beyond the fact that he’s a great lyricist and a great guitar player, he’s got a real gift for songwriting and for harmony and textures and filling in blanks sonically. He doesn’t just do it vocally with harmony, he does it with guitar too. I learned a lot of guitar playing from Jerry, just absorbing all those songs.
To rewind for a minute, he asked me to sing a couple of nights with him in Los Angeles last December [2019] when we did two shows together. I had to learn like 30 songs – a mix of Alice in Chains and solo songs. He’s a pitch-perfect singer. He’s got an incredible gift for harmony and coloring and shading. If there’s a frequency missing or a note missing, he will find it naturally. He’ll either use the guitar or his voice or harmony to kind of fill that in.”
He went on to say:
“If you’re listening on headphones, it’s even crazier because some of the stuff is only on the left side and some of the stuff is only on the right side – things that you’re not hearing when you’re listening through big speakers, even in songs that I had heard a million times.
When I started actually learning the harmonies for them, I would hear things just on the left side or just on the right side and learned the way that they split their harmonies from a mixing standpoint in the older records. I had never had any of that happening in any record that I’d ever been in.”
Click here for the source and you can watch one of their performances together below.
