In 2011, we learned that Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds was teaming up with The Dillinger Escape Plan guitarist Ben Weinman for a new project, which we eventually learned would go by the moniker of Giraffe Tongue Orchestra. Five years have passed and we have about a minute of music made available publicly. Beyond that, there have been a lot of lineup changes.
For the longest time, we assumed that actress and singer Juliette Lewis would be fronting the band, but turns out that is not the case. She might make an appearance on the final album, but in a recent interview with Riffing With Christine, Ben Weinman revealed the main vocalist for the project will be Alice In Chains' William DuVall:
“[Juliette Lewis is] actually not our main singer. She guested… Yeah like everybody kinda takes anInstagram picture and makes their own press around it. But me and her have been working on songs, some of which are for Giraffe Tongue, some of which were just jams that we were working on or whatever. And she did some cool vocals on some of the GTOstuff. Actually, William [DuVall] from Alice In Chains is who has been singing with us.”
“Most of the music was written before [William] got involved. So it is a similar thing [having the vocalist brought in last] actually. But everybody definitely in this band, it’s a real democracy. You know, it’s a little different for me, it’s been great. Because Dillinger has obviously been my baby since the beginning. You know while everyone contributes, it has always been… it was my vision and baby. So with GTO it’s really a combination of all the elements, all the pieces. So it’s really interesting, it’s been great for me to collaborate like that. And I think when you hear it, it really does sound like all of us in one band somehow.”
Four months ago, Weinman posted a photo of Hinds and DuVall and at the time, we assumed it was just a guest spot. Turns out DuVall is here to stay, which makes things very interesting. It tells me the band might not have much in the way of spazz and heavyness as DuVall sings and doesn't really scream. It will be interesting to hear how these two guitarists write for him. The band is rounded out by ex-The Mars Volta drummer Thomas Pridgen and bassist Pete Griffin of Dethklok.
The band claims they finished recording a few months ago, so maybe we'll finally hear some music soon?
